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Using Fonts

Apps Used: Mac OS Adobe Creative Cloud Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Adobe InDesign

Because you'll be juggling many simultaneous assignments, you'll need to activate and deactivate fonts. Most of the time, you'll use fonts from Adobe Fonts. The odd time, you'll need to install fonts on your computer.

Topics

Adobe Fonts

Adobe Fonts is an online font subscription service. As a participant in a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program at Algonquin College, you have access to the service.

Fonts on Adobe Fonts can be used on web sites or in documents for print.

Local Fonts

Sometimes you may need to install a specific font on your computer.

fonts-folder-location

The Fonts folder you want to use to install fonts is in your Home Directory’s Library folder. To get to it, go to the Finder’s Go menu. Hold the Option key, then choose Library.

It’s a good idea to copy font folders into this location rather than move them. If you copy them, the originals will stay in place, with your project. Every once in a while, you can move all fonts in the Fonts folder to the trash without having to worry about losing the originals.

Checking Font Usage

In the past, when you moved a document from one computer to another, you needed to move the fonts along with it. If you didn’t the document wouldn’t look the same when opened. With the advent of online font services like Adobe Fonts, this is less of a concern. If you’re using Adobe Fonts, when you open the document, you’re prompted to activate the fonts requested by that document.

If the designer used fonts they installed locally, on their computer, those fonts need to move with the document. That’s what InDesign’s & Illustrator’s File > Package… function is for.

find-font-dialogue

You can check which fonts are in use in a specific document by using Type > Find Font… in InDesign and in Illustrator. You can see that you can substitute fonts from this dialogue with the Change button.

Packaging

Packaging a document gathers and copies all associated files into a new folder. These files include the original document, placed images and fonts. The packaging process does not gather Adobe Fonts.

Illustrator and InDesign have a Package function. Photoshop has one, but it’s not used for the same reasons. Photoshop’s Package function does not gather fonts. It only gathers linked images.

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