All your questions answered in this Adobe FAQ...

http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/legal/pdfs/FontFAQ.pdf

many thanks.

in the faq in point 8 there it says:

“Can fonts be used by someone outside of my network, such as in a web-hosted service?
You may not use the fonts on any Internet or web-hosted service outside of your internal network. You may use the fonts as part of a hosted service in your internal network, provided that no external users can access the fonts, all users accessing the service have a license for the fonts and you do not exceed the permitted number of computers.”

Does this mean, i am not allowed to create a logo for my website? My english is not so good.

Almost all font vendors allow you to create a logo, bitmap or outline (vector art) and distribute it. In fact this is so common that most licenses don’t even mention it. Most of the restrictions in licenses relate to the distribution of the digital font file itself (and fonts derived from it).

EULAs and TOSs typically require a staff of attorneys to fully comprehend. Even if you were fluent in english, these things wouldn’t make a lot of sense.

All that said, my guess is that they mean that you may not put the font files themselves on your web site or any server publicly accessible. If you create your logo and save it as a JPG or GIF, then it’s no longer a font file, but just an image file, which is fine.

It means that you cannot use a network to allow someone outside of your network to use the font. Basically it prevents you from buying the font and creating an online font rental service. So you can still use the font in a logo.

>Does this mean, i am not allowed to create a logo for my website?

Maybe this will be helpful (from a non-lawyer, so no guarantees): the font is technically the software to produce the letters on the screen or paper, not the printed or screen letters. They are limiting your rights to let others used the same software. They are not limiting others seeing the type, either in print or on screen.

ahhhhh, very cool. thank you all very much. now, i got it.

hmm..whats about embedding? the faq says, like pdf embedding is allowed, but what about sIFR for using it on my website? the flash generated grafics are embedded, but somewhere on the server have to be the font files to generate them. seems a thing of protection, i guess.

If Adobe were to ban Flash embedding of their own fonts then that would be a strange day. Note the FAQ is from 2004, which was before(?) the Macromedia buy-out.

I think the key point is that Adobe does not want to limit the use of the type. You can put it into a logo, or make it your corporate font. But they do limit the actual font software to one machine (normally). In other words, you cannot take the Myriad Pro font files and supply them to everyone in the company to install on their computer. Your license (I think) is only for the machine CS was installed on.

With a logo, you can save the logo in PDF (or another) format that embeds the font, and then it can be used on other computers that don’t have the font installed. Or you can do the Flash or sIFR thing for the web, or just create the text as a GIF. There is no way that I know of to make it yoru corporate font (to be used in memos, reports, etc.) without buying licenses for all the computers it will be used on.

ut what about sIFR for using it on my website? the flash generated grafics are embedded, but somewhere on the server have to be the font files to generate them.

I had questions about this as well. The file that is used by sIFR is basically the digital font embedded in a .SWF Flash file. I’ve seen websites that clearly violate the spirit of the EULAs by distributing that .SWF across the internet for free, possibly just renaming the .SWF file.

I know in my heart of hearts that that is wrong, but where does that stand legally?

If you take the position that in this case the .SWF is a derivative font, then for sure this would break most font EULAs. Someone would need to go after one of these guys to prove that. Obviously that ’someone’ would not be Adobe. ;-)

In the past I don’t think type designers have shown any interest in testing the limits of Flash and font encapsulation. Turning a blind eye often comes back to bite you. This may be a case of that, and who wants to be bitten by a blind eye.

I recall writing to the lead developer of Flash before it was even a Macromedia asset, regarding respect for embedding permissions. I don’t recall the exact answer but I don’t think it was positive. I have no idea what Flash does now.

Bitten by a blind eye? That sounds like a band name.

I don’t recall the exact answer but I don’t think it was positive.
Wow. Did you take that? More importantly, your employer would take that? Fire up yer guns!

This was a loooooooong time ago, and my employer at the time was probably a temp agency. In addition I think the type community’s lack of interest in Flash extended to MS as well as everyone else. It’s been a few years since the product was aquired by Adobe so they must be doing the right thing. Anyone tried embedding a no-embedding font using Flash?

Unless my most recent research has a major error — Thomas please correct me! — Fonts licensed from Adobe which are from Adobe Originals, Bauer, & other wholly-owned fonts by Adobe can be used embedded in things such as sIFR.