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• • July 6, 2012 at 3:48 pm #62562
    LongHighway

    Member

    I'm trying to create an ePub for Kindle in CS6. When I export to EPUB the box is checked to embed “embeddable” fonts, but most of the fonts never make it through, at least to ADE. What really is an embeddable font, and how do you make certain a font will export?

    I notice on Lynda.com that the instructors' videos contain fonts other than the usual suspects (arial, verdana, times, etc.) and they appear to translate just fine. I've tried both .ttf and .otf, but even though you would expect the .otf fonts to be fine, they don't embed either.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  • July 27, 2012 at 2:02 pm #62695
    InPrint

    Member

    Perhaps some of these fonts are not recognized by the receiving program, hence the usual suspects translating and the others not. I'll bet by now the system has been updated to accept a wider variety of fonts, but if not you may need to search for third party plugins.

  • August 31, 2012 at 4:56 pm #63025
    Neilpet

    Member

    The key phrase here is “embeddable fonts”. Most fonts are not licensed for e-use, only for use on the purchaser's computer. There isprobably your problem. InDesign won't embed a font that doesn't have the appropriate permissions set.

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:01 pm #63206
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    If you are planning on embedding fonts, you need to be using InDesign CS5.5 or CS6 for generating eBooks. InDesign provides an option for embedding fonts into EPUB files when you export them. Upon export, the font files are encrypted and a special file is added to the package that allows the fonts to be decrypted by an eBook reading device. The only devices that are compatible with this type of font encryption are Adobe supported devices which are listed on this page: https://blogs.adobe.com/digital…..ed-devices. Out of this list, the most popular devices are the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo Reader, and the Android eReader for Samsung Galaxy tablets. So quite a few popular devices support this method of font embedding. Unfortunatley, this leaves out the iBooks app for Apple devices and all Kindle devices because they don't support the encryption method used.

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:02 pm #63207
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    When you embed fonts purchased from Adobe into an EPUB file using their encryption method, you (in most cases) won't be breaching your font license. However, since it's possible that a few fonts in the Adobe Font Folio might not allow font embedding, I recommend you double-check this with Adobe to avoid any possible legal consequences. Here is the information you need to learn more about Adobe's font End User License Agreement.

    Font Permission List: https://www.adobe.com/type/brow…..enses.html

    Font Embedding Permissions: https://www.adobe.com/type/brow…..dding.html

    As for fonts that ship with Microsoft Windows 7, they are governed by the same restrictions as the products they are supplied with. You are not allowed to copy, redistribute or reverse engineer the font files. Some fonts may be embedded within document files. Embedded fonts can only be used to print, preview and in some cases edit the document in which they are embedded. For more details see the license agreement supplied with the product. Here is more information about font redistribution and licensing: https://www.microsoft.com/typog…../faq11.htm.

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:03 pm #63208
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    On the other hand, it's also possible to embed fonts without encrypting them as long as you have permission to embed a font or if the font's license allows it to be embedded. This requires you to manipulate the contents of the EPUB file after creating it in order to remove the encryption and replace the fonts with unencrypted versions. Embedding the fonts without encryption ensures that all devices supporting embedded fonts (which is many of them) will display your eBooks with the same set of fonts. To legally embed a font without encrypting it, it either needs to be an open source font that can be legally embedded or you must purchase a license that allows you to embed the font.

    Here's a list of open source fonts I know of. Most of them listed have huge character sets.

    • Charis: https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scr…..L_download
    • Gentium: https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scr…..id=Gentium
    • Liberation: https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/
    • STIX: https://www.stixfonts.org/

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:03 pm #63209
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    The emerging EPUB 3 format (yet to be supported by most eBook readers) supports two font formats — OpenType and WOFF — to accommodate both traditional publishing workflows and emerging Web-based workflows. EPUB 3 also supports both obfuscated (new method) and regular font resources for both OpenType and WOFF font formats. Support for obfuscated font resources is required to accommodate font licensing restrictions for many commercially-available fonts. Note that font obfuscation and the Adobe font embedding method are different. When eBook readers finally support EPUB 3, you will be able to embed fonts into an EPUB file (using font obfuscation) and expect to see the same fonts used on every device that supports EPUB 3.

    Here is a web page describing WOFF fonts: https://webfonts.info/wiki/inde…..ebfonts%3F

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:04 pm #63210
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    An alternative method to font embedding is to specify fonts (done via CSS) that are on the eBook reading device. This means that you can specify which font you want a paragraph to use without having to embed the actual font inside the EPUB file. If the font exists on the reading device, it will be used; otherwise it won't. Some devices have very few fonts installed on them; while others have quite a few. So it's practically impossible to create a single EPUB file that uses the same fonts across the board when using this method. So how do you work around this? At the very least, you are able to specify whether the font used should be Serif or Sans-serif. This way, if an embedded or specified font isn't available, the paragraph will at least appear as Serif or Sans-serif text.

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:06 pm #63211
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    I generally recommend not to embed fonts. Not all fonts look good on screen, and not all are going to scale well to a greyscale eInk reader or a smartphone display. If you want to embed a font to achieve a particular design, you must test the book on a variety of platforms. On the other hand, there is one case in which embedding a font is critical: foreign languages. Adobe Digital Editions and the Sony Reader have poor out-of-the-box support for diacriticals and other foreign characters in their default fonts. You may also run into trouble with non-Roman character sets. If your book is absent its accent marks or contains lots of w??rds miss?ng le??ers, you’re going to need to embed a font.

    There are basically two main reasons to embed fonts into an EPUB file:

    • Design: The book designer has chosen a particular font to reflect the style and content of the work.
    • Content: The document has particular characteristics that require a specific font.

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:09 pm #63212
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    One last thing… If you are using previous versions (CS3–CS5) of InDesign to generate eBooks, font embedding is not reliable and in fact was quite broken (requireing knowledge of the internal workings of an EPUB file to fix the problem and allow the embedded fonts to display properly). So that's why you need to be usingn CS5.5 or later.

  • September 23, 2012 at 2:16 pm #63213
    Gabriel Powell

    Member

    And to round off this subject, it's possible to embedd fonts for Kindle devices. First export the EPUB file from InDesgn with the fonts embedded. After generating the EPUB file, crack it open (I use Oxygen XML Editor or Author XML Editor for this). Simply delete the 'encryption.xml' file located within the META-INF folder. Then you must replace all the fonts within the Fonts folder with the unencrypted versions. The fonts within the EPUB file are enctypted, so they cannot be read.

    That's all there is to it. Open the file with Kindle Previwer and you will see the fonts in use. Keep in mind that iBooks overrides some HTML tags with the font selected by the reader, so your embedded fonts won't work for all text on that plattform. For example <h1> tags work, but <p> tags don't.

    Most importantly, don't do this unless you own the font, have purchased a font license, or are using an font that allows you to freely embed it.

    Good luck!

  • September 24, 2012 at 12:40 pm #63227
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    Oh my, this is great information! Gabriel would you like to repurpose this as a blog post for epubsecrets.com? (or would you mind if we did so on your behalf?)

    Let me know here, or email me!

    AM

    (also this could be a great seminar at Pepcon ….)

  • September 24, 2012 at 12:44 pm #63228
    Anne-Marie Concepcion

    Member

    gabriel_powell said:

    Then you must replace all the fonts within the Fonts folder with the unencrypted versions. The fonts within the EPUB file are enctypted, so they cannot be read.

    ---

    Not sure what you mean here.

    If you replace the fonts in the Fonts folder with unencrypted versions, then how could they become encrypted again (the second sentence).

    AM

  • December 16, 2012 at 10:18 pm #63759
    microtribe

    Member

    Thanks for the post Gabriel. I have an astrology book with astrology glyphs in it, and a special font for them. In my first version I converted each glyph to a jpg to make the glyphs display across all platforms. But it just doesn't look good. Does anyone have a list of the devices that don't display embedded fonts? Thanks.

  • March 31, 2015 at 12:34 pm #74273
    Fernando Urbina

    Member

    I realize that this is an old post, but I am still using CS6 to produce ePubs with embedded fonts. I’m posting so that someone Googling for the probe can see how I solved it.

    Earlier, Gabriel had said: “Unfortunatley, this leaves out the iBooks app for Apple devices and all Kindle devices because they don’t support the encryption method used.”

    After spending quite a bit of time, I finally figured out why an ePub generated by CS6 produced font files that would not be decoded by iBooks. (For Kindle, as Gabriel mentioned, you can substitute the unencrypted fonts). The problem lies in the fact that CS6 is not following the IDPF spec they claim they did (and which CC does follow). The problem is that before they obfuscate the font per the spec, they first compress it. Hence, iBooks (and others) that follow the spec, attempt to un-obfuscate the font, but they are left with a compressed font file that they don’t recognize.

    The trick then is to take the CS6 ePub file’s fonts, un-obfuscate them, uncompress them, and then obfuscate them again. You then replace those font files. For Kindle, you can use the un-obfuscated, un-compressed font files. These will also be truncated files, meaning that they only include the glyphs that are used in the ePub.

    I have added the above to my post processing scripts and it works marvelously. (Before I was using CC Trial to produce the font files, but it was a pain when to keep doing that when I used a new glyph in InDesign). In fact, with this new process I realized that I did not have the “+” in my embedded font, so it was displaying with the default font of the e-reader.

    • May 4, 2015 at 11:03 pm #75167
      Matthew McCullough

      Member

      @FernandoUrbina

      Thanks for the helpful information!

      I use Adobe CC to export my ePubs from InDesign, partially due to font issues. CC uses the standard IDPF obfuscation algorithm, so it’s compatible with Nook, iBooks, etc. But it is good to know what occurs with the CS6 embedded fonts.

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