How to download typekit font files

The ability to sync Typekit fonts is one of the coolest benefits of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Currently, you’re able to choose from over 1000 fonts (in over 350 families) to use in print, PDF, EPUB, and DPS projects. By default, you can sync up to 100 fonts at a time, and you don’t need to be online to use the fonts once you’ve synced them (you do have to be online to un-sync them).

However, Typekit fonts can cause you problems if your workflow involves packaging InDesign files to send to someone else, because these fonts cannot be packaged. They are “protected” fonts, stored in an invisible folder that you normally don’t have access to. So if you have to send your file for someone else to work on, they will need to have their own subscription and sync the same Typekit fonts themselves.

Or, you can just avoid using Typekit fonts in projects that have to be packaged. Fortunately, InDesign can alert you whenever you add a Typekit font to a document, via the Live Preflight feature.

Just create or edit a preflight profile by choosing Window > Output > Preflight. Then from the panel menu, choose Define Profiles (for more details of creating custom preflight profiles, see Kirsten Rourke’s article in issue 61 of InDesign Magazine).

In the dialog box, choose TEXT: Font Types Not Allowed: Protected Fonts

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Make sure that profile is active, and then whenever you add a Typekit font to a document,

you will see an error at the bottom of the document window.

In the Preflight panel, you will see each paragraph formatted with a Typekit font listed as a separate error. Click on the page number on the right side of each listing to jump to that paragraph.