How do I transfer use of Typekit fonts from one designer to another?

Question

This wording of this question might be confusing so I'll try the best I can so that everybody can understand what I am trying to ask..

Right now, I am designing a school wide magazine publication using TypeKit fonts. I won't be around forever and when I do leave as the designer, someone will have to inevitably take over my position. And that's where my main concern lies.

The InDesign file that I've designed utilizes a TypeKit font family for almost every typographic facet (if not all..) and I am anticipating that the next designer will probably not have paid for Adobe TypeKit, rendering the work unusable.

So, is there ABSOLUTELY ANY WAY that one (i.e. me) designer who has used TypeKit in their files transfer use so that another designer who does not have TypeKit still able to design using those same fonts? ABSOLUTELY ANYWAY?

Answer 1

You can't transfer the fonts without cheating, breaking the law, or paying for them.

The school should have a license. If the school can't afford it, then you as the designer should have asked about this and chosen free fonts to avoid exactly this situation. It's your responsibility as the designer to make yourself aware of the cost and copyright issues around all materials you use. The client (school, in this case) can choose what it wants, but that should be an informed decision.

My suggestion to you is either (a) convince the school to get a Creative Cloud/Typekit subscription, which it should be able to do at a reduced educational price, or (b) start redesigning now with free fonts which have no commercial license restrictions, so that when you leave, it's no longer an issue.

Answer 2

You can do something which do not need money to make your work more likely to

• stay around
• be reusable and
• be available for research.

Consider to do the following:

• export your design as InDesign version independent format
• make a package that contains all linked material
• make two PDFs - one for long time archiving with all fonts as curves or bitmaps, another with all texts easily extractable (a plain text file with no or minimal markup about "which is a title, which is a story, which is a text for a picture" may do as well because there's the other PDF to read)
• export some important and "face defining" design elements out as images (all fonts curved or bitmap) for easy reuse
• find some style compatible freely available substitute fonts. This gives to you the first voice in choosing the substitutes

Answer 3

I want to start off agreeing with all the comments so far - your school should definitely have a subscription to Creative Cloud that includes Typekit. However, I understand your dilemma as my university did not provide it either. Possible solution... Have you tried packaging the InDesign file? Usually that creates a handy little "Fonts" folder within the package that includes all the fonts used in that document. I only recently started using Typekit so I haven't tried this myself, but I would think that would work.