Affected versions
This article applies to Suitcase Fusion 7 (version 18) and later.
Symptoms
PostScript Type 1 fonts do not appear in some applications, and documents using Type 1 fonts do not display correctly in those applications.
Solution
Recent versions of macOS, Microsoft Windows, and other operating systems and applications have deprecated or eliminated their support for Type 1 fonts.
- Adobe announced the end of support for Type 1 fonts in Adobe Creative Cloud applications by January, 2023; Adobe Photoshop CC 2021 does not recognize Type 1 fonts
- Microsoft Office ended support for Type 1 fonts beginning with Microsoft Office 2013 for Windows and Microsoft Office 2016 for macOS
- Microsoft Windows applications that use the Windows Presentation Foundation frameworks can’t use Type 1 fonts
- Android applications can’t use Type 1 fonts
- iOS applications can’t use Type 1 fonts
- Apple describes Type 1 fonts as “might work but aren’t recommended” on macOS; an early version of macOS 10.15 couldn’t use Type 1 fonts
As the OpenType specification increases in popularity and adds new features, the limitations of Type 1 fonts become more apparent. Type 1 fonts are not cross-platform–fonts created for Microsoft Windows can’t be used on macOS, and vice versa. Type 1 fonts do not have support for Unicode character sets, color glyphs, custom ligatures, or variable outlines.
Type 1 fonts for macOS are fragile. The font suitcase file stores critical font data in the resource fork of the file. Other operating systems don’t have support for forked files, making it easy to accidentally destroy the resource fork of a font suitcase if you move them from computer to computer.
Suitcase Fusion recognizes and supports Type 1 fonts: you can add the fonts to your font vault, preview them, and activate or deactivate them. But as support for Type 1 fonts disappears from creative applications and operating systems, we will be unable to provide support for using Type 1 fonts activated by Suitcase Fusion in specific applications.