Adobe Font Extractor

A command-line utility for extracting Adobe fonts on macOS and Windows. This tool is provided for legitimate uses within the terms of your Adobe Fonts license, such as:

1. Using fonts in applications that don't directly support Adobe Fonts integration
2. Creating backups for personal use while you have an active subscription
3. Using fonts on devices where Creative Cloud cannot be installed but your license permits usage

Installation

npm install -g adobe-font-extractor

How Does It Work?

The Adobe Creative Cloud app installs fonts in a hidden location on your filesystem and names them with non-human-readable IDs (like 2.otf). Adobe Font Extractor helps you find these fonts, copy them to a location of your choice, and rename them to their PostScript name (like "Helvetica-Bold.otf") that is usually embedded in the file.

In summary, Adobe Font Extractor searches, renames and copies fonts which are already on your filesystem. It does not download or install new fonts from Adobe. It simply makes it easier to access and use the fonts.

Legal Disclaimer

Users are responsible for ensuring their use of extracted fonts complies with Adobe's licensing terms. The author of this tool is not liable for any use that violates Adobe's terms of service or font licensing agreements. Adobe Fonts typically requires an active subscription for continued use, and redistribution of fonts is generally prohibited.

Commands

Adobe Font Extractor provides two main commands:

List Fonts

Lists all installed Adobe fonts with optional filtering.

adobe-font-extractor list [options]

List Font Options

Option	Alias	Description	Default
--verbosity <level>	-v	Set the verbosity (silent, error, info, debug)	info
--glob-pattern <pattern>	-g	Filter fonts by glob pattern (must be quoted)	*

List Font Examples

# List all installed Adobe fonts
adobe-font-extractor list

# List fonts matching a pattern
adobe-font-extractor list --glob-pattern="*Bold*"

# List fonts with debug information
adobe-font-extractor list --verbosity=debug

Extract Fonts

Extracts Adobe fonts to a specified destination directory.

adobe-font-extractor extract [options] <destination>

Font Extraction Options

Option	Alias	Description	Default
--verbosity <level>	-v	Set the verbosity (silent, error, info, debug)	info
--glob-pattern <pattern>	-g	Filter fonts by glob pattern (must be quoted)	*
--abort-on-error	-a	Abort on recoverable errors	false
--force	-f	Force overwrite existing files	false
--dry-run	-d	Dry run, do not copy files	false

Font Extraction Examples

# Extract all Adobe fonts to a directory
adobe-font-extractor extract ./my-fonts

# Extract only bold fonts
adobe-font-extractor extract --glob-pattern="*Bold*" ./bold-fonts

# Extract fonts with overwrite
adobe-font-extractor extract --force ./my-fonts

# Perform a dry run without copying
adobe-font-extractor extract --dry-run-run ./my-fonts

Pattern Matching

The --glob-pattern option supports glob patterns for filtering fonts by their PostScript name:

• * - Match any number of characters
• ? - Match a single character
• [abc] - Match one character from the set
• {pattern1,pattern2} - Match any of the patterns

Examples:

• *Bold* - Match any font with "Bold" in the name
• Helvetica* - Match fonts starting with "Helvetica"
• *{Bold,Italic}* - Match fonts containing either "Bold" or "Italic"

Please note that the pattern must be quoted to prevent shell expansion (e.g., -g "*Bold*" instead of -g *Bold*).

Troubleshooting

No Fonts Found

If no fonts are found:

1. Ensure you have the Adobe Creative Cloud app installed and running
2. Verify that you have activated fonts on the Adobe fonts website (https://fonts.adobe.com)
3. Check that the default Adobe fonts directory exists:
   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CoreSync/plugins/livetype
4. If your Adobe fonts are in a non-standard location, you can use the hidden --source-directory option to specify a custom directory to search for fonts:

adobe-font-extractor list --source-directory="/path/to/fonts"
adobe-font-extractor extract --source-directory="/path/to/fonts" ./my-fonts

Permission Issues

If you encounter permission errors when extracting fonts:

1. Ensure you have write permissions to the destination directory
2. Try running the command with elevated privileges if necessary

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Copyright 2025 Luca Schultz