Restrict access to specific fonts in Citrix

Recently we had a situation where our publishing department decided to use a font that was not included in any package we already owned (Windows, Office, etc).  So a request came to us to make this  font available to specific users.  We went down the normal road of ‘are we licensed’, ‘who’s paying for it’, etc, and then explained that in our Citrix environment we would have to license each ‘potential user’ (or get a site license).  Most software vendors are starting to understand Citrix and/or Terminal Services and allow us to use a ‘best effort’ model.  As long as we make a best effort to restrict their product to the number of users we have licensed, then we are compliant.  But how do we do that with a font?!?

The solution was actually pretty easy:  Just install the font as normal, then change the permissions on that font file to only allow access by an Active Directory group!  As well as ‘system’, ‘administrators’, etc.

I haven’t done it yet, but I am going to try to use a Group Policy to set the permissions on the font file just to make it that much easier.

2 comments to Restrict access to specific fonts in Citrix

  • Brady

    It doesn’t work. Just tried it and when you pull up the font list in Word 2007 and scroll through the fonts, if you don’t have access to those font files then Word crashes.

  • admin

    I’m not sure what to say: I just tried again (XenApp6, Server 2008 R2, Word/Office 2007). There is a place holder in the Word font list for the inaccessible font and I did get an error when I tried to select the font, but Word did not crash. I guess this is more of a way to ‘stay compliant’ with the font licensing and discourage people from using it rather than a perfect clean solution. I’m happy to post a better solution if one comes up 🙂