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Troubleshoot font issues

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  1. Adobe Fonts User Guide
  2. Introduction
    1. System and subscription requirements
    2. Browser and OS support
    3. Add fonts on your computer
    4. Add fonts to your website
    5. Add fonts on CC Mobile
  3. Font licensing
    1. Font licensing
    2. Manage your account
    3. Licensing for Creative Cloud for enterprise customers
    4. Adding font licenses to your account
    5. Removing fonts from the subscription library
    6. Adobe Fonts not available to Adobe IDs registered in China
    7. Why aren't these fonts included in my Creative Cloud subscription?
    8. Morisawa font removal September 2021
  4. Getting and using fonts
    1. Using Adobe Fonts in Creative Cloud apps
    2. Manage your fonts
    3. Resolve missing fonts in desktop applications
    4. Using fonts in InDesign
    5. Fonts and typography
    6. Using web fonts in HTML5 Canvas documents
    7. Using fonts in InCopy
    8. Using web fonts in Muse
    9. Packaging font files
    10. Troubleshooting guide: Adding fonts
    11. Added fonts aren't showing to the font menu
    12. "Unable to add one or more fonts" or "A font with the same name is already installed"
    13. What happens when a font I'm using is updated by the foundry?
    14. Hide fonts in Adobe programs
  5. Web design and development
    1. Add fonts to your website
    2. Troubleshooting guide: Adding fonts to a website
    3. Troubleshoot font issues
    4. Using web fonts in HTML email or newsletters
    5. Using web fonts with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
    6. CSS selectors
    7. Customize web font performance with font-display settings
    8. Embed codes
    9. Dynamic subsetting & web font serving
    10. Font events
    11. Why are my web fonts from use.typekit.net?
    12. Site can't connect to use.typekit.net
    13. Using web fonts with CodePen
    14. Browser and OS support
    15. Domains
    16. Using web fonts when developing locally
    17. Content security policy
    18. Printing web fonts
  6. Language support and OpenType features
    1. Language support and subsetting
    2. Using OpenType features
    3. Syntax for OpenType features in CSS
  7. Font technology
    1. OpenType-SVG color fonts
    2. Ten Mincho: important points on updating from Version 1.000

Is Illustrator or InDesign crashing due to font issues? Learn how to identify and remove damaged fonts from these apps.

Font issues, especially damaged fonts, can lead to various issues in Illustrator and InDesign. Follow the troubleshooting steps explained in this article to resolve these issues.

Get the latest app

Before you proceed, ensure that you have the latest app version.

Update Your App

4 Ways to remove damaged fonts

third party font

Remove third-party font management plug-in

Clear system cache

Clear the system font cache 

Validate font

Validate all fonts to identify and remove damaged font

Isolate problematic fonts

[macOS] Isolate the problematic font

Remove third-party font management plug-in

Note:

Remove or update any third-party font plug-ins before testing your fonts.

  1. Open the Plugins folder.
    macOS:
    [Illustrator] Choose Finder > Applications > Illustrator >Plug-ins.
    [InDesign]  Choose Finder > Applications > InDesign > Plug-ins.
    Windows:
    [Illustrator] Explorer > Local disc > Choose Program Files > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator (year)> Plug-ins.
    [InDesign] Explorer > Local disc > Choose Program Files > Adobe > Adobe InDesign (year)
  2. Copy and paste the [font management utility] to your [desktop].
    The font management utilities are Extensis, Suitcase, Font explorer, Font explorer Pro, RightFont, and NexusFont.
  3. Remove the plug-ins from the plug-ins folder. 

Clear the system font cache

Terminal
Terminal

macOS:

  1. Quit the application and the Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app (if installed).
  2.  Choose Finder > Applications > Utilities.
  3. Execution to [Terminal].
  4. You need to be careful when using Terminal as it affects your operating system at a low level.  To review the Atsuil manual, type man atsutil
    and press Return, or read this article.
  5. Type the following command and press Return.
    sudo atsutil databases –remove

Windows:

  1. Open the File Explorer and set hidden file and folder views.
  2. Close all Adobe applications (illustration, in-design, and more), including Creative Cloud desktop apps (if installed).
  3. Navigate to  C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local.
  4. Delete the *FNTCACHE*.DAT or *FontCache*.dat files.
Note:

The asterisk (*) indicates various numbers, letters, or words, such as FontCache-S-1-5-21.dat.

Fontcache folder
Font cache folder

Validate Typefaces

macOS:

  1. Choose Applications > Font Book.
  2. In the Collection column, choose All Fonts.
  3. To select all fonts, with the All Fonts item selected, select the topmost font and press Cmd+A.
  4. Choose Choose File > Validate Selection. 
  5. Delete the damaged or duplicate font.

If the Typeface Manager crashes, rerun the Typeface Manager and Validate Selection to scroll through the fonts one by one. Identify the font that caused the conflict. Use the down arrow key to select the first font, and then hold it down to scroll through all the fonts.

All Fonts
Step 2: All Fonts

Validate font
Step 4: Validate font

Windows:

  1. In the Windows search bar, type "Control Panel" and press Enter. In the Control Panel, open the Fonts folder.
  2. Select all the fonts, copy them, and paste them into a new folder on your desktop.
  3. Trash all the fonts in the Fonts folder.
  4. Run the application.
  5.  If it runs normally, the corrupted font is in the Fonts folder.
  6. To identify damaged fonts, move the fonts backed up on the desktop one by one to the Fonts folder and repeat the operation of running the application.
  7. If the application does not run, it corresponds to a corrupted font, so remove the identified corrupted font. For a faster way to check for corrupted fonts, see "Isolating [macOS] problematic fonts."
Fonts Folder
Fonts Folder

[macOS] Isolate the problematic font

  • With the macOSX 10.7 release, user library folder is hidden by default. To access files in the hidden library folder, see how to access hidden library files.
  • Make sure that your fonts are located in only one font folder. If your fonts are duplicated, remove them from any one location.

 MAC HD/Users/[Username]/Library/Fonts
MAC HD/Library/Fonts

  • Create two folders on the desktop: font test and good fonts.

Perform the font testing for the following folders: 

  • MAC HD/Users/[Username]/Library/Fonts
  • MAC HD/Library/Fonts

To test the damaged font, keep half your fonts in the Fonts folder. Move the other half to the font test folder, and test the condition that caused the problem:

  • If the problem recurs, the damaged font is in the Fonts folder. Move the fonts from the font test folder to the good fonts folder.
  • If the problem does not recur, the damaged font is in the font test folder. Move the fonts from the Fonts folder into the good font folder. Move half the fonts back into the Fonts folder for the next round of testing.

Perform the steps to remove the damaged font:

  • Test half the remaining fonts, and continue to move the fonts without damage into the good Fonts folder. 
  • Identify the font that is causing the problem and remove it from the Fonts folder. Move all the fonts from the good fonts folder back to the appropriate Fonts folder that you are testing. Perform these tests for each Fonts folder that contains fonts. 

If the problem recurs after you remove a font, continue to perform these steps until all damaged fonts are removed.

Have a question or an idea?

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If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Adobe Illustrator Community or Adobe InDesign Community. We'd love to hear from you!

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