Participant

Question

The Adobe Illustrator file I try to upload in Adobe Express is not recognizing the font. I have the customized fonts already uploaded in Adobe Express and still it does not work.

Forum|Forum|12 days ago
August 29, 2026
8 replies
66 views

I received an Adobe Illustrator material that I need to upload in Adobe Express and work on it. The font used is customized, but I have it already uploaded in Adobe Express.

Still the fonts are not being recognized and the text shows strange characters . Any way I can fix it? I could rewrite again in the material, but the design get slightly broken.

C

ClareC43832942

Participating Frequently

Same thing has been happening to me for over a month and I’ve tried all the fixes to no avail. Not a you problem, it’s an Adobe problem!!!

Rose DV

Community Manager

@positive_world0e32 - was able to connect with the team quickly to figure out what they need to reproduce the possible bug!

Things to email:
- The .ai file you're uploading, plus the actual font file (TTF/OTF) you uploaded to Express
Other items that the team needs:
- Your browser and OS
- Whether this exact file + font combo ever worked before on this account, or if it's only ever been similar files
- A screenshot from Illustrator's Character panel showing the exact font family + weight used in the file
- A screenshot from Express's font picker showing that same font under your Uploaded/Brand fonts

Context for the two screenshots: they let us rule out a subtle name mismatch (something like an accented character or a different weight name), which is a common culprit. 😥

Sending you a DM with my email address so you can send me the files!

Rose

P

positive_world0e32Author

Participant

Thank you. I`ll reach out to the email. I have an enterprise account and may be limited on the information to share. But will try to best to share the most relevant data. But in summary:

In my case.
1. I started using Express now and it did not work from the beginning.

The font combo I uploaded, I could confirm it was already stored in Express, because when I try to re-upload it, it blocks me because I had already inserted.

Rose DV

Community Manager

Hi @positive_world0e32,

That's really helpful, thank you - and no problem at all on the enterprise limits; just send whatever you're able to and we'll work with it.

Whenever you get a chance to send the files (the .ai plus the font file) and the two screenshots - Illustrator's Character panel showing the exact font name/weight, and Express's font picker showing that same font - I'll get it in front of our team. The screenshots are the key bit, since they'll show whether it's a subtle name mismatch or something deeper.

Thanks for working through this with me.

Rose

J

James27387421zjp3

Participant

Same is happening to me. A font I uploaded weeks ago to Express was working fine when I pulled through .ai documents and now it’s not working, sort it out Adobe!!

Rose DV

Community Manager

Hi @positive_world0e32 & @James27387421zjp3,

Thanks for bringing this up!

The "strange characters" usually means the custom font isn't being applied at all. Since James saw it work and then break too, I've flagged this to our team to look into.

To unblock you for now without rewriting, you could outline the text in Illustrator so it imports as shapes instead of live text —

→ Select the affected text
→ Type > Create Outlines (Shift+Cmd+O / Shift+Ctrl+O)
→ Save and re-upload to Express

Just keep an un-outlined copy of the .ai as your master, since outlined text can't be edited as text later. I'll report back with any updates!

Rose

N8.

Hey @positive_world0e32
Could you post your Qs in the Adobe Express forum? Remember to change the title to prevent being flagged as spam.
Cheers

Nate

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