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tomabdf
tomabdf
Participant
April 23, 2019
Answered

Font conflict resolution in past versions of Adobe Fonts

  • April 23, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 6698 views

The latest version of Adobe Fonts contains a notification that a local font conflicts with the Adobe Font installation, which is a welcoming addition. I am wondering how these conflicts were handled in previous versions.

For example, if I had a font previously installed locally, then later installed Adobe products using Typekit/Adobe Fonts, which font would Indesign or Photoshop prioritize in this case?

As a sidenote, I noticed that a font I am using locally is still marked as Activated from Adobe Fonts in Indesign (it is in fact available in Fonts, just not currently activated).

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer liz, Adobe Type

Thanks for waiting while I looked into this, Thomas. The behavior depends on the operating system.

On Mac, the PostScript font name is used to check for any installed fonts that might cause a conflict. If the TTF and OTF versions of the same font use the same PostScript name–which is likely–you'll get the "font with a same name is installed" error.

On Windows, the full font name is used to check for conflicts with TTF and the PostScript name is used to check OTF (for obscure legacy reasons). The full font name and the PostScript name are usually not the same; the full font name has spaces between the words while PostScript name doesn't.  So in this case, it wouldn't get reported as a font conflict.

I hope that this helps!

-- liz

2 replies

A
andeend23274730
Participating Frequently
April 23, 2019

Same here. I worked on a brochure on Apr 18 with no problem. Didn't do any updates to InDesign. Open it today and it now says my doc is missing 10 out of 18 fonts. On one hand it says there's a conflict, but the CC app says they need to be activated. Go to fonts and they're all there...active. *sigh*

Add to that, of all the fonts it claims there are conflicts for, only ONE was valid. None of the others are even installed on my computer. It's a hot mess now...all 180 pages of it.

liz, Adobe Type
Community Manager
liz, Adobe TypeCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 24, 2019

Hi Andeen,

Sorry you're having trouble with the fonts you've used before!  Try these troubleshooting steps to start:

https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/troubleshoot-font-activation.html

If that doesn't solve the problem, send the details in the last section of the page to our support team & they'll  look into it further.

Thank you,

-- liz

liz, Adobe Type
Community Manager
liz, Adobe TypeCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 23, 2019

Hi Thomas,

The Creative Cloud desktop application has always had an error message to let you know if the fonts you're trying to activate are already installed on your computer.

It isn't possible to activate a font that you already have installed locally. If you wanted to replace the version on your computer with one from Adobe, you would first have to uninstall the local version using your font management software or the font tools built in to the operating system.

This help page has more detail:

Resolve font activation errors in the Creative Cloud desktop application

> As a sidenote, I noticed that a font I am using locally is still marked as Activated from Adobe Fonts in Indesign (it is in fact available in Fonts, just not currently activated).

If the local version of the font is deactivated, it doesn't create a conflict. You will be able to add the same one from Adobe Fonts, and the Adobe Fonts version is what will show up in your desktop software.

I hope that this helps,

-- liz

tomabdf
tomabdfAuthor
Participant
April 23, 2019

Thank you Liz; I am trying to plan ahead, in case different stakeholders may have various versions installed - does Adobe Fonts identify the various formats (OTF vs. TTF) and versions?

liz, Adobe Type
Community Manager
liz, Adobe TypeCommunity Manager
Community Manager
April 24, 2019

Hey Thomas – I want to check with the team on this question; will get back to you shortly!

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