Participant

Question

No one is saying it so I will.. Adobe Fonts is a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME

Forum|Forum|11 months ago
February 11, 2025
6 replies
1516 views

For years I've had issues with installing/keeping Adobe Fonts saved to my copmputers. Whether it's because they lost their licensing agreement with a third party company, or by promoting their own fonts (which seem to dissappear when you try installing them), Adobe has officially wasted enough of my time and money...

Q: Found a font and want to add the whole family to use in your projects?
[Adobe solution]: Great! Only 4 of the 10 fonts actually showed up in your library, (you didn't need that Regular or Bold Italic version of that font right?)

Q: Want to install the font to use locally for other projects?

[Adobe solution]: Sure! Well it says the font is 'active' from the fonts.adobe.com dashboard, now look in your CC app and it should be ther... NOTHING IS THERE

Q: I thought (finally) that this font was successfully installed, but I dont see it in my libraries
[Adobe solution]: We're sure its there! but first did you:

shut down/restart your computer?
uninstall/reinstall all your apps?
delete your cookies and browser history?
go through and change your passwords on every account unrelated to this issue?
perform a program installment dance ritual while burning sage and chanting a binary code into a calculator?
try a vegan diet for a week?
spin around 3 times exactly at 2:15pm while envisioning the font you desire in your systems library?
Forgive your ex?

If you've preformed all these actions, you should see the new font in your libraries, but who knows really?

Its not like this is out of a reaction to one bad experience. After years of dealing with this nonesense its almost expected that Adobe products dont work as advertised.

Yet another company focused more on their Subscription Models than they are on their actual Products

Artificial Grass

Participant

Honestly, this describes the Adobe Fonts experience a little too perfectly. The biggest problem isn’t even the bugs, it’s the uncertainty. You activate a font, Adobe marks it as “active,” yet whether it actually shows up across your apps or system feels like pure luck.

It reminds me of working on a Carpets Abu Dhabi project for a local showroom. The entire branding depended on one font family across carpet catalogs, in-store signage, mood boards, and the website. Adobe Fonts showed the family as active, but only a few weights appeared in Illustrator, while others randomly disappeared in InDesign. When you’re trying to maintain visual consistency, just like matching carpet textures, colors, and patterns across a project, missing font styles completely derail the workflow.

The core issue is trust. If a font is labeled active, it should be available everywhere it’s meant to be without workarounds, restarts, or reinstall rituals. In professional projects, whether it’s flooring layouts or brand visuals, reliability is non-negotiable.

Adobe’s tools are powerful, no doubt. But moments like this make it feel like predictability is being sacrificed. It’s easy to see why many designers are switching back to locally managed font libraries, simply to keep projects on track and avoid last-minute surprises.

Abu Dhabi Curtains

Participant

Honestly, this sums up the Adobe Fonts experience way too well. The most frustrating part isn’t even the bugs—it’s the uncertainty. You activate a font, Adobe says it’s “active,” but whether it actually appears in your apps or system feels like a gamble.

It reminds me of working on branding projects for local businesses, like a Curtains Abu Dhabi client I once worked with. The design depended heavily on a specific font family for catalogs, showroom banners, and website visuals. Only half the font weights showed up in Adobe Fonts, and the rest randomly vanished between Illustrator and InDesign. When consistency matters (just like matching fabric, lining, and curtain tracks), missing font styles completely break the workflow.

The real issue is trust. If a font is marked as active, it should be available everywhere it’s supposed to be, no rituals, no reinstall marathons. Subscription software should simplify professional work, not add friction. At this point, it’s understandable why many designers are moving back to locally managed font libraries just to keep projects predictable and on schedule.

Adobe has incredible tools, but things like this make it feel like reliability is taking a back seat to the subscription model.

Curtain blind master

R

Red Point

Inspiring

I posted many times in the forums regarding Adobe Fonts. It is a terribly unreliable system (at least on Windows 11) and has caused many issues to my workflow in the past (and again today).

I constantly have to remove and re-install fonts to make them show up again. Many fonts show up in Creative Cloud, but fail to show up in any of the Adobe apps, so I can't use them.

Very often fonts don't show up at all, sometimes it takes 30 minutes for them to load (after restarting my PC). I always check my internet speed to exclude connectivity issues, but the connection is super fast (300-500mbs).

Not sure if it is the their buggy cloud font system, Adobe server performance issues or Adobe in conjunction with Windows 11.

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

How many fonts do you have synced via Adobe Fonts?

Occasionally I'll see a bit of flaky performance from the Adobe Font service. Sometimes merely rebooting the computer fixes the issue. Next troubleshooting step is signing out of the Creative Cloud account in the CC desktop app, rebooting the computer, re-lauching the CC app and signing into the account again. That will force a refresh of Adobe Fonts sync. In really stubborn cases deleting the font cache can clear up the problem. I do not know how many fonts is too much to have actively synced from Adobe Fonts. I try to keep my own fonts list limited to type families I'm actively using. It's not hard to have an Adobe Fonts list go over 400 or more fonts, especially since some type families can have several or more dozen styles.

F

Fishbaugher Todd

Participant

The difference between good UX and great UX is that one needs to be explained and the other does not.

A

AⓇ41_2

Participant

Neue Haas Grotesk Text is a classic example as to how Adobe fonts have completely lost its course. A total waste of time.

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

Adobe didn't design the New Haas Grotesk type family. Linotype originally released the type family. The complete family is available thru Adobe Fonts (16 display styles and 6 text styles).

New Haas Grotesk is meant to evoke the original 1950's designs of Helvetica, but work in a more modern way. The typeface has a number of alternate characters and other features. Not everyone may like the look of Helvetica and similar grotesque typefaces, but these neutral looking typefaces do have their place in graphic design.

L

Lunoe.studio

Participant

I just started working on a job in Illustrator:

Go to Character > Find more. Hit sync on the font I want, wait for it to sync. Click to select it, it reverts back to the original font I had. Go back to Find more fonts, search for the same font, unsync it, resync it. Same again. Restart Illustrator, log out, log in. Same again. Go to adobe fonts website, log in, find the font I wanted. Try to save to a collection > get error message that I cannot do that. Reload the page, try again, same error. Hit install on the font I wanted, get yet another error.

Finally go back to Illustrator and try original process, this time it works! Hooray!!

It's 2025 and I've been dealing with this same issue for years on different accounts and both PC and Macs.

I look forward to making the switch to Affinity.

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

When adding fonts at the Adobe Fonts web site there is an "add family" button for a typeface listing. It's possible to open the family and add individual fonts. What is this "save to a collection" option you're talking about?

It's possible to save a type family to favorites or a CC account's library, but both are cloud-based CC-only options. Adobe Fonts doesn't allow backing up copies of actual font files to use for other purposes, such as people wanting to upload fonts to Canva.

I do not like using the "Find More" option in the Adobe Illustrator fonts menu. It works too slow, even when using a very fast Internet connection. I prefer opening the Adobe Fonts web site. It's a bit of a hassle having to open the CC Desktop App to install fonts that were added at Adobe Fonts. I'd be less annoyed by the process if scrolling through the fonts list wasn't such a giant pain. The fonts menu in the CC Desktop App desperately needs a persistent, always visible scroll bar that works.

I have a copy of Affinity Designer (just installed the v2.6 update this week). I only have it for the rare occasions a customer provides a logo or other artwork as an .afdesign file. Affinity Designer is a decent vector drawing program. But, IMHO, it's not a functional replacement for Illustrator. There are too many features it lacks versus Illustrator. For a lot of amateurs, hobbyists, etc the tool set in Affinity Designer might be enough. If your work flow requires handling artwork from other people, particularly big companies, then you'll run into big problems. Certain Adobe-centric features and effects will not open accurately in Affinity Designer. Some of those effects may even be rasterized.

B

Bobby Henderson

Community Expert

Your complaints are exaggerated.

It's generally a rare occasion type families are removed from the Adobe Fonts service. There was the one big removal Font Bureau did some time ago. However some of the removed families returned to Adobe Fonts via their original designers. Interstate by Tobias Frere-Jones, Bodega Sans/Serif by Greg Thompson and the Amplitude super-family by Christian Schwartz are examples.

Some type families on Adobe Fonts are limited selections. Not all 100+ styles of Nimbus Sans are carried at Adobe Fonts (I only know there at least that many via the 2000 font package in an old copy of Deneba Canvas). I wish Adobe Fonts had the "pro" version of Mislab rather than the limited "std" version (the pro version has a better character set). Again, most of the time when a type family is carried at Adobe Fonts it is usually the complete family.

People do get thrown by the extra step required to make added Adobe Fonts visible to all apps in a computer (they have to be "installed" in the CC Desktop App). I don't think that's a big deal, but I do wish it was easier to scroll through the fonts list in the CC Desktop App.

Some factors that can disrupt the visibility of Adobe Fonts to Adobe applications or other applications are out of Adobe's control. Bad settings in a VPN can limit or completely block Adobe Fonts. Some third party font management apps can cause problems. I know the font manager built into CorelDRAW creates a number of conflicts when it and Illustrator are running at the same time.

Some users have had Adobe Fonts issues solved by simply signing out of the CC Desktop app, rebooting the system and then signing back in to refresh the account sync. Sometimes it takes going a step farther by deleting the font data cache file and forcing the system to rebuild it. If someone doesn't have a huge number of Adobe Fonts activated it's pretty easy to click the remove all button and then just add the fonts again. That can fix missing fonts issues too.

axeloil

Participant

Yes and no. I've been consistently wasting my time reactivating the same ONE font over and over or waiting for adobe to sync it. Or unable to work with the font on a project while I'm offline. And sometimes the font is active and all and still in-design won't see it. So even if it's a little exaggerated. I do believe it has some very valid points.

Tarun Saini

Community Manager

Hi @axeloil,

Welcome to the community! Thanks for sharing these details. I understand how frustrating it is to keep reactivating the same font and still face syncing issues, especially when you’re offline or mid-project. To help troubleshoot, could you confirm a few details?

Which font is affected? Does this happen with multiple fonts or just this one?
Does the problem occur only in InDesign, or do you see it in other Adobe apps as well?
Are you working online when this happens, or does it also occur offline?
Do you notice any sync errors in the Creative Cloud app when the font isn’t detected?
Which operating system and version are you currently using?

In the meantime, here are a few steps that may help:

Sign out and back into Creative Cloud to refresh font sync and clear any temporary cache issues.
Make sure Creative Cloud and InDesign are updated to the latest version.

Regards,

Tarun

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