illustrator 5.5 crashes when scrolling through font list

I found this link really helpful
[Solved] How to Fix Windows Update Error 80070103

Bascally:

Launch Font Book > Select All > Validate Fonts > Delete anything with a big red 'X'

Then you can turn Font preview back on and it shouldn't crash (so far...)

So I have been having the same issue, and I may have found a solution.

1. I deleted all "USER" fonts from font book. (this may or may not effect anything but I did it anyways)

2. In Illustrator go to "Type Preferences" menu - Disable "FONT PREVIEW" and Enable "SHOW FONT NAMES IN ENGLISH"

3. Mission Complete.

After doing this the crash issue seems to have been laid to rest. I've scrolled up and down through the fonts in both windowed font tools and top menu font window. All is well.

I hope this helps everyone out.

This has been a GIGANTIC issue for me too. My version of Illustrator was fine before porting it to a new 2015 Macbook. I can't believe this hasn't been resolved at all.

Same problem - brand new computer running Yosemite with retina display.  Downloaded CS5.5 clean and entered in my old key.  Have not installed my extra fonts yet - ran a check of the fonts that came pre-installed with the computer.  No red X's, but I do have 22 "minor problems" - do I need to delete these 22 fonts that have yellow ! symbols? 

Meanwhile, turning off font preview DID work to avoid crashing, but using the up/down keys to scroll through (as opposed to track pad) did not.  Still crashed.  I def do NOT know all my fonts and rely on the font preview to help me choose, so that's going to add hours to my life.

I've noticed that some fields in Illustrator are low resolution, pixelated...I wonder if this is a retina compatibility issue?

My system is also crashing when I try to open or save using the drop down menu at top/center to go straight to recently used folders (lost an hour worth of work the first time that happened).  If I navigate to the folder using the menus on the left is OK, but it's an old habit to break to not reach for that drop down box.  I don't know what that is called to search for similar fixes or workarounds...ay yay any help there also appreciated.

To chime in on the issue with Illustrator CS5 crashing when using character preview, I see a lot of talk about "font corruption." It's frustrating one can't mention the word "font" and "crash" in the same sentence without Adobe or tech support people immediately assuming a "corrupt font."

I just purchased a new iMac 5k retina display. Reinstalled CS5, updated to latest version, I have NO add-on fonts. Illustrator crashed multiple times within the first 2-3 minutes of working on it. Adobe gives NO support what so ever! I'm thankful to find this thread because I've reduced the preview size of the font and that seemed to correct this problem for now.

I also have the issue when trying to save a file to google drive Illustrator crashes (that has nothing to do with Retina display or fonts?) Pretty frustrated that I upgrade computers to provide better productivity and actually end up with worse productivity with Adobe suite. Also, I find to suggest to "downgrade" software options or turn off certain software features that enhances productivity just to get the software to operate correctly an insult. Let's fix the software rather than always blaming the manufacturer of the computer or the end user. 

Hello,

For me, the only thing that has worked has been using FontExplorer XPro. If Font Preview is enabled I see some "weird" fonts marked in grey, deactivating those fonts in Font Explorer makes Illustrator "doesn't crash". I write it on brackets because Illustrator still crashes if you do scroll until fonts list bottom, if you stay between A to Z regular fonts (not those fonts separated by a line at the bottom) Illustrator doesn't crash, even using scroll.

I know that it's not a complete solution, but it's better than deactivating font preview, I hope it works for you.

You can try all of the "stuff" posted here above, ( It's the standard purge PRAM, purge cache, search for corrupted files, corrupted fonts, duplicate fonts, fresh install, new user, blah blah until your heads splits open ) but it's not going to fix it for you and it's a huge waste of time.

Who knows what is causing it.  But none of the fixes will work.  If you ask Apple they will say it's Adobe and if you ask Adobe they will say it's Apple's fault. 

For me it started when I upgraded to Yosemite.

Easiest fix is, as stated by "Member" above, turn off Font Preview in the preferences menu.

If you don't know the fonts well enough for this to be viable for you the other option is to not turn off Font Preview but use the arrow keys to move up and down the font list. 

The mouse or track pad will bomb it.  But the arrow keys do not.  This was also pointed out above.

I'm guessing the cloud version of Illustrator doesn't have this bug.  I don't know.  Photoshop and InDesign do not.

My work around is to turn off the font preview but scroll through my fonts through the font book to see the previews and then type in the font I want to try within Illustrator. This seems like it should be something Adobe could fix but it seems that through this thread, it's been going on for years! It's frustrating to pay so much for a computer and the software and have it not work flawlessly.

I have a new macbook pro with retina display. New out of the box August 2014. I am using Adobe Illustrator CS 5.5, operating system 10.9.4

I have tried some of the suggestions... Type preferences changed from medium to small, removed any fonts from font boos that had issues. Scroll fonts in illustrator using the arrows instead of track pad or mouse and IT STILL CRASHES! Any help or other suggestion wold be appreciated!!

try to change monitor resolution (on system preference).

at least it works... but its not retina...

sorry for my not good english.