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verodval
verodval
Participant
June 18, 2026
Question

Open Sans: Adobe Fonts installation errors and Bold style not recognized in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

  • June 18, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 14 views

Hello,

I'm experiencing an issue with the Open Sans font family in Adobe Creative Cloud on Windows 11.

When I activate Open Sans through Adobe Fonts, some font styles install correctly, while others consistently fail with the error:

"Unable to install this font."

The styles that fail include:

  • Light
  • Light Italic
  • Regular
  • Italic
  • Bold
  • Bold Italic

At the same time, other styles such as Semibold, Extrabold, and Extrabold Italic appear to install successfully.

Because I suspected a font conflict, I performed the following tests:

  • Uninstalled Open Sans from Windows.
  • Confirmed that Open Sans was no longer present in C:\Windows\Fonts.
  • Restarted Windows.
  • Activated Open Sans again exclusively through Adobe Fonts.
  • Restarted Creative Cloud and Adobe applications.

The problem persists.

In addition, I noticed another issue that seems related:

In Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, Open Sans does not properly switch to the Bold style. Even when I apply Bold, the text appearance does not change as expected.

What's strange is that this behavior only occurs in Adobe applications. The font works normally in other Windows applications.

Current observations:

  • Adobe Fonts is enabled.
  • Creative Cloud is up to date and connected.
  • Some Open Sans styles install successfully, while others fail.
  • Open Sans is not installed locally outside of Adobe Fonts during testing.
  • The issue occurs in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
  • The issue does not occur in non-Adobe applications.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue with Open Sans?

Is there a way to:

  1. Rebuild or reset the Adobe Fonts cache?
  2. Access detailed Adobe Fonts installation logs?
  3. Force Adobe Fonts to reinstall the entire Open Sans family?
  4. Diagnose why some styles install while others fail within the same font family?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

    3 replies

    verodval
    verodvalAuthor
    Participant
    June 19, 2026

    Hi everyone,

    I wanted to provide an update after performing the troubleshooting steps that were suggested.

    The cleanup process did partially improve the situation. Initially, Open Sans was failing in both Illustrator and InDesign. After removing all local Open Sans installations, clearing Adobe font caches (AdobeFnt*.lst), removing the Adobe Fonts versions, and rebuilding the environment, Open Sans now works correctly in Illustrator.

    However, InDesign still exhibits the issue.

    Additional findings:

    • Open Sans is no longer installed in Windows Fonts.
    • Open Sans has been removed from Adobe Fonts and is currently in the Adobe Fonts recycle bin.
    • I cleared and rebuilt the Adobe font caches.
    • I tested in a brand new InDesign document (not an existing file).
    • InDesign detects all Open Sans styles (Light, Regular, Semibold, Bold, etc.).
    • The font preview menu correctly displays different weights.
    • However, once applied to text, Light, Regular, Semibold, and Bold all render identically.
    • Only the italic styles produce a visible change.

    What makes this particularly confusing is that Illustrator now handles the same Open Sans styles correctly, while InDesign does not.

    At this point, the issue appears to be isolated to InDesign rather than a Windows font installation conflict.

    Has anyone seen a case where InDesign recognizes the Open Sans weights but renders all non-italic weights as the same style?

    Any additional guidance would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you.

    graphics_4075
    graphics_4075
    Inspiring
    June 19, 2026

    Check out these 2 similar threads, maybe they can provide some helpful info for you. 

    https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601180/suggestions/50715731

    The uservoice is marked as solved in the prerelease back in May and a comment confirms, but perhaps this issue can be brought back with Windows updates. 

    Cheers
    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    June 18, 2026

    Hello ​@verodval 

     

    I’m sorry to hear about your experience. I hope graphics_4075’s suggestions helped resolve the problem. If not, kindly try the suggestions shared here (https://helpx.adobe.com/fonts/kb/troubleshoot-fonts-illustrator-indesign.html) and let us know how it goes.

     

    Looking forward to hearing from you.
    Anubhav

    graphics_4075
    graphics_4075
    Inspiring
    June 18, 2026

    Try removing all versions of Open Sans from Microsoft + Adobe fonts and doing a clean install from Google Fonts. 

     

    I cannot verify but I believe I had a similar, if not the same issue with Open Sans when trying to install it from Adobe Fonts. I have found that Google fonts hosted by Adobe can have installation/background syncing issues.

    Cheers
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