InDesign Not Recognizing Calibri After Windows Update

Same. This really does sound like a crossplatform issue where a Mac user substituted the Adobe Fonts version instead of the file being packaged with a document fonts folder.

Without further clarification from those seeing it, it’s impossible to know and there’s no way to add that font to Windows from Adobe fonts without deleting the Microsoft version first.

Sounds like one possible solution. One theory without deep look:

When you down-convert a document thru the online conversion service, the particular font might not be installed on the conversion machine. It will then be expressed in a neutral form, similar to placing a word file with that font on a machine that does not have the font.

This would be close to an IDML roundtrip on a local machine that does not have the font in either version, difficult for a system font unless you go cross platform.

Re-opening the new down-versioned file on your local machine then discovers the new font version, and accepts it on that turn. Maybe the info is even adjusted to become more specific, on first edit or later? Don’t know.

Anyway, please try and tell us: when you reopen the new 2025 copy (or a copy) in 2026, could be that this conversion persists and you can continue with 2026.

Reflow issues because of changed font characteristics will still remain, 2026 features stripped, but you could have discovered a solution for many cases. If it works that way, maybe ​@Abhishek Rao or his team can repurpose the downgrade process to a 2026 - 2026 font cleanup?

Many if-s and may-bees, I know.

Hi ​@Gummo Marx,

I understand how frustrating this must be, especially with so many documents being affected. Thank you for sharing the details so far.

To help me look into this further, could you please share the output of the Get-HotFix command from PowerShell so I can check which Windows updates are installed? Also, please let me know the exact InDesign version you’re using.

In the meantime, kindly confirm whether this issue is limited to InDesign or if you’re seeing it in other Creative Cloud apps like Illustrator or Photoshop, and whether Calibri works correctly in apps like Word or Excel.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

I have not yet observed dependence on the version, but that could also be. I think it is remembered somewhere in the document’s “used font” record, could be for a reason.

For sure the font type as displayed in the font info section of the find replace fonts dialog (aka font usage dialog) is relevant. One particular is the difference between OpenType TT and OpenType CFF. It could be just a coincidence that the file extension also changed in such a major change.

It is an at least well intended and professionally desirable feature that InDesign does not just accept the different fonts and carries on, like others do. It should be even more strict to warn about major version changes in the font.

Somewhere else in this thread there were other changes mentioned, which are completely explainable for a big overhaul after a long period. New kerning pairs added, others modified, new glyphs, new whatever. At worst new metrics, ugh. Penalty is: reflow when you edit and trigger a recompose, with all further consequences.

The problem here is that users chose a system font not knowing all the associated risks, for the convenience of its omnipresence, client loves them and uses them, as everybody is using them, so they must be right. Besides even some expert may have fallen into the trap and declared them corporate standard.

Long term solution is to get away from anything that can break, be it OS update or be it the foundry revoking the license from the cloud based provider (we’ve seen that maybe a year ago). Go shopping for something that you control. Have a contract that you can purchase more seats as you need, and resell to clients.

Same goes with frequent software updates, pushing out another “minor” version every month comes with the price of reflow risk to those willing to follow suit(e). Deprecate N-2 with assets living on for decades. Composer versioning? Nah.

The theory behind all of that is even more complicated with selected internal mechanisms that might use the other type while others won’t, still display pink and many more contributing factors. Default replacements between close font styles (Medium vs. Roman), or font styles matching by name but still different under the hood (Hello Variable Fonts, looking at you!). Dependencies on the writing script, native names of font family or font style, fonts without a name for their font style, and so forth.

Font folders containing the file become relevant, namely the document fonts folder, better avoid it. Fascinating reasoning and complicated like crazy, and I know only a fraction.

Asking for clarity suggests someone write a book, and that would still only be a snapshot when the next version adds a fix for one case. It won’t give a solution, sorry.

Attempts to fix everything with a script will also fail, I’ve observed many reasons beyond above list that are script specific. One can get closer with a plug-in, but only for most scenarios while others still can fail. Have a line style specify “semi bold”, and reflow drags in text with a font family that does not support it, just for one example.

No easy solution, no silver bullet. Make another backup copy of your stable fonts.

Considering adobe products seem to be the only one with the issue wouldn’t that make it also an adobe issue. Im not getting conflict in any other software. If Im reading correctly latest versions of indesign are converting TTF fonts to OTF? Which I can hazard a guess that would cause problems.

For substituting, as mentioned, this works on large amounts of text but does not fully resolve the issue, as form fields, of which some docs have a lot of, for some reason do not update. Even when you try to do it individually, the ‘font’ field under buttons and forms panel reverts straight back to the OFT version as it can not differentiate between the new version.

Glad your personal policy works for you but that does not apply to our clients branding or use case of system fonts.