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Answered

Times New Roman TTF replaced with OTF in InDesign 21.0, causing missing font errors

Forum|Forum|3 months ago
October 30, 2025
21 replies
4974 views

All my books (several hundred) are formatted using the Times New Roman TTF font. The new version of InDesign 21.0 changes that to Times New Roman OTF.
Fortunately, version 20.0 is still installed. I know from experience that strange things can happen in updates.. However, the problem with the latest update has also been introduced in that version.
OTF is only available with a licence, which I do not have.
I would appreciate some help.
Cor van Wijgerden

Performance

Correct answer Dmytro301376413pen

The same issue with my InDesign 20.5 / Windows 11. I installed Times New Roman from Adobe (https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/times-new-roman) and replaced the font in the document. It works perfectly now.

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MICHAIL25743216t1p5

Participant

Same issue here, started 2 days ago with Times New Roman on a document that I was using the previous days without issues. I got the not found dialog. If I skip, the font is TNR (OTF) and the text is highlghted red, and if I replace with...Times New Roman then it goes away and I have TNR no OTF.

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Dirk Becker

Legend

Could be a Windows update rather than 21.0

A few hours ago, next door in the Japanese InDesign Forum a Windows update was mentioned causing Times New Roman troubles …

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%83%A0-discussions/windows%E3%82%A2%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E5%BE%8C%E3%81%AE%E6%8C%99%E5%8B%95%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6/m-p/15591300?profile.language=ja#M13585

Windows11 24H2, InDesign2025(20.5)
Yesterday a Windows update came and after adapting it, the following phenomenon occurred.

・I am told that I can't find Times New Roman.
(All files used.) It does not change with font list recreation or initialization of preferences)
・It now takes about 10 seconds to open even a one-page file with only text

There was no such phenomenon before the update, and I suspect the impact of Windows updates because I have not updated InDesign.
I would like to know what others think.

Translated response:

So, when I uninstalled the Windows update (KB5068861), I found Times New Roman
Also KB5068861 there was a difference in the version of Times New before and after (Version 7.05 and 7.10)

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Michael_Rosenstein

Known Participant

I am still sure, would Indesign always use default font or Basic paragraph font, which are set by user, as No paragraph style font it would never depend on Windows system fonts or possible Windows updates.

mraxenic

Participant

This happened to me. I just replaced the Times New Roman OTF with the regular Times New Roman. And click Change all.
Sometimes, the font is applied to empty spaces. I just use the preflight panel to go through these cases and change them back to normal or no style.

Barb Binder

Community Expert

This is an interesting discussion and I'm curious where it may lead. I want to weigh in on this sentence:

The worst thing with Times New Roman OTF is that it is applied to 'No paragraph style' by default.

Below are screenshots of InDesign v21 on my macOS and Win11, showing the system defaults (no document windows are open). Both are still defaulting to Minion Pro Regular as per Bob, and as they have for years.

Note: I choose not to migrate preferences when I upgrade. If you did, your mileage may vary. You can delete your preferences now, to see how that impacts new documents. Start with Preferences > General > Reset Preferences on Quit.

macOS

Win11

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training

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Michael_Rosenstein

Known Participant

I have deleted the preferences file, but it brought nothing.

The document continued to show missing TNR font as before.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi Gosia,

Interestingly, if you take a close look at the Times New Roman in Windows 11 (c:\windows\fonts) it at first identifies it as a TrueType font, but if you drill in closer by double-clicking the regular weight version, it tells you that it is an OpenType font.

Microsoft does this way. It leaves the filename ending .TTF; yet it is an OpenType font.

Are you certain that a conflicting Character Style isn't also stuck on?

Mike Witherell

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gosiaAuthor

Participant

Thank you very much, Mike.

I am a layman in this field. Can this issue be resolved by changing the extension from TTF to OTF? Probably not.

Shouldn't InDesign solve this? The error did not occur before. I am surely not the only one who has encountered this issue.

BobLevine

Community Expert

There are two flavors of Opentype and you can only tell them apart by their extension. Microsoft and Adobe developed that format a quarter century ago. Microsoft has included TTF Opentype for as long as I can remember. And under no circumstance should you change the name or the extension.

And apparently, you are the only one so it's something related to your system. As a workaround, you can try copying the desired fonts to the InDesign\fonts folder and then restarting InDesign.

BobLevine

Community Expert

Fonts are generally installed in the operating system and unless they're Type 1 should be available in all programs. You also say that it's the default for InDesign, but InDesign default font, as far as I know, is Minion Pro which means you've changed something somewhere.

What operating system are you using?

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gosiaAuthor

Participant

My default font is Times New Roman. I set this when I started using InDesign (over ten years ago). It still works when I open a new file; the correct font is active. Windows 11 is my operating system.

The trouble starts when I open an existing file; the Times New Roman True Type font is not the active font, and I get the message: 'Font missing.' The font in the Basic Paragraph style has been changed to OTF by InDesign. Basisalinea in Dutch, the language set in my InDesign. That one is always at the top of the list of paragraph styles. Coincidentally, the same as the default font, but that is irrelevant.

For clarity: I have never changed anything, and the reported errors only occur since the latest updates.

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Michael_Rosenstein

Known Participant

The worst thing with Times New Roman OTF is that it is applied to 'No paragraph style' by default.

Every empty frame that was accidentally converted to text frame produce missing font warning.

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Michael_Rosenstein

Known Participant

I tried to install Times New Roman OTF from Adobe Fonts, but the activation has failed due to conflict with the standard Windows Times New Roman TTF font, which cannot be uninstalled.

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biccheri_4156

Participant

🔧 Issue Description

After updating to Adobe InDesign 21.0, a serious issue occurs with the Montserrat font.
InDesign does not correctly recognize the TrueType (.TTF) version of the font, even though it is installed and fully functional on the system.
When reopening documents, InDesign automatically replaces all TTF fonts with the OpenType (.OTF) version, marks them as missing, and highlights the affected text in magenta.
Additionally, during PDF export, the font fails to embed correctly, resulting in missing or substituted text.

🧩 Technical Details

Software: Adobe InDesign 21.0
Operating System: [e.g. Windows 11 / macOS Sonoma]
Font affected: Montserrat (entire family)
- Original version used: TrueType (.TTF)
- Automatically replaced version: OpenType (.OTF)

⚠️ Steps to Reproduce

Open a document using the Montserrat TTF font.
InDesign does not recognize the font and marks it as missing (text highlighted in magenta).
In the Find Font panel, InDesign automatically suggests replacing it with the OTF version, even though the TTF version is installed and available.
If I manually replace OTF → TTF, the document appears correct, but after saving and reopening, InDesign reverts back to OTF again.
When exporting to PDF, InDesign fails to embed Montserrat properly, causing missing or substituted text.

💬 Additional Notes

The issue affects only the Montserrat font, in all its variants (Regular, Bold, etc.).
The TTF files are valid, correctly installed, and work fine in other Adobe apps (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.).
On other computers running the same InDesign version (21.0), the exact same files open without any issue, so the problem appears related to local font handling or cache management in InDesign.
Clearing cache, resetting preferences, and reinstalling InDesign do not fix the problem.

🧠 Conclusion

A remote technician verified the system and confirmed that this is most likely a bug in InDesign 21.0 related to TTF/OTF font management and PDF export embedding.
Please confirm whether this issue is known and if a fix or corrective update is planned, as this problem severely affects document integrity and workflow consistency.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @biccheri_4156,

Thanks for sharing all the details and for taking the time to test this thoroughly. I tried reproducing the issue by downloading the Montserrat TTF font and using it in a document, but I wasn't able to see the same behavior on my end. Could you please check if the problem continues after clearing your system font cache and restarting InDesign once? You can follow the steps here: https://adobe.ly/3Lv6RSy.

Also, please confirm the source of the Montserrat font, whether it was downloaded from Adobe Fonts or another source. It would also be helpful to know if you have multiple versions of the same font installed from different sources, as that can sometimes cause conflicts and lead to this kind of issue. Try removing all versions of the font completely, reinstalling just one version, and then testing again.

If the issue still persists, please share one of the affected InDesign files for testing. You can package the document and share it via DM using a secure link from Google Drive or Dropbox. Ref: https://adobe.ly/43loVEN

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

River7567

Participating Frequently

Okay, we appear to be going backwards here… This thread seems to be marked as “resolved/answered” once again, but the issue is NOT resolved. We’ve been going around in circles here for months now. Any word from Adobe on a fix for this issue? Constantly uninstalling security updates is not a viable option longterm...

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hans-j�rgen_8865

Participant

Times New Roman aus der neuesten Version von InDesign verschwunden! Wie dumm ist das?

540 Seiten Dokument am Arsch!

Wer bezahlt das?

Wofür nimmt Adobe mein Geld? Um mich zu schädigen?

BobLevine

Community Expert

Do you want help of do you just want to rant? If you want help, please post full system details including version of InDesign and operating system as well the exact version and font format of Times New Roman.

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Scott M@c

Participant

When I open ID, I get this message.

When I tell it to change, it changes ALL my Garamond fonts - NOT my Times New Roman fonts.

I made the changes on putting all my Garamond fonts back to Garamond and stored the document. When I open it again, the same problem occurs.

This only started when I update to 20.5...

Not sure how to fix this.

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Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @Scott M@c,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Does this happen with specific files? If yes, could you share a link to a sample file after uploading it to a file-sharing service, so we can check it on our end? Also, try updating to the latest version of InDesign and share your observations.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

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Scott M@c

Participant

21.0 fixed the problem with the Garamond font replacement error.

What bothers me is the fonts that are no longer supports, one being the Times New Roman regular. I've been writing the newsletter for over 15 years and these last few updates are causing fonts to be replaced. I've gone back 6 issues and each one has fonts no longer supported, some are common to all and other that were unique in each issue.

What I did notice was a restructuring how the fonts were presented. For instance, when selecting a font such a Garamond, only Garamond was displayed; Bold, etc. would need to be selected from the dropdown menu afterwards. Now Garamond is displayed in 3 different selections: Regular, italic and bold. Perhaps this restructuing is the root to the unavailable fonts?

Windows fonts are not available? How can they be added?

Thanks,

Scott

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🔧 Issue Description

🧩 Technical Details

⚠️ Steps to Reproduce

💬 Additional Notes

🧠 Conclusion

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