Could not complete your request because something prevented the text engine from being initialized

generic.otf

that's the font that was keeping my PS CS3 text engine from initializing. I removed all the fonts that were modified or created the day I installed CS3... suddenly, the font engine worked. so I started adding a few fonts at a time and trying again. when I tried to re-install generic.otf, windows gave me an error saying the file was corrupt. I re-installed every other font file except that one and my text engine works...
So I recommend you try moving that file out of the fonts dir and see if your problem(s) go away, too.

I too encountered this problem... but to my surprise no answers till now. The problem lies with the computer that we are using see the new and improved cs3 needs about 1.83 gigs of ram if our computer is not meeting this requirment the program will still run but we will encounter issues like this one about text or brushes, filters, etc etc. The solution is to upgrade the system to at least 2 gigs of ram.
Hope this as sme help to you let me know
pr8zhymn@aol.com
Dave

Just uninstall all fonts Photoshop installed. It worked for me.

what's that and why should he download and install something not from adobe to make his app do what it should do without fixing?

http://rapidshare.com/files/23708704/fix_cs2_cs3_text_engine_error.exe.html

Unpack it to the following dirs:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_SYSTEM_USER_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_SYSTEM_USER_NAME\Application Data\Adobe

and again:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe

Try resetting the preferences,

see the FAQ for how.