I've discovered a bunch of the fonts installed on my Mac aren't working (rendering as boxes) in Photoshop. Why?

Forum|Forum|18 days ago
January 28, 2026
3 replies
55 views

Many of the fonts that aren’t rendering appear to be non-Latin alphabets, but others, like Hoefler Text, don’t have anything “unusual” about them. Many of them are Apple system fonts so I can’t just go removing them.

The fonts render correctly in Font Book. And there are no errors when I verify them. I can’t figure out why they’re not working in Photoshop. Help?

Correct answer c.pfaffenbichler

Please expand the Hoefler-font to see which ones are actually affected and try using the Glyphs Panel for the ones that lack the »usual« letters.

Edit: Or rather »characters«.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

If a font lacks the characters »S«, »a«, »m«, … the rectangles will be used as stand-ins.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Check the Google Ai Overview on the subject.

Troubleshoot fonts issues in Adobe Photoshop

kirabug37Author

Participant

Tried those, no change

c.pfaffenbichler

Correct answer

Community Expert

Please expand the Hoefler-font to see which ones are actually affected and try using the Glyphs Panel for the ones that lack the »usual« letters.

Edit: Or rather »characters«.

kirabug37Author

Participant

That was it! I don’t know why it would default to the Ornaments view but all the other are working.

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