Participant

Question

Fonts issues Adobe 2020 and macOS Sonoma

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
October 5, 2023
20 replies
33483 views

A user reported that he could not change fonts in Acrobat when editing PDF documents.
The system used: Macbook Pro Intel + Adobe Acrobat 2020

How we edit PDF documents:

- Click on the Edit PDF button
- Select the text
- Change the font by selecting the fonts available in the dropdown box.

Odd behavior noticed:

- When hovering over the available text the selection is not highlighted
- When a font is selected, the font changes once but reverts to the font Helvetica.
- After this, other fonts can not be selected.

- When we try to select another font it reverts to Helvetica.

Issue confirmed
I was able to confirm the issue on a brand-new laptop with a fresh install of Acrobat 2020.
I did update Acrobat by going to About-->Update.

Workaround:
At this point, our only sure fix is to downgrade to the previous macOS release.

ADOBE HELP!
I have a fleet of 20+ laptops that by company policy I must update soon.

rs9422

Participant

Hi Adobe Support,

Has there been any resolution to the ongoing font crash issue in the Mac version of Adobe Acrobat 2020? When editing a document, the program frequently crashes or will not allow font changes at all.

It’s becoming increasingly frustrating — is Adobe planning to release a fix, or are users of the 2020 version simply left without support? My current build (2020.005.30791) will not update any further, even after a full uninstall and reinstall.

Any guidance or workaround would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
RS

Would you like me to make it sound more technical and detailed (for a developer forum post) or more polite and formal (for direct Adobe support email)?

M

mikehalloran

Participating Frequently

End of Life (EOL) was April 2025. They never fixed it and they never will. They lied to us and now the product is dead, dead, dead.

The replacements are Adobe Acrobat Classic with a 3-year license and Adobe DC, the subscription version with AI tools. Classic is closest to 2020 that I have found.

B

Bobby31581201u8i8

Participating Frequently

I have tried this on a fresh Mac and its still the same - When will this be fixed!????

J

jluros

Participating Frequently

It won't be. Adobe wants everyone to switch to subscriptions.

christopherheckman

Participating Frequently

There's other issues. Whenever I use TeX to create a pseudo Powerpoint presentation (which is really a PDF), my custom fonts don't show up. The regular TeX fonts do, however.

This only happens with Adobe Acrobat Reader when running on Sonoma.

Different software, same file, same computer? I see them.

Different computer, same file, any software? I see them.

And there's no option to "use local fonts" on this version of Reader.

Ball's in your court, Adobe.

M

mikehalloran

Participating Frequently

There's other issues. Whenever I use TeX to create a pseudo Powerpoint presentation (which is really a PDF), my custom fonts don't show up. The regular TeX fonts do, however.
This only happens with Adobe Acrobat Reader when running on Sonoma.
Different software, same file, same computer? I see them.
Different computer, same file, any software? I see them.
And there's no option to "use local fonts" on this version of Reader.
Ball's in your court, Adobe.

Actually, no. The ball is in yours—fortunately, the fix is easy.

Adobe Fonts, like those from many companies, are bundled with the App and are unavailable to others. You need to make those fonts available to all other Applications—here's how:

Go to your Adobe app in the Applications Folder. Right-click (or however you open these) and click on Show Package Contents. Open Contents, then Resources, then Resource, then Font.

If Acrobat 2020, you will see 37 files ending in .otf. Shift-click to highlight all, click on one which will open all of them. If you see Validation Report Error, it should mean that the font family is already installed, so Skip. Otherwise, Install. Font families will install together so you will not be clicking on 37 Installers. When you are done, all of these fonts will be available to all applications.

Easy-peasy.

Acrobat DC has another folder in Font called AdobeClean with ten additional fonts. Install the same way.

This works on the free Acrobat reader, also, but you won't see as many fonts. Downloading other Adobe apps for Trial may reveal other fonts that you can install but they must be downloaded—can't be done with apps that reside only in the cloud.

christopherheckman

Participating Frequently

The issue actually seems to have resolved itself. Maybe another update, or maybe my laptop needed to be restarted.

And these were referring to files that I made using MetaFont. But this answer might help someone else.

B

Bobby31581201u8i8

Participating Frequently

Any news please @S. S @Amal. or anyone else that actually cares from Adobe?

Folks, i have also tried to contact Adobe Care on "X" - please see very short response, blaming security - which to be frank is a crap excuse and a lie. Please if you are able to, also comment on the post here - Adobe Care Conversation on "X" - or start your own with the and @adobecare which is their handle on there...

I think its such poor service that we are sufferring when others have been able to use the newer (less capable) version of this software on the same operating system with no issue. On top of that their cloud service also runs the software with no issue.

Please lets keep pushing this - I wont pay more for a product which is still supported and that ADOBE BROKE!

C

casual_website5E72

Participant

Spent hours on the phone with support only to be told that it is a problem with Apple and they need to fix it. Currently using a trial of DC but it does not have the same functionality in my opinion. A waste of money but I need to use Adobe! I cannot believe that this issue has been going on for over a year and there is not a fix yet. Pitiful!

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Bobby31581201u8i8

Participating Frequently

Nothing to do with Apple. Adobe KNOW the problem is with them - as referenced in this thread.

in addition, it was working fine until ADOBE issued a bug ridden update.

still no news on this update that's been coming for a year!

P

peterfri

Participating Frequently

the problem occurs only on Acrobat Pro 20, it does not occur on the new Acrobat Classic (version 24.....) and DC (version 24.....). This means Adobe can solve the problem but with Acrobat Pro version 20.... they don't.

And you can still buy the buggy Acrobat pro 20 version.

A

Adefolaju36560681p9z4

Participant

Adobe need to fix this and either reimburse us or give us free access to a version that works.

K

Kusai333946816w3l

Participant

I have been struggeling with Adobe Acrobat for more than 2 years on this issue when editing PDF documents on my mac. I hope Adobe can fix this issue and notify the users about it.

M

mikehalloran

Participating Frequently

Don't bet on it.

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peterfri

Participating Frequently

There is a new Version of Acrobat, it is called Acrobat classic, and it is expensive. Probably this 24 Version will work, but the Version Acrobat pro 20 so far does not.