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tyw2342
Participant
March 8, 2016
Answered

Help with transferring fonts across computers

  • March 8, 2016
  • 1 reply
  • 5013 views

Hi all,

I would consider myself a novice Adobe user and I am having some issues with Illustrator. I currently use a windows desktop for most of my work but I also use a macbook pro. When I went into Adobe Cloud today to open some Illustrator files on my laptop (that I made on my desktop), I was told that the document uses fonts that are not currently available on my computer. I suppose that I (wrongly) assumed that if it was a default font available on one computer it would be available on the other as well. I haven't downloaded any fonts that I know of so I don't think that is the issue. Anyone know why this is happening and whether there is an easy fix? Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Dov Isaacs

    Windows and MacOS are totally different operating systems. There is some commonality in terms of “system fonts” but most of the Windows system fonts are not provided by Apple on MacOS. If you install Microsoft Office on MacOS, you'll have a more complete match, but still nothing you can readily count on.

    If you are using a font with Illustrator on Windows and it isn't a font you explicitly licensed (i.e., it is bundled with Windows, Office, or some other application), you will need to license it for use on another computer unless the license agreement for the font allows you to copy and use it elsewhere (doubtful unless it is freeware or open source font such as the Google fonts).

                   - Dov

    1 reply

    Dov Isaacs
    Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
    Legend
    March 9, 2016

    Windows and MacOS are totally different operating systems. There is some commonality in terms of “system fonts” but most of the Windows system fonts are not provided by Apple on MacOS. If you install Microsoft Office on MacOS, you'll have a more complete match, but still nothing you can readily count on.

    If you are using a font with Illustrator on Windows and it isn't a font you explicitly licensed (i.e., it is bundled with Windows, Office, or some other application), you will need to license it for use on another computer unless the license agreement for the font allows you to copy and use it elsewhere (doubtful unless it is freeware or open source font such as the Google fonts).

                   - Dov

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    harryc4801
    harryc4801
    Participant
    March 13, 2016

    What about fonts I bought from Adobe many years ago (e.g., the entire Garamond family) and have used on my old Mac PowerBook G4 (Mac OS 10.4.11/Tiger) . I copied the folder with those fonts over to my MacBook Pro (OS 10.11.3/El Capitan) but the Font Book doesn't recognize them (they are greyed out).

    Are these fonts (I'm pretty sure they are Adobe Type 1) not compatible with El Capitan?

    E
    Adobe Employee
    egmtype
    Adobe Employee
    March 14, 2016

    Type 1 fonts do work in 10.11.3 - I'm looking at a couple in FontBook right now. With Type 1 fonts, it's important to have both the outline files and the suitcase, but if you copied the entire folder, you should have all those parts (you DO have the suitcase AND the outlines in that folder, yes?). I think if FontBook has something greyed out, it's 'inactive' but should still show a sample. You might try moving the folder to your Desktop and manually adding the family using FontBook.

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