OTF - TTF font problem

I'm thankful for this old thread, which contained the fix I needed.

My situation is that I have two company computers, one at the office and one at home. The one at the office was purchased when I started and configured by me; the one at home was the computer used by the person I replaced when they left the company. Rather than reformat the older computer, I just created a new user for myself (this allows me to access the other person's files as necessary -- I have their login). However, fonts on Windows are dealt with on a per-machine, not a per-user basis, so the fonts that the other person had installed were already on the machine. Including Roboto.

Fast-forward, I've now got an InDesign project that I created with the office (new) computer. But when I open it on the old (home) computer, I get a font error. I was pulling my hair out of my head trying to figure out why Adobe Create Cloud was reporting about Roboto differently on the new computer than on the old computer, and why InDesign was behaving differently between the two.

I realized it was a TrueType vs. OTF issue from the message that InDesign was giving me, but couldn't figure out how to resolve that conflict, until a post here from four years ago suggested deleting the TrueType Roboto fonts from the local computer, rebooting, and letting Creative Cloud do the management of the Roboto font. Viola! Worked like a charm. 

I understand why Adobe wants to manage fonts separately from the local machine, and honestly the Create Cloud implementation is easier to understand that it used to be back in the days where you had two sets of local fonts, one managed by Adobe and the other by Windows. That was a confusing mess. Still, there are occassionally these font issues that leave one scratching one's head, and thankfully many Adobe users out there so the solutions are relatively easy to find.

I had the same issue today and I have a possible fix! 3 Macs with the same font (Montserrat) from the same file (I downloaded the font and shared it to the other two computers). 1 could open the document without errors and 2 said missing fonts. I found out that on 2 of the Macs Adobe Fonts had installed Montserrat in addition to the font I installed manually (idk why it did that), which seems to lead to this issue. After removing the font in the Creative Cloud app I was able to open the document on my mac without issue. And I did the same on the other affected Mac and it also opened the file without any missing fonts. I hope this works for you too!

Same issue here...

I have the same issue in Indesign with the following fonts: 

- Roboto

- Source Sans Pro

Cant get it to work and I am loosing alot of time troubleshooting the issue. In my opinion Adobe Fonts in the cloud has so many issues. I must have posted at least 5 times just because of fonts. It is very unstable and not suitable for professional or time critical applications. 

When we raise issues with Adobe Fonts, Adobe support blames it on others and doesnt fix anything. Yet all other application I use have zero issue with fonts. It's always and only Adobe.

This may not be the answer you want, but it may explain why you’re having problems with what appears to be multiple variations of the same typeface.

The OpenType font standard is more complex than it first seems. It was established to replace both Adobe’s PostScript font formats and Apple and Microsoft’s TrueType formats. This was done by effectively including both the older PostScript and TrueType technologies as part of the newer OpenType standard.

One reason for doing this: why reinvent the wheel, when you have something that already works? Another reason: typefoundries and type designers needed a simple way to easily convert their existing PostScript and TrueType fonts into the new OpenType format. Even today, many OpenType fonts in active use are simply older PostScript and TrueType fonts that have been repackaged into the OpenType format.

How does this affect us as users of these fonts? It’s more challenging to understand precisely what specific type of font format we may using at any time.

A major difference between PostScript and TrueType fonts is the type of vector mathematics that each format uses to draw the outlines of characters. PostScript uses cubic curves, and TrueType uses quadratic curves. PostScript’s cubic curves are much easier to build and control: you use them all the time in vector software like Illustrator. But TrueType’s quadratic curves are much faster to calculate, which is a reason why they were preferred by Apple and Microsoft for direct use in their operating systems.

Because OpenType supports both PostScript and TrueType technologies, an OpenType font can use either PostScript’s cubic curves or TrueType’s quadratic curves. OpenType fonts with PostScript’s cubic curves are called ‘OpenType CFF’ (Compact Font Format) fonts; OpenType fonts with TrueType’s quadratic curves are called ‘OpenType TT’ fonts.

OpenType CFF font files typically have file names ending in ‘.otf’; OpenType TT font files can have file names ending either in ‘.otf’ or ‘.ttf’, but mostly ‘.ttf’. And this is where things get complicated: older TrueType font files also use ‘.ttf’ naming system, so it can be challenging to work out if the ‘.ttf’ fonts you have installed on your system are in the older TrueType or newer OpenType TT format.

What’s more: like applications, fonts have versions. Type designers do update their fonts from time to time, adding features, and subtly adjusting character shapes and spacing. That means that version 2.137 of Roboto may typeset differently from version 2.136.

This means you have more than one issue to keep in mind when using what appears to be the same font on different systems, and within different working files.

The best recommendation that I can make is perhaps the most dramatic: run a ‘clean room’ experiment on both your office and home computers. That means first making sure that absolutely every copy of Roboto is removed from both computers, then downloading and reinstalling the latest version of Roboto from Google Fonts onto the two systems. That way, you’ll know that you’re using the exact same version of Roboto in the exact same format on both systems.

Because Roboto is a popular typeface, it may be installed in multiple locations on a single computer. You can install fonts to be available system-wide for all users, for just one user, or even for just one application. You’ll need to remove all of these copies from both your office and home computers to ensure that you’re dealing with a single version and format of Roboto.

Part of the clean room experiment is to build a new INDD file in InDesign on one computer, then move the file to the other computer. If the INDD file opens without any font warnings, then your problem is solved.

One reason why to build a new file is because InDesign is notoriously sensitive to font versions and formats. If the InDesign files that are giving you the font warnings are older files, there’s a good chance that they’ve been built and updated using multiple versions and formats of Roboto over the years. This in turn creates an INDD file that may technically only be using Roboto, but many variations of Roboto. And this is when you’d want to use InDesign’s excellent ‘Find & Replace’ and ‘Find Font’ features to fix these problems efficiently.

Please keep in mind that if you’re collaborating with anyone else, there’s a chance that you’ll re-introduce multiple variations of Roboto into your InDesign files. This is a constant problem in multi-user workflows, and a nightmare for production and prepress professionals: building files that consistently use the same font files throughout. That’s why production professionals strongly recommend against designs that use standard operating system fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Times, and Times New Roman: the chances of something going wrong are almost inevitable.

The font problem you’re experiencing is quite common. The trouble is that when it happens, it can be very difficult to fix. Be assured: you’re not alone. And remember that a typeface’s name is just a name: there are many interpretations, versions, and formats of a single typeface.

One of the many responsibilities of designers and production professionals is to make sure that you only use a single universal set of font files across your entire publishing workflow. That way, you can avoid grief later.

I hope that answers your question. If not, please let me know.

Best regards
Andrew

–30–

if you're using the installed font it will default to TTF, if you're using a cloud sync thorugh the creative cloud it's gonna default to OTF. Make sure that both your computers either have the cloud sync on for the font or off. It's an annoyingly easy fix, but caused SO MANY ISSUES! No need to restart computers and cry (like I did), just make sure the computers you're using for the same file have the cloud sync on for fonts (if you want OTF) or the cloud sync is off and you have the font installed in your computers (if you want TTF). Cheers y'all!

Hi there, I'm not sure if this helps or not, but we also have a similar issue with Roboto at my company and have discovered a sort of band-aid solution that could possibly apply to other font families (hopefully, for Equinox_DB's sake. I feel you, this has been a nightmare).

We all have synced Roboto from the Creative Cloud, but when opening an InDesign file, some staff get an error that states that they are missing Roboto (OTF). When these staff share their files, other team members get an error about missing Roboto (TTF) fonts. After some extensive research, troubleshooting, and questioning our staff, we believe the problem lies with machine-installed TTF fonts that only some of our staff somehow have. Staff that get the missing Roboto (OTF) font error have checked the fonts folder through Control Panel (From start panel - type Control Panel, click View by: Category - small icons, click fonts), which revealed several Roboto (TTF) font files. After deleting these fonts and restarting (in some cases several times), the Creative Cloud Roboto family syncs correctly (for now).

We think InDesign prioritizes machine-installed TTF fonts over Creative Cloud license-based OTF fonts. Some computers have the TTF fonts installed while others don't (again, not sure how some computers got this font, but it’s free through Google, so anyone could’ve downloaded and installed, as the OP did). We think reopening packaged InDesign files that used machine-installed TTF fonts re-triggers InDesign to prioritize these font versions of Roboto. That's likely why the problem goes away for a time, and then comes back randomly for some people. We're not positive though, it's just our working theory. I'll continue to watch this thread in case something else comes up though. Good luck to us all.

Has anyone figured this out?? We have an ongoing and incredibly irritating issue with Source Sans Pro. I have tried to get folks at the office to use the adobe fonts cloud version of SSP and either no one is doing it or the problem is much more contorted. When the alert box upon opening a file lets you know you are missing fonts, it does not show you where it is pulling the 'replace with' font. Is it pulling from the PC, Adobe Cloud Fonts, or some other directory installed with the program?? Source Sans Pro is our branded font, so I cannot change to another font. HELP ME, I AM LOSING MY MIND.

I have this same problem and with a lot of fonts. It causes no end of versioning problems at the office I work at because some computers see the font as an OTF and other see it as a TTF, but unless we replace the fonts every single time we open the file, we can't have a reliable preview of the text. And we're all Windows10 at the office.  Any updates?

I have the same exact issue! any updates on this??