Skip to main content
John Neumann
John Neumann
Participating Frequently
October 28, 2015
Answered

The "How To Get Rid of Foreign Fonts" Question

  • October 28, 2015
  • 8 replies
  • 55476 views

I searched. No one has come a usable fix as far as I can tell. I don't know how much is a Mac OS or Adobe issue but there MUST be a way to delete/hide fonts from a dropdown menu. I spent a good deal of time deleting foreign fonts from Mac's Font Book but they still showed up in my dropdown list for PS/Illust/InDesign.

      Correct answer Dov Isaacs

      Notwithstanding your sarcasm about the Adobe Type Forum as being a “Dead Zone where nothing is answered,” a few thoughts:

      (1)  No Adobe application has any internal controls that allow the user to selectively hide fonts from the applications' lists of available fonts. In some of the applications, fonts are listed in groups based upon the fonts' internal declaration of language support, but there is no function for disabling fonts either individually or by attribute.

      (2)  There are third party “font managers” that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts. If you have such a “font manager” installed, it should do the trick for you.

      (3)  MacOS Font Book is not a font manager that would allow selective activation or deactivation of a font in terms of what the Adobe applications see. If you don't actually delete the underlying font files, the Adobe applications still “see” the fonts.

      (4)  Assuming you did actually delete the font files that you don't want available and displayed in the applications' list of fonts, there may be a lack of synchronization between the Adobe font name caching mechanism and the reality of what you have installed. You can fix such a problem by exiting all Adobe applications and then searching for and deleting all files with the name AdobeFnt##.lst where ## is a 0 to 2 digit number. The lists of available fonts are regenerated upon executing the applications the next time.

      Hopefully this “Dead Zone” answer assists you in resolving your needs.

                  - Dov

      8 replies

      rashida61273135
      rashida61273135
      Participating Frequently
      March 30, 2018

      When I generate Index in English language document, Adobe Arabic Font some takes over as default font and the index is generated in Arabic numerals and from Right to Left. My InDesign CC is not Middle Eastern version. I thought by deleting or hiding fonts from the folder will help but it didn't. Now reading this thread, I am disappointed that there is no easy way of getting rid of a font. How can I generate Index from Left to right and in English numerals? Thanks.

      Rashid Arshed

      Zaid Al Hilali
      Community Expert
      Zaid Al HilaliCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 31, 2018

      Rashid. Your issue in my opinion isn't related to this thread, your question can be posted in Adobe InDesign forum. Regarding your document, did you or someone else create it in InDesign Middle Eastern version? What ever your answer, I suppose you did fix the issue by simply changing the font to a Latin font that doesn't have any ١٢٣٤ numerals right?

      S
      sergem2900309
      Participant
      February 12, 2018

      Hello all. So I tried doing some of the recommended methods here and while they worked to an extent, I still haven't managed to get rid of some few foreign fonts. Please find attached renegade fonts that remained in my illustrator.

      These are how my font folders in the system, library and package content of the app (required and resources folders) look like:

      Any further help will be much appreciated

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      February 13, 2018

      What makes you want to get rid of Arial Unicode MS? It is a font containing many, many scripts (we can't really say "language" in general for a font) including English letters. Some Microsoft apps may fail if it is removed.

      T
      Test Screen Name
      Legend
      February 13, 2018

      And the consequence of removing Apple Symbols may be dire.

      DKTR Jeroen
      DKTR Jeroen
      Known Participant
      October 31, 2017

      You can easily clean the system fonts that you don't need and leave the ones that are required by the OS by starting from an external hdd. I have multiple hdd's in my good old Mac Pro so I just installed macOS on one of them, booted from that disk and moved the fonts from my startup disk to another location. Later I made them available through FontExplorer so they can still be activated when needed.

      Disable SIP

      System fonts are protected by System Integrity Protection (SIP). It is easy to temporarily disable this safety measure:

      1. Reboot your Mac into Recovery Mode by restarting your computer and holding down Command+R until the Apple logo appears on your screen
      2. Click Utilities > Terminal
      3. In the Terminal window, type "csrutil disable" (without quotes) and press Enter
      4. Restart your Mac

      SIP is now disabled and you can remove/relocate system fonts.

      Be sure to check Font Management in macOS and OS X​ (see link below) for the required system fonts.

      Enable SIP

      To enable SIP folow the above steps but now enter "csrutil enable" (without quotes).

      Check 3 locations:

      1. User/Library/Fonts
      2. Library/Fonts
      3. System/Library/Fonts

      Here's some great info on required macOS fonts:

      Font Management in macOS and OS X​

      Extensis PDF Font Management Best Practices

      Updated for macOS 10.12 (macOS 10.13 has same required fonts)

      https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/1740477/Font-Management/Documents/Mac-OS-Font-Management-Best-Practices-Guide.pdf

      Also, I removed all Hebrew, Arabic and Asian fonts from Adobe CC 2017. This dramatically shortens the font list. These fonts can't be managed with FontExplorer or other font manager you prefer working with as they are not installed in one of the system font folders. For instance:

      Illustrator > Show Package Contents > Contents > Required > Fonts

      While inside the Contents perform a search for Fonts and check all font folders that come up. Leave the .css files and Adobe Sans MM, AdobeSanMM. I think these are used for the interface. I did the same with InDesign and Photoshop. I have been doing this since a few years now and CC apps work just fine without them.

      It's a shame that Apple, Adobe, etc keep littering my system with foreign fonts I don't actually use or understand. This should really be an optional install.

        I
        Indyboosler
        Known Participant
        March 31, 2017

        "(2)  There are third party “font managers” that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts. If you have such a “font manager” installed, it should do the trick for you." Might one of those be Suitcase Fusion?

        D
        dfarness
        Participant
        June 29, 2016

        I've been struggling with this too.  My most recent solution is:

        open Font Book

        select the "English Smart Collection"

        Highlight one of the fonts and then use the "Select All" command

        now click on "All Fonts"

        All the fonts will be displayed but only the english fonts will be highlighted

        Carefully scroll through right-clicking and disableing all non-english fonts that will allow it

        Do not left-click or the english fonts will no longer be highlighted

        If you want webdings and ornaments you will need to leave those enabled

        Hope this helps someone

          taviavanisle
          taviavanisle
          Participant
          June 5, 2018

          Dfarness your solution worked beautifully! I couldn't believe it. I did as you said, went to my font book and clicked on English under the "smart collection". The foreign fonts were grayed out, I right clicked as you said and disabled or deleted and they actually have all disappeared from my font menu in inDesign by only getting rid of the first one. They're actually way down at the bottom menu, but out of site and not mixed in with the english fonts. There was one annoying family that was left "STIK... "  I got rid of that by clicking on "all fonts" and remove, I then had to enter my system password and it actually got rid of it entirely. The foreign fonts are disabled but that method wasn't available to them for some reason. This is good enough for me and without having to pay for a font management system.

            F
            Fischtick
            Participant
            June 11, 2016

            I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but I was excited to find a feature on the drop-down font menu in Indesign called "Filter" with a star next to it. Simply star the fonts you want to see and that you regularly use, and when you click on the star next to "Filter",  it will only show those fonts in the drop down. Obviously it only helps the visual clutter, but that was, for me, the most bothersome thing.

              DKTR Jeroen
              DKTR Jeroen
              Known Participant
              March 22, 2016

              Clean out your user level font folders first HD > Library > Fonts folder (All Users) first. You can move them to another folder/disk and make them available in your font manager in case you might need them. Next Check your user font folder in HD > User > Library > Fonts. Remove & relocate them. For system level fonts check here: Font Management in OS X You easily can remove most of the unwanted non Western fonts. Some of the Asian / Hebrew fonts are required for the system. And FontExplorer 5 for instance relies on the Apple Symbols font for the rating stars, iTunes uses an Asian font for showing the rating stars.

              Lots of foreign fonts are also stored in the application's contents. Check here for foreign fonts in AI & ID:

              • Applications > Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 > Adobe Illustrator.app > Package Contents > Required > PDFL Resource > Resource > Fonts
              • Applications > Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 > Adobe Illustrator.app > Package Contents > Required > Fonts
              • Applications > Adobe InDesign CC 2015 > Resources > Required > fonts
              • Applications > Adobe InDesign CC 2015 > Adobe InDesign CC 2015.app > Package Contents > MacOS > Required > Fonts

              I archived all fonts in case I might need them to update the apps: select them, compress them into an archive and remove the uncompressed fonts, keep the Archive.zip where you found your unwanted fonts. Keep Finder windows open and test your application. All good? Move on to the next.

              As for Photoshop I'm not sure — still looking where Adobe Heiti, Adobe Fan Heiti and Myriad Arabic are stored. I suspected the files in the Deep_Font folder inside the Package Contents but.. no.

              This font thinning treatment really shortened my font menu list for so much easier browsing and finding the fonts I actually need and want to use.

              I think its really sweet of Apple, Adobe etc to include all these language support and fonts I dont need. I really think this should be an optional install option before installing apps or system and easy access in case you chose NO and still might need them.

              Need Arabic / Chinese fonts?  [   ] YES  [ • ] NO

              Need Western / Latin fonts?   [ • ] YES  [   ] NO

              But maybe you do visit Arabic or Chinese websites every now and then. No..?  [   ] YES  [ • ] NO

              ;-)

                Sheena Kaul
                Community Manager
                Sheena KaulCommunity Manager
                Community Manager
                October 29, 2015

                Moving to Adobe Type‌

                  John Neumann
                  John NeumannAuthor
                  Participating Frequently
                  October 29, 2015

                  Moved to the Dead Zone where nothing is answered. Thanks.

                  Dov Isaacs
                  Dov IsaacsCorrect answer
                  Legend
                  October 29, 2015

                  Notwithstanding your sarcasm about the Adobe Type Forum as being a “Dead Zone where nothing is answered,” a few thoughts:

                  (1)  No Adobe application has any internal controls that allow the user to selectively hide fonts from the applications' lists of available fonts. In some of the applications, fonts are listed in groups based upon the fonts' internal declaration of language support, but there is no function for disabling fonts either individually or by attribute.

                  (2)  There are third party “font managers” that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts. If you have such a “font manager” installed, it should do the trick for you.

                  (3)  MacOS Font Book is not a font manager that would allow selective activation or deactivation of a font in terms of what the Adobe applications see. If you don't actually delete the underlying font files, the Adobe applications still “see” the fonts.

                  (4)  Assuming you did actually delete the font files that you don't want available and displayed in the applications' list of fonts, there may be a lack of synchronization between the Adobe font name caching mechanism and the reality of what you have installed. You can fix such a problem by exiting all Adobe applications and then searching for and deleting all files with the name AdobeFnt##.lst where ## is a 0 to 2 digit number. The lists of available fonts are regenerated upon executing the applications the next time.

                  Hopefully this “Dead Zone” answer assists you in resolving your needs.

                              - Dov

                  - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
                    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices