Font on system "missing" in Acrobat, Illustrator, etc.

[NemoNiemann]

I suddenly have an issue with missing fonts in Acrobat, and therefore not rendered in a PDF document. Most specifically, Arial/Arial MT are "missing". I am running the most recent version of Windows 11 as well as the current versions of Acrobat and Illustrator. (I tried opening the PDF in Illustrator as a possible workaround only to find I got the same error message.)

Attached is a screenshot of the message and also a screenshot of my fonts in my Font folder. I, obviously, have both flavors of Arial on my system. No Adobe product renders the PDF/fonts, though my non-Adobe software do. For instance, opening the PDF in Affinity 2, the fonts are rendered, but in Photoshop 2025, no fonts appear on the page, just a couple of rules. When placed in InDesign, again, no fonts, which a notice says I am missing.

This just started happening. The only thing that changed is that I realized a lot of my Type 1 fonts were no longer available in my Adobe software and I used software to convert them to .otf. (What Adobe giveth -- Type 1 -- Adobe taketh away.)

Thoughts?

[creative explorer]

@NemoNiemann yeah, Adobe has officially ended support for Type 1 fonts in their modern software versions (this started in 2023). This is a major factor in your situation. When Adobe software opens a file that uses a Type 1 font, it no longer recognizes or renders it. It simply treats it as a "missing font." This is the case even if you have a Type 1 font installed on your system. 

With you converting the Type 1 fonts to OTF was the correct move to address this, but it seems it has triggered an weird side effect. The core issue is not that your new OTF fonts are missing, is that Adobe's software is still looking for a Type 1 version of Arial that it can no longer see or use! Frick! So, what could you do?

I would clear the font cache first!  The exact location can vary, but a good place to start is within the Adobe folder in C:\ProgramData\.  You might need to enable "Show hidden files" in Windows File Explorer to see it. It's also a good idea to clear the Windows font cache. A quick web search for "clear Windows 11 font cache" will give you specific steps. Restart your computer and see if that fixes it. If by chance it didn't maybe that recent change to your font library (like the Type 1 conversion) corrupted the font files themselves or created a bad registry entry that Adobe's software is tripping over? If so, delete all versions of Arial from your C:\Windows\Fonts folder.  Restart your computer and then reinstall all of the Arial font family. You can often find a clean set of default Windows fonts online from a trusted source, or by copying them from another Windows 11 machine (shhhhh!) and the after installation, it's also a good idea to restart your computer again for one good measure! 

And if still that doesn't work, make sure you have the absolute latest versions of Acrobat and Illustrator, as Adobe constantly releases patches for these kinds of bugs. Do a clean install and use Adobe Cleaner, https://helpx.adobe.com/ca/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html, and then go back to adobecom and re-install the apps! 

.

[NemoNiemann]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried them all without success. So weird. A few PDFs have the same Arial font, and no issues. I even downloaded the original Microsoft set of Arial and installed those. Same issue. Yet, Arial is useable for some new documents. I'll try deleting all again and try another reinstall. Too many different Arials on my system, I think, but no other programs have issues. For now, for the documents I need to edit with Acrobat, I've instead deownloaded Nitro PDF Pro and add text, etc. without issue and all the original text is in the document as well.

[AnandSri]

Hello @NemoNiemann 

I hope you're doing well, and we apologize for the delayed response and the trouble.

This issue is typically caused by font conflicts or duplication on the system. When multiple versions of Arial are installed—especially from different sources—Adobe apps may fail to resolve the correct font, leading to substitution or rendering issues. Acrobat and Illustrator rely on exact font matching, and even minor differences in font metadata can cause mismatches.

Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20630, Planned update, Aug 18, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app, and the machine.

Use Preflight in Acrobat Pro. To identify font issues in a specific PDF: Open the PDF in Acrobat Pro. Go to All Tools > Print Production > Preflight. Run the “List embedded fonts” report to see which version of Arial is used and whether it’s embedded correctly. See this article: Acrobat Preflight Guide.

Resolve Font Conflicts. Use macOS’s Font Book to clean up duplicate or conflicting Arial fonts: Open Font Book. Search for Arial. Right-click and choose “Resolve duplicates”. Remove any non-standard or corrupted versions. Restart your system.

On Windows systems, virtual fonts or system font settings can interfere with Acrobat’s rendering and conversion processes. See this article for more information: https://adobe.ly/45zYdKg

Clear Acrobat Font Cache. Close all Adobe applications completely. Navigate to and clear Acrobat’s font cache: Windows: Delete %localappdata%\Adobe\Acrobat\Support Files\cmap\ or similar files. Mac: Use Finder to remove Acrobat font cache files in ~/Library/Caches/….

Relaunch Acrobat after.

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,
Anand Sri | Acrobat Community Team
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[Fearless_wisdom9741]

Hello!

The missing Arial fonts in your Adobe applications are almost certainly related to the recent conversion of your Type 1 fonts to OpenType. While other software might render the text correctly, Adobe's newer Creative Cloud apps have ended support for Type 1 fonts, and the converted files likely don't have the exact internal data the PDF is looking for. The best solution is to get a genuine OpenType version of Arial, either by activating it through Adobe Fonts or ensuring your Windows system fonts are updated, and then use the Find/Replace Font feature in your Adobe software to update the document.