Issues with Acrobat and Montserrat

[ElisaIvany]

I am using Monstserrat in my designs. It appears nicely in all apps. But when I export a pdf from inDesign and then open the pdf I get this error. "Cannot extract the embedded font 'AIWIKX+Montserrat. Some characters may not display or print correctly'. And that is truly the case. I don't know where AIWIKX came from? It is not the name of the font.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling both Monserrat, Acrobat and Indesign. Creating several test documents as clean docs at first. What can I do? I have been using Figma because of this issue. But this needs to be resolved. Can anyone help?

[Amal.]

Hi there 

Hope you are doing well and thanks for reaching out and sharing the details. We are sorry for the trouble you are experiencing.

The message you’re seeing usually happens when the font embedding process in InDesign doesn’t complete correctly, or if there’s a conflict with the font files installed on your system. The “AIWIKX+” prefix is automatically added by InDesign as a font subset tag—it doesn’t come from the font itself.

A few things you can try:

1. Check your font source – Make sure you’re using the official Montserrat font (for example, from Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts). Sometimes duplicates or older versions cause embedding issues. https://adobe.ly/3JF0F9O 

2. Clear duplicate fonts – If you have multiple versions of Montserrat installed (system, Adobe Fonts, local), try deactivating/uninstalling duplicates so only one source remains.

3. Export settings – When exporting the PDF from InDesign, under File > Export > Adobe PDF (Print), check the Advanced tab to ensure fonts are set to be embedded.

4. Test with a new doc – Create a fresh InDesign file, add just a text box with Montserrat, and export again. This helps isolate whether it’s a document-specific issue.

If you’ve already tried reinstalling InDesign, Acrobat, and the font, I’d suggest first making sure you’re using the official Montserrat release and removing any duplicates.

~Amal

Meet Acrobat Studio

[ElisaIvany]

Thank you.Tried all of the above
I deleted the Montserrat in font book and activated the version in the
creative cloud/adobe fonts.

In the creative cloud app there is a red dot next to it saying it cannot
activate. I tried again. However, the font is available in all apps. When
in inDesign i go to "find font" and it says it is a system font - but not
searchable with font book. I also removed Montserrat from from Creative
Cloud just now and Montserrat is still available in all apps, just can't
export PDF. So there are no duplicates. I don't know where it is coming
from since nothing comes up with a search in font book.

I am dumbfounded.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

When fonts are embedded in a PDF, they are subsetted, meaning only the characters used in the document will be stored instead of the entire font set. This requires a special name for the subset, so that's where the "AIWIKX" comes from. The prefix will be a different set of 6 letters for every time a font is subset. In normal circumstances, you won't see this naming convention as it's just how the fonts are stored internall, ie. if you look at your file's Document Fonts, it will just list the referenced font, Monstserrat.

Now, why your file is erroring I can't say. It points to a corrupted PDF which can result from any number of reasons, including a bad file transfer/network file server, corrupted font caches, etc, etc... none of which I can diagnose without seeing the file.

Can you post one of the bad files (or DM one)?

[ElisaIvany]

Thank you so much for your help!
I have attached a zip folder comparing Montserrat and Proxima Nova
Let me know what you see on your end
Thank you Thank you!
Elisa

[ElisaIvany · Accepted solution]

I actually figured it out, with MacOS support. It was a system error. Thank
you again for your help!