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Nicole27596032r3lt
Participant
December 16, 2022
Answered

Montserrat fonts aren't working in Acrobat Pro DC

  • December 16, 2022
  • 4 replies
  • 26980 views

Despite having activated all 18 Montserrat fonts (see img 1) on Adobe Fonts, only the Montserrat Thin iteration (see img 2) is showing up in Acrobat DC. 

 

I've tried to deactivate and reactivate the fonts (both with and without reboots), I've tried activated all of the regular Montserrat fonts and also the Montserrat Alternates, and I've also tried to manually select each individual font except Montserrat Thin... and yet it still defaults to Montserrat Thin.

 

Where are all the other fonts? And why does it keep defaulting to Monsterrat Thin? Adobe Fonts indicates they are all active!

 

Any ideas?

 

Correct answer AnandSri

Hello @andi_0698!

 

I hope you are doing well.

 

When Montserrat goes from rendering perfectly to showing gibberish in your PDFs, it almost always comes down to a font conflict or an embedding issue. Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20474 (Win) | 25.001.20476 (Mac), Apr 28, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app and the machine, and try again.

 

  • Remove duplicates

    • Uninstall all “Montserrat” fonts (Windows → Settings → Fonts; macOS → Font Book).

    • Reboot.

  • Reinstall one version

    • Either activate via Adobe Fonts (CC users) or install the Google-downloaded OTF/TTF family—no mix of both.

Clear your font cache

  • Windows: Stop “Windows Font Cache Service,” delete %WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache*, restart the service.

  • macOS: atsutil databases -remove
    atsutil server -shutdown
    atsutil server -ping

Re-export or fix the embedding

  • In your authoring app, tick Embed Fonts when exporting to PDF.

  • Or in Acrobat Pro’s Print Production → Preflight, run “Embed missing fonts” or “Convert fonts to outlines.”

Verify in Acrobat

  • File → Properties → Fonts should list “Montserrat-Regular (Embedded Subset)” etc., with no “Custom Encoding.”

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

 

4 replies

Terri the IT Chic
Terri the IT Chic
Participant
January 10, 2024

As a few others posted, downloading and installing the font fixed this issue.

Here is the font family: Montserrat - Google Fonts

I choose Montserrat Regular to install, rebooted Word and then save my Word doc again to a PDF and BOOM, problem solved! 🙂

A
andi_0698
Participant
February 27, 2025

I already had Montserrat installed (the full family), but I decided to follow these instructions and download the Google version. It just made it worse! Now the pdf versions of files with Montserrat just show jibberish. 

AnandSri
Community Manager
AnandSriCommunity ManagerCorrect answer
Community Manager
May 14, 2025

Hello @andi_0698!

 

I hope you are doing well.

 

When Montserrat goes from rendering perfectly to showing gibberish in your PDFs, it almost always comes down to a font conflict or an embedding issue. Please ensure you have the latest version of Acrobat installed on the machine: 25.001.20474 (Win) | 25.001.20476 (Mac), Apr 28, 2025. Check for any pending updates from the Menu > help > check for updates, install the updates, restart the app and the machine, and try again.

 

  • Remove duplicates

    • Uninstall all “Montserrat” fonts (Windows → Settings → Fonts; macOS → Font Book).

    • Reboot.

  • Reinstall one version

    • Either activate via Adobe Fonts (CC users) or install the Google-downloaded OTF/TTF family—no mix of both.

Clear your font cache

  • Windows: Stop “Windows Font Cache Service,” delete %WinDir%\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\FontCache*, restart the service.

  • macOS: atsutil databases -remove
    atsutil server -shutdown
    atsutil server -ping

Re-export or fix the embedding

  • In your authoring app, tick Embed Fonts when exporting to PDF.

  • Or in Acrobat Pro’s Print Production → Preflight, run “Embed missing fonts” or “Convert fonts to outlines.”

Verify in Acrobat

  • File → Properties → Fonts should list “Montserrat-Regular (Embedded Subset)” etc., with no “Custom Encoding.”

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Anand Sri.

 

C
crussell242
Participating Frequently
September 20, 2023

Also experiencing this annoying issue. Mainly the issue is using the font in another program like Word, saving as Adobe PDF, and getting garbled text wherever Montserrat is used in the document. This unreliable service means that I can produced a document that looks fine on screen but will be unprofessional and nonsensical if emailed to someone else who tries to print it. There is no choice but to uninstall all these nice Adobe Fonts and remove them from the computer, then replace with hard downloaded and installed fonts on the actual computer. This is not agile nor productive and is a shame.

 

Smile
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
September 20, 2023
quote

There is no choice but to uninstall all these nice Adobe Fonts and remove them from the computer, then replace with hard downloaded and installed fonts on the actual computer. This is not agile nor productive and is a shame.

By @crussell242

 

That's right.

And it's now happening with the brand new Cloud Fonts from Microsoft. They appear in your Word/Office font menu and let you use them, but they don't get embedded into the PDF, so the fonts are missing when the file is viewed on another computer.

 

 Same solution: download the real font and manually install it. This applies to any font you see with MS's blue cloud icon next to it.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
September 20, 2023

And, of course, always check the options to embed all fonts into the PDF in your export settings, regardless of which method you use to export a PDF from MS Office.

 

3 methods are detailed here: https://www.pubcom.com/blog/tutorials/ms-office/export-pdf/index.shtml

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Legend
February 20, 2023

We gave up using Adobe fonts because of this nonsense, as well as missing fonts from our font menus. One minute a font was in the menu, the next minute it disappeared and a pop-up stated we didn't have the font. And a few minutes later, the font magically reappeared.

 

So Adobe fonts are now banned from our studio's computers, both Macs and Windows. We are a business with client projects that need to get out the door. I'm sick and tired of the time and productivity loss from using Adobe fonts.

 

Instead, we use open source fonts — like Montserrat — the old fashioned way: we download the actual font files to our computers and then install them on our systems, bypassing Adobe's insanity. They work seamlessly.

 

Download Montserrat from Google Fonts https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Montserrat

 

However, before you install the Google Fonts version, UNinstall Adobe's version and completely wipe them off your computer. Otherwise you'll have a mixture and will still occassionally be missing the Adobe versions.

 

NOTE: Author's additiona comment added, September 14, 2023...

Microsoft is now issuing it's own font system called MS Cloud Fonts. They work similarly to Adobe's and aren't fully installed on your computer.

 

Difference: You can see and use all the weights in MS programs, but:

  • They don't get embedded into the PDF, and
  • They can't be used in other programs like InDesign.

 

Handle them the same way: Download the real font from either Google Fonts or Microsoft and install them the traditional way on your computer. Then they work flawlessly in both MS and other programs.

 

And welcome to the world where behemoth companies "monetize their font intellectual property."

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
    N
    N D28662378o5rb
    Participant
    March 1, 2023

    I had the same problem, I installed the Montserrat group. The PDF I was editing used Medium and Regular versions of Montserrat, but only Thin showed up in the Font dropbox. It wouldn't let me edit or write text in Monserrat except for the Thin version. Tried all of the above, didn't work. I deleted the font, and instead installed the Static versions that come in the zip from Google Fonts. That worked for me. 

      Meenakshi Negi
      Meenakshi Negi
      Legend
      December 31, 2022

      Hi Nicole27596032r3lt,

       

      Thank you for reaching out, and sorry about the delay in response.

       

      Could you please confirm if you have edit rights for the fonts?

      Please share the screenshot of the complete fonts that you have installed.

      Share the Acrobat and OS versions on the machine.

       

      Let us know if the issue is already resolved.

       

      Thanks,

      Meenakshi

       

      G
      GG_Nat
      Participating Frequently
      February 20, 2023

      I am having the same issue too. 
      They are adobe fonts. Does that not mean we have the Edit Rights with our subscription?

        G
        GG_Nat
        Participating Frequently
        February 20, 2023

        Mine arent working in any Adobe Programs. 
        Also defaulting in Chrome. 

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