Participant

Question

After Effects really slow with SF Pro Font

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
April 2, 2021
26 replies
15336 views

Hello all,

After Effects 2021 (18.0.1) has a real hard time processing the Mac standard SF Pro font on my Windows device. I installed it like any other font (unpackaged the OTF from the Apple website) and it works fine in all other programs, but for some reason After Effects doesn't like it? The 3-minute animation (motion blur, 20+ layers, with camera video) can render within 4 minutes, but when I put the lower thirds in render time skyrockets to almost 2 hours.

It took me a while to figure out that it was the specific font, but I tested it with other windows & Adobe native fonts, and render time was fixed.

Not sure if anyone has experienced this, or found a solution, but any help would be great! Normally, I would pick another font but brand requirements and whatnot.

Comp:
Ryzen 1700x
32gb ram
1080ti

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Budd Tugley

Inspiring

I think I have a workaround.

I tried a third party font management app, Right Font. I didn't research it very hard, and because this was a test. I didn't want to spend money. It's free.

In Font Book I deactivated all the SF pro fonts. Then to be sure there was no overlap I removed all SF Pro font files from the library font folder that Font Book was using. I put the font files in a new folder in my Docs, just called Fonts. From that new folder I imported all the SF Pro fonts into the application Right Font and activated them there.

So far so good in AE. Now I can use the type animators again, yay!

If anyone else tries this an it works (or doesn't) please post your results!

Dr Ken R Lunde

Participating Frequently

Just out of curiosity, has anyone in this thread tried the problematic fonts in the latest Adobe After Effects 2022 Beta, which is Version 22.1.1? The reason I ask is because the Unified Text Engine, which replaces the previous text engines, is now applied to all languages and scripts. The text engine preference is in After Effects > Preferences > Type… in the non-Beta version. The UTE has the potential to address this performance issue, at least to the point that it is worthwhile to test.

Dr Ken R Lunde

Participating Frequently

For those using the SF Pro or SF Hello fonts, and are experiencing this performance issue in Adobe After Effects, please let me know which version you are using. You can use the Font Book app or the Finder (File > Get Info or Command-I) to get the version number, which should follow the pattern nn.ndnen. I have a theory as to what is causing this particular performance issue, and knowing the version would be helpful.

michaelb9396182

Participant

I have continued to experience severe slow downs when using SFHello fonts in After Effects. I have the following version installed:

17.0d2e1

This is a translated font from TTC to OTF, but still has issues with AE 2020 and AE 2021, and seems to affect MOGRTs used in Premiere as well, and can cause dramatically increased render times. The TTC original has the same effect.

Dr Ken R Lunde

Participating Frequently

Thank you. This data point is helpful, and I was able to find and inspect the SF Hello Version 17.0d2e1 fonts. The theory that I have holds for these fonts, in terms of the specific attribute that I think is causing the issue.

BTW, the OTC is simply a repackaging of OTFs that allows some font tables, such as 'cmap' and 'GSUB', to be shared. I would expect them to behave the same.

D

defaultc91kpax9kndc

Participant

I have a similar problem on my Macbook Pro and Macbook Air. I hoped for version 22, which is referenced by support before the release, but the problem has not been resolved.

C

Chingun5EA3

Participant

Same issue here, but now happening to Adobe Illustrator.

When searching SF fonts from the library its slowing down(lagging) 2-3 seconds. Its so annoying x(

sinhlvc

Participant

It's really unbelievable that this is still a problem. I'm unable to work properly because of this. It's been months since this was reported. Is there any updates on this as it's still the same on AE beta?

michaelb9396182

Participant

OMG, this has been killing me for nearly 2 weeks! The sluggish delay just to paste text and move the field is painfully slow, but the render times... what would normally be a 30 second render in ME took almost 40 minutes with the SF Hello font. Reinstalling the font made no difference. Other typical fonts are no problem. Has anyone cracked the mystery on this yet???

JordanAHill

Participant

I've started two new projects with two different newly-installed fonts and am having the same exact issue everyone else is describing. I don't think this issue is unique to one specific font, unfortunately. I had to find an older version of the same font from a sketchy site online before AE stopped running absurdly slow with it.

Unfortunately, this new project of mine uses a custom typeface for the brand, so I'm sort of SOL on this one.

nishu_kush

Community Manager

Hi all,

This is issue has been reported as a bug. After Effects engineers are working on a fix.

Let us know if there are any other questions.

Thanks,

Nishu

TheOtherMartinTaylor

Participating Frequently

Is there a work around until a fix is forthcoming? I have an AE project to mimic a iPad app and the SF font makes it nearly impossible to navigate around.

D

defaultr2hhwb0fwa5n

Participant

Same problem with SF Pro.

W

weccleston

Inspiring

Same issue here. It's killing me. Mac OS 11.1, After Effects 18.4.1

W

weccleston

Inspiring

Just FYI - Not sure if this will work for everyone, but I downloaded the SF Pro fonts from cufonfonts.com and installed them with Suitcase Fusion, as opposed to the Apple versions that come with their own installer, and I'm no longer having the issue.

nishu_kush

Community Manager

Hi all,

I did a test with the SF Pro font on windows. I didn't see any performance/export time issue.

Could you provide a project file that repeats the issue to test at our end?

We're here to help.

Thanks,

Nishu

S

Sinan5FA2

Participant

Hi Nishu! This problem only happens on Mac from what I understood, I also noticed some people reporting this issue on other forums and they were also on Mac. It seems to happen when you install the most updated fonts from the original source.

If you find an install older versions of SF fonts, the lag is gone.

S

Sinan5FA2

Participant

Just noticed the original post was from a person using Windows. Maybe mine is a different issue from the person who posted the original post or maybe its related to rendering of the newest SF fonts.

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