Why "The "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid" Font is not available" error

[chuck_agari]

I am getting a "

The "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid" Font is not available.

  "Times New Roman" will be used in this session."

error. I have installed that font. I double-checked too. I restarted Windows (10 Pro) even.

It's been awhile since I used FM regularly. How do I track this down and fix it. Even better, how to I prevent that automatic substitution from being made, and if I can't, how to I locate the paragraph and character styles that have been converted automatically--without touching any that might actually be using Times New Roman--and change them to the correct font?

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Sounds like a font availability issue in Win.

FA has a number of different fonts available now. Are you able to use that character in other apps?

If you'd like to send me a sample file, DM me and we'll arrange to share a file for me to open on my side.

-Matt

[Stefan-Gentz]

To see which fonts are used in a document and where they are used, you can open the Fonts pod in FrameMaker (> View > Pods > Fonts). The font pod lists all fonts used in the currently open document. When you double-click on a font name, the "Replace Font" pod opens listing all the locations where the font is used.

Does FM list "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid" at all in the Font drop-down in the Character/Paragraph Designer?

[chuck_agari]

HI Stefan,

Well that's weird. I decided to try and install just a single font from scratch, the specific "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid" from the Font Awesome type family. I still get the "font unavailable" message when I open a .FM file. I looked at the font list, and that font appears, and it no longer has an asterisk next to it. I double-clicked, as you suggested, and found all the instances in a file. The thing is, it now looks like the font is being used. (The person who originally created this document used this font for some icons to go with notes, warning, etc., and created some block on the file's Reference page, so I can actually go right there and see. Until today, I'd see a Times New Roman question mark, and now I see the correct icons. So it appears that the font is now being "seen" correctly by FrameMaker. It seems like I should be OK going forward. So I save and close the file, and then re-open it to double-check. I get a slightly different message: "

The "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid" Font is not available.

  "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid Heavy" will be used in this session."

To be fair, I seem to be OK with this because the icons are still there and they do not seem to change anything in the layout, but when I save and close and then re-open to check again, I still get the same message. This may end up being a minor annoyance, rather than the change to Times New Roman that was unusable before, and I may try to tweak my installed fonts a bit more, but I've made a bit of progress by uninstalling all the Font Awesome fonts from Windows and target-installing only specifi9c ones.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

It sounds like you are still missing the specific version of the font that your predecessor had installed.

You should try to remedy, as this may cause issues when updating and publishing your content.

[Lothar_Voigt]

I did some search on the Internet, but can't find the font "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid Heavy", only "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid".

But when you create a new FM file (using "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid") and save it as MIF, you'll see some interesting lines in a text editor:

<FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.900'>

   <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

   <FVar `Regular'>

   <FWeight `Heavy'>

The font weight seems to be always "Heavy".

Maybe someone else can put together the remaining pieces of the puzzle.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Perhaps the Heavy is specified in the Paragraph Designer, even though it doesn't seem to exist...

[chuck_agari]

Here's the thing that frustrates me--and I'll bet plenty of others: I've been using FrameMaker off and on for nearly 25 years, and an issue I've encountered over and over and over and over is this font substitution issue. From new systems that don't (yet) have necessary fonts to font file names that are just one character off, not only is font management within the program still a PITA, the program pretty much does what it pleases, does not communicate clearly what it does, and makes it damn difficult to find and fix font issues.

And it really shouldn't be that hard--if only the Adobe development team for FrameMaker was actually focused on user needs. And the basics really aren't that hard; you just need something such as:

This FrameMaker file/book uses [font name/font file name}, which cannot be found on this system.

- Substitute [font choice] temporarily (IOW, don't save this when the file is saved)

- Add [font choice] to the paragraph/character definition (sort of like CSS)

- Don't do anything now. I'll fix it later

25 years..........

[Lothar_Voigt]

I really feel with you. One must love or hate Framemaker. It's not a bug - it's a feature.

[Bob_Niland]

re: ... you just need something such as ...

Are there other DTP/WP apps that you feel are more elegant in this regard?

A big part of the font issue is not strictly Adobe's problem. Typeface intellectual property law (trademarks, copyrights, design/software patents) almost always forces clone fonts to have at least slightly different names, if not different outlines and font metrics. How to optimally manage this at the application UI level isn't entirely obvious.

[chuck_agari]

The CSS model, where you can list any number of font/typeface names to an entity and the application picks the first one that matches, would work quite well. And I'd assert that it would not be difficult to build a model that would allow users to add a font to a list for a style when a specific one is found "missing"--except that the FM codebase is in so many places so creakingly old that dollars-to-donuts many to most of the devs working today in that codebase have not seen nor touched that specific area of code.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Yes, InDesign's model is 5x easier to navigate, including a full-on dialog allowing replacement of fonts upon opening the document.

[chuck_agari]

In the existing template file used for the book's chapter files, saved as a .MIF file, I find the following instances of "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid":

<Font

  <FTag `FontAwesome'>

  <FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.400'>

  <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

  <FVar `Regular'>

  <FWeight `Regular'>

  <FAngle `Regular'>

  <FEncoding `FrameRoman'>

  <FSize  18.0 pt>

  <FUnderlining FNoUnderlining>

  <FOverline No>

  <FStrike No>

  <FChangeBar No>

  <FOutline No>

  <FShadow No>

  <FPairKern Yes>

  <FTsume No>

  <FCase FAsTyped>

  <FPosition FNormal>

  <FDW  0.0%>

  <FStretch  100.0%>

  <FLanguage USEnglish>

  <FLocked No>

  <FSeparation 5>

  <FColor `Color8'>

  <FBackgroundColor NoColor>

> # end of Font

<Para

  <Unique 1000811>

  <PgfTag `Body'>

  <Pgf

   <PgfFIndent  0.0">

   <PgfSpAfter  18.0 pt>

   <PgfFont

    <FTag `'>

    <FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.400'>

    <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

    <FVar `Regular'>

    <FWeight `Regular'>

    <FAngle `Regular'>

    <FEncoding `FrameRoman'>

    <FSize  18.0 pt>

    <FUnderlining FNoUnderlining>

    <FOverline No>

    <FStrike No>

    <FChangeBar No>

    <FOutline No>

    <FShadow No>

    <FPairKern Yes>

    <FTsume No>

    <FCase FAsTyped>

    <FPosition FNormal>

    <FDX  0.0%>

    <FDY  0.0%>

    <FDW  0.0%>

    <FStretch  100.0%>

    <FLanguage USEnglish>

    <FLocked No>

    <FSeparation 5>

    <FColor `Color8'>

    <FBackgroundColor NoColor>

   > # end of PgfFont

   <PgfLeading  4.0 pt>

   <PgfNumTabs 0>

  > # end of Pgf

<Para

  <Unique 1000306>

  <PgfTag `Body'>

  <Pgf

   <PgfSpAfter  18.0 pt>

   <PgfFont

    <FTag `'>

    <FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.400'>

    <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

    <FVar `Regular'>

    <FWeight `Regular'>

    <FAngle `Regular'>

    <FEncoding `FrameRoman'>

    <FSize  18.0 pt>

    <FUnderlining FNoUnderlining>

    <FOverline No>

    <FStrike No>

    <FChangeBar No>

    <FOutline No>

    <FShadow No>

    <FPairKern Yes>

    <FTsume No>

    <FCase FAsTyped>

    <FPosition FNormal>

    <FDX  0.0%>

    <FDY  0.0%>

    <FDW  0.0%>

    <FStretch  100.0%>

    <FLanguage USEnglish>

    <FLocked No>

    <FSeparation 5>

    <FColor `Color8'>

    <FBackgroundColor NoColor>

   > # end of PgfFont

   <PgfLeading  4.0 pt>

   <PgfNumTabs 0>

  > # end of Pgf

<Para

  <Unique 1000582>

  <PgfTag `Body'>

  <Pgf

   <PgfFIndent  0.0">

   <PgfSpAfter  18.0 pt>

   <PgfFont

    <FTag `'>

    <FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.400'>

    <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

    <FVar `Regular'>

    <FWeight `Regular'>

    <FAngle `Regular'>

    <FEncoding `FrameRoman'>

    <FSize  18.0 pt>

    <FUnderlining FNoUnderlining>

    <FOverline No>

    <FStrike No>

    <FChangeBar No>

    <FOutline No>

    <FShadow No>

    <FPairKern Yes>

    <FTsume No>

    <FCase FAsTyped>

    <FPosition FNormal>

    <FDX  0.0%>

    <FDY  0.0%>

    <FDW  0.0%>

    <FStretch  100.0%>

    <FLanguage USEnglish>

    <FLocked No>

    <FSeparation 5>

    <FColor `Color8'>

    <FBackgroundColor NoColor>

   > # end of PgfFont

   <PgfLeading  4.0 pt>

   <PgfNumTabs 0>

  > # end of Pgf

<Para

  <Unique 1000691>

  <PgfTag `Body'>

  <Pgf

   <PgfFIndent  0.0">

   <PgfSpAfter  18.0 pt>

   <PgfFont

    <FTag `'>

    <FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.400'>

    <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

    <FVar `Regular'>

    <FWeight `Regular'>

    <FAngle `Regular'>

    <FEncoding `FrameRoman'>

    <FSize  18.0 pt>

    <FUnderlining FNoUnderlining>

    <FOverline No>

    <FStrike No>

    <FChangeBar No>

    <FOutline No>

    <FShadow No>

    <FPairKern Yes>

    <FTsume No>

    <FCase FAsTyped>

    <FPosition FNormal>

    <FDX  0.0%>

    <FDY  0.0%>

    <FDW  0.0%>

    <FStretch  100.0%>

    <FLanguage USEnglish>

    <FLocked No>

    <FSeparation 5>

    <FColor `Color8'>

    <FBackgroundColor NoColor>

   > # end of PgfFont

   <PgfLeading  4.0 pt>

   <PgfNumTabs 0>

  > # end of Pgf

<Para

  <Unique 1000856>

  <PgfTag `Body'>

  <Pgf

   <PgfFIndent  0.0">

   <PgfSpAfter  18.0 pt>

   <PgfFont

    <FTag `'>

    <FPlatformName `W.Font Awesome 5 Free Solid.R.400'>

    <FFamily `Font Awesome 5 Free Solid'>

    <FVar `Regular'>

    <FWeight `Regular'>

    <FAngle `Regular'>

    <FEncoding `FrameRoman'>

    <FSize  18.0 pt>

    <FUnderlining FNoUnderlining>

    <FOverline No>

    <FStrike No>

    <FChangeBar No>

    <FOutline No>

    <FShadow No>

    <FPairKern Yes>

    <FTsume No>

    <FCase FAsTyped>

    <FPosition FNormal>

    <FDX  0.0%>

    <FDY  0.0%>

    <FDW  0.0%>

    <FStretch  100.0%>

    <FLanguage USEnglish>

    <FLocked No>

    <FSeparation 5>

    <FColor `Color8'>

    <FBackgroundColor NoColor>

   > # end of PgfFont

   <PgfLeading  4.0 pt>

   <PgfNumTabs 0>

  > # end of Pgf

[chuck_agari]

Yes, it lists both Font Awesome 5 Free Solid and Font Awesome 5 Free Regular are listed as available fonts. I can choose then in the Paragraph Designer, in the Character Designer, and in the Format > Font menu. Yet when I open a document that, AFAIK, uses Font Awesome 5 Free Solid and was designed to use Font Awesome 5 Free Solid, FrameMaker still insists on "Font Awesome 5 Free Solid Heavy," which AFAIK is not a variation that even exists, "will be used in this session."

[chuck_agari]

Well, I "succeeded" in the fact that I was able to get rid of the font replacement errors.

Among my many Google search results, I finally ran into this article: Troubleshooting font-related errors in FrameMaker (2015 release) | Adobe Content Corner

Because everything else had not worked, I decided to try unchecking the "Remember Missing Font Names" option. I then opened every file in the book, accepted the replace, then saved. When I opened the file again, no error. (Iwas also able to do a book-level action, and I'm guessing it's because FM was able to open all the files without error.)

I debated an alternative solution, where I would just open all of the chapter files whenever I needed to do any work, but I thought that sub-optimal for the long term.

I'm OK with this because the substitution made doesn't materially affect anything. I still have no clue why it was made, and I'm annoyed that I can't figure out the root cause. This feels like a Band-Aid, but it got me working. I always prefer solving the root cause over Band-Aids, but in this case, it seems way to hoary, especially with the additional layers of VM and MacOS mixed in, so I will move forward and thank all for their ideas.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Have you reached out to the Font Awesome team at https://fontawesome.com/support ?