Fonts gone when Offline

[Red Point]

I had an internet outage, as a result, the fonts in my project did not display (pink background with generic font). What can I do to prevent this in the future? I need to have full access to my apps AND fonts in the case of an outage. 

Thanks!

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

If you are syncing fonts via the Adobe Fonts service those fonts require an always-on Internet connection to work. Additionally you have to be logged into your Creative Cloud account. If you want certain specific fonts to work offline you have to buy them if they are commercially sold. In the case of Google Fonts those can be downloaded from the Google Fonts website and installed in the OS (or font management software) the traditional way.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

Use Adobe Fonts while offline

If you launch the Creative Cloud desktop app while offline, fonts won't display in the font lists of your apps. However, if you go offline while the Creative Cloud desktop app is running, activated fonts will still be listed and available to use. 

See:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/help/add-fonts.html#:~:text=Use%20Adobe%20Fonts%20while%20off....

[Red Point]

So when my internet connection is gone, Adobe Fonts and Photoshop will stop working properly. Understood.

Given the energy situation in Europe, internet drop outs are becoming more frequent. So I guess Photoshop is not a viable solution for fail-safe operation in this case. I do have a generator for electricity, but there is not much I can do if the internet goes. 

I just bought Affinity Photo as a backup, which seems to work fine also without internet. Just need to figure out how to export my files so I can also open them in AP. 

I guess another solution would be to use Google Fonts only and remove all Adobe fonts? Still trying to figure out how to improve my enviroment here. 

Thank you for getting back to me on this. 

[Red Point]

Just realized, there are little icons in the fonts list of CC apps, indicating which fonts are local and which are Adobe Fonts (in the cloud). No need to remove Adobe Fonts then; I will just make sure not to use Adobe Fonts in future projects, just to be on the safe side. 

[Bobby Henderson]

I think Adobe Fonts is a really great perk to have with a Creative Cloud subscription. The fonts that are available to sync are worth a fortune. I buy quite a bit of commercial type (lately packages that include variable fonts); I've even seen some type families I've purchased appear later hosted in Adobe Fonts. Still, I've saved quite a bit of money being able to use a lot of different commercial type families via the Adobe Fonts service.

With the kind of work I do I'm usually able to convert the text objects in my layouts to outlines to "finalize" the design. It ends up not making a difference if the font used was installed on the local hard disc or synced via the cloud. If I open a design that's like 10 or more years old that was created on a different generation of computer I don't want to have to go hunting around trying to find the exact same build of a specific font file that shows up missing in the File>Open dialog box. Layouts with blocks of area text aren't so good to convert to outlines. That's where you really have to be careful about which fonts were used. A large, multi-page document with lots of assets and fonts used should probably have copies of all those fonts and assets contained in a folder for archival purposes. In such an instance it's usually best to use fonts that are installed locally.

The fonts from Google that are featured in Adobe Fonts are convenient to use either way. There is one advantage to downloading fonts from the Google Fonts web site: they have a good number of type families that include variable fonts. As far as I can tell none of the type packages available via Adobe Fonts include any variable fonts.

[Jocelyn-Suzanne]

I also have this problem living in a rural area. I did not realize I couldn't access the adobe fonts if my internet goes down. This is really not good and I wish it was more clear. I won't use these fonts for projects anymore either.

[Bobby Henderson]

If you're using the synced fonts to build things like logos or other type-oriented graphics it's pretty easy to just convert the type objects to outlines. Then there are no worries about missing fonts or a flaky Internet connection messing up the artwork. When composing large amounts of body copy in a document then converting the type to outlines isn't such a great option. The situation is worse if it is a series of documents. In that case I would want my own copies of the fonts installed locally, even if they were available to sync via Adobe Fonts. On my own, I personally spend a pretty good amount of money on new, unique commercial type families. Generally I try to catch some of the best ones when they're first released and aggressively low priced on introductory discounts. Most of the leading fonts web sites, such as MyFonts, FontShop or Fonts.com will have lots of special offers on various type families, even some long established ones. The trick is keeping an eye out for the best deals.