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neilr78476827
Participating Frequently
November 17, 2016
Question

Asterisk Next to Font

  • November 17, 2016
  • 5 replies
  • 16050 views

I'm having a problem where I've opened up a .ai file I've been working on at school, and it has told me that the font is missing.

I have uninstalled and re-installed the font on my computer multiple times to no avail. If I close the missing font warning and go into the

file, the letters/words are highlighted pink to say the font can't be found. If I look at the font name in the drop down menu the font has an asterisk

next to it. I can only guess that this also implies Illustrator cannot find the font. I've searched the forums and found someone had a simlilar problem

back in 2012, apparently this was solved by someone who answered "It means it's not the font originally used and is being substituted for the original font."

However, this isn't the case for my problem as it's definitely 100% the exact same font, and it is definitely 100% installed on my system.

Can anyone help with this, or knows what the problem might be ?

Cheers.

    5 replies

    johnm146196
    johnm146196
    Participant
    August 29, 2024

    I've had luck, turning the font off in Adobe Fonts, then turning it back on.

      B
      Community Expert
      Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 25, 2022

      Do you have any other applications running on your school computer while using Adobe Illustrator? Is the computer running font management software?

      The reason I'm asking this question is because I have observed an issue in Adobe Illustrator where one or more styles of certain type families will disappear from the font menu if I have CorelDRAW running at the same time. I'll get the missing font messages when opening some AI documents. I figured out if I shut down CorelDRAW and re-launch Adobe Illustrator all of the fonts would be restored. The issue must be a conflict between Corel's Font Manager software and the Windows OS.

      yellowdin
      yellowdin
      Participant
      November 24, 2022

      I have the same problem, and the weirdest thing is that in the same Ai page doc I have the font there, and the other pink underlined! And the family font have an * in front of. 

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 24, 2022

      Please create a new thread on the forum.

      Then describe us exactly your version and system.

      Which font is affected.

      Where it is installed

      Are there any warnings

      How is the font used in the file.

       

      You do not have the same problem, since this thread is 5 years old. Your situation is different.

      A
      Anonymous
      November 17, 2016

      neilr78476827 schrieb:

      I'm having a problem where I've opened up a .ai file I've been working on at school, and it has told me that the font is missing.

      I have uninstalled and re-installed the font on my computer multiple times to no avail.

      ...

      However, this isn't the case for my problem as it's definitely 100% the exact same font, and it is definitely 100% installed on my system.

      No, I think it isn't 100% the same font, only 99%.

      It LOOKS like, but it isn't the identical *.otf or *.ttf file.

      Many fonts - especially older ones - are sold from different font distributors. They have the same look, the same name, the same font styles. But also they have tiny differences in their code. Your school's computer probably has the file from another distributor than yours at home.

      MS-Word doesn't care. Illustrator is - as Jacob said - very particular and says "no".

      Fenja

      Jacob Bugge
      Community Expert
      Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      November 17, 2016

      Neil,

      Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator) is particularly particular about the quality of fonts, because she can work with them at a deeper/higher level than most, so you can easily have a font that works in all other applications, but Illy refuses to recognize it as a font.

      Some failing fonts discussed in earlier threads have turned out to have rather basic flaws, such as redundant, superfluous, or (if I remember rightly) even stray points, or other clear errors in the paths that they consist of.

      You may need to look for similar fonts that Illy is willing to work with.

      N
      neilr78476827Author
      Participating Frequently
      November 21, 2016

      Thanks very much for your help, it's appreciated. The weird thing is that I'd downloaded the font and successfully used it on the school computers and then copied the same font file to my external hdd to work on at further at home. So it's the exact same font file, I didn't re-download it at all. Every other font in the family is working, it's just that one style...The only thing I can think of is that my home computer is running a slightly newer version of Illustrator so maybe there has been an update to Illy over the past 2 months that triggered it...

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