Illustrator text tool now types only blanks

[Wmcrobertson]

Recently, when I use the text tool in Illustrator, the cursor moves along, but no text appears. I've tried different combinations of fill and stroke, and reset preferences, all with no success.

This behavior also appears with the pen tool. I describe a path but it doesn't result in, for instance, a black line. Nothing.

What am I doing wrong?

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your experience. This is really unusual as you have reset the preferences. Would you mind sharing version of OS & Illustrator? Does it happen with a specific file or all?

This information would help us understand the issue and assist you accordingly. Looking forward to your response.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[Wmcrobertson]

Ashutosh,

Thank you for your prompt reply.

In answer to your questions:

OS: macOS Catalina 10.15.4 on a MacBook Pro, 16-inch, 2019

Illustrator 2020 24.1.3. I should mention that it often quits unexpectedly,
sometimes when I am away from the keyboard. I usually send the crash report
to Adobe and Apple. Happened again today around 5:00 p.m. PST yesterday.

Apparently there may be a problem with the file. It began life as a generic
PDF created by scanning a document on an HP OfficeJet Pro 6978. Brought it
into Photoshop 2020 (21.1.3), overwrote some extraneous text with the
brush, and saved it as a Photoshop PDF. Brought that into Illustrator,
created a second layer for the text. When I position the text tool on the
layer I get a black horizontal rectangle about 2 inches long, and as soon
as I type the first letter the rectangle disappears, and the cursor moves
to the right, but no character appears.

When I create a new blank file and place the Photoshop PDF, same problem.
Also when I bring the .psd into Illustrator.

When I create a new blank file in Illustrator I can type text, but I want
to annotate the scanned doc file using Illustrator's text and graphic
capabilities.

I could swear that I had done this before successfully, but now I can't say
for certain that I used the procedure as described above.

(Lots of fiddling...)

Uh, okay, when I just bring the scan PDF directly into Illustrator, I can
do text, and remove the extraneous text with a rectangle and white fill.

So, sorry to drag you through all this, but if you hadn't brought up the
question about the file I'd not have thought of it on my own. Again, I
thought I had moved things back and forth between Illustrator and PS in the
past, but that's a question for another day.

If you have any remarks on this I'd be happy to see them, but otherwise you
can close the ticket.

Thanks again for replying so soon.

Bill Robertson