Client font keeps erroring

[EllieDee]

I'm having an issue where a font that is a free font off of Google, and is also hosted on our Adobe font server does not display as it should. So I've activated Work Sans via Adobe's online font server, but everytime I open a project lately, most of the Work Sans fonts appear as gibberish.

This has been happening for a few weeks. Sometimes I can open the same project, and the font is fine, then next time I open that project, all the fonts are gibberish again.

This is frustrating and confusing since I have to spend time trying to get the font to render correctly so I can make edits, etc.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

We are not mind readers... 

What OS and InDesign versions - please don't say "latest", please give full numbers. 

Anyway, you need to check if you don't have the same font duplicated in the system or in the Document Fonts subfolder next to INDD file as well as installed on the system.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

With a workflow/fixup like you describe, it's easy to end up with multiple copies of a font installed, so that different apps or even different documents load different copies. This can be a problem even when all copies are identical; bizarre results like you're seeing can occur when mismatched fonts are loaded.

I'd suggest purging your system completely of the font, then install one and only one set using a fresh download from Google. Any further fixes should be one-and-done, although the client should also do the cleanup at their end.

[Eugene Tyson]

Further to @Robert at ID-Tasker and @James Gifford—NitroPress 

Fonts from different 'suppliers' may not be the same version. 

Adobe Fonts is a collection of fonts from different foundries.

Google Fonts is a collection is a collection of fonts from different foundries.

They may well have different versions, for example one could be Open Type PS and the other Open Type TTF. 

If there's a font clash, then that can cause issues. 

Having a Font Manager on your system that integrates with InDesign would be able to activate and deactivate fonts automatically. 

https://www.extensis.com/products/connect?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=MK_US_Evergr...

For example have a plugin that automatically ties into InDesign activates the correct font used in the document.