Font Replacement

Report · Sep 14, 2009

I hope there is an easy solution to this problem.

I've got some 200 InDesign documents that are "missing" fonts.

When I iterate over document.fonts, I look into the status attribute, and if I find a font to be "NOT AVAILABLE", I would like to replace it with another.

Thusfar, I have been unable to find a simplistic means by which to accomplish this.

Pointers / advice?

Thanks.

Report · Sep 14, 2009

hi

first you need to iterate CharacterStyles and ParagraphStyles collections and find these missing fonts in definitions and change it

then you need to check again document's font collection and if you still have missing status in any font - you need to use Search&Replace to replace all what left in text

robin

www.adobescripts.co.uk

Report · Sep 14, 2009

If it wouldn't be too terrible an imposition, an example (in js) would be most appreciated.

I believe I have already tried an iteration of myDoc.characterStyles, or some derivation thereof. What I found was that the .appliedFont attribute returned a string, null in the case of my missing fonts, and I abandoned that approach. I have since gone off in another direction,

app.findTextPreferences.appliedFont = Font; // where Font is the actual Font object as returned by a loop of myDoc.fonts. I test for .status == 'NOT_AVAILABLE'

app.changeTextPreferences.appliedFont = 'Arial';

myDoc.changeText();

... sadly, this seems to have failed, as well.

Really, I'm at a loss what to do here. A practical examle would be most appreciated.

Report · Sep 15, 2009

OK. Here's what I know so far.

My document has 2 text boxes in it. 1st text box has some text set to Aachen Bold. 2nd Text box has some text set to Arial (OTF).

NOTE: I have moved Arial (OTF) out of my font path so InDesign Server loses track of it.

doc.paragraphStyles.length = 2 // ok, that makes sense.

doc.characterStyles.length = 1 // unsure what it should be, but 1 doesn't seem right to me.

I execute this loop,

for(j=0;j<doc.paragraphStyles.length;j++)

{

alert(doc.paragraphStyles.appliedFont.name;

doc.paragraphStyles.appliedFont = app.fonts[1];

}

doc.close(SaveOptions.YES, doc.fullName)

I see Times New Roman, Aachen Bold, and that's it. Nothing else shows up. I think I see Times New Roman, because that's what the text was originally typeset as. Arial OTF doesn't register in paragraphStyles (so, how am I supposed to change it?)

So, I then did the same loop over characterStyles, thus,

for(j=0;j<doc.characterStyles.length;j++)

{

alert(doc.characterStyles.appliedFont.name;

doc.characterStyles.appliedFont = app.fonts[1];

}

doc.close(SaveOptions.YES, doc.fullName)

This loop gives me all kinds of grief, so apparently the same loop, as in paragraphStyles doesn't apply,

doc.characterStyles.appliedFont is undefined. Wierd(!)

I'm still in a nasty spin cycle here. I've tried many permutations of this same logic, and no effect. I can successfully change the fonts if InDesign knows about them. But, as mentioned above, if paragraphStyles doesn't have an entry for my missing font, Arial (OTF), how am I supposed to replace it?

Report · Sep 15, 2009

hi

sorry for a little misunderstanding I forgot to mention something

property AppliedFont in CharacterStyle could be undefined - because like in UserInterface - you can leave it unselected in CharacterStyle definition - like many other parameters - so when you are checking CharacterStyle which doesn't have selected Font - AppliedFont will be undefined

but if you will check ParagraphStyles definitions - there is always AppliedFont

so if CharacterStyles have undefined AppliedFont property - you can skip this CharacterStyle

robin

www.adobescripts.co.uk

Report · Sep 15, 2009

Yes, I understand. That makes sense, thanks for the extra clarification on that, it is appreciated.

I'm still having some issue, though, with best practices for rectifying fonts idenitfied in the document.fonts array as 'NOT_AVAILABLE'.

The good news is, the document.fonts at least shows me the font is not available. What I continue to be flummoxed by is how I traverse the document itself and find the text that references the missing font. If the paraStyles & charStyles have no mention of the missing font, how then am I supposed to identify it for replacement?

Based on your last reply, my assumption is that the 'undefined' characterStyle.appliedFont property may indeed be the font I'm missing, and if it is, I do not know how to identify the name/family of that missing font (alas, because charStyle.appliedFont is undefined, there's no property to query for a name or family).

So, with all this discovered, the root issue still persists. How to successfully match the doc.fonts array's "NOT_AVAILABLE" font with the corresponding document text/paragraph that refers to the font so I can replace it with another?

Thanks again for your replies.

Report · Sep 15, 2009

jeffmlevy wrote:
The good news is, the document.fonts at least shows me the font is not available. What I continue to be flummoxed by is how I traverse the document itself and find the text that references the missing font. If the paraStyles & charStyles have no mention of the missing font, how then am I supposed to identify it for replacement?

like I said in my first post first step is to look at Char/ParaStyles definitions and then use Search&Replace to find font in text applied as local formatting

there is:

Property AppliedFont As Variant
Member of InDesign.FindPreference
The applied font. Either a Font object or the name of font family as Font, String or idNothingEnum enumerator

then:

myMissingFontName = "Otello"

myIndi.FindPreferences.AppliedFont = myMissingFontName

and you will get collection of all texts with this missing font applied

jeffmlevy wrote:
Based on your last reply, my assumption is that the 'undefined' characterStyle.appliedFont property may indeed be the font I'm missing, and if it is, I do not know how to identify the name/family of that missing font (alas, because charStyle.appliedFont is undefined, there's no property to query for a name or family).

no - if AppliedFont of CharacterStyle is undefined - than this means that no font is selected in CharacterStyle definition

robin

www.adobescripts.co.uk

Report · Sep 15, 2009

I don't know if it could help, but this solution works for me (ID CS4):

Document.prototype.changeMissingFontsBy = function(/*str|Font*/fontOrFontName)
{
var asFont = function(/*var*/f)
     {
     if (!f) return null;
     if (typeof f == 'string') f = app.fonts.item(f);
     if (f.constructor != Font) return null;
     return(f);
     };

var missing = function(/*Font*/f)
     {return ( f.status != FontStatus.INSTALLED );}     
     
var substFont = asFont(fontOrFontName);
if ((!substFont) || missing(substFont))
     {
     alert( "["+ fontOrFontName + "] is not installed!" );
     return;
     }

var changeMissingFont = function(obj)
     { // <obj> : any object with appliedFont prop
     var f = asFont(obj.appliedFont);
     if ((!f) || (!missing(f))) return;

     try{obj.appliedFont = substFont;}
     catch(ex){}
     };
     
var scope = this.allCharacterStyles
     .concat(this.allParagraphStyles)
     .concat(this.stories.everyItem().textStyleRanges.everyItem().getElements());

var s;
while ( s=scope.shift() ) changeMissingFont(s);
}

// test
app.activeDocument.changeMissingFontsBy("Times New Roman");

@+

Marc

Report · Feb 22, 2016

Hi Marc,

I know it is a very old post but hopefully you are following up on it. I'm writing a script using your functions (above) however I would like to use a composite font of my own making in it. I'm trying to create a Composite font thru javascript. It seems to work but I can't get it to show up in the Font menus or lists in InDesign and subsequently it throws an error. What command do I use for this?

I have this so far:

var fnt = app.activeDocument.compositeFonts.add ({name:"Text"});

var fntEng = fnt.compositeFontEntries.add ({appliedFont:app.fonts[1]});

...

Thanks in advance.

Michael

Adobe Community

Font Replacement