How to Remove Minion Font as the Default in InDesign

[carolineh76238118]

Changing the font in the character panel and in the "Advanced Workspace" top left panel  does not effect a permanent change even within the same text box. I've disabled Minion through Font Book. I've searched my drive and thrown it away. It just won't die.

<Title renamed by MOD>

[carolineh76238118]

That happened when implementing the script you provided.

[rob day]

That happened when implementing the script you provided.

Your Character Panel shows MinionPro in brackets, which indicates it is missing. Did you remove it from the Required folder? InDesign needs it to function properly—should be here:

[carolineh76238118]

Yes, I did for now. If forces the font replacement when opening a document..

[rob day]

Right, the script isn't causing the UI corruption, InDesign requires Minion.

[carolineh76238118]

No. The script changes the font in the text box but does not change it in the menu.

[rob day]

And that’s because you have corrupted InDesign by removing a required font. Trying restoring your Required folder, clear your caches folder, restart InDesign, and run the script.

[carolineh76238118]

That was before I removed the font.

[rob day]

Your capture is showing MinionPro with brackets, so it is not installed properly and is missing. Again, the Contol panel and the Character panel would never show different fonts unless there was some kind of corruption. UI problems are usually caused by Cache corruptions. Have you tried clearing your Caches?

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

With no document open, edit the [Basic Paragraph] style. Don't edit the Character panel.

This will affect only new documents--existing documents need to be updated one at a time.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Yeah, Mike already said that. <GD&R>

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Response was not there when I started typing. Only after I hit Post did it show up.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Oh, I know, it happens all the time. See smiley-thing appended.

Nothing like spending fifteen minutes on a detailed, step-by-step answer only to hit post/refresh to find not just a better answer from Barb or Bob or Peter... but with an ack from the poster! 😛

[rob day]

Hi @carolineh76238118 , As others have suggested, you can change the default font used for a new text frame or document, but keep in mind MinionPro Regular is the font used for the base [No Paragraph Style], and the root Paragraph Style can’t be changed via the UI:

It’s also one of InDesign’s required fonts—you can remove it from your system font folders, but it has to be left in:

‎⁨Startup⁩ ▸ ⁨Applications⁩ ▸ ⁨Adobe InDesign 202X⁩ ▸ ⁨Resources⁩ ▸ ⁨Required⁩ ▸ ⁨fonts⁩

MinionPro it will always be available in the font menus.

[Mike Witherell]

I'd like to acknowledge Scott's objection to my answer. Perhaps I should have answered more fully, like this:

With no documents open, go to a workspace in order to access Paragraph Styles panel. 

Right-click and edit/open Basic Paragraph Style. Change the Minion there to something you wish and like. OK.

Thereafter, new documents will not default to Minion, but rather to your chosen favorite typeface.

AND... What else does a seasoned user of InDesign also do?

I have learned to never make a style based on Basic Paragraph Style. We should tend to make the style based on No Paragraph Style, as many of you have observed. That is what I do. All my documents stick strongly to the practice of cleanly-applied paragraph styles.

It seems contradictory to say never make a paragraph style based on Basic Paragraph Style, since any new style is going to begin as a duplicate of Basic Paragraph Style (unless you have a type tool in text). I often describe it as the "seed corn" to grow a new style. Done properly, a new paragraph style will start as a dupe of Basic Paragraph Style. Add to it your specific attributes that you need. Just make sure the Based On says No Paragraph Style, or some other nearly-identical style. Approached this way, I don't worry too much about copy n pasting chunks of stuff between documents. I frequently inspect my paragraph styles for conformity.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Agree--my base parent styles are always based on No Paragraph Style. In effect, I ignore the Basic Paragraph Style so I don't really care what it is set to.

[rob day]

I ignore the Basic Paragraph Style so I don't really care what it is set to.

You could still run into problems whenever there are same named styles with different properties, so in the end you have to understand how styles work— when there is a name conflict, the destination style definition always overrides the source definition—that can easily be lost on a new user.

It might not be unusual to be cutting and pasting from 2 docs with conflicting styles named Normal brought in with placed Word docs.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

>>You could still run into problems whenever there are same named styles with different properties...

I assume that's for others to read. If you wrote it for my benefit, I would have to say "Well, duh!". 😜

Whenevery I bring in new text, I immediately format it to one of my established styles--so, again, I don't care what the Basic Paragraph Style is set to. 

[rob day]

"Well, duh!". 😜

It was not meant for you, but I don’t think it’s that obvious given the number of cut & paste/wrong styling threads that get posted.

The other way to resolve [Basic Paragraph] conflicts is to use Break Link to Style before the Copy.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

When I conduct an InDesign class, "proper" style naming is a big part of my curiculem. I rarely have unintentional naming conflicts. And I never bring in Word styles--just remap them. 

[Mike Witherell]

Standing orders within the dominion of InDesign: arrest and destroy Normal paragraph style whenever seen! I treat Normal like crabgrass in my front yard.

[rob day]

I treat Normal like crabgrass in my front yard.

My point was that [Basic Paragraph] isn’t the only case where you might run into same named style conflicts and paste problems. How many InDesign documents have a style named AHead? Break Link to Style will work for anything.