InDesign CS6 and Arial Narrow

[Dan-BTP]

I have been using CS5, had problems with the Arial Narrow font not showing up as four variations but only one, and eventually got it resolved somehow so that I had a separate font listed as Arial Narrow in the font name drop down list and four variations listed in the other drop down list (all distinct from the Arial font with its four variations). I know I deleted a lot of AdobeFnt*.lst files. I know I tried the hotfix that I found through a lot of Google searching, but it said it didn't apply to my system. Beyond that, I don't know what fixed the problem and I remember it feeling like a lot of trial and error, but eventually I got it solved.

A few days ago I installed CS6 on my system for the first time, and now I've got the same problem back again. I've spent all afternoon trying to resolve it but without any success.

I have three sets of TTF files for Arial Narrow, each set with four files for regular, bold, italic and bold italic. One set is version 2.20, one is version 2.37 and the other is version 2.40. My system is running Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit.

Does anyone have any idea of what will fix this problem on my system? I have a lot of InDesign documents that use Arial Narrow, so now whenever I open one of them, I have lots of missing font references. If I could get Arial Narrow reinstalled properly once again, they'd all go away.

Thanks!

[Peter Spier]

I have version 2.30 here and it works fine. You should move two of the redundant versions out of the fonts folder. I think the older versions are more likely to work than the newest, but you'll have to give them a try.

[Dan-BTP]

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear about the versions of the font. I have those three versions in a personal folder, but I only have one version installed at a time. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the font multiple times, using the older versions, again with only one version installed at a time, but without success.

[winterm]

About an hour ago I had exactly the same situation with Arial Narrow, but it didn't bother me... till now.

Your post inspired me to look closer at this.

Now my fontlist in ID looks like this. It's not necessary to have Arial Black as separate entry, just Arial listed this way in the old days, as far as I recall.

However, I dare not to offer my solution, because I just made changes in font files themselves - both Arial and Arial Narrow.

please see the screenshot of original Arial file info box, with nothing specified:

I just entered corresponding entries in font files (once again: both Arial and Arial Narrow). You need some font editing software to do this.

In this case file version does not matter, I think.

And yes, "new" fonts seem to be fully functional and retain all the glyphs. Didn't do a deep investigations, though.

[Peter Spier · Accepted solution]

Dan-BTP wrote:

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear about the versions of the font. I have those three versions in a personal folder, but I only have one version installed at a time. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the font multiple times, using the older versions, again with only one version installed at a time, but without success.

There's a really old thread about this someplace, but the solution was to copy the fonts from a machine running XP/Office 2000, if I remember.

[Dan-BTP]

For anyone viewing this in the future, I used the 2.30 version of Arial Narrow and it solved the problem.

[ClusterX]

I found a solution for myself. Regenerate in ttf by defalt all 4 arial narrow fonts with Fontlab Studio without any changes to fonts info or structure. Then install them into system (Windows/Fonts). Clean old arial narrows files before. Then do search for adobefnt*.lst on system disk. Delete those files (only .lst not .db or any other). Great! Works perfectly in all adobe apps! Shows all names in arial family submenue.

[St3v3n_Howard]

This problem is due to the offending fonts having the wrong "Preferred Family" and "Preferred Subfamily" names and it can be corrected using a Font Editor, such as the free version of Type light which can be downloaded from http://www.cr8software.net/typelight.html.

The process I found to work (in Windows 8 with Adobe Indesign CC and Office 2010) is as follows:

1. Open a File Explorer window and go to the system font library at C:/Windows/Fonts and double click on the Arial font (this has a special icon indicating that it contains multiple subentries)
2. Copy the fonts for Arial Narrow, Arial Narrow Bold, Arial Narrow Italic and Arial Narrow Bold Italic to a new folder on your desktop
3. Edit each of these copies using your font editor and change the  Preferred Family and Preferred Subfamily names (in Type light use the menu option Font>Names... then click the Advanced button)
4. The Preferred Family should be changed to Arial Narrow and the Preferred Subfamily should be either Regular, Bold, Italic, or Bold Italic as per the particular font you are editing (While you are there you could also make similar changes to the Arial Black font which has the same problem - in this case, make Preferred Family Arial Black and Preferred Subfamily Regular)
5. Save each font file back over the top of the one in the folder on the desktop (Save and replace) then open a new File Explorer window for that folder and drag the changed fonts back into their orginal location at C:/Windows/Fonts/Arial
6. Open a new File Explorer window and do a search on the C: drive for all instances of AdobeFnt*.lst then delete all of them
7. Restart your computer

[Dan-BTP]

The procedure you described seems to have fixed the problem for me. Thanks very much for the suggestion!

[Guest]

St3v3n.Howard,

I cannot thank you enough for posting this fix. I have hundreds of documents with Arial Narrow bold and was at a loss on how to proceed. This fix worked beautifully --- THANK YOU!

[josh_xxiv]

Thank you for the detailed fix Steven - worked like a charm.

[Bonide Products]

I tried what you had instructed, but still the fonts do not read correctly. Not sure why when i see others were able to solve the problem. I did a search on
AdobeFnt*.lst but nothing showed up in search. At a loss as to how to proceed. Would hate to change the font on all our labels in indesign. Any other ideas?

Lorry

[Peter Spier]

Make sure your search includes hidden files and folders...

[Bonide Products]

Yes, all files and folder are unhidden Under Tools/ Folder Options. I've tried a few other options, still no luck.

Lorry

[ClusterX]

Can i upload somewhere arial narrow set + arial black that works for me and give the link? I'm not very good in english that's why i'm lazy to read forum rules , but i don't want to be banned.

[St3v3n_Howard]

Not sure what is going wrong with your search for the AdobeFnt*.lst files. They are usually files found spread across a number of locations. On my system they are located at:

C:\Users\[your userid]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC\CT Font Cache

C:\Users\[your userid]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 17 Settings\en_US\x64

C:\Users\[your userid]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\Distiller 11\Cache

C:\Users\[your userid]\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\Version 9.0\en_US\Caches\TypeSupport

C:\Users\[your userid]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\PDFMaker 11\Cache

These files definitely need to be deleted for the solution to work. If they are not found when InDesign is next started up, new versions are created with the updated font list, otherwise the old versions prevail and the changed fonts do not show up.

[Bonide Products]

I found the directories with no difficulty, but the only folder that actually had anything in it was Illustrator. File was called IllustratorFnt.lst. Should i remove that as well? I am assuming then that somewhere in adobe the lst file is there but i haven't found it by manually searching.

[St3v3n_Howard]

Sorry, you have just past the limit of my capability in this area. Its very odd there is no AdobeFnt*.lst files if you have opened and used InDesign.  Maybe one of the Adobe experts here can help  (eg Peter Spier) ?

[Peter Spier]

I don't think I have anything to add here. I've never used the font editor method, only the old versions. It's definitely odd that no files are coming up in the search, though.

I don't think the files used by ID are in the user profile, however. Since you haven't provided the version of Windows or ID it's hard to get specific, but you should also be looking in Program Files [or Program Files(x86)]\Common Files\Adobe and the various Fonts and type support subfolders, and Program Files [or Program Files(x86)]\Adobe and the various application private fonts folders contained there.

[Bonide Products]

I am using Windows 7 pro 64bit. Have Adobe CS6 Master Collection and Office 2013.

After looking through every directory under Program Files(x86\Common Files\Adobe with several reboots and clearing temp files, I have Arial Narrow working in InDesign but not Photoshop or Illustrator. I use the old fonts as well for arial narrow (1998 version 2.0) as i'm familar with the problem with office and windows 7 grouping fonts. Not sure why Illustrator still is causing problems. Again, the only file that I'm unsure about is IllustratorFnt.lst under C:\Users\lorryh\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings\en_GB\x64. Any ideas on this latest would be great thanks.

[Peter Spier]

I'd set a restore point (which might not actually do anything in this case) then rename that file rather than deleting it and relaunch Illustrator to see what happens.

[Bonide Products]

Ok, i will try that. Just and FYI, I double checked notepad and found arial narrow doesn't work there as well. Am consulting with microsoft as that may be the problem since indesign is working. will let you know how I make out

[Bonide Products]

Ive done all instructed even reinstalled CS6, only now after the reinstallation. illustrator does not work, but the arial font is corrected. Confused what could of happened as I only did a reinstallation. Any help would be great thanks.

[Peter Spier]

I'd try replacing the prefs in Illustrator, too. Same keyboard method will work.