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InDesign doesn't recognize installed fonts all the time

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 19, 2018
11 replies
42432 views

InDesign is driving me insane.

For work, our primary font is Interstate OTF (Regular, Bold, Black, Light, Italic). I work in a mac environment (iMac 27" 5k, macOS High Sierra, Adobe CC 2018), and have the font family installed in Font Book. The family works fine in Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects. However, InDesign is fussy. Sometimes I can use it fine with no issues. Other times, "Bold" just won't be in my list of usable fonts.

So, I took others advice from this forum, and installed the fonts in the InDesign fonts folder. Same result. Please help!

Correct answer Eugene Tyson

Can you explain in a way that someone very new on InDesign like me can understand? What does mean "package the file"?

Thank you.

You use

File>Package

This gathers all the information related to the file.

Including

InDesign File

Optional PDF file

Links

Fonts

And creates and folder containing all the elements related to the project that are part of that InDesign file.

mariyam shahindh29757434

New Participant

Yes this has been happening to me since the last update 20.5. Seems this isn't a new issue. I rolled back to 20.0 and my fonts are all back. This is very very irritating especially when working on huge layouts etc. Illustrator too, version 29.8.1 started the issue. Rolled back to 29.0 finally.

I love that we are getting new features slowly but we would also like the old essential features to actually remain working as they should.

Oshino Studio

New Participant

We are in 2025 and Indesign is still a real PITS with fonts. Its driving me insane all the time. It simply refuses to recognize some fonts randomly all the time. You open one file once it will recognize them, another day it won't, and sometimes it just WONT recognize an installed font at all ! You can restart the software all you want, have a single clean version of the font installed, nothing works. And I am not talking about exotic fonts, today I have been struggling for an hour with the very anonymous HELVETICA NEUE ! For some reason Indesign refuses to recognize the existence of the Condensed bold version, all the others are fine but condensed bold alone is strictly unfoundable. I have no solution to this and this problem has been lasting for years...

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @Oshino Studio,

I understand how frustrating it can be to deal with recurring font issues, especially with commonly used fonts like Helvetica Neue. Let’s work together to resolve this.

One step that might help is clearing the font cache. This can often resolve font recognition issues in InDesign. Please follow the steps in this article:
Troubleshoot Fonts in Illustrator & InDesign.

Additionally, I recommend clearing the InDesign cache directly. Here's how:

- On Windows: Navigate to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\.

- On Mac: Go to /Users/[your username]/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version [#].

Once you’ve tried this, let us know how it goes. If the issue persists, feel free to share more details, such as your InDesign version, operating system, or screenshots, and we’ll be happy to assist further.

Best,
Abhishek Rao

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Part of troubleshooting is to find out just how many places you have inadvertently installed the same font:

Is it in macOS FontBook? Windows/Fonts?

Did you cleverly install it into the fonts subfolder within the InDesign app?

Did you cleverly package the file along with its subfolder of fonts?

Do you have InDesign's preference for File Handling which has Download Adobe Fonts turned on?

Are you using a font management software, too?

The point is: when you have the font installed in multiple places, InDesign can easily get confused.

Have one place to install the font. Remove all the rest. Sometimes this will clear up the font problem.

Mike Witherell

G

GilsonOlivas

New Participant

Ok man! Here is what you may have done:

You may have installed different versions of this font (a variable version previously, maybe).

Now, what you need to do:

Make you don't have installed the variable font version and the TT at the same time.

Close applications

Clear the cache on this folder:

PC: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Adobe\InDesign\
MAC: /Users/[nome de usuário]/Library/Caches/Adobe InDesign/Version [#]

Re-open the InDesign.

Finish!

C

CuandoEscuchoDibujo

New Participant

Thank you for the indications before, it brought me here.

I had a similar problem. Font is active, installed in the right place.

What I saw is that in the newest version(s) of InDesign when looking for the font it did not appear.

I realized that I had active the "Show Favourite Fonts", the "Show Recently Added", and the "Show Activated Fonts". See below.

No matches found.

When I click off the buttons the font does appear.

It looks as if the fonts outsied of Adobe are not treated the same.

My request would be to change this and include all fonts in the search/show buttons.

And maybe this is not true for others and wanted to share.

Wish it helps.

Rishabh_Tiwari

Community Manager

Hi @CuandoEscuchoDibujo,

Thank you for reaching out and sharing the suggestions that worked for you. I am sure it will help other community members. In addition to that, you can also refer to this article for suggestions on this issue.

Thanks

Rishabh

C

ColtRemWinch

New Participant

Same here, but I'm on Windows 10.

I've tried the solutions offered, but the particular fonts or weights of fonts that InDesign loses aren't TypeKit, aren't managed by anything. They're just Windows installed OpenType fonts. It's a huge PITA.

N

notannhavoc

Inspiring

my workaround - package the files [making sure you have all correct fonts ]- this creates a font folder [and links folder] then open the file from the package - it will always use the fonts in the fonts folder

D

default3w77g1ko6682

New Participant

Worked for me! Yay!

andreaw42041264

Known Participant

I have a similar problem. Many fonts that I load and activate in both suitcase 12.1 and font book won't show in In Design CC, yet they show in all other programs and used to show perfectly in CS6 (without having to restart in design). I waste so much time trying to get fonts to work in CC. Something really needs to be done about it. We shouldn't have to have 2 copies of the same font on our machines for them to work in In Design. If we put them in the In Design fonts folder, they won't work anywhere else, only in In Design, so we are having to have 2 copies of all our fonts. Such a waste of space and time. Adobe please figure this out for the next update of In Design CC.

Scott Citron

Brainiac

You might also need to delete your font cache. I think Font Doctor comes with a tool to do that.

Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com

Brainiac

Have similar problem with InDesign and fonts on the Windows platform, too.

Usually we find that TypeKit has taken over control of that particular weight of the font, bypassing our font manager (Linotype's Font Explorer) and the fonts in the Windows System Fonts folder.

Royal PITA. Just started happening about a year ago.

Check if TypeKit is managing the font. If so, go the fonts section of Creative Cloud Desktop manager and unhook it from TypeKit.

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |

Marina E. Michaels

Known Participant

I have the same trouble on Windows, both with ID not finding an installed font, no matter where I place it (even in ID's fonts folder), and with TypeKit.

TypeKit also conflicts with fonts I own. For example, I purchased some weights of Calluna and installed other weights through TK. ID tells me the ones I purchased are missing. I assume that's TK's doing. I love ID but sometimes--!

Studio C1C4

New Participant

I Have the same problem, on all fonts in Suitcase Fusion. When i forgot to start up Fusion before Indesign, i have to close InDesign et reopen the App to use my font. And its a recent problem, only InDesign had change, Suitcase is the same, and no system update. So, what is the problem with Adobe and Suitcase ?

BobLevine

Community Expert

Did you upgrade to Suitcase Fusion 8? Earlier versions do not have plugins for CC2018.

Studio C1C4

New Participant

Version 18.0.4 (970) is it the right one ?

JonathanArias

Brainiac

might have a font conflict. open font book, look for the font and turn it on/ enable it. Rick click on it. see what the option is. if its on, than there is something else happening.

try suitcase fusion 30 day free trial and drop the font in there, if it does not install, there is something wrong with it. That is the difference between a professional font manager and the basic stuff that comes with mac. Suitcase fusion will not let you put something bad in it. Font doctor ( which comes with suitcase fusion) would help you fix the font.

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