InDesign Suddenly Removing Spaces Between Words

[meirf95856789]

I have a bizarre problem. An existing InDesign document has "lost" some of the spaces between words. I haven't touched the indd file: I simply woke up one day to see that some of the spaces between my words have vanished.

Prior to the vanishing spaces, the PDF (and the indd document) looked like this:

Now, they look like this:

Does anyone have a clue as to what happened and how I can fix it?

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi meirf95856789 ,

did you install this font in your system?

Plus perhaps it's also available with a Document fonts folder or with Adobe Fonts Sevice ( Typekit ) ?

I can only guess that there are two different fonts installed or accessed using the exact same font name but are different versions regarding metrics.

Best post a screenshot of the Find Fonts menu when your document is open and show all the details of that font available there.

Regards,
Uwe

[Bill Silbert]

Can you post a screen shot with the "invisibles" (Type>Show Hidden Characters) showing? That might provide a clue as to whether this is a problem with kerning, for instance.

[Dirk Becker]

Definitely a different font / version.

There are differences in the character shapes - e.g. the left side of "m" and the top of "t", thicker horizontal bar in the "e", round endings missing from "f", "a" and "r". The digits appear smaller. And so forth.

I'd force a recompose and see what happens.

[MW Design]

Those differences can be due to stylistic sets (for the lettering as the "new" shapes are consistent in treatment) and the numerals could be old style numerals. The spacing issue could also be down to calt or a stylistic set. So I would check the OT features after checking font revision...

That said, it's a weird issue.

Mike

[Willi Adelberger]

Can you provide us a screen shot of your paragraph style in the section justification.

It is also a different font, but it might be caused by a specific setting in the paragraph style you are using.

[meirf95856789]

Thank you to everyone who answered. As you guessed, it was a font issue (though for the life of me, I don't know how it happened). I uninstalled the font and deleted it from the "Library->Fonts" folder, then re-installed, and the problem went away.

[robbeauG]

I have the same problem when I place a Word document into indesign. It randomly removes spaces and spell check doesn't pick out the misspelled words.

[Barb Binder]

Hi @robbeauG.

If spell check isn't picking up the missing spaces, then chances are, they're not really missing, as was the case for the OP.

Start with Type > Show Hidden Characters so that you can see the dots that represent spaces. Then click where you think a space is missing and chose Edit > Edit in Story Editor. If you can see dots between the words in Story Editor view, then you know it's something with the font and nothing with the text. Try changing the font. Try removing the font and reinstalling it. Check the tracking and kerning settings.

~Barb