Open Sans Italic looking Bold on Indesign

[LauraFuriosa]

I'm working on a book in Indesign that uses Open Sans. When I apply italic the text becomes also bold.

But the character options says it is only italic:

I already reinstaled the font (Google fonts version), and the problem persists. This problem doesn't happen on Illustrator. I already tried cleaning the font cache.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Does the perception of bold persist when printed or exported to PDF?

[LauraFuriosa]

Yes. 😞

[Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com]

Can you check to see if that text has a character style applied to it?

[LauraFuriosa]

No character style applied.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

So, just to be sure... when you place the cursor in that text, or select any part of it, the info panels show an unmodified style and just 'italic,' no bold or alternate font?

[LauraFuriosa]

Yes, exactly.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Arrgh. Is this on all styles and usage, even in new docs?

Possibly a GREP style being applied? (I have the fuzzy idea that the base style would be shown in info etc. )

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Make sure, despite the fact you've loaded Google's versions, that InDesign is not trying to auto-activate the versions from Adobe Fonts at the same time, as they are different versions (i.e. turn off Auto-Activate Adobe Fonts under Preferences > File Handling). Also make sure you haven't loaded BOTH Google's static and variable versions at the same time.

Are you using a font manager? If so, did you use its font cache purger?

Other ideas: make sure you've load ALL the styles. Some open source fonts like Open Sans have a notorious history of bad construction/internal style names which causes the incorrect one being loaded because it's the first "Italic" seen alphabetically. I can't remember if this was the case with Open Sans, but there's been much discussion on this forum about Open Sans's deficiencies.

In the PDF you made, what is listed in your Document Properties for the questionable font?

Fyi: the versions being served on Adobe Fonts are v1.10, and the Google Ones I have v3.00. the v3.00 have slighly adjusted metrics and outline shapes, so although they are essentially identical, there will be some reflow from one to the other.

[LauraFuriosa · Accepted solution]

I don't use any font manager. After reading your response, I deleted the google's version, deactivated and reactivated the adobe version, and now it is ok! I think maybe the issue was the auto-activation like you said. I'm gonna try turning off the auto-activation and see if the google version works, just out of curiosity. Thanks!

[LauraFuriosa]

Omg, sorry for the video link. I pasted it accidentally, deleted the text, but it stayed there somehow and I didn't notice and published.

[video link removed by moderator]

[Barb Binder]

Hi @LauraFuriosa:

This is my experience using Open Sans activated on fonts.adobe.com. Is that where you activated your versions?

~Barb