Windows 11 + InDesign 17.4 = fonts keep disappearing

[julietw99713499]

I was posting about this issue on another thread, and it got marked read as solved, but it is not solved.

Our IT department switched me in June to a new laptop using Windows 11.  Since then, I have encountered multiple issues with several fonts not working.  I have been using these fonts successfully for several years until now.  Some of these fonts have included:

Minion Pro Regular

Miller Text Bold

Frutiger Bold

Palatino LTStd Roman

ITC New Baskerville Roman

Century Schoolbook Bold

another font name that Adobe doesn't like and will therefore block this post if I include it

Below are the various efforts I have taken to solve the problem.  Note that I may have taken multiple steps in one attempt, for example, deleting font files from all Fonts folders and the registry, and then Installing anew using one method.  Then when that doesn't work, deleting all fonts files again and Intsalling anew using another method.

• Delete fonts from C:\Windows\Fonts, and Install anew
• Delete from Regedit.exe here: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts
• Use Powershell (a.k.a. Command prompt) as Administrator and use commaned Remove-Item to delete the font(s)
• Shut down & restart InDesign
• Shut down & reboot entire system
• Install for all Users = C:\Windows\Fonts
• Install [not for all users] = C:\Users\[myusername]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts
• Install different copies of the font file in case of font file corruption

• Place font files in Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe InDesign 2022\Fonts
• Place fonts in a Document fonts folder in the same directory as the working file
• Disable Creative Cloud Desktop, or uninstall & reinstall it, or turn off Cloud fonts and turn them back on again
• IT has wiped and reinstalled my hard drive 3 times
• IT stepped my system back to Windows 10, then back to Windows 11 again
• Step back to previous versions of InDesign, including 2021.

ALL of these methods have failed.  Sometimes the font is not visible in Windows\Fonts but when I attempt to install, my system says the font is already there.  When I look in the Registry, sometimes it is present, sometimes it is not.  Even having the Document fonts folder in the same directory as the working file (which is a workaround, not a solution), which usually works, has still sometimes failed.  

Some combination of efforts works for a little while, but when I come back on another day, some font that I had previously "solved" is again not working.  The one that keeps coming up the most, Minion Pro Regular, is the one that we use the most, on a near-daily basis.  So this is a huge barrier to me being able to do my job.  These problems have been ongoing for 3 months.

I did not have anything like these issues on my old machine (Windows 10, InDesign versions 15.*-17.*).  This is leading me to wonder if there is some incompatibility between InDesign + Windows 11 + fonts. 

Has anyone else encountered anything like these endemic, persistent issues, and does anyone have a way to keep the fonts installed and working -- not just an occasional workaround?

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There was an earlier bug wherein some fonts (random for each user) would not show up in ID, even if they were installed and valid in other apps.

However, I've been running Win11 pretty much since full release and have had no such problems. (None at all, actually, except for the broken Win taskbar... but that's not an Adobe issue.)

Have you or IT actually INSTALLED the fonts from a source folder, instead of just copying them to the Windows font folder? It's a subtle thing and I can't recall any problems with just adding the fonts to the folder in the past, but I've always used a font manager and/or the install process, and I think that's recommended.

Put the font files somewhere. Open the folder. Select all the fonts. Right-click on one. "Install for All Users."

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[julietw99713499]

Yes. This is my default method.

When that hasn't worked the past 2,000 times, I have also tried dragging them into the Fonts folders. That didn't work either.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Sorry, you didn't mention the actual 'install' part and that can be problematic.

Note, though, the "all users" point — if IT is installing them using a supervisor account, they may not be available on your user account. But I'll bet you've worked around that, too.

Other than that passing "font not found" issue of about v17.1-2, I've never heard of such a persistent font 'invisibility.'

Have you tried a font manager, even a trial-period one? Windows doesn't need one quite as much as Mac systems, but they can be useful and might bypass this issue.

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[julietw99713499]

They gave me admin privileges for the purposes of installing fonts. And deleting them.

Install for All Users has worked for the past 4 or 5 years, ever since that became a requirement. Until now. Note that I have also tried installing just for my system. Which also failed to stick.

About the font manager, I have one but I have not installed from it (I don't think that one even has that functionality). I have seen numerous posts from other users in the past who could not get fonts to install and inevitably the solution for them was to install the fonts directly without the intervention of a font manager program. So it seemed to me that using one was to add an unnecessary complication.

[James Gifford—NitroPress · Accepted solution]

Well, my bag of tricks is empty. I can suggest only that it's something unique to your system, but I can't imagine what — a system utility, a noncompliant driver, interfering OS or permission settings, something in that realm.

Many of us are using ID under Win 11 without problems, and most of the font issues encountered are caused/fixed by the situations above. So it is unlikely to be a general/systemic/app issue after all these attempts.

Put it in as a bug, with complete specifics on your system, hardware and OS... maybe the dev team can nail it down.

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[James Gifford—NitroPress]

"another font name that Adobe doesn't like and will therefore block this post if I include it"

I gotta know.

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[julietw99713499]

think illegitimate child.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Ah. Kind of like a very rough woodworking file.

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[Lisa22884210ziko]

I am having issues with fonts. Since I got a new computer with Windows 11, I cannot use some of my regular fonts, including Futura.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It would be better to create a new topic for a problem like this, but here we are. 🙂

Exactly what problem are you seeing? Is Futura installed on your new system? Can you see it in, for example, the system font list, Word, Illustrator or other tools that use fonts?

Is your Futura font set by any chance an older Type 1 set? Adobe apps no longer support T1 fonts after the turn of the new year.

[BobLevine]

The cut-off of Type 1 fonts has not occurred yet.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

The issue has been a little murky; I was thinking it possible that new installations might already be "advanced" to this change.