Adobe Garamond Pro fonts

[Jane5C7F]

Hi All, Have had a draft book on the go for years. Have a new iMac 2020, an older iMac (late 2015) and and an MacBook Pro. Text originally created in Garamond in Word on an iMac and updated over about five or six years. Now using MS Word 365 for Mac (subscription). Conversion from MS Word to InDesign has created problems as Adobe uses Garamond Pro fonts. Have had no end of trouble because some design work created on PCs and perhaps elements of MS Word incompatible. Latest layout work created on a Mac but when an InDesign file of part of the book was sent via Dropbox this morning, message comes up that I don't have Adobe Garamond Pro fonts on my computer (read iMac 2020 here). I know that there is a new InDesign share facility but the designer preferred to use Dropbox for sending the InDesign file verson of part of the book. (When I open the file in InDesign the prgram says there are more than 2,460 errors in the file).  I do have a PDF version of the draft layout but there are many errors in it also and the version of PDF I have does not support Adobe Garamond Pro. However, I had downloaded the Adobe Garamond Pro fonts recently when I created some of my own files in InDesign. I downloaded the AGP fonts again this morning so they should be definitely available in my version of InDesign. The six AGP fonts are activated according to Adobe. However I don't know if they can be added to the Apple list of available fonts on my iMac or to MS Word 365 for Mac (subscription). Garamond in MS Word for Mac and AGP in InDesign are not the same as anyone with a similar probelm would know. Wondering if I should cut my losses and change typefaces and fonts available on the Apple list (iMac 2020), in MS Word and in InDesign? Baskerville might be a better bet but are there other typefaces used by Apple, MS Word and in InDesign that would suit a non-fiction book that will be printed and perhaps go on the web? Have wasted money on tryiong to get this issue sorted out in quite a few attempts. Any positive and helpful suggestions most welcome. Jane

[Derek Cross]

To untangle your long question, is it that you have a Word document that is set in one version of Garamond and you want to Place it in to an InDesign document and use Garamond for this document too, but there are font conflicts, perhaps due to different versions of Garamond?

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

There's a lot to untangle here.

1. The Garamond you are using in Word is the Truetype version that Microsoft (and earlier iMac models) installed... usually with just 3 variants, Regular, Italic, and Bold (No Bold Italic). OR installed as part of an Apple iWorks install on your previous computer (which had 4 variants)

2. Adobe Garamond Pro is the updated OTF version of the original Postscript Type 1 that existed for years, sold by (back in the day) by Adobe, with up to 6 variants, but these days most easily available as a Typekit-installed font through your CC Subscription.

They are NOT AT ALL the same and quite different in the spacing and design of the fonts, different x-heights, etc.

Microsoft supplied the Truetype version along with it's Word installations up to the more recent versions. It apparently no longer comes with Microsoft 365, so new installations on new computers would not get it, as they have moved to a cloud-based font system. This means it's possible your Apple Font Book will not have it now.

You should be able to access the Typekit fonts in your current Word installation once activated by your CC Subscription (it does for me, but then I'm using a font manager so I can't speak to how they work with Font Book.

I also did a quick search and found there are many people reporting problems with Office and Garamond, so you might look at some of the solutions offered.

You could possibly copy the old Truetype Garamond fonts from an older Mac into your new one, but frankly, I'd just avoid the problem and pick a font you know is available in both programs.

Also: if you "downloaded" Adobe Garamond Pro from any place other than purchasing from Adobe or activating through Typekit, it's possibly a knockoff which will just amplify your grief.