InDesign 2018 not recognizing newly activated fonts

Report · Dec 11, 2018

I'm mostly posting this to see if I am the only one experiencing this issue. One of my clients is using Universal Type Client 6.1.7 and the latest version of InDesign 2018 on High Sierra 10.13.6 (can't update any further to maintain compatibility with the rest of the office). The issue we're experiencing is that when we open a document and a font isn't recognized, even if the font is manually activated in UTC, InDesign doesn't recognize that the font is available for several minutes. This is not an every time situation, but we can't find a pattern. The fonts are available to every other Mac app with which we've tested. Eventually, InDesign suddenly recognizes the font is there and everything shows up fine, but in the meantime, there are no methods we've seen to speed up the process.

The one thing I tried this last time was that I found a couple fonts disabled in FontBook, so I re-enabled all of them. Some of those were core system fonts, so it's possible that having those disabled confuses other applications, even when they aren't using said fonts. But, I just wanted to find out if we are the only people trying to find a solution to this issue.

Thanks!

Report · Dec 11, 2018

Since Universal Type Client is apparently an Extensis product, your best bet is to check in with Extensis support. That's the usual advice for people having problems with third party software.

Report · Dec 11, 2018

Traditionally, yes. But this isn’t my first rodeo. Since the fonts ARE being activated and accessible to all other Mac applications, its pretty clearly an Adobe issue.

If, say, the fonts weren’t getting activated at all, or the UTC plug-in for InDesign wasn’t telling UTC to activate the font in question, I would be posting this on the Extensis forums. But, since the issue is that the font IS getting activated for all other Mac apps, but is not recognized by InDesign, the issue lies in how Adobe recognizes newly activated fonts.

Report · Dec 11, 2018

The other apps are irrelevant. Deactivate the plugin. If InDesign recognizes the fonts, it’s a UTC issue.

And FWIW, that’s exactly what you should be hoping for. Extensis fixes things a lot faster than Adobe.

Report · Dec 11, 2018

Universal Type Client has the ability to only activate fonts from a particular/certain workgroups available to the client. Please try the steps below to verify it is not just a font workgroup selection issue:

Select the following menu options:

Type/Universal Type Client/Select Work Group

Questions:

What workgroup is selected?
Is the workgroup the same one the font you are trying to activate is located?
Do you have the option for 'All Work Groups'?
If the font is in a different workgroup, select the appropriate workgroup and try opening the project again. Did it activate properly?

NOTE - If you do not have the option for ALL workgroups, the Universal Type Server Administrator will need to make changes to the users profile (on the Server) to "Activate across all workgroups". This will allow the All Workgroups option to be shown in the InDesign Universal Type Client menu.

Another potential issue, is that this could be a font conflict with other fonts on the system or in Universal Type Client that are already activated with the same name. More information can be found using the link below on how to troubleshoot this issue:

https://help.extensis.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010106714

If the steps above do not assist in resolving your issue, please contact our Support Team at Extensis using the following link:

https://help.extensis.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Report · Jun 14, 2019

Hi all, I have a similar issue with a customer that are using UTC 6.1.5 and InDesign CC2018 on macOS High Sierra. They're working for years with UTC with no issues, now they've started to place INDD documents into the final layout and it seems that UTC has problem to activate font form the placed INDD.

Even if they manual activate the fonts InDesign doesn't recognise the active fonts, similar to what's happened to @Zepfhyr.

Did you find any solutions? Maybe I need the same.

Report · Jun 14, 2019

Font activation issues are difficult to determine without seeing the issue first hand.

I would contact our Extensis Support Team using the following link. Or, If you would like the Support Phone number for UTS/UTC support, please message me directly:

https://help.extensis.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Report · Jun 15, 2019

I've already ask to the Extensis support, they answer in a very general way so it's useless for me. Maybe the solution could be upgrade to UTS and UTC version 7 but we don't now if the problem is fixed, so we have to take time to test it before upgrading. I think that my customer need a more modern way to activate and share fonts in the team, without having to use a client / server architecture. A way that can assure the compatibility with Adobe Creative Cloud upgrades. So RightFont appears to be very interesting.

Report · Jun 15, 2019

I am sorry to hear that. We make a solution that removes the need for server software and hardware called Suitcase Teamsync.

I would be happy to reach out on Monday if you are available to troubleshoot your issue. Please PM me with your contact information and we can set up a time to troubleshoot the issue and discuss you options for moving to a different solution (Ours or others).

Report · Jun 17, 2019

Sounds good, I send you a PM.

Report · Jun 14, 2019

https://rightfontapp.com/

Report · Jun 14, 2019

Before suggesting using other font management application for users, I would recommend/suggest clients contact their software vendors for issues that cannot be resolved by standard troubleshooting steps supplied by other users in the Adobe forums. Contacting software manufactures directly, allows the customer to get support and log their issues with them directly. It also gives the Software Support Teams a chance to support to their clients effectively.

Note ---> Both of these users are using software products that are required by their companies in order to activate fonts. The Universal Type Client application requires users to connect to a Type server in order to activate, manage and organize their fonts.

While RightFont might be a great application for some... RightFont does not have features that prohibits users from using fonts due to licensing issues/restrictions and other features offered in our Universal Type Server/Universal Type Client applications.

Report · Jun 15, 2019

Thank you, it seems that RightFont offers a good way to auto-activate and sync fonts in a team, I'll take a look on it.