P: Duplicate Font Styles Appearing

Report · Jul 02, 2012

Hi there,

I recently got the Adobe Cloud subscription and have discovered this problem with the font styles duplicating themselves in Photoshop. They are the same font style, but for some reason they appear multiple times. It gradually gets worse and worse as I continue to work on a file.

This has never happened before in the previous versions of Photoshop.

Here's what it looks like:
Screenshot #1

Then after awhile of working:
Screenshot #2

I am working in OSX Lion on an iMac. I've checked Font Book and any duplicate fonts have been turned "Off". I tried to delete the duplicates and use the fonts in Photoshop again, and this appears to have solved the problem... Temporarily.

It's nothing critical, but it is a tad annoying having to scroll through a huge list of duplicate font styles!

Thanks 🙂
-Christina

Report · Jul 23, 2012

I'm having the very same issue, but it becomes far more critical. After about a half hour of working in Photoshop CS6, the Font Style drop-down in the Character panel has filled with duplicate styles. It's around that time I start having serious problems performing simple move/text/select functions, and Photoshop becomes frustratingly unusable. Quitting/Restarting Photoshop seems to help for a few minutes, but the duplicate styles just add right back up again. I've reinstalled from scratch twice, but the same issue continues.

—Jason P

iMac, PS CS6, OS 10.7.4

Here's a screen shot (in this example, the typeface I'm using is Helvetica Neue (TT)).

Report · Jul 24, 2012

Do you use Universal type client too ? i have the same problem ...

Report · Jul 24, 2012

Howdy Christina, Jason, and Elliot,

It sounds like your font cache has become corrupted. I would suggest checking out this document: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t..., especially step #6, item #4.

If your problem persists after that, please let me know, but I REALLY expect this to fix it.

Thanks,
David

Report · Jul 26, 2012

Hi David. Thanks so much for your help in this—very much appreciated.

For me, it looks like following the instructions you provided did fix the problem, but only temporarily. After scrubbing both caches clean, then restarting, the problem starts up again from scratch. I even un/reinstalled PS-CS6 after the scrub. If it's truly an issue of a font cache corruption, it looks as though the corruption just decides to happen again. What's interesting, though, is that this happens not only on my iMac, but now on my brand new Air, which I switched to in order to use a completely different install of PS-CS6—I still get the beach ball and the ever-increasing font styles list. It's not as debilitating on the Air, for some reason, but on the iMac it ultimately brings things to a slow death.

Any thoughts on how to circumvent this would be fantastic. And again, thanks so much for your help!

Jason

Report · Jul 26, 2012

Howdy Jason,

Hmmm.... Are you using any third party fonts (at all)? I've a sneaking suspicion that a naughty font might be the cause of your woes. Also, what're you running for font management? Something clearly isn't right with your machines; what you're describing sounds like something is really messing with your cache...! 8-(

I'd like to help you get to the bottom of this.
Thanks,
David

Report · Jul 27, 2012

None of the fonts listed are installed? yes, a list of the fonts might be useful for all affected users, to see if there is a common denominator for the problem.

Report · Aug 15, 2012

I'm having the exact same issue on my Mac Pro (PS CS6, OS 10.7.4 ). Anyone have any luck resolving this?

I painstakingly followed all the steps at: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t... but to no avail.

Report · Aug 15, 2012

Howdy Michael,

Did you temporarily see the problem go away after following all the steps? It's been my understanding that this will resolve the issue for most users.

In the case, however, a corrupt or badly-constructed fonts, the issue can quickly return. In such a case, you actually will need to go through your fonts and test which one(s) trigger the problem. A binary search, where you remove half the fonts and test them (clearing the cache each time) is the best/quickest method. Once you identify the font(s) causing the problem and remove them, you should be fine.

There have been multiple requests to posts which fonts you're having trouble with, so we can help each other identify likely culprits. I think this is a GREAT IDEA! From my testing, I've found that a number of old Arabic fonts for Mac are dicey, but I have no mainstream, English font faces which are suspect.

Thanks,
David

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Thanks you so much for your reply David.

When testing fonts, do I need to clear the Photoshop and/or System font caches each time before relaunching Photoshop? I just want to make sure I'm using the best procedure.

Also, I've realized I have fonts install and both the system and user level (although no duplicates.) Should I consolidate all the fonts to one place or the other? Or does that matter?

Thanks!
Michael

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Howdy Michael,

To be safe, I would clear both caches. I mean, it's a fair amount of work to do a binary search, so you might as well make it as complete as possible. For what it's worth, we cannot duplicate this problem using all vanilla fonts, that is only the font set that comes with the operating system plus those installed by Photoshop. As a result, I would definitely test other fonts.

I generally install all my fonts into the system folder, just to be safe, but it shouldn't make a difference if you have no overlap.

Thanks,
David

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Same problem here. No such problems with CS5.
Fonts and font management app unchanged from CS5 to CS6.

Activation of CS6 has introduced this problem.

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Howdy folks,

I have a request of those with this problem. We're having trouble reproducing this internally, so if you get this font problem reliably, could you let us know?

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area and are open to an on-site visit, that would be AWESOME!

If you're in Seattle, LA, or San Diego and are open to an on-site visit, that would be great!

If you're elsewhere, but open to a connect session where you can demo the problem to us over the Internet, that would be good.

If you could at least give us a list of the fonts on your system, that would be very helpful.

Thanks!
David

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Hi David. I'm still having this problem on both my iMac and my Air, though I'll admit I haven't had the time to do the binary font search properly on either, and I'd bet that's likely the source. Still, as a stop-gap measure, I've installed the Font Tester and occasionally run it from the Help menu to clear the font cache once things start slowing down. Kind of a lame fix, but it's gotten me through while I wait for that magical time when I have a day to chase down buggy fonts...

I do happen to be in SF (2nd and Brannan, just a few blocks away) if you or another team member would like to stop by at some point and take a look—that would be fantastic.

Jason

Report · Aug 16, 2012

This problem has now gotten worse and is slowing my computer down like other users have experienced. Trying to perform any task, especially text editing and saving has become painfully slow.

Sometimes when I switch to the move tool and hold down Option to duplicate-drag a text object, I automatically get switched to the Type tool over and over again.

The font style duplication occurs even before I touch any of the layers or text objects when opening the file.

Here is what I've tried (in this order):

============

Step 4: Quit Photoshop and trash Photoshop's font cache.
(as per http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...)

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

Step 6: Delete the system font cache.
(as per http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...)

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

Step 4: Quit Photoshop and trash Photoshop's font cache.
(as per http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...)

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

Removed (Deleted) all User-Installed Fonts.

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

OS-Disabled Duplicate Fonts appearing grey and marked "Off":

Fonts showing these duplicates were removed, according to this list, generated from validating fonts:

I was able to remove all of the greyed out ones, aside from Palatino, which refuses to delete, for some reason.

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

Step 4: Quit Photoshop and trash Photoshop's font cache.
(as per http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...)

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

Step 6: Delete the system font cache.
(as per http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...)

RESULT: Problem persists.

============

Step 4: Quit Photoshop and trash Photoshop's font cache.
(as per http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...)

RESULT: Problem persists.

========================

So, here's something peculiar:

I was working with a file that contained these fonts: Tahoma and Times New Roman, as well as a specialized font "Ball Park Wiener" which showed up as "Missing" as I had removed it earlier from Font Book. I did not substitute it when prompted.

I got the duplication problem.

I change all of the fonts to Arial, then save and close the file. By the way, when I was selecting the text from one paragraph block to change, they all were of one font family (as in, it would display "Tahoma" rather than blank, which would have suggested that there were more than one font).

Opening up the file again, the problem does NOT occur.

I change all of the Arial fonts back to their respective fonts in their locations: Tahoma and Times New Roman, then save and close the file.

I open the file again, but the problem NO LONGER occurs.

The "Missing Font" remained untouched throughout this whole font-swapping process. I tried this in several different ways, even deleting the missing font from the file, substituting it, and then continuing with the other steps listed, but it didn't seem to make a difference if it was there or not. I don't think the custom font is a problem, especially when it wasn't installed on my system anymore.

Also, I did not necessarily close Photoshop itself each time I saved and closed the file.

How weird is that? And how would Tahoma and Times New Roman mess up so bad when it's a default font?

Again, I have neither experienced this problem while using CS5 or previous versions of Photoshop on this computer nor other computer.

Any poking around with this problem would be great!

Thanks,
Christina

Report · Aug 16, 2012

What is the best way to generate a list of fonts on the system? I have a couple ideas, but neither is very elegant.

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Thank you Christina for your thorough description of the issue. My experiences mirror yours, but I doubt I could have been so complete or eloquent in describing them.

Early today I created a new document after quitting Photoshop and deleting its font cache (/Users/[user name]/Library/Caches/Adobe/TypeSupport). I used only helvetica family fonts in the document and had no errors. As soon as I opened another document, the problem came back -- effecting both documents until I again quit Photoshop and deleted its font cache.

Report · Aug 16, 2012

With all User Fonts removed, here is what I have on my system:
http://db.tt/zTnKnbhB (.txt file)

Thanks!

Report · Aug 16, 2012

Haha, thanks Michael! I thought I was typing too much :)

Hopefully it's useful to the developers trying to reproduce the problem.

I likewise have the same occurence where the problem "infects" another file that was otherwise problem-free.

Report · Aug 16, 2012

I'm sure it will be useful.

Say, how did you create that slick list of the fonts on your system? I'd like to do the same, but I'm not sure how to do it other than screen captures.

Report · Aug 16, 2012

The problem shouldn't be directly related to a file, but some system or application state (and once it's started, it won't stop).

Report · Aug 17, 2012

Hi Michael, here's how you can get an exported list of your fonts... It's a bit of a trick:

1) Go to Font Book > File > "Export Fonts..."
Keep the folder name as "Exported Fonts" and save it to your Desktop.

2) Open Terminal and copy-paste the line below and press return:
cd ~/Desktop/Exported\ Fonts; find . -type f | sed -e "s@^\./@@g" > ~/Desktop/Fonts.txt

This pretty much takes the names of the folders and the files in them, then slams them into a .txt. It also does some pretty formatting so everything doesn't have a "./" in front of it.

(I can't take credit for this one—had to ask someone much more technical to get it from files to text!)

Report · Aug 30, 2012

Howdy folks,

This problem should be solved with the 13.0.1 patcher, released today. You can find it at:

Windows:
http://www.adobe.com/support/download...

Mac:
http://www.adobe.com/support/download...

Thanks!
David

Report · Aug 30, 2012

WOOHOO!! Thanks, David! You guys are great.

From what I've tested, so far, so good. 🙂

Report · Aug 30, 2012

Same for me—So far, it seems to be doing the trick. I'm guessing my daily stress just went down 20%, easily. Thanks so much!

Report · Dec 10, 2012

I am having this problem with Mac OSX Mountain Lion and CS6 Premium.
Have patched every update (including update 13.0.1) but I still have this problem.

I also folllowed every step in this article: http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/t...

Is there anyone who could help me with this?

Adobe Community

P: Duplicate Font Styles Appearing

1 Correct answer