Can't remove or replace OTF Adobe Caslon Pro

Report · May 13, 2013

Am outputting from InDesign CS4 to Acrobat X for in-house and also commercial service bureau printing.

Several of my products use the Type1 version of Adobe Cason. Several months ago, when I created a PDF for a service bureau, InDesign substitued OpenType versions of the same font (Adobe Caslon Pro instead of the PostScript Aodbe Cason) in one of eight paragraphs in the document. The PDF rendered correctly onscreen and printed correctly on our inhouse laser printers.

But in the paragraph with the OpenType version of the font, quite a few number characters dropped out or printed out blank from our Service Bureau's computer and printer.

No one there noticed this was happening until several thousand pieces had been run off.

When this was brought to my attention, I checked the InDesign file and replaced all instances of Adobe Caslon Pro with Adobe Caslon (the PostScript version). I made another press quality PDF and it printed corrrectly at the service bureau.

Later, tried to manually remove Adobe Caslon Pro. Windows allowed a system administrator to use the Fonts control panel and delete Adobe Caslon Pro.

It allowed us to delete the bold and italic versions of Adobe Caslon Pro but when we tried to delete Adobe Caslon Pro Regular, we were told the font is still in use.

Even when we rebooted in "safe" mode, the control panel gave us the same error.

This is not a debate on the merits of OpenType vs. PostScript. Even if I WANTED to keep using the OpenType version (whcih I don't), I would want to replace Adobe Caslon Pro in my system. Can't even do that because the Regular version is "still in use," even with all applications closed.

How do we get it cleared out?

Report · May 13, 2013

Normally, if some errant application or system function somehow opens and holds open a font file, rebooting should clear the situation.

Perchance are you running some “font manager” on your system? If so, disable that, reboot, and see if you are then able to delete the font.

- Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

Report · Jun 11, 2013

We can't remove or reinstall AdobeCaslonPro Regular, because we get a message "the file is in use by another application and cannot be removed. Try quitting all applications." Our IT staff and I have tried the following, with no result:

As you suggested, cold booting the machine and trying to delete AdobeCaslonPro from the Fonts control panel
AFTER opening Windows Task Manager and making sure NO Adobe applications are running.
Booting the machine in Safe Mode and removing the file from Windows\System\Fonts.
(The Fonts control panel was not available in Safe Mode)
I made sure AdobeCaslonPro OTF is not stored anywhere else on the computer.
I have changed my paragraph styles for all templates in InDesign and Word 2007's normal.dotm template and font themes .xml file to be sure that no style calls for Adobe Caslon Pro. All styles call for the PostScript version (Adobe Caslon).

The only time I see evidence that Adobe Caslon Pro is on this machine is when I try to import Word 2007 files into InDesign CS4. And I get error messages that Adobe Caslon Pro Bold, Italic, or Regular is not available..

I believe that my computer has a fragment of the font stuck in our Windows registry, and the only way to get rid of it will either be edit the registry or completely ERASE the hard drive and re-install all applications and Adobe fonts from scratch. Our IT department is willing to "re-image" my computer, but not take either of these other radical steps. Since the font was probably corrupt for a long time, re-imaging the computer will only re-create the same error. So am stuck answering dialogue boxes and running a thorough preflight to be sure Adobe Caslon Pro is NOT called for in each file. Through preflights aren't always bad.

Report · Jun 14, 2013

Solved it! Turns out ACaslonPro was removed from the Windows Font folder a long time ago. But InDesign kept copies of it when it made "packages" for Service Bureaus, so of course, WIndows thought the font was still in use.

By searching the "C" drive for ACaslonPro, found all remaining instances and with the help of a system administrator, deleted them.

Will remember not to keep fonts folders around in packages we may make (to keep graphics together with the InDesign files).