The "How To Get Rid of Foreign Fonts" Question

[John Neumann]

I searched. No one has come a usable fix as far as I can tell. I don't know how much is a Mac OS or Adobe issue but there MUST be a way to delete/hide fonts from a dropdown menu. I spent a good deal of time deleting foreign fonts from Mac's Font Book but they still showed up in my dropdown list for PS/Illust/InDesign.

[Sheena Kaul]

Moving to Adobe Type‌

[John Neumann]

Moved to the Dead Zone where nothing is answered. Thanks.

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

Notwithstanding your sarcasm about the Adobe Type Forum as being a “Dead Zone where nothing is answered,” a few thoughts:

(1)  No Adobe application has any internal controls that allow the user to selectively hide fonts from the applications' lists of available fonts. In some of the applications, fonts are listed in groups based upon the fonts' internal declaration of language support, but there is no function for disabling fonts either individually or by attribute.

(2)  There are third party “font managers” that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts. If you have such a “font manager” installed, it should do the trick for you.

(3)  MacOS Font Book is not a font manager that would allow selective activation or deactivation of a font in terms of what the Adobe applications see. If you don't actually delete the underlying font files, the Adobe applications still “see” the fonts.

(4)  Assuming you did actually delete the font files that you don't want available and displayed in the applications' list of fonts, there may be a lack of synchronization between the Adobe font name caching mechanism and the reality of what you have installed. You can fix such a problem by exiting all Adobe applications and then searching for and deleting all files with the name AdobeFnt##.lst where ## is a 0 to 2 digit number. The lists of available fonts are regenerated upon executing the applications the next time.

Hopefully this “Dead Zone” answer assists you in resolving your needs.

            - Dov

[wgzn]

i'm so sick of these snarky "non-answers"

prior to the cloud paradigm, i don't recall adobe tools auto-installing a bunch of stuff you COULDN'T remove. if any fonts WERE installed outside of your control. they were in the fonts folder. where you could either self-manage. or use your favorite font managing tool to tidy up your list.

i've gone through font book. and you can disable any non-system, fonts. and that works fine. BUT (as i understand) adobe cc programs now have a pile of various and various language fonts more or less "embedded" in the contents of the programs.

i'm a professional designer. not a hobbyist. i don't get revved up by a mile long list of crappy typefaces.
i have maybe my dozen or so, go-to fonts. but now those are scattered about among whole bunch crap i have no interest in.

: (

[Dov Isaacs]

wayne granzin.

Sorry if you think that my response was “snarky ‘non-answers’” but I gave straight, true, and honest answer to the question posed!

FACT!  Your understanding is absolutely wrong! The Adobe CC applications are not installing any fonts on your system. In fact, the earlier versions of these applications did install fonts. We discontinued any such installation although subscribers to the full Creative Cloud do have optional access to additional fonts via Typekit (the fonts from which are not listed unless the user requests access to specific fonts).

If there is “a mile long list of crappy typefaces” on your system, they were not installed by Adobe's Creative Cloud applications. And any fonts installed by previous versions of the applications in the Creative Suite only installed a limited number of font families such as Adobe Caslon, Adobe Garamond, etc,, certainly not crappy typefaces.

            - Dov

[wgzn]

sorry, i'm kind of a raw nerve on the subject.
spent about three hours last night on forums with a lot of "well, deal with it" answers...

while i accept that maybe i'm incorrect about the SOURCE of all the extra, unwanted fonts. but your answer is still a non-answer.
i have manually gone into fontbook and disabled every font it will let me. and even run "monolingual" and still, in my adobe tools. there are piles and piles of asian and arabic fonts that are bulking up my menu.

there are dozens of search results out there but not a single one gives an effective way to remove them.
there are some hacky thing's i've found. one was removing folders within the programs in the "show package contents" section of the adobe tools. i think the folders had  an ".lproj" or something extension? i tried that. but after i did, illustrator would no longer launch. even after putting the folders back. i still had to uninstall and reinstall.

any other suggestions.

[Dov Isaacs]

Sorry, but I answered the question as to how eliminate display of those fonts. Re-read my original response and you will see:

There are third party “font managers” that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts. If you have such a “font manager” installed, it should do the trick for you.

Any font that is installed on your system, even if hidden with Fontbook on MacOS shows up in Adobe Applications unless you use a font manager per what I originally described. That is the answer. It works. That is what other professional users of Adobe applications under MacOS do to selectively show or hide fonts, whether bundled with the operating system, Microsoft Office, any other application which installs fonts, or even fonts that the user installs themselves. (We cannot coordinate with Fontbook because Apple has chosen not to coordinate with applications that support font managers – to anticipate you next question! )

        - Dov

[evanw47570165]

Dov

Just a suggestion for Adobe's next upgrade.

What fonts are enabled or not or that they are system fonts is not the problem.

The problem is we have a huge list of fonts we don't use showing in Adobe's suite of products.

Couldn't Adobe design a small modification in the font lists (stored in preferences) that only shows the users approved fonts. It could be a simple check button in front of all fonts. Check if you want it displayed, unchecked if you don't. With a master check button to display all fonts or preferred fonts.

Cheers Evan

[Dov Isaacs]

Evan,

You present a very interesting idea. I don't quite know what you mean by “Adobe's next upgrade” but I assume that you are referring to the next versions of any and all Adobe software that provides the ability to choose fonts to be used for formatting text.

Such a feature is anything but “a small modification in the font lists (stored in preferences.” In fact, there are no lists of fonts stored in the Adobe applications' preferences. What is displayed as the list of available fonts is totally dynamic based on the fonts available at any moment in the system fonts directories, special font directories solely for use with the particular application(s), and in the case of InDesign and Illustrator, in the open document's “package font directory.”

What you are actually suggesting is a built-in font manager! At one time, Adobe did develop and market a font manager, Adobe Type Manager, aka ATM (not to be confused with the automated teller machines at the bank). For various business reasons, Adobe discontinued development and support of ATM, not least of which was the vary specific needs of different customer groups in terms of how they wanted to manage fonts, in terms of how to group, where to store, access privileges, etc. The decision was made to let third parties, with more direct interests in serving this particular specialty market, to write and market font management software for both Windows and MacOS with Adobe providing interfaces for such font managers to seamlessly work with the Creative Suite and now the Creative Cloud applications. At this point, there are a number of such third party font managers available for you to investigate and potentially license. Since these third party font managers seem to meet our customers' needs, it is exceptionally unlikely that Adobe would reenter this marketplace.

          - Dov

[John Neumann]

Can you share with us in this thread what font managing (specifically related to ignoring or non-display of unwanted fonts) programs or procedures other Adobe staff are actually using in real-world scenarios?

In the year or so since asking this question here I am disappointed in the attention that Adobe has given this subject. Every other feature of CC has a wealth of options that can be toggled off and on.

My office shares roughly 900 fonts. We don't use all of them of course but wading through even the ones we wish to keep is tedious. Clicking the ones we KNOW we do not wish to have is impractical.

The solution we have come up with in the meantime is to grumble and cuss when these fonts annoy us.

[Dov Isaacs]

I think you would be better served by asking actual InDesign customers which font management tools they use and the assets and liabilities of each. They would be a better source of information about this.

Note that InDesign is no different than any other Adobe application (or for that matter any other graphics art software package that we know of) in terms of attempting to supply or apply some type (pun not intended) of font management solution. Years ago, when we offered ATM (Adobe Type Manager), it was very clear that no one font management approach or solution was amenable to a majority of users and that whatever we offered would conflict with solutions that others wanted; as such, we left it to third parties and their customers to define font management products and solutions.

          - Dov

[Rick Meikle]

Late to the party here, but the problem of unwanted fonts littering font menus has persisted for many years. It is a reasonable request that Adobe allow users to deactivate the non western (“foreign”) fonts that Adobe includes in various application packages. Or, to at least hide them in font menus. It is also a reasonable request that Apple do the same with their non western fonts. Forcing those fonts to appear in font menus is a real disservice to users who have no use for them. (Incidentally, Suitcase Fusion has no control over any of them, as far as I can tell. In fact, it doesn’t even see the non western Adobe fonts. I used to lobby Extensis, the developer of Suitcase, to find a solution, but to no avail. It seems like they could do what Font Book does with a “smart collection” a la the clever remedy offered by dfarness.) One would think that many Apple and Adobe employees, especially designers, have been squeaky wheels all along. It’s an odd disconnect.

[Cobaltchrysalis]

What are these third party "font managers"that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts?

I have the most recent Suitcase Fusion and there does not seem to be a way to do it there. What might someone suggest to hide/deactivate all the unneeded fonts showing in the dropdown character windows of many Creative Cloud apps (photoshop, illustrator, indesign, etc)

Thanks

[bikebone]

Re answer 7 by Div:

Ah yeah, using a font manager will do the trick? FontExplorer for instance has all «System/Library/Fonts» greyed out. That's the snarky PingFang Hiragani Pastrami variants that Adobe apps so totally uncleverly display in the «activated font» listing…

HOW do I get rid of those? And from the System folder, without messing up OS X?

Please dream on and let us know about another «feasible» solution of yours, thank you! This is not helpful!!! You are just wasting people's time, sorry.

[Dov Isaacs]

If you have disabled the fonts with FontExplorer and you are still seeing the fonts in InDesign, perhaps there is an issue with FontExplorer. The FontExplorer plug-in to InDesign is what controls what InDesign shows in its font lists, not Adobe. Rather than claiming that we are “just wasting people's time” and assuming you have the latest versions of FontExplorer properly installed on your system, perhaps you can discuss this with the folks who license FontExplorer at <FontExplorer® X Pro - Font Management Software & Free Trial >.

          - Dov

[DKTR Jeroen]

Please read, especially my 2 posts in this thread.

[Mikersson]

And I want to get ride of Adobe Arabic that all the time I open a new document, start writing from Right to hand. I have changed the settings before to open a document and restarted Adobe but Still the same thing...

[Zaid Al Hilali]

Changing InDesign or Illustrator defaults is possible so as next time you create new document, you will have your preferred font handy. Here is a post for changing Illustrator defaults…

Re: hot to change the default type tool

Although you mentioned that you tried this, but InDesign is much easier than Illustrator, you simply close all open InDesign documents, change your settings, select new font, change font and object formatting, and these new settings will stick so next time you create a new document, you will find your preferred font handy.

[DKTR Jeroen]

Just locate and trash those useless fonts as I described here.

[DKTR Jeroen]

Clean out your user level font folders first HD > Library > Fonts folder (All Users) first. You can move them to another folder/disk and make them available in your font manager in case you might need them. Next Check your user font folder in HD > User > Library > Fonts. Remove & relocate them. For system level fonts check here: Font Management in OS X You easily can remove most of the unwanted non Western fonts. Some of the Asian / Hebrew fonts are required for the system. And FontExplorer 5 for instance relies on the Apple Symbols font for the rating stars, iTunes uses an Asian font for showing the rating stars.

Lots of foreign fonts are also stored in the application's contents. Check here for foreign fonts in AI & ID:

• Applications > Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 > Adobe Illustrator.app > Package Contents > Required > PDFL Resource > Resource > Fonts
• Applications > Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 > Adobe Illustrator.app > Package Contents > Required > Fonts
• Applications > Adobe InDesign CC 2015 > Resources > Required > fonts
• Applications > Adobe InDesign CC 2015 > Adobe InDesign CC 2015.app > Package Contents > MacOS > Required > Fonts

I archived all fonts in case I might need them to update the apps: select them, compress them into an archive and remove the uncompressed fonts, keep the Archive.zip where you found your unwanted fonts. Keep Finder windows open and test your application. All good? Move on to the next.

As for Photoshop I'm not sure — still looking where Adobe Heiti, Adobe Fan Heiti and Myriad Arabic are stored. I suspected the files in the Deep_Font folder inside the Package Contents but.. no.

This font thinning treatment really shortened my font menu list for so much easier browsing and finding the fonts I actually need and want to use.

I think its really sweet of Apple, Adobe etc to include all these language support and fonts I dont need. I really think this should be an optional install option before installing apps or system and easy access in case you chose NO and still might need them.

Need Arabic / Chinese fonts?  [   ] YES  [ • ] NO

Need Western / Latin fonts?   [ • ] YES  [   ] NO

But maybe you do visit Arabic or Chinese websites every now and then. No..?  [   ] YES  [ • ] NO

😉

[Fischtick]

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this, but I was excited to find a feature on the drop-down font menu in Indesign called "Filter" with a star next to it. Simply star the fonts you want to see and that you regularly use, and when you click on the star next to "Filter",  it will only show those fonts in the drop down. Obviously it only helps the visual clutter, but that was, for me, the most bothersome thing.

[dfarness]

I've been struggling with this too.  My most recent solution is:

open Font Book

select the "English Smart Collection"

Highlight one of the fonts and then use the "Select All" command

now click on "All Fonts"

All the fonts will be displayed but only the english fonts will be highlighted

Carefully scroll through right-clicking and disableing all non-english fonts that will allow it

Do not left-click or the english fonts will no longer be highlighted

If you want webdings and ornaments you will need to leave those enabled

Hope this helps someone

[taviavanisle]

Dfarness your solution worked beautifully! I couldn't believe it. I did as you said, went to my font book and clicked on English under the "smart collection". The foreign fonts were grayed out, I right clicked as you said and disabled or deleted and they actually have all disappeared from my font menu in inDesign by only getting rid of the first one. They're actually way down at the bottom menu, but out of site and not mixed in with the english fonts. There was one annoying family that was left "STIK... "  I got rid of that by clicking on "all fonts" and remove, I then had to enter my system password and it actually got rid of it entirely. The foreign fonts are disabled but that method wasn't available to them for some reason. This is good enough for me and without having to pay for a font management system.

[Indyboosler]

"(2)  There are third party “font managers” that run under MacOS that coordinate with the Adobe creative applications to allow selective activation or deactivation of fonts. If you have such a “font manager” installed, it should do the trick for you." Might one of those be Suitcase Fusion?