I recently updated to Adobe Illustrator 29.3.1, and I can no longer auto-activate the fonts used in my files, even with the plugin installed. I suspect the issue is happening because now Illustrator only requests a missing font only if I edit the text.
As a temporary workaround, I’ve been saving the files in an older version of the software (Illustrator CC) and unchecking the PDF compatibility, but this adds a lot of extra work.
Does anyone know a definitive solution to this issue?
Hello Luiz, thank you for your post and welcome to the forum
Does auto-activation work when you try to edit the text in the updated Illustrator, triggering the missing font request?
Hi Yuriy, thank you for the welcome message!
Unfortunately, editing the texts does not activate the fonts – even after a few seconds. And I have to star guessing where the missing fonts are being used.
I noticed that now Illustrator displays the following message in the font alert: ‘Preview only: the text isn’t editable’. Additionally, when using the ‘Packaging’ function, the non-activated fonts are not saved in the ‘Fonts’ folder.
Through testing, I discovered that when saving in ‘Legacy’ format and unchecking ‘PDF compatilble file’, when opening the file again, the message remains the usual: ‘Substituted with default font’ and the fonts activate a few seconds after the file is opened.
Thank you for the quick reply Luiz
Sounds like Illustrator updated their approach to font cacheing and prioritised dealing with missing fonts using its internal logic, which isn’t ideal to say the least
Will need to think on what can be done on our end, but for now it seems unlikely we’ll be able to intervene in this updated process
I suspected it might be an issue related to Illustrator. I just tested the RightFont app and didn’t encounter any issues.
When opening the .ai file, besides Illustrator’s missing fonts alert, the RightFont app displays its own dialog box where I can activate the requested fonts. This way, by the time Illustrator finishes opening the file, the fonts are already activated by me. It’s a less automatic process than FontBase, but it worked with Illustrator’s new mechanics.
You might not approve this post since I mention a competitor—and that’s totally fine! But I wanted to share this experiment to help
