Finding Missing Fonts

[Randolph]

I don't seem to be able to find missing fonts with find/replace. I can select missing fonts in the "Find and Replace" panel with the ⚙︎>Format menu, but "Find" never actually  finds the fonts. I can get "Find" to work with fonts that are not missing.

Is there some step I haven't done?

[Pauls]

I think that's because they have actually been substituted with another font. One sneaky way would be to choose a unique font in the font replaqcments options when opening the document. Then using find and replace to change that unique font.

[Randolph]

"Locate" in the font manager will find them; the regular find command doesn't.

[Spencer Yang]

Sorry for replying to such an old thread, but I'm running into the same issue in the latest version of Affinity Publisher (2.6.3).

When I open a document with missing fonts, I can clearly see them listed under the Find and Replace > Format > Font menu. However, when I actually try to "Find" them, nothing is detected. The function works fine when I search for fonts that are not missing, but it doesn't seem to detect missing fonts at all.

I also tried the workaround mentioned in Pauls‘s post: substituting the missing font with a unique font using the Font Manager, and then trying to find that new font via Find and Replace. Unfortunately, that didn’t work either.

Is there something I might be missing? Or is this a known bug?

Any help or updated advice would be appreciated!

Thanks you!

[Hangman]

Hi @Spencer Yang,

This is working for me...

Could you perhaps upload a sample document so we can take a look?

[Spencer Yang]

Hello @Hangman,

Thank you for your reply!
Sure, no problem. I’ve created a stripped-down version of the original file since the original contains some confidential content. The issue still remain in the simplified version, so it should still be a good example.

In the document, the three fonts "Figue-Regular", "OpenSans-Bold", and "OpenSans-Medium" all show as missing on my system. While the Font Manager is able to locate them, trying to search for any of them using Find and Replace > Format > Font returns no results.

I also tried substituting any of the missing fonts with "Helvetica" using the Font Manager, then searched for "Helvetica" via Find and Replace, still nothing was found.

Please let me know if the sample document helps or if you need any other info. Thank you again!

Example.afpub

[Hangman]

Hi @Spencer Yang,

Many thanks for the file...

It looks as though a Text Style has, or at least, had to exist in the document before a standard Find and Replace will work. Therefore, with your particular document, if you create three Text Styles, one for each missing font, Find and Replace will function properly.

I'm unsure, however, whether that is the expected behaviour or a bug.

[Spencer Yang]

Hello @Hangman,

Thank you so much! It works perfectly!

This issue has been bothering me for a long time and made me hesitate to fully switch to Affinity. You've saved me a lot of trouble.

If this is a bug, I really hope it gets fixed soon though.

Thanks again!

[Hangman]

Hi @Spencer Yang,

That's no trouble at all, I'm glad that resolved the problem.

Hopefully, someone from the Serif team can confirm whether this is expected behaviour or a bug, and if the latter, log it accordingly.

[Alfred]

19 hours ago, Hangman said:

It looks as though a Text Style has, or at least, had to exist in the document before a standard Find and Replace will work. Therefore, with your particular document, if you create three Text Styles, one for each missing font, Find and Replace will function properly.

I'm unsure, however, whether that is the expected behaviour or a bug.

This feels like a bug. I think most users would expect a standard F&R to find any specified piece of text if it’s present, regardless of whether there are (or have ever been) any Text Styles in the document.

[Hangman]

Just now, Alfred said:

This feels like a bug. I think most users would expect a standard F&R to find any specified piece of text if it’s present, regardless of whether there are (or have ever been) any Text Styles in the document.

That would be my assumption and expectation as well, I just have no way of knowing for sure...