Affinity Publisher: How to find and replace missing fonts?

[big smile]

My document says "Open Sans" is missing even though it is installed:

 

When I select any text that has Open Sans, a question mark appears in front of it:

 

How can I make it a regular font that is not missing? Because it's missing, I cannot target the font via Find and Replace. Which is an issue for me, as I have some document wide changes that I need to make. 

 

On this forum post, there's an explanation of how to use Find and Replace to resolve missing fonts. It says to go to Find and Replace > Font Family > Missing Fonts and then select the missing font and replace it.

 

When I do that, Open Sans does not appear on the list of missing fonts:

 

Hence, there is no way for me to select the missing font and replace it. 

[thomaso]

Are possibly two different versions of the font file involved, e.g. from different computers or de-/activated by a separate font manager app?

If not, you could try to reset fonts for Affinity:

• Preferences > Miscellaneous > "Reset Fonts".
• Close APub + launch it with the CTRL key pressed to cause a reset dialog window > there is an option "Reset Font Replacements".

If this doesn't help you could reset the font cache in macOS by booting the mac in "Safe Mode". https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, big smile said:

When I do that, Open Sans does not appear on the list of missing fonts:

That's odd. It works properly for me, on both Windows and macOS. What release of Publisher are you using?

It's also odd, of course, that it says Open Sans is missing, and offers it as a substitution. That could indicate you have some mistakes in your installed fonts, either issues in a specific font or that you have a conflicting set of fonts installed. What version of Open Sans do you have installed on that machine, and on the machine that created the file?

 

[big smile]

18 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Are possibly two different versions of the font file involved, e.g. from different computers or de-/activated by a separate font manager app?

If not, you could try to reset fonts for Affinity:

• Preferences > Miscellaneous > "Reset Fonts".
• Close APub + launch it with the CTRL key pressed to cause a reset dialog window > there is an option "Reset Font Replacements".

If this doesn't help you could reset the font cache in macOS by booting the mac in "Safe Mode". https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/mh21245/mac

Thanks for your help. I tried all these steps but it didn’t work. I assume once I go into Safe Mode, the font cache is automatically cleared, and I don’t need to do anything?

 

16 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

That's odd. It works properly for me, on both Windows and macOS. What release of Publisher are you using?

It's also odd, of course, that it says Open Sans is missing, and offers it as a substitution. That could indicate you have some mistakes in your installed fonts, either issues in a specific font or that you have a conflicting set of fonts installed. What version of Open Sans do you have installed on that machine, and on the machine that created the file?

 

Thanks for your help. I am using Publisher 2.3.1 on MacOs 12.7.2

I am using Open Sans Version 3.000. I'm pretty sure this document has only been ever created and used on this machine. I know a few months back I did a clean reinstall. I am not sure if this document was created before or after the clean reinstall. 

[MEB]

Hi @big smile,
Have you installed the variable font version at some point? Affinity apps currently don't support them.

[thomaso]

19 minutes ago, big smile said:

I assume once I go into Safe Mode, the font cache is automatically cleared, and I don’t need to do anything?

Safe Mode resets it during the boot process, yes, and it also may reset the Affinity font cache (quit Affinity before rebooting) – but I don't know if the "Affinity Fonts Replacements" is sufficiently affected by a macOS font cache reset, I guess that is rather stored in an app preference file and thus maybe worth a try.

As Walt already mentioned: Was this document created or worked before without issues on this computer & with the same fonts installed/activated? Or are/were various versions of this font activated on this or an involved computer?

Can you use Open Sans in a new document?

[big smile]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

As Walt already mentioned: Was this document created or worked before without issues on this computer & with the same fonts installed/activated? Or are/were various versions of this font activated on this or an involved computer?

Can you use Open Sans in a new document?

Thanks for your continual help. I don’t actually recall how the document was created, but I've always worked on it without issues.

I can use Open Sans in a new document without issue.

There is only 1 version of Open Sans installed. I did reformat the system a few months ago. There might have been a different version installed before the reformat, but I don’t recall. 

 

2 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi @big smile,
Have you installed the variable font version at some point? Affinity apps currently don't support them.

It's not a variable version.

[big smile]

I found a fix.

 

Go to Mac OS > Font Book > Open Sans > (right click) > Show in Finder. Then move the Open Sans fonts to another folder.

Now the font is uninstalled, so you can use Find and Replace to search for it, as it will appear under missing fonts. Search for the font, but do not replace anything just yet. Instead, leave the results of the Find panel open. 

Now you can go back to Finder and drag the font back into Font Book to reinstall it. 

Then you can go back to the Find panel in Publisher and go to the replace option and select the font. 

[thomaso]

16 hours ago, big smile said:

I can use Open Sans in a new document without issue.

So it might be a glitch in this specific document (or a different font file used initially).

Workaround:
1. Deactivate Open Sans from your system. (to get it listed in the 'missing fonts')
2. In APub use Find & Replace to temporarily replace it with any other (unique) font.
3. Activate Open Sans.
4. Use F&R to replace the temporary font with the wanted Open Sans.

[kenmcd]

You may have created the document with an earlier version of Open Sans.
The v1 originals and the v3 from Google Fonts have different names internally.
The Full Font Name and the PostScript Name are different - and these are often used to identify a font.
The font name you see in the Affinity font menu is the Font Family Name (for these fonts), and it is the same in both versions.
So it could be confused by the different internal names.
(note: the Affinity font matching is rather dim and should be able figure-out these things).

You could try the v1 original fonts and see how that works.
Download here: http://www.opensans.com/download/open-sans.zip

 

p.s. What is "Open Sans Bold Number Lines" and may I please have a copy of it?

[big smile]

15 hours ago, kenmcd said:

You may have created the document with an earlier version of Open Sans.
The v1 originals and the v3 from Google Fonts have different names internally.
The Full Font Name and the PostScript Name are different - and these are often used to identify a font.
The font name you see in the Affinity font menu is the Font Family Name (for these fonts), and it is the same in both versions.
So it could be confused by the different internal names.
(note: the Affinity font matching is rather dim and should be able figure-out these things).

You could try the v1 original fonts and see how that works.
Download here: http://www.opensans.com/download/open-sans.zip

I think this is what must have happened. I must have had the old V1 version installed. And then after I reformatted my system, I must have installed V3.

 

15 hours ago, kenmcd said:

p.s. What is "Open Sans Bold Number Lines" and may I please have a copy of it?

That's just a custom font file I made, when I was testing out font creation software. But it's identical to the main font.