Font problem?

[erikvanderwal]

Hi guys,

I am working on a brochure and I switched to my Mac with the beta macOS Catalina. I am not sure if the problem if MacOS or Affinity related. Maybe both. It seems that when I open the file the fonts used (which are installed) can't be seen by Affinity Publisher (nor designer and Photo). Also the spaces of the text are replaced by squares. (Not my design :P)

Did anyone have this issue before?
Erik

[erikvanderwal]

I tried to install the fonts on multiple font managers (Apple Font Book and RightFont), but no success. tried to see the fonts in other applications like Apple's Pages, but I'm not sure if that app allows custom fonts. If so: Other apps don't see the fonts either.. In that case it's not Affinity related, but MacOS related.

[erikvanderwal]

This attached screen is also strange: The missing font is called "Orbitron". Not .LastResort. It looks like a class or something? Is this screen as it should be?

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, erikvanderwal said:

fonts used (which are installed) can't be seen by Affinity Publisher (nor designer and Photo). Also the spaces of the text are replaced by squares. (Not my design :P)

Possibly your installed font file (not its name) is different to the one of the designer? For instance different year or type, as I experienced occasionally.

At least the shown font seems to force text overflow for both text frames which might mean it is not the font used by the designer.
Do you in character panel see a ? before the font name if you select text? Or see a "Missing" font or "Unsupported Characters Used" in Font Manager window?

You could try to reset the font database in Affinity (prefs > misc) and/or de-activate / re-activate the font in your system or font manager.

[erikvanderwal]

Thanks Thomaso!

I tried your suggestions. No success. I ment the squares/boxes in the screenshot were not in my initial design.. Hahaha

I have a ? before the font name. Actually I designed it on another Mac with the same Font library, but even when I make a textfield and force the (activated) font to Affinity (RightFont Manager can change fonts within the app to Affinity) the font will appear as "? Font name" .

So the font IS activated, but the app doesn't see it. And probably other apps don't see them either..

Hard one to tackle.. I guess it's something with Catalna's new user rights on the directories.. I contacted Right Font app guys too.. Maybe they have more feedback regarding this issue. It's still a Beta OS. So maybe It's a bug.. 

Edited August 6, 2019 by erikvanderwal

[garrettm30]

The fact that the font was saved (or that Publisher thought it was saved) as LastResort, which is the system fallback font, makes me think this may be a Catalina/Publisher compatibility issue. I'm not sure on that, but that is my guess. If you are able to try the same file on Mojave or earlier, it might be informative.

[erikvanderwal]

Thanks Garret! I will dive into this. I will update here as soon as I know more.

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, erikvanderwal said:

The missing font is called "Orbitron".

Orbitron is a free font from The League of Moveable Type. You can download it from here.

[erikvanderwal]

I know. I've got that font installed , but Affinity doesn't 'see' the font. The font itself isn't the problem.

[Alfred]

3 minutes ago, erikvanderwal said:

I've got that font installed , but Affinity doesn't 'see' the font.

My apologies. I obviously didn’t read your OP carefully enough! 

Edit: For what little it’s worth, Affinity Designer on iPad allows me to use all four weights of Orbitron.

[erikvanderwal]

Hahaha! No problem Alfred! It came from a good place. 

[Alfred]

54 minutes ago, Alfred said:

For what little it’s worth, Affinity Designer on iPad allows me to use all four weights of Orbitron.

Orbitron also behaves as expected in the Windows versions of the Affinity apps.

[erikvanderwal]

I see all not-system-font act the same. Not only Orbitron. I guess it's OS related. Probably Catalina is the bad guy here..

[padura]

hi, on Hing Sierra I can use all the wights of Orbitron without any problems.

[thomaso]

@erikvanderwal, the font name mentioned in Font Manager as ".LastResort" starts with a dot. Those dot files on mac are invisible files and used by system or apps – not as fonts. That increases the chance that your issue is caused by the macOS (and not by Affinity). You can toggle the visibility of the dot files in Finder by pressing comd-shift-dot.

If you want to experience your macOS beta you could delete the system font cache files, which are spread over various folders. They can get corrupted and become created if needed in case they don't exist. Since you are in a system beta you probably can not be sure in which way the font caches in that beta do influence other things – so deleting the font caches can result in unexpected behavior, too. This article describes the steps for a former macOS. Usually terminal commands don't change between systems (or they simply don't react any more). 

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-clear-font-corruption-in-os-x-with-these-terminal-commands/

 

[erikvanderwal]

Waaaah! Thomaso! You are the best! I don't know what I did, but I added those lines to the terminal and it works like a sharm.

Thanks again. Really happy!
Erik

[thomaso]

Oh, that's good, thank you for your feedback.
Your success prevents me from mentioning that in macOS beta a font issue might be content related if certain words had been used like "geheime spionagoperatie"

[ConnectCreative]

I have a similar issue and believe it's Catalina at fault (or rather, Publisher working with Catalina). I have a Publisher document on my Mac running Mojave that uses the Lato font family. All good. When I open it on another Mac running a fresh install of Catalina beta, Publisher states that certain weights are not installed (but they are, they're exactly the same fonts from the same source).

It looks like some of the text has moved slightly as well - its a very complex 100 page product catalogue with tables and all sorts but they should be identical on both Macs.

Anyone else have the same issue please or able to reproduce?

[erikvanderwal]

1 minute ago, ConnectCreative said:

I have a similar issue and believe it's Catalina at fault (or rather, Publisher working with Catalina). I have a Publisher document on my Mac running Mojave that uses the Lato font family. All good. When I open it on another Mac running a fresh install of Catalina beta, Publisher states that certain weights are not installed (but they are, they're exactly the same fonts from the same source).

It looks like some of the text has moved slightly as well - its a very complex 100 page product catalogue with tables and all sorts but they should be identical on both Macs.

Anyone else have the same issue please or able to reproduce?

I removed the beta and installed the official version now. All problems solved here.

[ConnectCreative]

2 hours ago, erikvanderwal said:

I removed the beta and installed the official version now. All problems solved here.

OK, thanks for confirming that. I may hold out to see if future betas fix the issue. Given Catalina is due to drop pretty soon I hope this is fixed - either by Apple or Affinity, as it simply means we can't use Affinity software on the next Mac OS, which is a pretty big deal!

[erikvanderwal]

24 minutes ago, ConnectCreative said:

Given Catalina is due to drop pretty soon I hope this is fixed 

Catalina is already released..

[ConnectCreative]

2 minutes ago, erikvanderwal said:

Catalina is already released..

...well so it is! Didn't realise. In that case, this is kind of pressing now.

[erikvanderwal]

3 minutes ago, ConnectCreative said:

...well so it is! Didn't realise. In that case, this is kind of pressing now.

Hahaha! Go for it! Enjoy your weekend!