Expert: Amy - 12/12/2007

Question
Hi, Amy ...

I've been experiencing a problem with missing swatch libraries in Illustrator
10.0.3 ... I have read an answer that you gave previously to another user,
which I have copied & inserted here (because I would like to ask you to clarify
something in your answer):

====================
If you use a font management utility:
1. Quit Illustrator.
2. Disable your font management utility.
3. Start Illustrator, and see if the swatch libraries appear.
4. If the libraries reappear, reenable the font management control panel and
use it to troubleshoot for damaged fonts. Turn all fonts off first, then turn
them on 10 at a time, restarting Illustrator after each group of ten until the
swatches go missing again. Throw out the bad font when you find it.
====================

OK -- SO ... I have a couple of questions.
1 -- What is a FONT MANAGEMENT UTILITY?  I use FontAgentPRO, but I
always have called that a PROGRAM, rather than a UTILITY.  Is it, in fact, a
UTILITY?
2 -- IF FontAgentPRO is my font management utility, you recommend
DISABLING it.  How do I do THAT?

I am SO frustrated by the missing swatches!  I cannot afford to pay someone
to correct this problem for me, but am pretty much terrified that I will
permanently mess up my system -- which is the heart of my design shop.

OH -- One further question, if you don't mind:
-- If the swatch libraries only recently went missing, is it safe to assume that
a RECENTLY ACQUIRED font is the corrupt culprit?  So that maybe I can just
begin working backwards, chronologically in the testing of my fonts rather
than start at the alphabetical beginning of my 900+ font collection?

THANK YOU in advance for any insight!

--Pam

Answer
Hi Pam.

Did you try re-creating your Adobe preferences file?
1 - Quit AI
2 - Locate the file AIprefs on your computer and drag it to the desktop
3 - Restart Illustrator - a new AIprefs is created.
If the swatches are there, great! You can throw away the copy of AIprefs that you moved to the desktop. If the problem is not solved, you can quit AI and move the AIprefs file back to where it was. Overwrite the new AIprefs file when prompted.

Any font management program that runs all the time in the background is a utility application. A utility is just a type of application. They are called utilities because they provide a service to your entire computer much like the gas company and electric company provide a utility service to your entire home, I guess. Sometimes the words application and utility and tool are used interchangeably.

How do you disable it? You didn't mention if you were Mac or PC... but you pretty much just turn it off, I guess. Can you just open FontAgent and turn off all fonts except your system fonts? Same difference.

If they recently went missing, yes, it is usually a recently acquired font... but sometimes even old fonts can become corrupt. If you have 900 fonts loaded and ACTIVE, you really need to pare it down using your FontAgent Pro. Turn off about 700 of them. I don't think that Illustrator can handle more than that. Other people will tell you otherwise but I like to keep it to around 250 active fonts.

Hope this helps!
Amy