Expert: Roy Wilhelm - 1/19/2009

Question
When I open my document I keep getting a message saying that one or more
fonts i am using cannot be found. Is this just a mistake? The fonts in
question are both available on Microsoft word as well, although when I search
my computer I cannot find them. After saying the font will be substituted, the
font still will look the same, and their is no pink highlighting to denote an
unavailable font. I am worried that if I send this to the printers they will not
be able to print because they won't have the font available.

Answer
Are you using font management software such as Extensis Suitcase or Adobe Type Manager? This type of software really helps with issues like you're describing.

What happens when you go to (in Indesign) Type>Find Font? Are there fonts indicated as missing?

Not sure how familiar you are with InDesign but if you have the document in Preview mode (when the pasteboard is gray instead of white), the pink highlighting does not work. Make sure you're in Normal mode and then check for missing fonts.

Sometimes you'll get the missing font warning when text is designated as a certain weight (italic, bold, bold condensed) of a font that does not have that weight available. So the font will <i>look</i> correct and there won't be any pink highlighting but if you select the offending text and look in the Character window you'll see that the weight designation is in brackets (I believe) like this: [italic] or this <italic>.

I hope I was helpful...