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Font Won't Show Up In Word

I downloaded, installed, and verified a new font and it still doesn't show up in Word. I tried opening it in Libraries and dragging it to one of the font folders (Fun) and it wouldn't show up in Word through that folder either.

If someone knows how to enable it so it show up on Word that would be great.

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 9, 2014 7:10 PM

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Posted on Dec 19, 2017 10:01 AM

My problem was that fonts I had previously used in Word were no longer showing. I don't know if the cause was upgrading to High Sierra or not, but it was after that I noticed the problem. I followed the advice to boot into safe mode and then reboot, and they were back.

Thanks

31 replies

Jan 30, 2018 9:34 AM in response to lauradel Collins

That is odd. Booting into Safe Mode and back removes Font Book's database. A corrupt FB database is usually the cause of a font showing up in some apps, but not others.


Try these steps:


Close all apps, particularly Font Book. Go to the Library folder of your user account. Open the Preferences folder. Put these two files in the trash.


com.apple.FontBook.plist

com.apple.FontRegistry.user.plist


You many not find both. It depends on whether or not you've deactivated any fonts with Font Book.


From an administrator account, open the Terminal app and enter the following command. You can also copy/paste it from here into the Terminal window:


sudo atsutil databases -remove


Terminal will then ask for your admin password. As you type, it will not show anything, so be sure to enter it correctly.


This command removes all font cache files. Both for the system and the current logged in user account. After running the command, close Terminal and immediately restart your Mac.

Feb 22, 2018 9:52 AM in response to Kurt Lang

I tried that Terminal trick… and it deleted several fonts including Times New Roman. Fortunately FontBook makes it easy to reinstall.


I'm having issues with a third-part OTF font not showing up in Word, too. This is a font I've had for years and was showing up in Word just a couple months ago. It is suddenly, after the last update, not available.

Feb 22, 2018 11:46 AM in response to shy_lightning

I tried that Terminal trick… and it deleted several fonts including Times New Roman.

It didn't. The command only removes cache data, not fonts.

Fortunately FontBook makes it easy to reinstall.

Which means they were never missing since Font Book can't reinstall anything. There were still on the drive.

I'm having issues with a third-party OTF font not showing up in Word, too. … It is suddenly, after the last update, not available.

Since it was working before, we can presume there's nothing wrong with the font. Which version of Office are you using? If it's Office 2016, the apps no longer maintain their own font cache.


For Office 2011, the location is:


~/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Preferences/Office 2011/Office Font Cache


The tilde ~ means your user account, not the root Library folder. With all Office 2011 apps closed, put the file Office Font Cache from the above location in the trash. Launch any Office 2011 app and it will build a new font cache file.


Not that this may help, but it's a simple place to start.


Also, and I mention this because a lot of folks don't know it, any fonts you activate after Word is already running will not show up in the app. You have to close Word and relaunch it. You'd think MS would have fixed this by now. It's the only professional app I've seen with this behavior. The rest all recognize fonts you open and close on the fly.

Feb 22, 2018 1:40 PM in response to Kurt Lang

The fonts were entirely gone off my computer—didn't show up in the font folders at all, and were grayed out in FontBook. I had to re-download all the fonts (oddly, they were system fonts that were deleted).


I'm using the subscription version of Office, and the font was available until the most recent update. Here's a strange tale for you… I'll be interested to see what you make of it.


This is a third-party font I purchased years (15?) and several computers ago. The font file seems to have disintegrated (for lack of a better term), randomly corrupted. I had the original font file saved on an external hard drive and thought to re-install it from that. Nope. It came up with this message in FontBook: "1 serious error found. Do not install."


Anyhow, I deleted those files, cleared the cache again, and bought the font again. The newly purchased font is showing up just fine in Word and everywhere else. I wonder… was the old file somehow no longer compatible?

Feb 22, 2018 1:54 PM in response to shy_lightning

The fonts were entirely gone off my computer—didn't show up in the font folders at all, and were grayed out in FontBook. I had to re-download all the fonts (oddly, they were system fonts that were deleted).

I don't know what happened there, but the command given above won't delete fonts. And the OS itself won't let any app, not even one of its own, do such a thing in the System folder. Not while SIP is enabled. The only exception is an OS upgrade or update where each has to give itself permission to remove, add, or alter files.


I'd be concerned there is file corruption across the entire drive. That is, cross-linked data. The cache file was removed, but was also incorrectly cross-linked to a font. So, both disappeared when that would never normally happen.


From 15 years ago, that would likely have been a Type 1 PostScript font. Those still work, so that itself wouldn't have been the problem. Since Font Book flagged it as having a serious error, it was likely damaged at some point. Not that Font Book's warnings are usually worth a hill of beans. You can particularly ignore any yellow caution warnings it throws out - always.

Feb 28, 2018 8:15 PM in response to Kurt Lang

All my fonts get the same error message with the warning to not use the font, that it could crash the computer. Many of the fonts were recently downloaded, and many were from the same sources as fonts which are currently in use and in the Font Book. What kind of fonts may I use? Should I try to use one of the thousands of fonts on my computer which used to work? I’m at a loss and miss having new fonts.

Mar 1, 2018 7:44 AM in response to SuzanL

All my fonts get the same error message with the warning to not use the font, that it could crash the computer.

If these are yellow caution warnings from Font Book, ignore them. The one and only time caution warnings from FB mean anything is if it's telling you a font conflicts with another.


If they're red warnings, the fonts are likely damaged and should not be used. Why they would be when obtained from the same source as the others you use is a slightly confusing.


But, that depends on where you get them from. If it's Adobe, Linotype or other vendors known for quality fonts, then it's unlikely to be the fonts. At least, not at the source server. They may be getting damaged during transfer.


If you mean an aggregate site of free fonts, such as 1001freefonts.com, then all bets are off. They don't check the quality of anything there. They just load up the site with free fonts, that come from wherever. Testing is probably limited to, "Yup. It shows up when I add it to the system. Put it on the site." So, FB may be finding errors with any number of free fonts it doesn't like. However, that comes back to yellow caution tags. These "errors" are commonly nothing to worry about. Like having old data tags. That doesn't make them bad, they just have deprecated data in them.


Some such sites offer fonts which are not free, but are copies of commercial fonts. Lots of places that offer free font downloads unknowingly (I presume) have commercial, cost fonts on them. The better sites ensure what they're going to add aren't stolen commercial fonts. They don't want to get sued out of existence.

What kind of fonts may I use?

There's all kinds you can use. See the list of supported font types in my article, Font Management in macOS. Click on the link for section 15.


I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

Mar 1, 2018 10:20 AM in response to Kurt Lang

I'll check out the article. Thank you.


The fonts are from many different sources, most commercial, from DVDs mostly. The Free Fonts were all usable in the past, but became unusable when I installed Mac OS 10.12. Some had been installed in Font Book and disappeared. Could Font Book be corrupted, and if so, how do I get a clean copy without installing a new operating system?


Thanks again.

Mar 1, 2018 10:43 AM in response to SuzanL

Upgrading the macOS over any older version commonly corrupts Font Book's database. Then you see issues like that. Such as, Font Book shows the font in its list and says it's active, but you can't see the font in most, or any of your apps.


Did you try the steps for resetting Font Book earlier in this topic? That's usually all it takes to fix such problems. Here they are again:


Close all apps, particularly Font Book. Go to the Library folder of your user account. Open the Preferences folder. Put these two files in the trash.


com.apple.FontBook.plist

com.apple.FontRegistry.user.plist


You many not find both. It depends on whether or not you've deactivated any fonts with Font Book.


From an administrator account, open the Terminal app and enter the following command. You can also copy/paste it from here into the Terminal window:


sudo atsutil databases -remove


Terminal will then ask for your admin password. As you type, it will not show anything, so be sure to enter it correctly.


This command removes all font cache files. Both for the system and the current logged in user account. After running the command, close Terminal and immediately restart your Mac.


Another known issue that's been around since El Capitan is there are five OS supplied fonts that simply do not show up in Apple's apps. Six now in High Sierra. From my article:


The five (now six) fonts that will not work properly in El Capitan or Sierra (Athelas.ttc, Charter.ttc, Marion.ttc, Seravek.ttc and SuperClarendon.ttc) continue to be a problem in High Sierra. The issue was momentarily fixed in Sierra, but they went missing again as of 10.12.2. These five fonts remain in limbo with High Sierra. Iowan Old Style.ttc has joined this list in High Sierra.


When I first tested the original five known problem fonts upon High Sierra's initial release, renaming the fonts still worked. One of the recent updates to High Sierra caused renaming the fonts to stop working. It made me wonder if removing the buried .ATSD and .fontinfo data still worked.


I booted into Recovery mode to turn SIP off, then removed all of the info data for those fonts. Nothing! Not after a restart, clearing font caches, or renaming the fonts on top of removing the data info. None of Apple's apps will recognize these six fonts as being on the system. Microsoft Office, Adobe's and everybody else's software does. Just not Apple's.


At this time, the only fix is to copy these fonts from Yosemite and completely replace the High Sierra versions. That is, if you need to use these six particular fonts in Pages, TextEdit, or whatever Apple software you're using.

Mar 1, 2018 1:28 PM in response to SuzanL

Are these cost fonts, or are they free fonts I can download to look at? If the latter, could you please provide links to two or three of them? Thanks.


But as you say, they're all from the same source, and Font Book claims they're all bad. That's seems pretty darn hard to believe. Still, I'd like to take a quick peek.

Mar 1, 2018 2:00 PM in response to SuzanL

Is it possible that all the fonts which were stored on my computer outside the font folder when I upgraded were corrupted?

Never say never when it comes to computers, but it would be highly unlikely. Or at least, should be.


However, something obviously happened. Do you have backups of the fonts from before upgrading the OS you could replace them with, and then test again to see how Font Book reacts?

Mar 1, 2018 4:01 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Here's a hint. Don't know what it means.


When I upgraded to 10.12, I got an iCloud Drive. My fonts are in my applications folder, which isn't part of the iCloud Drive. I moved the fonts from Font Squirrel from the desktop folder, which is in the cloud, to the Applications folder, which isn't. Presto, the fonts are getting the "serious problems, do not use" error message.


What do you think?

Font Won't Show Up In Word

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