Where, Oh, Where Did My Favorite Fonts Go? (Adobe Creative Suite 5)

If text in your Adobe Creative Suite (CS) 5 documents reflows after upgrading versions, there's a good reason. Upon installing a newer version of Adobe software, newer versions of fonts are installed in the default system font directory. If older versions of these fonts exist in this directory, they are uninstalled and saved in a new directory. When you open a document in CS5 that was created in an earlier version, the new fonts are used. New fonts often mean new font metrics. The change in font metrics is what causes text to reflow and, subsequently change the appearance of your layout.

All is not lost, however. One option is to just deal with it, and readjust your layouts using the new fonts. Alternatively you can restore the flow of text in your documents by reverting back to the older version of fonts.

There are two ways you can do this:

1. Use a font manager to control the fonts used in specific documents; or
2. Re-install the older fonts by deleting the new font files from the default system font directory, and moving the old files back into that directory.

You'll have to refer to your font manager for instruction on how to do the first option, but here's how to do the second option:

The default system font directory where new fonts are stored is located in the <System Disk>/Library/Fonts folder in Mac OS X or the <System Disk>:\Windows\Fonts folder in Windows XP.

The older fonts are saved in the new directory located in the <System Disk>/Library/Application Support/Adobe/SavedFonts/current folder in Mac OS X or the <System Disk>:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\SavedFonts\current folder in Windows XP.

This new directory also contains a file named “Read Me.html,” which lists the saved fonts, and the version numbers of the new and old font files.

Now, (for Mac OS X users) just copy or move all the font files from the individual font folders into the <Volume>/Library/Fonts folder (while logged on as administrator) to make fonts available to all users; or copy or move all the fonts files into the <Volume>/Users/<username>/Library/Fonts folder to make the fonts only available to the specified user.

To do this in Windows XP, double-click on My Computer. Under Other Places click Control Panel. Click Fonts (Classic View) or Appearance and Themes and then Fonts. In the Fonts window, select the File menu and choose Install New Font. Locate the folder with your fonts and select the ones you want to reinstall. Click OK.