Troubleshoot fonts

Damaged fonts can cause various problems in Photoshop, some of which don't appear to be font-related.

These solutions are listed in order of easiest, and most likely to locate the damaged font, to more challenging or time consuming.

Important: Remove or update any third-party font plug-ins before testing your fonts.

Retest your issue to determine if this solution solved the problem.

The following fonts are known to cause problems when used in Photoshop:

Bustle (Mac OS only)

• 21kannmbn_ttf
• GURAKH_S.TTF
• JH_TITLES.TTF
• SCREEN__.TTF
• SEVESBRG.TTF
• SF Tattle Tales Condensed.ttF
• ZEROGEBI.TTF
• Zippy.ttf

Download, install, and run the appropriate FontTest.jsx script for Photoshop below. The script can determine if there are damaged fonts on your system, or if some of your fonts are causing the crash.

Download and read the appropriate FontTest_readme.pdf file.

Important: This PDF ReadMe file contains critical information on how to install and run the script, and information about the results.

Note: If Photoshop crashes before you can run this script, the cause is most likely in the operating system, and less likely in Photoshop. In these cases, perform the other solutions in the document.

Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the FontTest.jsx.zip file below. Then save the FontTest.jsx file to a location on your hard disk, such as your Desktop. Unzip the file by double-clicking it, and if asked, choose to extract all files.

Restart Photoshop and test to determine if the problem recurs. 

To delete the system font cache, run a command-line utility in the Terminal application. This command is part of the Mac OS. Be careful when using Terminal, as it affects your operating system at a low level. You can review the Atsutil manual by typing "man atsutil" (without quotes) and pressing Return in Terminal. Or you can read this article in MacWorld magazine.

Turn on hidden files and folders (see Show hidden files and folders), and then do the following:

It is generally a good idea to also delete the Photoshop font cache (Solution 6) when deleting the OS cache. Retest to determine if the problem recurs.

Important: Apple made the user library folder hidden by default with the release of Mac OS X 10.7. To access files in the hidden library folder to perform Adobe-related troubleshooting, use the methods in How to access hidden user library files.

Make sure that your fonts are located in only one font folder: 

•  /Users/[user name]/Library/Fonts
•  /Library/Fonts
  

If your fonts are not duplicated, continue with the rest of the Step. If they are duplicated, remove them from one location.

Create two folders on the desktop, called fonttest and goodfonts.

There are three locations that can contain fonts to test. Perform this testing for all of the following folders that contain fonts:

* /Users/[user name]/Library/Fonts
* /Library/Fonts
* /[network drive]/Library/Fonts

To test for a damaged font, keep half your fonts in the Library/Fonts folder. Move half to the fonttest folder, and test the condition that caused the problem.

• If the problem recurs, the damaged font is still in the Font folder, and the font is not in the fonttest folder. Move the fonts from the fonttest folder to the goodfonts folder.
• If the problem does not recur, the damaged font is in the fonttest folder. Move the fonts from the official fonts folder into the goodfont folder. Move half the fonts back into the official font folder for the next round of testing.
• Continue to test half the remaining fonts, and continue to move the fonts without the problem into the goodfonts folder. 
• When you've determined the one font that is causing the problem, remove it from the official fonts folder. Move all the fonts from the goodfonts folder back into the appropriate official fonts folder that you are testing. Perform these tests for each official fonts folder that contain fonts. 

Important: If the same problem occurs after you remove a font, one or more fonts have the same or a similar problem. Continue to perform these steps until all damaged fonts are removed.