(Almost) only system fonts available on Windows

[wgrt]

When trying to style my type, XD only offers me a very limited number of fonts to work with. They include the Windows system fonts, some Adobe fonts (like Adobe Devanagari) and - strangely - also Museo Sans.

I manage my fonts using MainType 7.0. I have quite a few of them installed on my system, including both TTF as well as OTF fonts. Museo Sans is an OTF, and like I said, the only one that appears among the fonts I can choose from in XD. The fact that I use MainType can't be the problem; Museo Sans was installed with it, and it worked, while other fonts I installed using the standard Windows font manager didn't work.

Some data about my system:

- ASUS VivoBook laptop, Intel Core i5-6200U processor, 8GB RAM

- 64-bit Windows 10 (Creators Update, but before the update it didn't work either)

- XD version: 0.6.24.10

Do I miss something, perhaps a setting that I put wrong?

[Preran]

Can you look at this forum post on installing fonts for use in Adobe XD and let us know if it helped?

Can I install fonts in Adobe creative XD?

[wgrt]

I had already read that post yesterday, and then it didn't help me. But now, after restarting my pc and starting XD, the Museo Sans (which I installed using MainType) has disappeared and the Quicksand (a font I installed using the default Windows font manager) now is visible in the XD font menu.

So that begins to look like XD does have problems with fonts I install using MainType. Fonts that I install using MainType disappear from the XD font menu after I restart my pc. Other Adobe CC applications (Ps, Ai, Id) don't have these problems. I use MainType 7.0 free edition.

Things are becoming a bit clearer now: MainType and XD don't seem to work together very well. Is there anything that can be done about this?

[Bear Travis]

Hi there,

I think we'll need to dig a bit further in order to understand the issues you're seeing. The main limitation to note from the post Preran linked is that XD on Win only loads the font list at launch, so if you install fonts while XD is running, the list of available fonts won't change until you relaunch the program.

A couple questions that would help us track this down:

1. Where are the font files located that you are installing via MainType (are they on your local machine, or somewhere else)?

2. When you have installed the fonts, do they show up in the System's Control Panel > Fonts list?

3. Are the Adobe fonts you mentioned having installed synced via TypeKit?

Thanks for helping us track this down,

-Bear

[wgrt]

I am aware of the fact that fonts only show up in XD if I start it after the font was installed.

To answer your questions:

1. They are on my OneDrive, but they are synced to my pc's hard drive. The path MainType retrieves the font files from is C:\Users\{username}\OneDrive\Fonts\
2. They do. But, strangely, if I run a dir command on the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, they are not showing up. I only see the system fonts and the fonts I installed using Windows's default installation method (right-clicking the font in File Explorer and clicking 'install'.
3. No, I don't have any fonts installed via Typekit.

Thanks for the support so far.

[Bear Travis]

Hi again,

Still tracking this down on our side. It looks like there are a couple ways to install fonts via MainType, and I was wondering which methods you were using. Were you installing the fonts by hand, or using one of the automatic sync features?

Until we get this ironed out, your best bet may be to use the default installation method on all the fonts in your OneDrive folder (or at least the fonts you would like to use in XD).

-Bear

[wgrt · Accepted solution]

ISSUE SEEMS SOLVED AFTER MAINTYPE UPDATE

Yesterday I installed an update to MainType. After that, I randomly installed a font (using MainType), and suddenly it did appear in XD. So I uninstalled all fonts and then reinstalled them - and voilà, now all my fonts were accessible from the XD font menu.

I also posted this issue on the MainType support forum, and what they said was this:

I was just going to post about ensuring you are using the latest version, as the latest version from last month forces to install fonts in windows fonts folder. Even though this is not a requirement fro Windows, it seems to work best with other software, which you just confirmed.

So before the update MainType did not put fonts it installed directly in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, after the update it does. Running a dir command on the folder confirms this is true.

The relevant info for Adobe might be that XD needs fonts to be in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder in order to see them, while other Adobe CC applications do not.

And for any MainType users experiencing the same issue - make sure you have the latest version installed, uninstall all of your fonts, and then reinstall them (I did this by putting all fonts I had installed in a set, uninstalling the whole set, and then reinstalling it).

Bear Travis​ To answer your question, though it might not be relevant any more: I install my fonts by hand.

[Preran]

Thank you for sharing your solution with  us. It will help other users with a similar question.

Bear Travis: I have marked the answer as correct assuming that this is a solution. Feel free to reverse my opinion if that isn't right.

Thanks,

Preran

[wgrt]

I am aware of the fact that fonts only show up in XD if I start it after the font was installed.

To answer your questions:

1. They are on my OneDrive, but they are synced to my pc's hard drive. The path MainType retrieves the font files from is C:\Users\{username}\OneDrive\Fonts\
2. They do. But, strangely, if I run a dir command on the C:\Windows\Fonts folder, they are not showing up. I only see the system fonts and the fonts I installed using Windows's default installation method (right-clicking the font in File Explorer and clicking 'install'.
3. No, I don't have any fonts installed via Typekit.

Thanks for the support so far.