Scroll through fonts

[David Cabestany]

That’s works in Photoshop but for some strange reason it doesn’t in illustrator, one of those miscommunication between programming teams at Adobe.

I’ve been looking for that same feature to come around every time a new version is released, but so far nothing.

[Les Nemeth]

Not sure what U2 are talking about. In AI CS4 it works just like in any other version. Select your text, select the font in the Character palette and press the up/down arrow. The selected text on the artboard will change.

That’s all there is to it.

[Naveen Mallikarjuna]

I’m using AI CS4 on a mac. And it definitely does not work as you describe (which is how it should work).

Someone on another forum suggested a corrupted font cache file. I ran applejack to fix, but still nothing.

Also, supposedly more than 150+ fonts can cause this too, but I don’t think I have that many loaded (unless you count every variation of each font).

In any case, very frustrating. And PS has no problem with this.

Naveen
contact@naveenmedia.com
http://www.naveenmedia.com

[Les Nemeth]

You never said you were on the Mac. And since I am on windows, it works just fine for me.

I just wanted to illustrate how many posts I’ve been reading where people NEVER post their system, probably thinking it’s so obvious that people can read my mind.

Instead, I was only reading what has been posted.

[Paul Benson]

Just to be certain, you are clicking in the font drop down to make it the active control, correct? I have Windows, and as stated earlier, it does work, but you didn’t mention if you selected the control.

Pauley

[Naveen Mallikarjuna]

Yes, I tried both the Character Palette, and also in the options/attributes bar that runs along the top of the app. Neither works.

This same method works fine in PS. I am now reduced to keeping both apps open, and selecting my font in PS before going back to AI.

I am originally a PC person, so I was hoping there was something different about the Mac I was missing. So far, it seems only Mac users experience this, so I guess this is one “feature” that isn’t in the Mac version. 😛

Naveen
contact@naveenmedia.com
http://www.naveenmedia.com

[Paul Benson]

Even though the font scrolling works for me, I still use a simple font viewer (NexusFont on the PC) to see multiple fonts at once. I would think there would be something similar for the Mac – should use less resources than loading up Photoshop.

Pauley

[Glenn Vickery]

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I tried both on the top of the page and in the character window in CS5.5. Neither of those work to change your font using the arrow keys in Illustrator.

[Janielyn Galvez]

Did you happen to get the answer to this? If not, I found out why mine wasn’t working

Turn off Enable Missing Glyph Protection.

Edit > Preferences > Type.

Remove the check mark for Enable Missing Glyph Protection.

Works fine for me now 🙂

[Travis Stillwell]

I realize this is a very long time after the last post but I know it is something people still struggle with and I think a 2017 post will make google searches easier to find the answer. As others have said it helps to please state your operating system. But don’t let anyone tell you that this doesn’t work on one system or another. It works just fine in InDesign, Photoshop, After Effects and Illustrator. Highlight the text with the text tool. While it’s highlighted, highlight the selected font in the “Character Panel: Font Family” window. While both are highlighted simply hit the arrow keys. If you find that it stops randomly. Then do as others have suggested. Turn off “Enable Missing Glyph Protection”. This should fix the problem.

This usually occurs from downloaded fonts or if there are font errors. Sometimes you’ll see a black diamond to the right of the selected “Font Family” in the “Character Panel: Font Family” window. If you see that black diamond. You may also want to open your Font Book and look for errors, it can also mean that a font that is native or shipped with your program is missing or damaged. Many errors are from duplicated fonts. If you have any questions feel free to ask.