One of the routine tasks some of our creative professionals at work need to do from time to time is troubleshoot their InDesign font issues. When InDesign hangs, you can usually fix it by deleting the AdobeFnt10.lst file, as detailed by Adobe help document, listed below.

Troubleshoot fonts.

A system error can occur if Illustrator accesses a damaged font.

To troubleshoot fonts to determine if they cause the problem:

1. Deactivate all font management utilities, such as Adobe Type Manager, Extensis Suitcase, or Bitstream Font Reserve.

2. Drag the contents of the Library/Fonts folder and the Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts folder to new folders on the desktop.

3. At the Finder, choose File > Find.

4. Type AdobeFnt10.lst (Illustrator CS2) or AdobeFnt07.lst (Illustrator CS), select the system drive, and then press Return.

5. Delete all AdobeFnt10.lst and AdobeFnt07.lst files found.

6. Restart the computer.

7. Restart Illustrator. Illustrator creates a new Adobefnt10.lst or AdobeFnt07.lst file.

8. Try to re-create the problem. Then, do one of the following:

— If the problem doesn’t recur, move one font at a time back to the Fonts folders you emptied in Step 2, and then repeat steps 6-8 until you identify the problematic font.

— If you have a font management utility, restart it and activate fonts in small groups or individually to identify the problematic font.

— If the problem recurs, move the contents of the new folder on the desktop back to the Library/Fonts folder.

In order to automate it, I created a quick shell script that’ll do it for you by using Spotlight.

#!/bin/bash

# Create a few variables to use during the rest of the script
fontFileListing=“/Users/Shared/searchResults.txt”
let numFilesFound=0

# Write the search results to a file for easier EOL handling
echo “Going to run a Spotlight search -- this may take a while.”
mdfind 'kMDItemFSName == “AdobeFnt*” && kMDItemFSName == “*.lst”' > $fontFileListing

# Read each line from the file and delete it
echo “* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *”
echo Going to need an admin\'s privs to delete some of the files.
echo Enter your password when prompted.
echo “* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *”

while read LINE
do
echo $LINE
sudo rm “$LINE”
((numFilesFound++))
done < $fontFileListing

echo Deleted $numFilesFound files.
sudo rm $fontFileListing

I’m working on adding it to a system-wide startup item: my creative pro coworkers tell me it’s good practice to just delete them periodically.