Adobe InDesign CS2 Error

Posted on December 3, 2007
Filed Under Technical Resources | 115 Comments

Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files

Pressed for time and at the most inconvenient moment, Adobe InDesign decided to stop working. The error "Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files" pops up tossing my workday in array. After 40 minutes on the phone with Adobe Tech support I finally succumb to my frustrations and reinstalled Adobe InDesign CS2 on a second system and simply migrated the missing files directly to my workstation. Having solved the problem using this method I figured I’d make a zip copy of that folder and provide it here for download. Before you follow the suggest repair method outlined on Adobe’s Self Service Forum, consider for a moment that if you accidentally deleted the directory during an uninstall as I had then reinstalling and or running the "repair" sequence likely will not work. I installed and reinstalled several times with no success as suggested by tech support the many methods I had been directed to follow. The quick and easy solution is to simply download this zip file for your PC version of Adobe InDesign CS2 and drag them to your Adobe Shared Folder

Required System Fonts or CMap Files Download Fix Here

edited January 30th 2008

Okay so start by visiting my downloads section for the missing-adobe-cmap.zip file. After you extract it you should see a file structure like this;

missing-adobe-cmap.zip

Be sure InDesign is closed, simply drag the folder reqrd (and sub folders) to the following directory; C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Fonts\ and restart Adobe InDesign. An image of the typical file structure;

indesign-file-structure

You should now have the error message gone and the application starting as it should. Having spent less time to write this post than it took me to lose valuable time fixing this little issue, I’m glad that maybe this will help someone else save valuable time should they experience the same error.

Updated January 30th 2008

Well it looks like my original instructions were not entirely clear so I’ve replaced a portion of them with graphics and I’ve given a bit more detail in hopes that it provides a bit more clarity. Thanks to everyone who has visited, commented and contacted me regarding this fix.

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115 Comments so far
  1. ben December 9, 2007 1:14 am

    Hey,

    Just so you know, my email is fake, but I wanted to thank you for posting this information and the files. Saved me a bunch of time on this.

    Thanks!

  2. Jared Ritchey December 10, 2007 1:56 am

    You are most welcome, I’ve had that a lot in this blog for some reason unlike the other 4 blogs I own people say thanks and never leave an email.

    Appreciated none the less.

    ~ Jared

  3. Greg Packard December 10, 2007 2:27 am

    Beautiful work Jared, you saved me a ton of time. I spent all night looking for a way to get back into my InDesign to complete some work and ran into this error after downloading my update to Antivir Anti Virus software. After I ran the update none of my Adobe Products would work. Your fix helped me with InDesign and I just know that it will help others so please don’t take it down or change it. It took me hours to find a solution.

    Thank you so very much. Great blog BTW.

  4. marco January 18, 2008 2:41 am

    It simply works. Good job.

  5. Barbara January 19, 2008 5:10 am

    Hallo! Danke für die zur Verfügung gestellte Datei im Download, hat mir sehr geholfen und mir vorallem Zeit und Nerven gespart…Viele Grüsse aus Deutschland

    English version added by Jared: Hello! Thanks for the provided file in the download, that has really helped me and seriously saves me time and frustrations… Many greetings from Germany

  6. Martin January 19, 2008 2:38 pm

    You are a genius. Now I just get an error that colour management files are missing. Maybe I can find another genius…. THX

  7. rocneasta January 20, 2008 6:25 pm

    you’re a life saver m8, cheers. no time in life, pressure at work, indesign dead, and you appeared with the swift solution

    cheers

  8. Adobe InDesign CS2 Error | Free Photoshop cs3 suite tutorials January 20, 2008 11:09 pm

    [...] Adobe InDesign CS2 Error By Jared Ritchey Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files Pressed for time and at the most inconvenient moment, Adobe InDesign decided to stop working. The error “Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files” pops … Jared Ritchey – http://www.jaredritchey.com [...]

  9. Shelley January 23, 2008 10:48 am

    Fantastic! Worked like a charm. Thank you so much.

  10. Jovanni January 23, 2008 11:02 am

    Jared you are a genius, beautiful work, I spent 4 freaking hours trying to fix this using Adobes site and I finally got frustrated and googled “Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files” and there you were on the front page of the search results.

    If you don’t mind I’d like to copy your files and make them available in my forums for InDesign. I’ll of course give you a link back.

    Thanks for saving me a serious melt down.

  11. Jared Ritchey January 23, 2008 1:10 pm

    Jovanni; Several other sites use this and provide links back to me so feel free to add it to your forum and thank you sincerely for the linkback.

    ~ Jared

  12. Hung Chau January 24, 2008 7:57 am

    I followed your instruction to down load and extracted the zip file. However, after extracting I see only the reqrd file with the subfolders are Base and Cmaps. I draged them to c/program files/common files/Adobe/fonts.

    But It is still not working. I am still struggling in fixing this problem.

  13. Hung Chau January 24, 2008 2:18 pm

    I really appreceated your help. After deleted the old file then followed your guide, It worked like a champ. Your missing-Adobe-Cmap.zip file is a very great help for me. Instead of struggling to get it to work. Thank you.

    Hung Chau

  14. Jared Ritchey January 24, 2008 2:35 pm

    Hello Hung Chau;, I sent you an email this morning. You have to first delete the files and folders then close InDesign, add the above fix, then reopen InDesign

  15. Natcha W.K. January 30, 2008 8:12 am

    Hello Jared! I’m Thai (south-east asia)

    I follow your suggestion….

    when I use your download file, it is only “reqrd” and then ‘Base’ and ‘CMap’

    I don’t know why I cannot find a “missing-adobe-cmap” …. would you tell me what should I do next? I don’t know how to solve this problem because in my country, there is not any help T^T … I’m waiting for your answer!! send me e-mail if you’d like to

  16. Natcha W.K. January 30, 2008 8:14 am

    I forgot to show you my email is aeo_fah at hotmail.com

    I eagerly await your answer.

  17. Jared Ritchey January 30, 2008 11:53 am

    Natcha W.K

    Please see the above revised post.

  18. Eduardo February 9, 2008 7:07 pm

    Ok. It works, Thank you very much

  19. samsul March 2, 2008 9:08 pm

    when i open indesign cs2 me, i have message: “the instruction at “0x083effab” reference memory at “0x08e00000″ the memory could not be read” when i click ok, indesign closed. I need solution for this problem, thanks before.

  20. Corey March 10, 2008 9:00 pm

    Thanks mate! This message is very very helpful. You saved me nearly 1 day in my life fixing this problem.

    Thank you!

  21. Chris March 11, 2008 6:09 pm

    These files work. Thank you. Now I just get an error that color management files are missing. Do you know where I can find these files?

  22. Jared Ritchey March 12, 2008 6:47 am

    Yes here is the full "Required" directory here.

    And Here is the single file that goes in he /Required directory here

  23. Jessica March 12, 2008 3:38 pm

    I definitely just spent about 2 and a half hours trying to solve this problem myself…finally got fed up and did a Google search because I figured SURELY someone else has had this problem and fixed it…luckily I clicked on the link to your site…and this worked! I have no idea how you did it, but thank you SO MUCH!

  24. Jared Ritchey March 12, 2008 3:42 pm

    Jessica you are most welcome.

    ~ Jared

  25. olli March 27, 2008 3:14 pm

    I love you!
    thanx!

  26. Kangoo.Roo March 31, 2008 2:40 am

    Well, what can I say… You just saved my nerves:) I was searchin’ many forum 2find how2 resolve this annoying problem with InDesign with no positive result. Thanx’a'lot!

  27. Phill April 1, 2008 9:00 pm

    Thanks for this elegant and easy solution, I was pulling my hair out.

  28. Nikki April 7, 2008 3:49 am

    Thanks so much! you have saved me so much time :)

  29. Liza April 7, 2008 3:30 pm

    Your fix saved our school yearbook (missing InDesign fonts). Thanks from the whole school.

  30. Ross April 8, 2008 7:33 am

    You just saved my sanity. Thank you so much for this!

  31. OneLag April 8, 2008 4:21 pm

    Dude, thank you so much for your fix…. I formatted the pc and after the reinstall that`s what happened. I wouldn’t know what to do if I haven’t found your fix. Thanks.

  32. Simon Calderon A. April 28, 2008 10:59 pm

    Thank’s man, your article, was the solution to my problem. thank’s save this archives: “CMap” Files for the future. Saludos from Santiago of Chile.

  33. Ben May 2, 2008 1:21 am

    Found you thanks to Google. Fixed my problem right away. Thank you so much!!

  34. SHEND DA FLASH PRO May 6, 2008 12:18 am

    THANX FOR THE FIX, :)

  35. Mary May 20, 2008 1:21 am

    oh myyy!!!! You just don`t know how greatfull I am!!! Its 5 am in the morning and by 7 am is my deadline for a magazine, you`re the hero of the week!! Thanks…

    From mexico…

    Mary

  36. Alex June 1, 2008 1:32 pm

    Thanks! Your a genius!

  37. Dan June 19, 2008 9:01 pm

    Worked like a charm. You’re a lifesaver! A watermelon-flavored one.

  38. Jared Ritchey June 19, 2008 9:29 pm

    “watermelon-flavored” LMAO thats beautiful. I’ve never had a comment actually sidetrack me with humor.

    Your comments are much appreciated.

    ~ Jared

  39. martin June 23, 2008 3:52 pm

    worked for me… cheers… thanks for taking the time to put this together..

  40. Jennifer Seeley July 16, 2008 11:47 pm

    HOORAY!!! Thank you very very much Jared! I was going about my evening, designing and formatting the children’s book I just wrote when InDesign wouldn’t open.

    I’m so glad you saved all of us the time of going through the hassle you went through. We’re all very appreciative that you think of others and took the time to be more pro-active than Adobe.

    Thanks a Million!
    * Jennifer

  41. Neves Neto August 2, 2008 2:02 pm

    Thank you sooo much, man! I was crazy thinking of reinstalling ID!

  42. wbmny » links for 2008-08-09 [delicious.com] August 9, 2008 8:44 pm

    [...] FIX – Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files Fix to a common error with InDesign CS2. Simple post that works (tags: adobe) [...]

  43. amber August 10, 2008 8:34 pm

    Are your downloads for mac/pc?
    Thanks so much.
    I am looking to fix an error with InDesign.
    Amber

  44. xspikesx August 11, 2008 1:40 pm

    worked perfectly! thanks. i will keep this zip in my backup!

  45. firo August 18, 2008 6:57 am

    Thank you for the great FIX, this was very helpful and useful, my saluts to you

  46. Tom August 25, 2008 5:09 pm

    thanks… it saved my day, and saved me from trying to find the original discs…

  47. Searching September 4, 2008 8:22 pm

    Is there anyone who might be able to provide the files and path for Macintosh? I put these files in my Mac Library aftr getting the same error, but InDesign still won’t start again. :/

  48. Bernardo September 29, 2008 10:55 am

    Hi Jared!

    I read your answer for Chris’s question on March 11, 2008 6:09 pm, but where do i extract/drag the dowloaded folder “Required”? What’s the file structure?
    Many greetings from Brazil!
    Tks!

  49. Bernardo September 29, 2008 11:01 am

    …I’m Windows XP user…

  50. Dominic October 11, 2008 4:21 pm

    Thank you very much for your help, which saved me a lot of time. I appreciate your unconditional help where other normally try to earn money with informations.

    Again thanks from Germany
    Dominic

  51. Hana October 15, 2008 3:39 pm

    Hi Jared!
    You made me happy!
    Thank You very, very mutch!!
    That error annoyed me so mutch and I was angry!
    You are a gennius!
    Now I am not affraid of such other errors and problems.
    and sorry for my bad english!
    Greetings from Croatia!

    ;-)

    puno pozdrava iz Hrvatske!

  52. JP November 5, 2008 10:52 am

    Oh, this is awesome! I had Illustrator 10 still on my work PC and uninstalled it. I clicked “yes” on all of the shared files and then InDesign CS2 would not start afterwards. I figured I would just have to copy files over but had no clue as to which ones. Thankfully, you had your post!

    This fix worked like a charm!

    Thanks!!!!!!

  53. matt November 30, 2008 6:07 pm

    Well, it took me a few minutes to get the fix in the right folder. with my version, which is cs2 4.0, i didn’t boot until i placed the base and cmap folders into Required/Fonts. easily solved, but i was scared for a bit haha. now, i get the color management error, but the program still boots. do we know what this error means or does?

  54. G. Zawislak December 2, 2008 11:51 am

    Thank you for an easy fix. I tried to re-install as the error requested, but just wasted my time. Your fix took less than a few minutes. You can bet I’m archiving those files!

    G.Z.

  55. Maho December 6, 2008 1:39 pm

    Merci beaucoup pour votre aide…. C’est fantastique….. Thank you so much.
    Bonne continuation

  56. Lisa December 10, 2008 6:12 pm

    awesome you saved me a ton of time!
    Thanks for this, super thoughtful.

  57. Tejas January 27, 2009 8:59 am

    Oh God! Bless you!
    :) This problem couldn’t have come to me at a worse possible moment. (An awful lot of people seem to be saying this.)
    Thanks a million, again.

  58. Tom February 2, 2009 3:14 pm

    thanks! you saved the day… the only place I found that actually addressed the issue.

    Muchas Gracias!

  59. Ingrid February 3, 2009 7:02 pm

    Do you have similar fix for a Mac?

  60. Jared Ritchey February 9, 2009 9:23 pm

    Actually I haven’t looked but I will today.

    Jared

  61. sally hurst March 2, 2009 2:52 am

    Thank you so much, I thought this problem was going to cause me some heartache but found your download, followed the instructions and woo hoo it worked!!! : ) : ) THANKS!

  62. Rahul Singh March 26, 2009 11:23 am

    Hi !

    I am really thankfull to you to provide useful information by this I saved my presious time. I got it really helpful again I thank you so much for this.

  63. Tiago April 12, 2009 6:05 am

    Hi tanks for your post. It´s works and help me to resolve a big headache. Thamks again. Sorry for my english. PS: its work on indesign cs4 too.

  64. Ankit April 21, 2009 4:50 am

    Thanks for this precious help of your…….saved a lot of time……….

  65. João April 28, 2009 5:19 am

    Many many thanks! I was about to go crazy with this error!
    But what’s the reason behind this error?

  66. Ramesh May 10, 2009 8:54 am

    Very useful tip. I have been suffering from this problem. Though I have been using indesign cs3, I need indesign cs2, because certain tamil language font software works only in cs2. My service engineer told me that windows xp needs to be reinstalled. Thank god. you save me. Thanks a lot.

  67. Eva May 16, 2009 8:52 am

    really thanx a lot for this help ^-^

  68. suzena May 18, 2009 7:31 am

    thank you so much…

  69. Ignacio May 24, 2009 11:10 pm

    thank you so much!
    Saved my day!

  70. Bella June 1, 2009 5:41 am

    Thank you so much! You saved me a lot of time and effort. :)

  71. Amey June 9, 2009 2:21 pm

    The zip file does not seem to be working. Can someone please try and upload it again

    thanks
    Amey

  72. renata June 15, 2009 7:47 am

    can you upload the zip archive again? its not there anymore. thanks :)

  73. Jer June 29, 2009 2:50 pm

    Thank you for spending the time on this, you just saved me huge. My resume would have been made last minute in word but now I’ll have it ready in style. THANK YOU!~!

  74. ampaa July 7, 2009 6:35 pm

    You are fantastic!!!!!!!
    thank you SOOOOOOOO much!!!!

  75. Lesley July 13, 2009 10:39 am

    Thank you so much for your help! I cannot begin to tell you how much time you saved me.

  76. lvpei July 25, 2009 5:04 am

    You are most welcome, I wanted to thank you very much for this information and the files, i never leave an email Appreciated great.

    KD

  77. kimi July 26, 2009 7:45 pm

    Thank you so much for this. I was trying to save a Photoshop CS2 file (my wedding invitation!) as a PDF for the printers when I got this error. Downloaded your zip and followed the instructions and it worked! You’ve saved the day!! Thanks again.

  78. Li July 28, 2009 6:47 pm

    You saved me! (L)

  79. Dave August 9, 2009 8:16 pm

    Thanks a ton. This issue is a real pain and your fix worked great!

  80. Lisa August 12, 2009 4:37 am

    you saved me… thanks so much. I deleted by an old and unused version of pagemaker and my Indesign went mad. Had error, Adobe indesign is missing required system fonts or CMap files. Your fix saved me. Thanks sooo much. Lisa

  81. jerome September 3, 2009 10:05 pm

    thanksdude.

  82. vendelin September 8, 2009 5:25 am

    well, I have always had nothing then a big respect for the guys spending their spare time helping another PC losers to solve any troubles. thx man, u saved me a lot of time!

  83. Jared Ritchey September 9, 2009 10:10 am

    Most welcome and I do have the new fix for CS4 as well which will be published here shortly.

    Jared

  84. df September 18, 2009 3:40 pm

    Thanks heaps. Worked a charm. I was reinstalling on a new machine and never had the problem with the last installation.

    Maybe at my end it was because of an english installation on a foreign language windows. For windows has a different name for the ‘common files’ folder and because of that maybe Adobe just missed installing the ‘cMap’ folder.

    anyway your way worked a charm. thxs

  85. Jennifer September 23, 2009 8:53 am

    Thanks Jared! You saved me pulling my hair out! I’d done the uninstall/reinstall thing a couple of times. Your file did the trick!

  86. Anna September 26, 2009 10:00 am

    I have been struggling to get InDesign to work for forever (installing, reinstalling, uninstalling and so on…), and you made it work in 5 minutes. :) Thank you!!!

  87. Jared Ritchey September 26, 2009 10:55 pm

    Most welcome to all above, I have been super busy and have neglected to respond but many thanks for the reply’s.

    Jared

  88. Martin November 9, 2009 10:25 am

    Thank you very much for this. Very helpful.

  89. morgan November 17, 2009 2:22 pm

    THANK YOU SO MUCH. YOU ARE MY IN DESIGN SAVIOUR

  90. Jack November 23, 2009 1:31 am

    I love the zip file you gave out for Indesign because I was have trouble fixing my Cmap and behold!!!! it is now fixed :)

  91. Björm Thomasson November 23, 2009 1:31 pm

    Thanks a lot. It actually solved another irritating bug as well – one that contact with Adobe did not solve: I couldn´t save files in Illustrator! Got four suggestions from Adobe. No. 4 worked (creating a new admin account and moving all content there!).
    But after copying in those missing font files, that also worked!

    Björn

  92. Dan November 25, 2009 9:03 am

    Greatest fix ever! Now I can run InDesign CS2 on my Vista notebook. Also Illustrator CS2 now can save files in .ai or .pdf. Until now I had to use the template .ait to save the work. Thanks Jared.

  93. Lars Ekdahl December 2, 2009 8:57 am

    You saved my day. Most Appreciated

  94. Lars Ekdahl December 2, 2009 4:09 pm

    Forgot to say I was working with InDesign CS4 and had the same problem?

  95. hamid December 5, 2009 10:30 pm

    please I need a ix for indesign cs4 it drove me mad as well indesign cs3 it’s very important urgent please i am stacked i couldn’t use either cs3 nor cs4 please your reply thanks very much

  96. chau December 31, 2009 1:47 pm

    It worked on my first try. thanks so much…

  97. Jason January 4, 2010 5:49 pm

    Thank you sooooo much! You just let me get home earlier :)

  98. billy January 8, 2010 10:44 am

    thanks a bunch jared! cheers!

  99. Istvan January 13, 2010 6:40 am

    Thank you very much! You are a professional. I love you!

  100. Durim January 15, 2010 2:13 pm

    Thanks for the help. It did save me hell of a time to figure out what the problem was. Thanks again, buddy.

  101. Ben FR January 16, 2010 6:11 am

    Dear Jared,

    Thank you so much, I have been searching how to fix this problem, I googled and found your post. It works staright forward!!!

    Now I can open InDesign CS2,

    I just can’t open an indesign file because of missing plugin. But this is just another problem. If anyone has some tips, I would appreciate your tips.

    thank you!

    thanks!!!

  102. Love January 18, 2010 10:36 pm

    AWESOME!!

  103. George January 25, 2010 5:57 pm

    Thank you very much for your instructions to enable the fonts in the Indesign CS2 application. They were easy to follow and the process took me only a few minutes

  104. Johnny January 29, 2010 11:29 am

    Great fix! You’re the bomb. Its actually quite funny that you provided a better and quicker fix than Adobe can provide. That company needs some serious help.

  105. jasper February 9, 2010 6:18 pm

    I dont suppose you have the Mac OS files/fix for the same problem occurring on Adobe Indesign CS4? its driving me up the wall.

    many thanks.

  106. victor remigio February 11, 2010 11:57 am

    Jared, for the job well done.
    You should be included in the indesign team.
    tried your fix and…
    man..
    you’re a god.
    only a few have brains like this.

  107. CandW March 12, 2010 11:26 pm

    I also have the same problem wiht Indesign CS4.
    Your solution also works well with this version.

    Thank you very much.

    regards

  108. Lucie April 1, 2010 8:40 am

    Amazingly efficient !! thanks a lot :)

  109. Elissa April 4, 2010 10:53 am

    I tried this for CS4 and I guess it doesn’t work for that version of inDesign. I’m going nuts and have a deadline that expired 3 days ago. Keep getting the missing font error message. Tried FontExpert, and that doesn’t help either. Can you help me?

  110. Lawrence April 27, 2010 9:35 am

    Working time to solve: 30 seconds!

    Thnx

  111. Mike S. May 22, 2010 1:05 pm

    Beautiful!! Thanks so much for the great time-saving fix!!

    Fixed in less than 30 seconds!!

  112. Shilesh June 6, 2010 6:35 pm

    Hey thanks a lot for your efforts in helping solve this problem, Indesign CS4 works perfectly now. Thanks to you.

    ~Shilesh

  113. cameron July 1, 2010 11:05 pm

    I know it was a while ago but just want to say thanks for the indesign cmap fix – was driving me nuts!

    Cheers,

    Cameron

  114. Luchertula July 6, 2010 9:44 pm

    Muchas Gracias!!! La verdad me salvaste! ya estaba por volver a instalar el indesign en vano, hasta leer tu post!

  115. mee August 2, 2010 2:07 pm

    thank you so much!!


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