Variable font not behaving in Adobe InDesign 16.1 for Mac

[cjbracewell]

Hi all,
I work for a client who started using Cabin font. I have been using the TTF, 8 separate weight files, for several months.

Now, another graphic designer for same client started using Cabin Variable. When I install these fonts, they freak out in InDesign. If a doc uses Variable, but I have TTF installed, InDesign does not throw an error for missing font. Is this because names are not unique? Also, it seems like InDesign is seeing the Regular and Italic basic weights, but not working well with the other weights. I'm not speaking of adjusting the variables, just not seeing Medium Italic, Bold Italic.

When I open a client document, Bold is displaying as Bold Italic and I cannot change it. The order of the fonts in the font menu CHANGE. It's freaking me out.

While I would love to just use the TTF, I cannot change my client's files from Variable to TTF.

Shouldn't these fonts have unique names or numbers, so they don't conflict? if they were unique, one could have all three font types loaded simultaneously. Not necessarily a great idea, but one could search and replace.

Thanks for any help. I'm basically fucked if I can't work with these files.

screen shots and MOV attached.

Cabin.Font.Glitch.InDesign.mov