Please just make there and simple way to set up a default font for an Adobe application. This method is not user friendly at all.

Even after doing this, if you paste an unformatted text into Illustrator outside any existing textfield or textarea, it will override the [Normal Character Style] and be Myriad 12pt.
The attached video shows how creating a new text field and typing uses the correct character style, but pasting text into the document creates a new text field with Normal Character Style overridden to use Myriad.

this can be very important for enterprise users who have brand fonts that they need to follow. every time i open a new document, i have to change the font instead of just starting with the brand typeface.

Donna, I checked older versions, starting with Ai1.
Indeed Ai10 allowed to make changes within Character panel with no documents opened, and the choice persisted.
Later versions keep the panel disabled — but unlike Ai10, they have text styles. Changing a default paragraph style just by fiddling with the panel for all the new documents seems quite reckless from a first glance... but there should be definitely a way to do it faster, I agree! Perhaps a warning should be put in all places where we can change the font parameters, to inform users this would change the settings... but then again — WHICH of the document profiles this change would modify? Print? Web? Illustration? Ai has several now, while Ai10 had just none.

This is an absolutely ridiculous way to do this. In previous versions of Illustrator, you could quickly and easily change the default type font and size in the preferences BEFORE you opened any document. It needs to be put back to the original way which was fast and simple.

Let's make this happen please!

C'mon Adobe! Get off your a** and do it! I'm sure you'll get a standing ovation at Adobe Max for this!

the fact that setting a default font is not one of the most basic preferences is astonishing. How do you overlook this? And still so many years later, still not have it added?

May Myriad Pro burn in ****

Myriad Pro 12pt is a formidable foe for the New Document. Perchance one day it shall be vanquished.

This feature is long overdue. I hardly ever use Myriad Pro 12 pt in my illustrations, and yet Adobe gives no straightforward way to set my own default font and size.

Bumping this thread, as this is a much needed improvement to Illustrator that will decrease friction at the beginning stages of design and greatly enhance user experience.

Please make this more discoverable in the future. Finding it in a document in a tutorial here is hardly the way I would like to work.

I have used the "intended method" and it is a deterrent to the task. Yes, there needs to be a way to do this.

Can you please let users change the default text size. I couldn't find it, and adobe help couldn't either and directed me here. When working on 60"x60", I get tired of dropping in 12pt text and taking extra steps to find it, enlarge it, etc. Thanks.

You can change the default font by modifying a default character style in a document profile, in a way described here.
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/fonts-faq.html#change-default-font
After doing this once and setting all other settings, like swatches, graphic styles, symbols,, backup the file, because Ai will overwrite it the next update.

True, not the most fast way to change the defaults. Takes some time to set one up and restore. But do you change them that often?

Voted anyway :)

Please make it much, much easier to cause Illustrator to default to a common set of Character and Paragraph styles.
Having to go into a hidden user folder to modify document profiles, like "Print.ai", is an insult.
In the Styles menu, please include a "Save to common styles".
I have thousands of lines of code that automate Adobe Illustrator, and every time the software is updated everything comes crashing down.
Having a shared, common repository of text styles that are available in every document should be simple and easy to manage.

It would be nice to set things as your own default. Like the font, font size, stroke size.. instead of having to change it to the same thing over and over and over when you create a new file

This has been an unresolved hassle since Illustrator 3 at least, and I don't think Adobe takes it seriously.

It is a daily hassle: no I don't want to use Myriad Pro, and I spend 2-3 mins every time I first open a file in Illustrator fixing it, only to find I have to do it again 30 mins later.

Yes there's a fix, but it doesn't stick through updates. And it's unnecessarily convoluted. If you can ask me whether to "Select Same Tint %" in the general preferences, you can ask which font should be the default. Guess which one is more useful.

How can https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/fonts.html
be the best way to change the default font?
What would be so wrong with having it on the "Type" page of the "Preferences" menu?