diff --git a/PROMS/fmtxml/FmtToXml.cs b/PROMS/fmtxml/FmtToXml.cs
index 12ec6862..dfc62fde 100644
--- a/PROMS/fmtxml/FmtToXml.cs
+++ b/PROMS/fmtxml/FmtToXml.cs
@@ -311,11 +311,17 @@ public class VE_Font
 	}
 	public VE_Font(XmlNode fxml)
 	{
-		XmlNode tmp = fxml.SelectSingleNode("Family");
+		// The "Family", "Size", and "Style" are attributes to the "Font" node
+		// We were trying to get this information by fxml.SelectSingleNode("Family")
+		// but this would always return a NULL because this items are Attributes not Nodes.
+		// thus the FontFamily, FontSize, and FontStyle was never set
+
+		XmlAttributeCollection ac = fxml.Attributes; // get the attributes from the passed in Font node
+		XmlNode tmp = ac.GetNamedItem("Family"); // get the Family attribute from the Font node
 		if (tmp!=null)FontFamily = tmp.InnerText;
-		tmp = fxml.SelectSingleNode("Size");
+		tmp = ac.GetNamedItem("Size"); // get the Size attribute from the Font node
 		if (tmp != null) FontSize = tmp.InnerText;
-		tmp = fxml.SelectSingleNode("Style");
+		tmp = ac.GetNamedItem("Style"); // get the Style attribute from the Font node
 		if (tmp != null) FontStyle = tmp.InnerText;
 	}
     private string _FontFamily = null;
@@ -1346,25 +1352,49 @@ namespace fmtxml
 		private bool GetPlantBaseDefaultFonts()
 		{
 			// read the xml files for the base & plant to get the default fonts and
-			// make a VE_font for each.
+			// make a VE_font for each.  If we are processing a sub-format (A.K.A. User Format),
+			// then the "base" format is the parent plant format (ex. the "base" format for
+			// NSP_00ALL.xml is NSP_ALL.xml)
 			try
 			{
+				bool getFontFromBase = true;
 				XmlDocument xdoc = new XmlDocument();
-				xdoc.Load("fmt_xml\\basef.xml");
-				XmlNode xfont = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("FormatData/Font");
-				DefBaseFont = new VE_Font(xfont);
-
+				XmlNode xfont;
 				string lfmtName = fmtName;
-				// for subformats, make the name FMT_00 where FMT is format name & 00 is number
+				string parentOfSub = "";
+				// For sub-formats, make the name FMT_00 where FMT is format name & 00 is number
 				// from original name.  This will allow the data load to know it's a sub.
 				int indx = fmtName.IndexOf('.');
-				if (indx > 0)
+				if (indx > 0) // we are working with a sub-format
+				{
+					parentOfSub = fmtName.Substring(0, fmtName.Length - 4); // name of sub format's parent
 					lfmtName = fmtName.Substring(0, fmtName.Length - 4) + "_" + fmtName.Substring(fmtName.Length - 2, 2);
+					getFontFromBase = false; // get the font from sub-format parent format
+				}
+
+				string parentName = "fmt_xml\\" + parentOfSub + "f.xml";
+				// if we have a valid parent format then use it to find the default font
+				if (!getFontFromBase && File.Exists(parentName))
+				{
+					xdoc.Load(parentName);
+					xfont = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("FormatData/Font");
+					if (xfont != null)
+						DefBaseFont = new VE_Font(xfont);
+					else
+						getFontFromBase = true; // font not found, use the font from base.xml
+				}
+				if (getFontFromBase)
+				{
+					xdoc.Load("fmt_xml\\basef.xml");
+					xfont = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("FormatData/Font");
+					DefBaseFont = new VE_Font(xfont);
+				}
+				// Get the font from the current plant format (or sub-format)
 				string fName = "fmt_xml\\" + lfmtName + "f.xml";
 				if (!File.Exists(fName)) return false;
 				xdoc.Load(fName);
 				xfont = xdoc.SelectSingleNode("FormatData/Font");
-				if (xfont!=null)DefPlantFont = new VE_Font(xfont);
+				if (xfont != null) DefPlantFont = new VE_Font(xfont);
 			}
 			catch (Exception ex)
 			{