Fonts initially indicated as 'not found on system'

[Per Knutsen]

Summary:
Fonts cant be changed via the toolbar drop-down list and are marked as 'not found on system'. Fonts can be changed via the Text and Font dialog from the menu. After changing font once, fonts can then be selected also from the drop-down list.

Details:
I start Inkscape, select the Text tool and draw a boundary box. The Text properties toolbar appears. In the Font list, the first font listed is 'Bitstream Vera Sans' followed by an exclamation mark icon with the mouse hover-above description 'Font not found on system'. After writing some text, I cant change its font using the drop-down font list in the toolbar. All fonts are marked with the icon and the text 'Font not found on system'. I confirmed that fonts are indeed installed on the system.

To change fonts of text I need to click on the text box and select Text -> Text and Font from the main menu. Selecting a new font and clicking Apply will then change the font. After closing the Text and Font window the fonts in the drop-down list in the toolbar are no longer marked as 'not found' (as described above).

Expected behavior:
It should be possible to change fonts directly from the drop-down list immediately after starting Inkscape, without having to do it once via the Text and Font dialog first.

System:
Inkscape 0.48.0 r9654
Ubuntu Maverick Merkaat 10.10

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Not reproduced with Inkscape 0.48 and 0.48+devel r9854 on OS X 10.5.8:
the font for new text objects can be changed and set in the dropdown list of the text tool controls bar without resorting to using the 'Text and Font' dialog at least once.

Questions:
a) Do you have the font 'Bitstream Vear Sans' installed?
b) Inkscape 0.48 no longer uses 'Bitstream Vera Sans' as default for new text (it's the generic 'Sans' instead). Could you try if the error persists after resetting Inkscape's preferences file?

1) quit Inkscape
2) mv ~/.config/inkscape/preferences.xml ~/.config/inkscape/preferences-old.xml
3) restart Inkscape

or - alternatively, set a new default font:

1) open 'Text > Text and Font…'
2) select 'Sans' in the list of font names
3) click 'Set as default', close dialog
4) restart Inkscape

Does Inkscape still not find any installed fonts from the controls bar initially?

[Per Knutsen (pmknutsen)]

I followed your second advice and selected a new font in Text and Font and set it as default. After restarting Inkscape the problem with not being able to select a new font from the drop-down list disappeared. I agree this seems to be an upgrade related issue (recently upgraded from 0.47 to 0.48).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Glad you got it working.

> this seems to be an upgrade related issue

In parts, yes. However, the dropdown list of the text tool controls bar should not stop working when the current default font can't be found.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Setting status to 'Confirmed' based on new duplicate report.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Bug #693830 “Text and Font dialog box is missing several features” is possibly same issue (no feedback from OR though).

[Dinara Akhmetova (776035503-9)]

I have the same problem. Instal new 21 fonts. same family, byt half work and half have error 'Font not found on system'?? Second method did not work. First i do not anderstand? could you help me?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Probably fixed in r10491
<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/10491>

@Alex - could you properly revert the bug status (I'm not allowed to change Ubuntu inkscape bugs to 'Triaged'), and possibly test/confim the fix in r10491 with a current development build from trunk?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Dinara Akhmetova wrote
> I have the same problem. Instal new 21 fonts. same family, byt
> half work and half have error 'Font not found on system'??

Based on your description you are not affected by this specific bug (where _none_ of the fonts from the toolbar drop-down list can be applied to a text object on-canvas, even though they can be selected and applied via the 'Text and Font' dialog). You seem to have different issues where only certain fonts (for whatever reason) do not work in Inkscape (maybe they are currently not usable in Inkscape due to a different bug (e.g. they might have a digit in or at the end of the font name), or are otherwise broken).

> (…) First i do not anderstand? could you help me?

A bug tracker is not a support forum (also, please don't change bug statuses unless you know how they are used by the bug teams). There are several resources for user support available which are more appropriate for such requests [1].

[1] Some support resources for Inkscape:
- Inkscape mailing list 'inkscape-users'
  <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user>
- Inkscape user forum
  <http://www.inkscapeforum.com/>
- Inkscape Answers section at launchpad
  <https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape>
- Inkscape irc channel at freenode
  <http://inkscape.org/discussion.php?lang=en>

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

@suv, I can hopefully take a look at the status later tonight.

BTW, upstream triagers are normally given Ubuntu Bug Control membership automatically if you're interested.

[Dinara Akhmetova (776035503-9)]

A bug tracker is not a support forum (also, please don't change bug statuses unless you know how they are used by the bug teams). There are several resources for user support available which are more appropriate for such requests [1].

MMM well thank you, it`s very pity that this program stil with bugs. and my exuses about this bug center and my makiking changes. I lost half a day to try to found what wrong and in the end just download trial Illustrator and everything work now.
i hope next time i find this program better and NO bugs.

[Simon B. (yukawara)]

@Dinara
I have the same problem as you, and filed a new bug for it. (Bug #838589)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

~suv wrote on 2011-08-10:
> Probably fixed in r10491
> <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/revision/10491>

Reproduced with r10490, not reproduced with r10493 and later revisions (tested with archived builds).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Remaining issues with new default font 'sans-serif' in trunk (marked with "Font not found on system") are tracked in
Bug #1002757 Regressions with new default font 'sans-serif' (r11393)