Some Gnome applications do not find some fonts

[Traumflug]

Not sure for which package to report this bug, as it shows up in multiple applications.

Ubuntu 20.04 came with a newer GhostScript, which swapped the Nimbus-L series of fonts (e.g. Nimbus Mono L, format PostScript Type 1) for a Nimbus-PS series (e.g. Nimbus Mono PS, format ASCII Font Metrics, AFM). Ubuntu kindly placed these previous fonts in /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts, albeit under cryptic file names. Nimbus Mono L used to be my standard monospaced font, so I'm very sure it worked in Ubuntu 19.10.

Bug is, now some applications still see Nimbus-L fonts, others don't. Applications I found to not see them (not listed in preferences -> font selection):

- gnome-terminal
- gedit
- geany

Applications seeing them:

- fc-list
- gnome-font-view
- Scribus

Right after the upgrade, geany and gnome-terminal didn't show characters, but some unreadable replacement garbage (these tiny rectangles with some hex code inside). Both had Nimbus Mono L set as their font.

Another bit of diagnosis: viewing a single font in Nautilus, placed e.g. in $HOME, shows such a Nimbus-L font fine, but in the window title bar it reads 'installed', installation button is greyed out.

An excerpt of the list of installed fonts:

$ fc-list | grep Nimbus | grep Mono
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-Italic.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Italic
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-BoldItalic.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold Italic
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/n022003l.pfb: Nimbus Mono L:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/type1/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-Italic.t1: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Italic
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-Bold.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/n022023l.pfb: Nimbus Mono L:style=Regular Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/opentype/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-Regular.otf: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/type1/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-Regular.t1: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/type1/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-BoldItalic.t1: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold Italic
/usr/share/fonts/type1/urw-base35/NimbusMonoPS-Bold.t1: Nimbus Mono PS:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/n022004l.pfb: Nimbus Mono L:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/n022024l.pfb: Nimbus Mono L:style=Bold Oblique

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: gnome-software-common 3.36.0-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-28.32-generic 5.4.30
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-28-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Tue May 5 00:22:40 2020
Dependencies:

InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-05-04 (1461 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
InstalledPlugins:
 gnome-software-plugin-flatpak N/A
 gnome-software-plugin-snap N/A
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: gnome-software
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-05-03 (0 days ago)