Comment 2 for bug 398289

This bug still exists in Ubuntu 14.04. It can be fixed by installing the gsfonts-x11 package. Currently, that package is marked as "suggested" in the xfonts Debian package. I strongly recommend making gsfonts-x11 a full dependency. Although xfig is useful for some purposes without working fonts, I expect most figures created with it will use fonts. (Certainly most of mine do!)