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Font wanted isn't the font that's displayed in Linux Ubuntu.

  • 13 replies
  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by STrRedWolf

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TL/DR: See the image. ;)

I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 (Xubuntu flavor), using Firefox 79.0, working on a web site. I'm coding specifically for Arial... and it's returning Times New Roman.

I have Arial installed, via the ttf-mscorefonts package and also adding them from a Win10 box.

Please, no "But you should do 'font-family: Arial, Veranda, sans-serif'" dismissive answers. Why? Because if I do "font-family: Arial, Veranda" I still get Times New Roman. I can even substitute "Pulsar Beta" here (a font that is installed to my local account) and it still gives me Times New Roman.

If I do "font-family: sans-serif" I get Veranda, not Arial... which is odd because Arial is my default font.

Doing "font-family: Veranda" gets my Times New Roman.

Chrome doesn't have this issue!

As a picture is worth a thousand words, see the pic.

What can I do? I did see some bugs that were fixed in v56, but none of the debugging tips help there.

TL/DR: See the image. ;) I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 (Xubuntu flavor), using Firefox 79.0, working on a web site. I'm coding specifically for Arial... and it's returning Times New Roman. I have Arial installed, via the ttf-mscorefonts package and also adding them from a Win10 box. ''Please, no "But you should do 'font-family: Arial, Veranda, sans-serif'" dismissive answers.'' Why? Because if I do "font-family: Arial, Veranda" I still get Times New Roman. I can even substitute "Pulsar Beta" here (a font that is installed to my local account) and it still gives me Times New Roman. If I do "font-family: sans-serif" I get Veranda, not Arial... which is odd because Arial is my default font. Doing "font-family: Veranda" gets my Times New Roman. Chrome doesn't have this issue! As a picture is worth a thousand words, see the pic. What can I do? I did see some bugs that were fixed in v56, but none of the debugging tips help there.
Attached screenshots

Chosen solution

Huh... It looks like fonts-twemoji-svginot was the bad package... but it's no longer in Ubuntu's repos. Removing it has solved the problem.

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All Replies (13)

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Do you allow pages to choose their own fonts ? What are the default font settings ?

  • Options/Preferences -> General: Fonts & Colors -> Advanced
    [X] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"

Did you check the Arial font and Verdana font in FontForge ?

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Allow pages to choose their own fonts/colors is checked. Default serif is Times New Roman. Default sans-serif is "Default (Verdana)" Default monospace is "Default (Bitstream Vera Sans Mono)"

Installing FontForge... Checking /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts...

Arial.ttf says "ArialMT" Verdana.ttf says "Verdana"

tygris@redwolf:~$ fc-match Arial arial.ttf: "Arial" "Regular"

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Scratch that, sorry.

Modified by TyDraniu

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Where are the fonts installed ?

Does Firefox show them as possible choices for the default font ?

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/usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts

And yes, they're shown as possible choices. I can set sans-serif as Arial and monospace as Courier New.

Also, in the test HTML I used, if I substitute in "Pulsar Beta" I get the default "Times New Roman" as well. This is also in the choices. "Pulsar Beta" is in ~/.local/share/fonts .

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Quote: I can set sans-serif as Arial and monospace as Courier New.

Does Firefox use that font when you set is as the default font if you check this in the Inspector ?

You can check in the Rules tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font-family is used for selected text. You can check in the Font tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font is actually used because Firefox might be using a different font than specified by the website.

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Negative. If I set it, for the test html file (see pic), it uses Times New Roman (the serif default) for Arial (a sans-serif font).

Rules says:

element {

   font-family: Arial;

}

Fonts says Times New Roman is used. No mention of Arial.

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Also, as a follow-up, if I change the default serif from "Times New Roman" to "Pulsar Beta" (a comic font), it uses Times New Roman.

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Is this with Firefox from the repositories or with Firefox from the Mozilla server ?

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Firefox from the repos, but Firefox from Mozilla has the same issue. I pulled a fresh copy to see if that had issues... and it does.

I've gone through my Xubuntu setup... and the font-config setup doesn't have any config files that would cause this issue. I can use Arial outside of Firefox. Chrome correctly pulls Arial as does XFCE and LibreOffice. It only happens in Firefox.

I have already removed my profile and pulled fresh, and used "Safe Mode". Same issue.

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Hmmm... weird... I just checked another install of Ubuntu on another PC, version 20.04 (same as the affected one)... and it's working there.

I wonder what the difference is...

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Just to document things, one of the installed fonts I had was screwing things up. I'm pinpointing the font now so I can send a bug report to Ubuntu... and also document it here.

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Chosen Solution

Huh... It looks like fonts-twemoji-svginot was the bad package... but it's no longer in Ubuntu's repos. Removing it has solved the problem.