Problem rendering DejaVu fonts in Writer 2.4.0

[Uttoxeter]

Hi,
after receiving the announcement regarding the release of OOo's latest version, a few days ago I downloaded and installed OOo 2.4.0.
After reading the schpeel on the email announcing the release, I decided to change my default fonts to a pair from the DejaVu family.

I chose DejaVu Sans Condensed as my default 'Heading' font.

I have since found that OOo often has a problem rendering this typeface.
Heading text saved in DejaVu Sans Condensed often (but not always) renders as spread out all over the workspace - making it impossible to read - and sometimes it fails to render at all, making my Headings effectively invisible.
Sometimes I can solve the problem by changing the font size twice - once to a new size, then back to the size I want - but not always.

I am using a machine running Windows XP as the OS, and downloaded OOo 2.4.0 from the homepage.

Has anyone else noticed this problem, or is it just me?
If anyone else has noticed this problem, does anyone have any idea how I can fix it?
(Lastly, should I have posted this Thread in the Writer forum?)

RSVP,
Uttoxeter.

[Hagar Delest]

Can you upload a screenshot here? (use .png and make it smaller than 128kB). Is the DejàVu font already installed on your system?

For this kind of issue, the best section is here (Setup and Troubleshouting) because fonts issues are system wide, rarely linked to an OOo component only.

[Uttoxeter]

Hi, thanks for the response.

I may have had the DejaVu fonts before now, as I did previously have OOo 2.3 on this computer.
(It's a fairly new machine on which the only packages that come with fonts are, AFAIK, WinXP & OOo.)

Below is (I hope) a 525pxl-wide png file showing a screencap of the problem.
I typed out a fairly full character set, and then copied it in various different fonts.

On the screencap, it's the DejaVu Serif fonts that're playing up, rather than the Sans-serif.

[Hagar Delest]

Your screenshot is rather small so can't really see!

If you create a new document, in the fonts drop-down list, do you see the DéjàVu fonts you want to use?

[Uttoxeter]

Hello again.

Sorry about the image's size - I was paranoid about getting it under 128k.
I've now uploaded a larger version (see below. I hope).

What you should see on the screencap is four complete alphabets, in Bitstream Vera Serif, then DejaVu Serif, then DejaVu Serif Condensed, then Palatino Linotype.

Underneath those are strings of numbers & other characters, in the same font order (with a first line in TNR).

Whilst Writer has no problem rendering the text typed in Bitstream Vera Serif & Palatino Linotype, it hasn't rendered the alphabets typed in the DejaVu fonts at all.
The program is aware that they are there, as the spellchecker's red underlining of the alphabets shows.

In the section containing non-letter character strings, the kerning of the lines using the DejaVu fonts has gone totally wrong, spreading the characters all over the page.
It should be displaying five identical strings of characters.



In answer to your question, yes - the DejaVu fonts do all appear in the drop-down list.

[Hagar Delest]

The screenshot is indeed more clear!

See that thread, especially the font fix application linked at its end: [Tutorial] Installing Fonts in Windows.

[Uttoxeter]

Thankyou, Hagar, for the help!

I've downloaded that 'Fix Font Folder' program, and it seems to have done the trick!
It found a corrupted DejaVu font (which wasn't even appearing in the drop-down font list), which I then deleted.

Since then (yesterday), I haven't seen the rendering problem occur again.

So, until (if) it returns, I'm marking this thread 'Solved'.

[mobi-doc]

I'm sorry to disappoint you but the problem is far from solved.
OOo 2.4 included in its installation packages a corrupted font family that creates a lot of problems in both windows and linux. The best solution is to delete DejaVu font family from your computer.
Consider a new user of OOo seeing words disappear in Writer, he would assume that Writer is broken (that was my first thought also).
I think it's a huge marketing mistake to include these fonts in OOo and they must withdraw them ASAP from the packages, before it's too late.

[foxcole]

I think it's a huge marketing mistake to include these fonts in OOo and they must withdraw them ASAP from the packages, before it's too late.

That is a bit of hyperbolic reaction. Do you have any idea how many users in the world are successfully working with OOo in spite of the presence of a broken font? Can you picture all of these users suddenly deflating and dropping OOo because it has a broken font ? Please, try to maintain a little perspective.

I understand how frustrating your experience has been and the great amount of effort and focus you have invested in discovering the problem (Writer 2.4 corrupts documents (Probably DejaVu Font Problem)) and that was work well done.

But that problem is not going to shatter OOo in the eyes of the world. On one hand, consider that the user forums are used almost exclusively by people having problems with OOo... not by people who have no problems or questions. Of those few who are having problems, how many reported the issue you found? Statistically, insignificant. It seems to indicate how few people work with the DejaVu font. On the other hand, every software on Earth has its glitches---yes, even Word!---yet for some reason millions of users continue using them. This particular glitch will be worked out, I'm sure, and meanwhile, users will fix their fonts or find different ones to use.

[Uttoxeter]

I also have had the problem reoccur, so have removed the 'Solved' from the thread title

At least I am now sure that it's a problem with the specific fonts, and not with Writer or OOo 2.4.
(I tried installing the latest version of the font family from the Wiki page, but the intermittent problem persisted.)

It is a shame, because I like the appearance of the DejaVu fonts, but it's hardly a 'critical' issue, and doesn't alter my decision to use the OOo suite.

For now I guess I'll just have to return to my previous default typefaces, and wait until the problems with the DejaVu font family have been ironed out by its developers.

I do agree though that OOo's developers should reconsider using the DejaVu products as default fonts until this problem has been solved.

[Hagar Delest]

It may be linked to that bug: Issue 79878 - OO.o can not select modern font faces conveniently.

[mobi-doc]

That is a bit of hyperbolic reaction. Do you have any idea how many users in the world are successfully working with OOo in spite of the presence of a broken font? Can you picture all of these users suddenly deflating and dropping OOo because it has a broken font ? Please, try to maintain a little perspective.

We, the older users, may not have a problem. But a new user will face the problem right on his/her first document, because for 2.4 DejaVu fonts are the default fonts of the program.

[foxcole]

We, the older users, may not have a problem. But a new user will face the problem right on his/her first document, because for 2.4 DejaVu fonts are the default fonts of the program.

Do you mean they're the default font, or do you just mean they're one of the included fonts? My impression was the latter. All the questions I've seen so far have to do with changing the font to DejaVu, and it would make no sense to use anything other than a core font in the Default styles out of the box (that is, in a brand new, unaltered installation).

In case anyone is wondering, core fonts are the basic set of "universal" fonts including Arial, Times New Roman, Courier, etc.

Edit: Never mind, I found it here: http://development.openoffice.org/relea ... ocId655303. You're right, that would be a poor experience for new users. I expect that should be reverted or fixed in 2.4.1, then, as there's nothing to be done in the meantime.

[mobi-doc]

Do you mean they're the default font, or do you just mean they're one of the included fonts?

In a new and clean installation of OOo 2.4, where no .OpenOffice2 dir exist (or Application Data\OpenOffice2 in Windows), then the DejaVu fonts are the default Basic Fonts in Tools/Options/Writer. And that is serious.

Anyway, it may be still an OOo problem not able to deal with fonts with more than 4 (Regular, Bold, Italics, Bold-Italics) faces.

[acknak]

I don't think it's as simple as that. I just installed 2.4 on an XP system having no previous OOo, and Times New Roman and Arial were the default fonts out of the box.

[mobi-doc]

I don't think it's as simple as that. I just installed 2.4 on an XP system having no previous OOo, and Times New Roman and Arial were the default fonts out of the box.

Do you mean that you installed OOo for the first time in your PC's life or that you removed the previous/older installation before you installed 2.4?

In the second case, your Application Data/OpenOffice2/ dir is preserved as well as your previous settings.

[acknak]

I'm temporarily using my wife's laptop; it's never had OOo on it before and I had made a new account for myself. MS Office 2k3 was previously installed on it.

I was surprised that those came up as the default fonts, frankly. I wonder if OOo picked up a setting from the MSO install?

[foxcole]

I was surprised that those came up as the default fonts, frankly. I wonder if OOo picked up a setting from the MSO install?

Heavens! I hope not. What a tangle even the possibility of being able to do that would create! I would be less surprised if it used default fonts as defined in the OS. But in that case, what would the point of setting a default fontset for OOo be?

We might be able to take a little hopeful comfort in your results, though. Maybe not all new users are seeing the DejaVu fonts and issues, after all.