Font style not listed

[rotsch]

Hi,

I'm new in this forum and also a newbie using inkscape. I struggled over my first problem.

I'm using the font timberline which has two styles "Regular" and "Icons" but only the "Regular" style is listed in the font dialog box (shift + ctrl + T). If I use another font with different styles, for example "Frutiger" then all different styles are listed and I can select each. If I use Word or InDesign I'm also able to select the "Icons" style of timberline font.

I have no idea now what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks,
Roger

[TMadisson]

ooo that's a really nice rustic script font. Could they vary in font format odd but could be the answer - I don't know much about fonts, i just like them.

[Moini]

You're doing nothing wrong. There is a bug in the current Inkscape version that sometimes prevents all variants being listed. If the variant is not listed as a separate font in the list, then it's just not able to find it. You can try installing another version of the font, or one that comes in multiple files, or with different file names.

[rotsch]

Thanks Moini, I've tried to rename the font using FontForge according to this video . But the renamed font is still not recognized by InkScape and again it works with Word and Illustrator. I will do this design by using Illustrator again...

[brynn]

Welcome Roger!

I don't know if this would work.  But I've noticed if I open an SVG file containing a font which I don't have installed, Inkscape is still able to display it.  Or more precisely, at least the status bar is reporting the name of the (font which I don't have installed).  I don't know by looking at the font whether Inkscape is actually displaying it properly.

But if it does display the font, despite not having it installed,  I wonder if you created an SVG file which contains that font, using another program, and then open it in Inkscape, would you be able to use it?  I'm not sure, but I'll try to investigate futher, a little bit later.

[rotsch]

Thanks brynn I've just tested your suggestion and saved a timberline icon in Illustrator as .svg and opened it in Inkscape, but it doesn't work. Inkscape shows the coresponding letter and not the icon and also a yellow warning next to the font name.

[Moini]

Yep, then it just doesn't work with Inkscape 0.92(.2?). You could convert the icon into a path in Illustrator...

[brynn]

If you really want to use Inkscape, you could use an older version, until the bug is fixed.  Find downloads here:  https://inkscape.org/en/release/

I'm not sure if the bug started in 0.91 or 0.92.  Moini?

[JCSalomon]

I'm not sure if the bug started in 0.91 or 0.92.  Moini?

I’ve just had the same problem (that’s actually why I registered—my similar post on the inkscape-users mailing list wasn’t getting any response). As best as I can guess, this is https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/165521 at fault, considerably older than 0.9x.

(Since the same issue seems to arise with GIMP, I wonder whether it might be a bug in GTK’s font handling.)

[Moini]

Perhaps both programs use pango?...

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

The bug you mentioned is not the same as what I was thinking of.

I saw your question on the user mailing list.  But didn't answer because I find the recent changes with Inkscape's Text tool, and text handling, confusing.  And I don't understand fonts and text handling very well to begin with.  Font family, font variant, font face, font style.....yikes!

It seems that Inkscape is a bit picky about fonts (my layperson perspective).  I've often seen free fonts which Inkscape just doesn't recognize, even though other programs (GIMP, LibreOffice, e.g.) do recognize and use without any problems.  My impression is that a font has to be very well made, for Inkscape to use it.  So perhaps a font maker's first font -- well, maybe it's just missing something, or there's a mistake in it somewhere.  Or a font maker who has put out 8 different "varieties" of one particular font - maybe they missed something in the 9th?

Maybe you could try Scribus?  It's open source desktop publishing, and supports SVG.