Hi, I am new here and would like to ask why any chosen font reverts back to "bitstream vera sans" on the screen.It does use my cosen font but not the size.This is on 0.45. I have never had this problem with it before, I used it for 1 year. I downloaded 0.46 but could not get on with it so I downloaded 0.45 again. I use Inkscape mostly for drawing and then cutting out with a plotter. I also do a lot of signwriting and it is anoying that I can't see the font I am using and the size is very small.

This sounds like a bug so I'm moving the topic to the "software issues" forum.

Note that this isn't the best place to get support for bugs because the developers have a mailing list. If someone here isn't familiar with the problem or doesn't have a suggestion, you can try searching the list of bugs on Launchpad to see if there is a work around or you can post the problem on the developers mailing list.

Thanks a lot, what I can't understand is why did the bug not show up in the year I used the programme, it only showed up after I re-downloaded it a couple of weeks ago.Sorry to be so ignorant but I'm only a beginner but love to work with Inkscape.

If it worked before (with the same version of Inkscape), then it's probably a preferences problem. You could try deleting your preferences.xml file (which will reset your preferences). Or maybe just edit it and change "Bitstream Vera Sans" to some other font.

The problem may be caused by the default font being one that you don't have installed (Bitstream Vera Sans), in which case installing it may fix the problem. It's a free font, and is available from the GNOME site: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/ttf-bitstream-vera/1.10/ttf-bitstream-vera-1.10.zip

Thanks for the advice, downloading the font didn't work but I've got it fixed.
I went into xml editor and opened namevieuw file, added "fonts" and set it. When I selected a font and the size, it remained in view so I'm well happy. Perhaps I'm not so dumb after all as I have absolutely no experience with doing anything behind the scenes in software and I am petrified I'd do something wrong. I would need a few lessons with you guys.
I love all the screencasts as well and try and follow as many as I can.

Great work, lara. Thanks for sharing the fix.