Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 22294
Fonts entirely illegible while typing
Last modified: 2004-08-06 14:35:11 UTC
There appears to be no way for me to use oowriter. As I type, the letters simply pile up one upon the other on the screen. I've tried selecting the text and changing the font. Changing to Times New Roman appears, in the sample, to fix the trouble but, in fact, it does nothing onscreen. When I preview the page, it shows as being entirely jumbled up. If I highlight all the text and change to some radically different font size like, say, 20 point, it appears to fix things but then, when I continue typing, it starts to jumble up again. I have a screenshot that I'd like to attach but I'm not sure precisely how to do that. Dave Fluri
Created attachment 11076 [details] Screenshot of OOo and the inability to read anything I type onscreen.
can you reproduce this problem ? If I look at the screenshot it will not be able to work with OOo. but at the previous text it is normal. can you please describe more about your computer spec ? Your linux, kernel, configuration, ETC. especially VGA card and the driver version
Mandrake Linux 9.0(ish) Kernel: 2.4.29-16mdk Video: ATI Radeon 7500 QW at 1x AGP Video driver: radeon.o with DRI XFree: 4.2.1 Resolution: 1280x1024 at 24 bit colour
BTW, OOo 1.0.1 worked perfectly on this same machine.
reassigend to hdu this is a known issue to me, i saw this behaviour on a OOo1.1 beta or rc. can you please take a look on this issue. to the reporter of this issue, does this really happen on a OOo1.1 final or do you have a release candidate? please tell us the build id of your release. help -> about openoffice.org -> press [strg] than one after the other [s] [d] [t]
I'm running: OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 [645m19(Build:8693)]
Can you also attach the file share/pspfontfontcache in the installation directory and the document which corresponds to the screen shot?
Unfortunately, I did not save the file from which that screen shot came. I made another. I'll attach a second screenshot and the file from whence it came. Note that this screenshot and the previous one were produced in exactly the same way and, in fact, contain exactly the same words. Notice how different they appear. I've also attached a copy of the file share/psprint/psfontcache from the installation directory. Dave
Created attachment 11132 [details] A new screenshot of the garbled fonts. Contains the same text as the previous screenshot.
Created attachment 11133 [details] The file share/psprint/pspfontcache from the installation directory.
I've also just noticed that the fonts are screwed up in the help screen. I'll attach a screenshot of that, too. Dave
Created attachment 11134 [details] Screwed up fonts in the right panel of the help UI
Darn, I think I might have misclassified this incident. I just tried using OOcalc and the troubles are in there, too. I'm beginning to wonder if this mightn't be a variation of that garbled fonts in the UI bug that we saw a while back. Here's a screenshot of OOcalc. Note that the three lines were typed in, from top to bottom, Arial 10, Arial 20 and Arial 6. Yes, that's right, the top line is 10 pt while the second line is 20 pt.
Created attachment 11135 [details] Screwed up fonts in the OOcalc
Where is the document of the snapshot3.png? Also a *.PDF export of this document would be interesting (to see which fonts are actually used on your system).
Created attachment 11165 [details] Document for screenshot 3 (sorry I forgot to attach it before)
Created attachment 11166 [details] A PDF export of the same document
Created attachment 11167 [details] When I saved the document from screenshot3, restarted OOo and reopened it, it looked like this
Created attachment 11168 [details] Then, when I tried to add new text to it, this is what it did
Do you think this might be a variation of the troubles touched on in Christof Pintaske's fontguide at http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/fontguide.html#8
No I don't think the fontguide has the Q&A for this problem. What I find interesting is that there seem to be two different "Times New Roman" on this system. One times.pfb in /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype. Can you provide the /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/times.* files? We had bad experiences with TTF->TYPE1 autoconverted files... Another thing I'd like to know is: Does it look better when you choose the menu item "View->Online Layout"?
changing component
There are no files /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/times.* The contents of the /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/ directory is opens___.ttf -sun-OpenSymbol-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 VeraMoBd.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-bold-r-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-m-0-iso10646-1 VeraMoBI.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-bold-i-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-m-0-iso10646-1 VeraBd.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans-bold-r-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 VeraMoIt.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-normal-i-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-m-0-iso10646-1 VeraMono.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans Mono-normal-r-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-m-0-iso10646-1 VeraSeBd.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Serif-bold-r-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 VeraIt.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans-normal-i-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 VeraSe.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Serif-normal-r-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 Vera.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans-normal-r-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 VeraBI.ttf -misc-Bitstream Vera Sans-bold-i-normal-utf8-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1 When I select "Online Layout", I can read it all but the kerning is screwy as shown in the attached screeshot7.
Created attachment 11173 [details] Online Layout View
Searching for times*.*ttf* on my entire system yields the following: /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/timesbd.ttf /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/timesbi.ttf /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/timesi.ttf /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/times.ttf One new thing I've just noticed is that, when I drop down the fonts list, the examples are all in Arabic or Greek. Here's a screenshot9 showing the dropdown font selection list.
Created attachment 11177 [details] The dropdown font selector list
/Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/times.pfb and times.afm files? Which tool created them? The arabic/greek text means, that psprint's font collection classified all these fonts as symbol fonts, so OOo will show samples of what it expects to be symbol sets. The pspfontcache entries confirms this with stating that the *.pfb fonts have RTL_TEXTENCODING_SYMBOL encoding. To get things working I suggest to move the directory /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype out of the way! E.g. rename it to /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype.bak
A line was clipped in the message above: I'm very interested to get the /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/times.pfb and times.afm files. Can you provide them?
There are no files /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/times*.* The contents of the /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype/ directory are opens___.ttf VeraMoBd.ttf VeraMoBI.ttf VeraBd.ttf VeraMoIt.ttf VeraMono.ttf VeraSeBd.ttf VeraIt.ttf VeraSe.ttf Vera.ttf VeraBI.ttf Searching the entire system for times*.afm and times*.pfb yields the following /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/times.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbd.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbi.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesi.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/times.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbd.pfb /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbi.pfb /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesi.pfb Do you want me to send these files along?
Okay, I renamed /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype to /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype.bak This had no visible effect. It appears that my system is pulling those fonts from somewhere else, and not from the /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype directory. Support for this contention is that the /Extras/OpenOffice/share/fonts/truetype directory contains, essentially, only Verdana fonts. It must be pulling other fonts in through the fontserver from /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont and below. As for which tool created the fonts, I really have no idea. I know that Mandrake supplies a tool to pull fonts into Mandrake. I think the tool is called drakfont, in fact. I did that back when I first installed Mandrake 9.0, pulling them in from a previous installation of Mandrake 8.2. Those WP fonts came from there, for sure, because I had WP for Linux installed in Mandrake 8.2. I also pulled some MS fonts from a Windows partition at the same time, using the same tool. BTW, this machine can dual-boot into MSWindows98SE, although I haven't used it for ages. My kids used to use it to play games. I tried it last night, installing OOo1.1.0 over there. It works perfectly in Windows on this machine. Sheesh, I'm beginning to feel like an ueber-pest or something. Am I the only person with these difficulties or can you assuage my feelings and tell me I represent whole hordes who have the same trouble but don't know it or haven't reported it yet? ;-)
Ooos, you are right it is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1. I overlooked this path from the pspfontcache file and used the one next to it. So please rename this directory instead, sorry. > Sheesh, I'm beginning to feel like an ueber-pest or something. Am I > the only person with these difficulties or can you assuage my > feelings and tell me I represent whole hordes who have the same > trouble but don't know it or haven't reported it yet? ;-) No worries, this looks like a more generic problem. I think it has to do with the TTF->PFB conversion that is done (probably a MDK speciality), which is not needed for a long time (OOo or SO<6). Assume yourself to be the leader of a Mandrake tribe :-)
Oops, I made a typo in listing the time*.pfb and times*.afm files. The correct list on this box is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/times.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbd.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbi.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesi.afm /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/times.pfb /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbd.pfb /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesbi.pfb /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/timesi.pfb Sorry about that. Do you want that I should send these files?
Just the times.pfb and times.afm pair. Also the result of the directory renaming / OOo restarting...
Created attachment 11192 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1.bak/times.afm
Created attachment 11193 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1.bak/times.pfb
Renaming /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1 to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1.bak and then restarting OOo had no visible effect. BTW, there is another Type1 directory in that hierarchy, although it doesn't contain any times fonts. it is /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1 and it contains 89 fonts, some courier fonts and a whole bunch with numbers, like /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/1047013t.pfa and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/c0611bt_.pfb Should the pspfontscache file change after renaming that directory? It hasn't...
Oh, BTW, just to be clear, this is not an OOo install from Mandrake RPMs. This is an install from a d/l from the OOo website. My previous install of OOo1.0.1 was from Mandrake RPMs that were packaged with Mandrake 9.0. If they fiddle with things like fonts and all when they package the programme, the fact that 1.0.1 worked on this machine could be a meaningles statistic. This could be a longer-standing problem.
Thanks. The "EncodingScheme FontSpecific" explains the symbol font flag, but I don't understand the metrics problem yet. Maybe the freetype version has to do with it. When running OOo please do lsof | fgrep libfreetype | fgrep soffice and attach the libfreetype.so that is mentioned in the result.
lsof | grep libfreetype.so | fgrep soffice returns six entries, all identical save for the second field. The entries are of the type soffice.b 25757 noo_usr mem REG 3,72 324240 96629 /usr/lib/libfreetype.so The numbers in the second field are 25757, [25780-25783] and 25790. Sending /usr/lib/libfreetype.so
Please attach the /usr/lib/libfreetype.so file.
Created attachment 11196 [details] /usr/lib/libfreetype.so is a symlink to this file /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.2
Say, Herbert, I hate to do this 'cause we lose interactivity but I have to go to work! :-) Ciao for now and thanks bunches already for what you're doing, there.
Fine, I'm running out of ideas on this one anyway... :-(
Please remove the pspfontcache file, then restart, while the type1 dir is still renamed.
Okay, removing the psfontscache file had no effect. OOo restarted just fine without that file. What I did, then, was I removed both of the subdirectories under /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1. Then, I ran OOo setup and chose to repair the installation. Only in this way could I force the system to rewrite the file /Extras/OpenOffice/share/psprint/psfontcache It had no effect on my problem, but I'll attach the new psfontcache file, nonetheless.
Created attachment 11213 [details] The newly (forced to be) created psfontscache file
HDU->US: I tried so many things but I cannot recreate it... Can you?
US@submitter: pls. attach the output of "/usr/sbin/chkfontpath" and "xset -q". Thanks a lot.
bash-2.05b$ /usr/sbin/chkfontpath Current directories in font path: 1: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled 2: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont 3: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1 4: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/ttf 5: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled 6: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled 7: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1 8: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF 9: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo 10: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/pcf_drakfont:unscaled 11: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/mdk:unscaled 12: /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1 13: /usr/share/fonts/ttf/western 14: /usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives 15: /usr/share/fonts/type1/greek 16: /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts bash-2.05b$ xset -q Keyboard Control: auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000000 auto repeat delay: 660 repeat rate: 25 auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf fa9fffffffdfe5ff ffffffffffffffff ffffffffffffffff bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100 Pointer Control: acceleration: 2/1 threshold: 4 Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes timeout: 0 cycle: 600 Colors: default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215 Font Path: /home/noo_usr/.kde/share/fonts/override,unix/:-1,/home/noo_usr/.kde/share/fonts Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled DPMS (Energy Star): Standby: 900 Suspend: 1800 Off: 2700 DPMS is Enabled Monitor is On Font cache: hi-mark (KB): 1024 low-mark (KB): 768 balance (%): 70
Now pls. run the following command and attach the found "fonts.*" files. find /usr -name 'fonts.*' -type f -exec grep -qi "Times New Roman" {} \; -print After that pls. run the command again with "Times" instead of "Times New Roman" and attach the "fonts.*" files. Important: pls. name the PATH to the found "fonts.*" files in the description of the attachment (example:/usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/fonts.dir). Thanks a lot.
The following two files are the result of the command find /usr -name 'fonts.*' -type f -exec grep -qi "Times New Roman" {} \; -print
Created attachment 14382 [details] /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/fonts.dir
Created attachment 14383 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/ttf/fonts.dir
The following 9 files are the result of the command find /usr -name 'fonts.*' -type f -exec grep -qi "Times" {} \; -print
Created attachment 14384 [details] /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/fonts.dir
Created attachment 14385 [details] /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/fonts.scale
Created attachment 14386 [details] /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/fonts.dir
Created attachment 14387 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/fonts.dir
Created attachment 14388 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/fonts.scale.bak
Created attachment 14389 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/ttf/fonts.dir
Oops, in that group of nine files, when I try to attach 3 of them I'm told they don't exist, even though the find command finds them and I can see them with ls. They are /usr/share/a2ps/afm/fonts.map /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/fonts.dir /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/fonts.scale I'll try once more to attach them.
Created attachment 14390 [details] /usr/share/a2ps/afm/fonts.map
Created attachment 14391 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/fonts.dir
Created attachment 14392 [details] /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/fonts.scale
There, that did it. It must have been a glitch in the upload process.
Thanks a bunch!! Not sure whther the following dir is empty. But at least it contains a fonts.scale and seems to be missing a fonts.dir. That's suspicious to me, also the content of the fonts.scale seems suspicious, but I may be wrong. /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1 You may try commenting out the appropriate line in /etc/X11/fs/config and restart the font server (as root: /etc/init.d/xfs restart ) Does that help? I see. From the pspfontcache file I can tell that the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1 isn't empty. As already said by HDU nowadays there is no need anymore for converting truetypes to Type1. But these font fies reside in a typical font path they'll always get found by OOo's font path 'heuristic'. Thus commenting out them for the font server as described above isn't enough. Pls. move them to a place where OOo won't see them ($HOME does not work). You may want to move them in a tar file (tar -czvf drakfont_type1.tar.gz /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/drakfont/Type1/ ) . After testing the tar file you can savely remove all entries from the directory.
Any news on this issue?
Seems more to be a Mandrake/configurartion problem than an OOo one.
Closing as not an OO.o issue + issue inactivity. Feel free to reopen when their is new insight on this topic.