[gentoo-user] emacs font problem

[gentoo-user] emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

Recently emacs (running in X "window" mode) seems to have developed a
font problem.

There are two cases where text displays as a mixture of filled and
unfilled rectangles:

 1) When the mouse pointer hovers over certain things a balloon pops
    up containing nothing but black filled rectangles.

 2) When you select "About Emacs" from the Help menu, the logo renders
    properly at the top of the screen, but the rest is blocks and
    rectangles: http://www.panix.com/~grante/emacsabout.png

Normal editing is fine.

Google hasn't found anything except discussion of problems with
a misssing default font (the one used during editing), and I don't 
have any problems with that.

Any ideas?

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I have the power to
                                  at               HALT PRODUCTION on all
                              gmail.com            TEENAGE SEX COMEDIES!!

Re: [gentoo-user] emacs font problem

[Allan Gottlieb]

Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:

> Recently emacs (running in X "window" mode) seems to have developed a
> font problem.
>
> There are two cases where text displays as a mixture of filled and
> unfilled rectangles:
>
>  1) When the mouse pointer hovers over certain things a balloon pops
>     up containing nothing but black filled rectangles.
>
>  2) When you select "About Emacs" from the Help menu, the logo renders
>     properly at the top of the screen, but the rest is blocks and
>     rectangles: http://www.panix.com/~grante/emacsabout.png
>
> Normal editing is fine.
>
> Google hasn't found anything except discussion of problems with
> a misssing default font (the one used during editing), and I don't 
> have any problems with that.
>
> Any ideas?

Does this happen when you invoke "emacs -Q"?

allan

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-08, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:
> Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Recently emacs (running in X "window" mode) seems to have developed a
>> font problem.
>>
>> There are two cases where text displays as a mixture of filled and
>> unfilled rectangles:
>>
>>  1) When the mouse pointer hovers over certain things a balloon pops
>>     up containing nothing but black filled rectangles.
>>
>>  2) When you select "About Emacs" from the Help menu, the logo renders
>>     properly at the top of the screen, but the rest is blocks and
>>     rectangles: http://www.panix.com/~grante/emacsabout.png
>>
>> Normal editing is fine.
>>
>> Google hasn't found anything except discussion of problems with
>> a misssing default font (the one used during editing), and I don't 
>> have any problems with that.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>
> Does this happen when you invoke "emacs -Q"?

Yes.

In the "about emacs" screen, and all of the "balloons" that pop up
when the mouse hovers over various things, the text is rendered as
blocks/rectangles.

The menus, status line, and acutal editing windows are all fine.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! ONE LIFE TO LIVE for
                                  at               ALL MY CHILDREN in ANOTHER
                              gmail.com            WORLD all THE DAYS OF
                                                   OUR LIVES.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Allan Gottlieb]

Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:

> On 2010-07-08, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:
>> Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Recently emacs (running in X "window" mode) seems to have developed a
>>> font problem.
>>>
>>> There are two cases where text displays as a mixture of filled and
>>> unfilled rectangles:
>>>
>>>  1) When the mouse pointer hovers over certain things a balloon pops
>>>     up containing nothing but black filled rectangles.
>>>
>>>  2) When you select "About Emacs" from the Help menu, the logo renders
>>>     properly at the top of the screen, but the rest is blocks and
>>>     rectangles: http://www.panix.com/~grante/emacsabout.png
>>>
>>> Normal editing is fine.
>>>
>>> Google hasn't found anything except discussion of problems with
>>> a misssing default font (the one used during editing), and I don't 
>>> have any problems with that.
>>>
>>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Does this happen when you invoke "emacs -Q"?
>
> Yes.
>
> In the "about emacs" screen, and all of the "balloons" that pop up
> when the mouse hovers over various things, the text is rendered as
> blocks/rectangles.
>
> The menus, status line, and acutal editing windows are all fine.

Perhaps it is a font issue.  I just did emacs -q (-Q eliminates the
splash screen) and then did C-u C-x = while the cursor was on the "b" in
"Learn basic keystroke commands".  The help buffer includes
          display: by this font (glyph code)
    xft:-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1 (#x45)

What does C-u C-x = give on your system and do you have that font
available?

These are just guesses; I have not experience any such problem myself.

allan

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-09, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:

>>> Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Recently emacs (running in X "window" mode) seems to have developed a
>>>> font problem.
>
> Perhaps it is a font issue.

Yes, I think it probably is.

> I just did emacs -q (-Q eliminates the
> splash screen) and then did C-u C-x = while the cursor was on the "b" in
> "Learn basic keystroke commands".  The help buffer includes
>           display: by this font (glyph code)
>     xft:-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1 (#x45)
>
> What does C-u C-x = give on your system

        character: b (98, #o142, #x62)
preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
       code point: 0x62
           syntax: w 	which means: word
         category: .:Base, a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
      buffer code: #x62
        file code: #x62 (encoded by coding system nil)
          display: no font available

> and do you have that font available?

No, I don't seem to have Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1
availble according to xfontsel.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! My polyvinyl cowboy
                                  at               wallet was made in Hong
                              gmail.com            Kong by Montgomery Clift!

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Allan Gottlieb]

Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:

> On 2010-07-09, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:
>
>>>> Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> Recently emacs (running in X "window" mode) seems to have developed a
>>>>> font problem.
>>
>> Perhaps it is a font issue.
>
> Yes, I think it probably is.
>
>> I just did emacs -q (-Q eliminates the
>> splash screen) and then did C-u C-x = while the cursor was on the "b" in
>> "Learn basic keystroke commands".  The help buffer includes
>>           display: by this font (glyph code)
>>     xft:-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1 (#x45)
>>
>> What does C-u C-x = give on your system
>
>         character: b (98, #o142, #x62)
> preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
>        code point: 0x62
>            syntax: w 	which means: word
>          category: .:Base, a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
>       buffer code: #x62
>         file code: #x62 (encoded by coding system nil)
>           display: no font available
>
>> and do you have that font available?
>
> No, I don't seem to have Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1
> availble according to xfontsel.

Three points

1.  Did you build emacs with xft support?

2.  The name you give "Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1"
    looks to be just the suffix  did you mean something like
    "-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal...".  You don't need to have DejaVu,
    but I would advise getting either DejaVu or bitstream vera.

3.  Your output and mine differ in one point (before the font issue)
    You have "coding system nil".
    I have "coding system utf-8-unix".  Unfortunately I know very little
    about coding systems but do wonder why ours are different since we
    both did emacs -q.  Unfortunately if we do emacs -Q to eliminate
    some system customization, there is no splash screen.  The
    description of UTF-8 says it is for unicode.  Perhaps your nil
    coding system has trouble with unicode, but I am afraid this has
    gotten outside my expertise.

sorry for not being more helpful.
allan

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-12, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:

>>> What does C-u C-x = give on your system
>>
>>         character: b (98, #o142, #x62)
>> preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
>>        code point: 0x62
>>            syntax: w 	which means: word
>>          category: .:Base, a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
>>       buffer code: #x62
>>         file code: #x62 (encoded by coding system nil)
>>           display: no font available
>>
>>> and do you have that font available?
>>
>> No, I don't seem to have Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1
>> availble according to xfontsel.
>
> Three points
>
> 1.  Did you build emacs with xft support?
>
> 2.  The name you give "Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1"
>     looks to be just the suffix  did you mean something like
>     "-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal...".

Oops -- cut/paste error.

I don't have that font using the whole pattern either.

> You don't need to have DejaVu, but I would advise getting either
> DejaVu or bitstream vera.

I guess I can install more fonts, but I was hoping I could point emacs
at one of the rougly 4000 I've already got.

> 3.  Your output and mine differ in one point (before the font issue)
>     You have "coding system nil". I have "coding system utf-8-unix".
>     Unfortunately I know very little about coding systems but do
>     wonder why ours are different since we both did emacs -q.
>     Unfortunately if we do emacs -Q to eliminate some system
>     customization, there is no splash screen.  The description of
>     UTF-8 says it is for unicode.  Perhaps your nil coding system has
>     trouble with unicode, but I am afraid this has gotten outside my
>     expertise.

I do have one computer where emacs does find a font for the "about"
screen, so I guess it's a matter of comparing the two.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Will it improve my
                                  at               CASH FLOW?
                              gmail.com            

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Róbert Čerňanský]

On Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:11:17 +0000 (UTC)
Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 2010-07-12, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:
> 
> > You don't need to have DejaVu, but I would advise getting either
> > DejaVu or bitstream vera.
> 
> I guess I can install more fonts, but I was hoping I could point emacs
> at one of the rougly 4000 I've already got.

You can.  I'm not sure why is that but it seems that your emacs is not
able to find variable pitch font - "About emacs" screen and tooltips
are using such font; normal edit buffers uses a fixed width font.  To
be more precise, they are using 'variable-pitch' face so you have to
set font for that face.  You can do that with 'M-x customize-face
<RET> variable-pitch <RET>'.  This displays a buffer where you can set
the font.

Note that 'customize-face' command offers you the face that is used to
display a character on which the cursor is.  So if you place the
cursor on one of the empty boxes then 'M-x customize-face <RET>' should
automatically offer you the 'variable-pitch' face.

Regards,
Robert


-- 
Robert Cernansky
E-mail: hslists2@zoznam.sk
Jabber: hs@jabber.sk

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-13, R?bert ?er?ansk? <hslists2@zoznam.sk> wrote:

> You can.  I'm not sure why is that but it seems that your emacs is not
> able to find variable pitch font - "About emacs" screen and tooltips
> are using such font; normal edit buffers uses a fixed width font.  To
> be more precise, they are using 'variable-pitch' face so you have to
> set font for that face.  You can do that with 'M-x customize-face
> <RET> variable-pitch <RET>'.  This displays a buffer where you can set
> the font.

That's the trick: changing the family from "Sans Serif" to "DejaVu
Sans", save the settings, restart emacs, and now the "about" text is
rendered.  That particular font is rather ugly and blurry, but at
least it's rendering.

> Note that 'customize-face' command offers you the face that is used to
> display a character on which the cursor is.  So if you place the
> cursor on one of the empty boxes then 'M-x customize-face <RET>' should
> automatically offer you the 'variable-pitch' face.

Yup.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Psychoanalysis??
                                  at               I thought this was a nude
                              gmail.com            rap session!!!

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-12, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:

> 2.  The name you give "Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1"
>     looks to be just the suffix  did you mean something like
>     "-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal...".  You don't need to have DejaVu,
>     but I would advise getting either DejaVu or bitstream vera.

OK, I've figured out that I do have both dejavu and bitstream vera
fonts installed (but they weren't on the font path).  Now "DejaVu
Sans" does work.  The problem is that emacs wants a font with a family
name of "Sans Serif", and none of the installed fonts provide a family
with that name.

I changed "Sans Serif" to "DejaVu Sans" in /usr/share/emacs/23.1/lisp/faces.el,
but emacs is till asking for a font with a family name of "Sans Serif".

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! My uncle Murray
                                  at               conquered Egypt in 53 B.C.
                              gmail.com            And I can prove it too!!

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Allan Gottlieb]

Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:

> On 2010-07-12, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:
>
>> 2.  The name you give "Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1"
>>     looks to be just the suffix  did you mean something like
>>     "-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal...".  You don't need to have DejaVu,
>>     but I would advise getting either DejaVu or bitstream vera.
>
> OK, I've figured out that I do have both dejavu and bitstream vera
> fonts installed (but they weren't on the font path).  Now "DejaVu
> Sans" does work.  The problem is that emacs wants a font with a family
> name of "Sans Serif", and none of the installed fonts provide a family
> with that name.

That is funny since I don't do anything and it just works
(DejaVu is a family I think).
Indeed my default font is DejaVu Sans Mono.
The last "u" above gives the output below for C-U C-x =

Did you build emacs with xft support?

allan

        character: u (117, #o165, #x75)
preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
       code point: 0x75
           syntax: w 	which means: word
         category: .:Base, a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
      buffer code: #x75
        file code: #x75 (encoded by coding system utf-8-emacs)
          display: by this font (glyph code)
    xft:-unknown-DejaVu Sans Mono-bold-normal-normal-*-14-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 (#x58)

Character code properties: customize what to show
  name: LATIN SMALL LETTER U
  general-category: Ll (Letter, Lowercase)

There is an overlay here:
 From 1234 to 1240
  evaporate            t
  face                 flyspell-duplicate
  flyspell-overlay     t
  help-echo            "mouse-2: correct word at point"
  keymap               [Show]
  mouse-face           highlight


There are text properties here:
  fontified            t

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-13, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:

>>> 2.  The name you give "Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1"
>>>     looks to be just the suffix  did you mean something like
>>>     "-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal...".  You don't need to have DejaVu,
>>>     but I would advise getting either DejaVu or bitstream vera.
>>
>> OK, I've figured out that I do have both dejavu and bitstream vera
>> fonts installed (but they weren't on the font path).  Now "DejaVu
>> Sans" does work.  The problem is that emacs wants a font with a family
>> name of "Sans Serif", and none of the installed fonts provide a family
>> with that name.
>
> That is funny since I don't do anything and it just works
> (DejaVu is a family I think).
> Indeed my default font is DejaVu Sans Mono.
> The last "u" above gives the output below for C-U C-x =
>
> Did you build emacs with xft support?

No.  I did rebuild emacs with xft support, but I had already manually
done the "customize-face" for "variable-pitch", so I don't know if xft
support would have fixed the problem or not (I imagine it probably
would have, since that's what the lisp code in faces.el seems to
imply).

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Why are these athletic
                                  at               shoe salesmen following
                              gmail.com            me??

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Allan Gottlieb]

Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> writes:

> On 2010-07-13, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:
>
>>>> 2.  The name you give "Sans-normal-normal-normal-*-20-*-75-75-*-0-iso10646-1"
>>>>     looks to be just the suffix  did you mean something like
>>>>     "-unknown-DejaVu Sans-normal...".  You don't need to have DejaVu,
>>>>     but I would advise getting either DejaVu or bitstream vera.
>>>
>>> OK, I've figured out that I do have both dejavu and bitstream vera
>>> fonts installed (but they weren't on the font path).  Now "DejaVu
>>> Sans" does work.  The problem is that emacs wants a font with a family
>>> name of "Sans Serif", and none of the installed fonts provide a family
>>> with that name.
>>
>> That is funny since I don't do anything and it just works
>> (DejaVu is a family I think).
>> Indeed my default font is DejaVu Sans Mono.
>> The last "u" above gives the output below for C-U C-x =
>>
>> Did you build emacs with xft support?
>
> No.  I did rebuild emacs with xft support, but I had already manually
> done the "customize-face" for "variable-pitch", so I don't know if xft
> support would have fixed the problem or not (I imagine it probably
> would have, since that's what the lisp code in faces.el seems to
> imply).

Good.  Life will be better now that you have xft support. :-)

allan

[gentoo-user] Re: emacs font problem

[Grant Edwards]

On 2010-07-13, Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu> wrote:

> Good.  Life will be better now that you have xft support. :-)

I'm looking forward to it. :)


While messing around with this issue, I played with fontconfig a
little bit (which didn't help, since I hadn't enabled xft support in
emacs yet).

However, I did manage to get some nicer looking fonts in Firefox. Now
on some of the smaller sizes of some faces I have slight color
fringing on some of the characters, so I guess I need to disable
sub-pixel anti-aliasing.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! RHAPSODY in Glue!
                                  at               
                              gmail.com