Arch Linux

diphodryl

Member

Registered: 2015-04-18

Posts: 12

Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

After setting preferred fonts in fonts.conf, websites are displaying all sorts of misplaced characters like arabic glyphs, a Tux icon, english glyphs that are out-of-place, like such:

http://imageshack.com/a/img661/548/tIVwdh.png

I'm just using one prefered font for serif and one for sans. But I don't understand why arabic and english glyphs would be appearing. Do I need to add a symbol font to my preferred fonts? Or what? Thx.

-- mod edit: read the Forum Etiquette and only post thumbnails http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … s_and_Code [jwr] --

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,999

Website

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

After setting preferred fonts in fonts.conf

I don't understand what you mean by this -- please explain more fully and post the configuration file to which you are referring.

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

mojangsta

Member

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 24

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

You're editing /etc/fonts/fonts.conf?, because that's supposed to break the configuration. The wiki-recommended way is to create a file in /etc/fonts/conf.d such as 60-preferences.conf, and put the preferences there. Mine which works on my box contains

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Ubuntu</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Ubuntu</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>monospace</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Ubuntu Mono</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

Additionally, if you edited /etc/fonts/fonts.conf, delete or move it somewhere else, and reinstall the default fonts.conf by running

pacman -S fontconfig

Last edited by mojangsta (2015-04-18 15:55:31)

diphodryl

Member

Registered: 2015-04-18

Posts: 12

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

Sorry for not being concise in the original post. The file I'm editing is .config/fontconfig/fonts.conf. This should work the same as files in conf.d, right? Here are the contents:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Linux Libertine</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Liberation Sans</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>
</fontconfig>

mojangsta

Member

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 24

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

Yes it will work like a conf.d/*.conf file. That config looks good. Check the files in /etc/fonts/conf.d for options incompatible and bad-looking with the fonts you're using. For me, using nothing but 10-autohint.conf and (custom) 60-preferences.conf works. Also check your firefox 'Content' preferences under 'Fonts for: '{Latin,Western,Other} -- play with those settings there. If you have a suitable unicode font installed, fontconfig uses it for chars not supported by the preferred. If needed, I recommend Code2000 in the AUR or install manually

diphodryl

Member

Registered: 2015-04-18

Posts: 12

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

I moved the entire contents of the conf.d/ directory to a temporary directory and nothing changed. The firefox preferences 'Fonts for:' setting does nothing (there is no Western option, just a bunch of foreign languages.) I've installed Code2000, now how should I use it? I tried adding it in <prefer> tags after the two other fonts to no avail.

Last edited by diphodryl (2015-04-19 07:41:29)

mojangsta

Member

Registered: 2013-04-01

Posts: 24

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

I looked through the page source and the issue is with the webfont the site uses: https://serve.com/assets/fonts/icons-serve.woff
A good site to test is http://fontawesome.io/icons
I'm thinking your firefox isn't rendering any icon fonts properly. Are you sure it's recent?

This won't fix the problem but seems to be the best way to set fallback fonts:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
<alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Linux Libertine</family>
        <family>Code2000</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>
<alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
        <family>Liberation Sans</family>
        <family>Code2000</family>
    </prefer>
</alias>
</fontconfig>

diphodryl

Member

Registered: 2015-04-18

Posts: 12

Re: Strange characters on websites after setting preferred in fonts.conf

pfff. I found the problem. I had "Allow websites to choose their own fonts" unchecked in firefox preferences.

I didn't know icon fonts were a thing. Thanks.