Inkscape Fonts Missing: Troubleshooting Formatting Errors

When working with fonts in Inkscape, it's not uncommon to encounter issues where certain characters or glyphs are missing. Recently, I experienced this problem with three of my Machine Tools fonts, which are intended for use as single-line fonts. The issue was puzzling, but after digging deeper, I discovered the root cause and a solution.

Upon closer inspection, I realized that the glyph name was correct, but the Unicode value and character were not. To resolve this, I enabled Encoding->Compact from the top menu to remove all characters without glyphs. This revealed that the characters were indeed present in the font, but they were displayed incorrectly in the glyph table.

To further investigate, I right-clicked on a glyph and selected 'Glyph Info' (also accessible through the Element menu or by pressing Ctrl-I). This allowed me to examine the glyph's properties more closely. What I noticed was that the standard English alphanumeric characters were missing, which is expected behavior.

The Font Forge glyph table, showing all characters in the font

I then opened Font Forge, an open-source font editor available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, to take a closer look at the font file. After some investigation, I discovered that the issue was caused by formatting errors within the font file, which Inkscape couldn't read properly.

This problem is not unique to me; others have reported similar issues with fonts in Inkscape. Sometimes, the software will display a font in its default font (a sans-serif font for me) instead of the desired font. If you're experiencing this issue, it's worth trying Font Forge or other font editing software to identify and resolve any formatting errors.

As a user of Silhouette Curio machines, I've found that Machine Tools fonts are incredibly useful for my work. While this issue can be frustrating, understanding its cause and solution has allowed me to continue using these valuable fonts with confidence.

By following the steps outlined above, you should be able to troubleshoot and resolve formatting errors in your Inkscape fonts. Remember to always check the glyph table and font properties to identify any issues, and consider using Font Forge or other font editing software to correct any errors. With these tools at your disposal, you'll be well on your way to mastering your fonts in Inkscape.

Inkscape fonts missing