Font setting to size 12 error

[TakesTheBiscuit]

Failed to set font size to 12 Font is installed Windows 10 pro

Not sure where to turn, feel like this might be my last run error? (fingers crossed!)

[TheJJ]

So the error came from here:

    if (unlikely(FT_Set_Char_Size(ft_face, 0, this->description.size * FREETYPE_UNIT, 72, 72))) {
        throw Error(MSG(err) << "Failed to set font face size to " << this->description.size);
    }

https://www.freetype.org/freetype2/docs/tutorial/step1.html

When a new face object is created, all elements are set to 0 during initialization. To populate the structure with sensible values, you should call FT_Set_Char_Size.

https://www.freetype.org/freetype2/docs/reference/ft2-base_interface.html#FT_Set_Char_Size

So we have to return the freetype error code in order to figure out why the operation didn't succeed.

[TakesTheBiscuit]

So i hack about and see if swapping it to a native Windows font would run? - can try later today - maybe Arial or something.

[TheJJ]

Yes, but I think we should try to tackle that problem instead of trying a workaround :) I'd first throw the return value of FT_Set_Char_Size if it is not 0, then see why freetype fails populating the structure.

[TakesTheBiscuit]

Ok @TheJJ can you guys tell me what/why this would be a bad idea? i can tidy up some more of the other errors(?) once i find a suitable pattern which is acceptable to the project/styles.

    int did_set_font_size = FT_Set_Char_Size(ft_face, 0, this->description.size * FREETYPE_UNIT, 72, 72);

    if (did_set_font_size != 0) {
        throw Error(MSG(err) << "Failed to set font face from " << ft_library << " " << this->description.font_file.c_str() << ", to size " << this->description.size << ", FT exit code: " << did_set_font_size);
    }

i don't often write much c++ so i imagine i've annoyed the compiler by outputting an INT to a string? (i did try << std::to_string(x) but no luck).

My error as it happens was exit code 23 which is FTERRORDEF( Invalid_Face_Handle, 0x23, "invalid face handle" ) - which sounds mad to me, but looking into it now.

Final error output i'm showing is: Failed to set font face from 000002AA93B2A5C0 C:/WINDOWS/fonts/8514fix.fon, to size 12, FT exit code: 23

To start with that path / library sounds a bit weird: this->description.font_file.c_str()

I'm not truncating the 't' from 'font' so not totally sure why i've got 8514fix.fon ?

[TakesTheBiscuit]

I've read that 8541fix.fon is supposed to be an internal windows font file. Which lead me back to Dejavu font face - now i'm not entirely sure what's occurring actually. I will try to map to a different font face/file for the moment and see if i can at least get this to run before retreating and seeing if i can locate exactly why

[TakesTheBiscuit]

Arial... woop.

[TakesTheBiscuit]

I've seen the other issue about font packaging and that it was a contentious issue - but i must say, i'd sort of expect a fallback; i had a feeling that was what Freetype was supposed to be doing; it may be that the fallback on this particular Windows 10 box is also dead (?).

I know this is ultimately an edge case but perhaps i could take a look into font fallbacks based on the system?

[tusharpm]

Failed to set font face from 000002AA93B2A5C0 C:/WINDOWS/fonts/8514fix.fon, to size 12, FT exit code: 23

From your code, it looks like you printed the returned value in decimal, i.e. 23 == 0x17. From FreeType's fterrdef.h that is "Invalid_Pixel_Size".

[TakesTheBiscuit]

Oh derp, thanks @tusharpm - i wasn't sure what to do with their response as the docs said it returns 0 on success and didn't mention the return type when it was a failure (which i thought was odd).

So we're saying i've got the font file/face but no access to that size? Perhaps then we could iterate a bunch of sizes from 1px -> 120px in a quick loop to see if all sizes are available, and if not fallback to system default serif?

I do still find it a little odd that i have the font installed but size 12 is not available, it is my belief that size 12 would be fairly common

[tusharpm]

On my Windows VM, the font_file is C:/Windows/fonts/DejaVuSerif.ttf, which seems to work as expected.

From your log, it seems like FT has chosen to use C:/WINDOWS/fonts/8514fix.fon which I read is an old Microsoft default installed font. I suspect (going by "fix" in the name) that font doesn't support variable character sizes.

It might be worthwhile to check if DejaVuSerif.ttf is installed in the system fonts directory (%SystemRoot%\Fonts). We would have to investigate further why we couldn't find it where WordPad did.

[TheJJ]

We should probably add a check if the selected font supports the size we request from it. Otherwise, skip it or select another font.

[simonsan]

I had this error too while trying to get the build script running, I was sure I installed everything, the fonts were where they belonged too. I saw that fonts also get installed just on a user basis, so I checked HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Fonts - no sign of the fonts, so I reinstalled the fonts by right-clicking "Install for all users". Restarting and the error was gone. I still try to figure out, how to do that automatically with the script. But for people who have the same problem, check that first.

EDIT: A fallback to a system standard font would be nice though.