request : could the default windows font of matplotlib support an utf-8 "µ" ?

[stonebig]

Hello,

In Default Matplotlib the "latin1" µ prints well, but the "utf-8" µ apparently doesn't.
Would it be possible to be 'by default' , on windows in
plt.rc('font', **{'sans-serif' : 'Arial', 'family' : 'sans-serif'})

** sample code and post explaining the problem **

-- coding: utf-8 --

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1,2],[3,4])

change the default matplotlib font, that doesn't print the utf-8 µ !

the 'well-known' latex definition $\mu$ works perfect in any case

ref :http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10960463/non-ascii-characters-in-matplotlib

plt.rc('font', **{'sans-serif' : 'Arial', 'family' : 'sans-serif'})

plt.xlabel("A distance (μm) (or $\mu$m)")

plt.show()

[mdboom]

The error message says:

ValueError: matplotlib display text must have all code points < 128 or use Unicode strings

You are using a regular 8-bit string (assuming you are on Python 2).

You should instead use a Unicode string:

plt.xlabel(u"A distance (μm) (or $\mu$m)")

[stonebig]

Hi,

I'm on a python3.3 windows 32bit (vista) installation. (winpython 3.3.2.3 precisely)
I removed the "u" because it is meaningless under python3.

Re-doing more carefully the test

• I see there is also an error message in the python console , when, and only when, I put in comment (#) the line plt.rc('font', **{'sans-serif' : 'Arial', 'family' : 'sans-serif'})
• both text ("A distance (μm) (or $\mu$m)") and u("A distance (μm) (or $\mu$m)") do the same error.

C:\Users\parent\Desktop\winpython\WinPython-32bit-3.3.2.3\python-3.3.2\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\mathtext.py:876: MathTextWarning: Font 'default' does not have a glyph for 'b'\u03bc'' [U3bc]
MathTextWarning)
C:\Users\parent\Desktop\winpython\WinPython-32bit-3.3.2.3\python-3.3.2\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\mathtext.py:877: MathTextWarning: Substituting with a dummy symbol.
warn("Substituting with a dummy symbol.", MathTextWarning)

(\u03bc is "µ" in utf16, apparently http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/3bc/index.htm)

[mdboom]

Most likely, that error message is correct: your font (which you've set to Arial) does not have that character. You can confirm this by opening the font in a tool that will show its glyph set (such as fontforge). Try another font with better unicode coverage.

[stonebig]

My real question is , what/which tool select this default font , is it Matplotlib default ?
(for newbies, it is better when it works correctly out-of-the box, so I want to put the default-change request on the pertinent tool, unless as matplotlib detects the issue, it can switch "on the fly" when the issue arise ?)

[mdboom]

No, the default is Bitstream Vera Sans, which has this character. You have changed it here:

plt.rc('font', **{'sans-serif' : 'Arial', 'family' : 'sans-serif'})

[stonebig]

So, If I understand well, this is the tool calling matplotlib that changes the default to a non-pertinent value ?
Ok, it seems the problem is in spyder default settings on my system.
Thank you very much, I wouldn't have find out alone.