Bad fonts crashes matplotlib on startup

[dov]

To help us understand and resolve your issue please check that you have provided
the information below.

• Matplotlib version, Python version and Platform (Windows, OSX, Linux ...)

ֹLinux Fedora 24.

In [1]: import matplotlib; matplotlib._version.get_versions()
Out[1]:
{u'dirty': False,
u'error': None,
u'full-revisionid': u'b572f64641b7ab91d40e64b1841ce2381cbd2e05',
u'version': u'1.5.2rc2'}

• How did you install Matplotlib and Python (pip, anaconda, from source ...)

Installed from dnf

• If possible please supply a Short, Self Contained, Correct, Example
  that demonstrates the issue i.e a small piece of code which reproduces the issue
  and can be run with out any other (or as few as possible) external dependencies.

1. Install a "bad font". Unfortunately I erased the font that caused the problem without saving a copy. :-(
2. Run:

> python
Python 2.7.11 (default, Jun 21 2016, 09:15:12) 
[GCC 6.1.1 20160510 (Red Hat 6.1.1-2)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import matplotlib

/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:273: UserWarning: Matplotlib is building the font cache using fc-list. This may take a moment.
  warnings.warn('Matplotlib is building the font cache using fc-list. This may take a moment.')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 20, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 29, in <module>
    import matplotlib.colorbar
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/colorbar.py", line 34, in <module>
    import matplotlib.collections as collections
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/collections.py", line 27, in <module>
    import matplotlib.backend_bases as backend_bases
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backend_bases.py", line 62, in <module>
    import matplotlib.textpath as textpath
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/textpath.py", line 15, in <module>
    import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1421, in <module>
    _rebuild()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1406, in _rebuild
    fontManager = FontManager()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1059, in __init__
    self.ttflist = createFontList(self.ttffiles)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 590, in createFontList
    prop = ttfFontProperty(font)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 396, in ttfFontProperty
    sfnt = font.get_sfnt()
ValueError: No SFNT name table

[mm-wang]

This seems to be a problem in matplotlib 1.5.3 as well, using Windows 7 and Python 2.7.12.

[tacaswell]

Can you try with 2.0.0b4?