Font “Dingbats” not available on system on project open

[FelisPimeja]

What is the bug or the crash?

When adding a Font marker style to point layer QGIS uses Dingbats font by default even if it's not available in the system. This leads to error Font “Dingbats” not available on system when you save and reopen the project. This may be a little confusing.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Start New project
2. Add Point layer
3. Go to Styling panel and set Font Marker for layer styling, do not change anything else
4. Save the project
5. Reopen the Project
6. Error "Font “Dingbats” not available on system" pops up

Dingbats.mov

If you open that particular project in text editor, you can find kind of this section:

      <renderer-v2 forceraster="0" type="singleSymbol" enableorderby="0" symbollevels="0" referencescale="-1">
        <symbols>
          <symbol clip_to_extent="1" type="marker" force_rhr="0" name="0" alpha="1">
            <data_defined_properties>
              <Option type="Map">
                <Option value="" type="QString" name="name"/>
                <Option name="properties"/>
                <Option value="collection" type="QString" name="type"/>
              </Option>
            </data_defined_properties>
            <layer enabled="1" pass="0" class="FontMarker" locked="0">
              <Option type="Map">
                <Option value="0" type="QString" name="angle"/>
                <Option value="A" type="QString" name="chr"/>
                <Option value="243,166,178,255" type="QString" name="color"/>
                <Option value="Dingbats" type="QString" name="font"/>
                <Option value="" type="QString" name="font_style"/>
                <Option value="1" type="QString" name="horizontal_anchor_point"/>
                <Option value="bevel" type="QString" name="joinstyle"/>
                <Option value="0,0" type="QString" name="offset"/>
                <Option value="3x:0,0,0,0,0,0" type="QString" name="offset_map_unit_scale"/>
                <Option value="MM" type="QString" name="offset_unit"/>
                <Option value="35,35,35,255" type="QString" name="outline_color"/>
                <Option value="0" type="QString" name="outline_width"/>
                <Option value="3x:0,0,0,0,0,0" type="QString" name="outline_width_map_unit_scale"/>
                <Option value="MM" type="QString" name="outline_width_unit"/>
                <Option value="2" type="QString" name="size"/>
                <Option value="3x:0,0,0,0,0,0" type="QString" name="size_map_unit_scale"/>
                <Option value="MM" type="QString" name="size_unit"/>
                <Option value="1" type="QString" name="vertical_anchor_point"/>
              </Option>
              <prop k="angle" v="0"/>
              <prop k="chr" v="A"/>
              <prop k="color" v="243,166,178,255"/>
              <prop k="font" v="Dingbats"/>
              <prop k="font_style" v=""/>
              <prop k="horizontal_anchor_point" v="1"/>
              <prop k="joinstyle" v="bevel"/>

Versions

MacOS 12.0.1 Monterey

<style type="text/css"> p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; } </style>

QGIS version	3.22.0-Białowieża	QGIS code revision	d902269
Qt version	5.15.2
Python version	3.9.5
GDAL/OGR version	3.3.2
PROJ version	8.1.1
EPSG Registry database version	v10.028 (2021-07-07)
GEOS version	3.9.1-CAPI-1.14.2
SQLite version	3.35.2
PDAL version	2.3.0
PostgreSQL client version	12.3
SpatiaLite version	5.0.1
QWT version	6.1.6
QScintilla2 version	2.11.5
OS version	macOS 12.0
Active Python plugins
QuickOSM	1.16.0
osminfo	0.7.0
quick_map_services	0.19.11.1
BivariateRenderer	0.3
processing	2.12.99
sagaprovider	2.12.99
grassprovider	2.12.99
db_manager	0.1.20
MetaSearch	0.3.5

Supported QGIS version

• I'm running a supported QGIS version according to the roadmap.

New profile

• I tried with a new QGIS profile

Additional context

No response

[rbenet71]

I have the same problem, and my solution was: in Font Marker change Font MS Shell Dlg 2 to MS Serif.

[danceb]

Is this really fixed? The issue does not relate only to the font "Dingbats". It relates to alle fonts which are used within a font marker symbology and are not installed on the system. We are running QGIS 3.22 and the warning still appears. With QGIS 3.18 there is no warning at the same project layers.

On Windows QGIS uses the logical font "MS Shell Dlg 2", which maps another available font to the missing one, as I am understanding this. Maybe there is an issue with that?

[nyalldawson]

. It relates to alle fonts which are used within a font marker symbology and are not installed on the system.

To me that's the correct behaviour -- why wouldn't you want to be warned if you are missing an important font used by your project?

[danceb]

Ok, you're right. So this is an improvement which came with the latest releases and not a bug, I see.
The advantage was that you didn't notice when fonts from different operating systems were used and then they weren't available. If a symbology is created in Linux with a font that I don't have in Windows, the label was still displayed and I didn't get a warning.
But beyond that, I guess it makes sense to warn the user in principle if a font is not available. Thanks for the clarification.

[koenigherford]

@danceb:
As a workaround you may

1. save the project in qgs-format
2. open the qgs-file with a text-editior and search/replace all "dingbats"-occurences with "arial" (or other installed font) and
3. save the file and close the text-editor.
4. Then open ist with QGIS 3.22. and save the modified qgs-project ass qgz (overwrite the old qgz-project (formerly with "dingbats"fonts))

[rbenet71]

In my case, I had the same error, but I was not using that font. My solution was: in Font Marker change Font MS Shell Dlg 2 to MS Serif. El mié, 12 ene 2022 a las 15:11, koenigherford ***@***.***>) escribió:

…

@danceb <https://github.com/danceb>: As a workaround you may 1. save the project in qgs-format 2. open the qgs-file with a text-editior and search/replace all "dingbats"-occurences with "arial" (or other installed font) and 3. save the file and close the text-editor. 4. Then open ist with QGIS 3.22. and save the modified qgs-project ass qgz (overwrite the old qgz-project (formerly with "dingbats"fonts)) — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#46206 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AO5I7LBWR33SNDOBOGCWRZTUVWDYNANCNFSM5IX6E3YA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[danceb]

Changing a single QGIS project does not work for me. I am dealing with a PostGIS database with many layers and saved styles. So I am digging in the database for search and replace now. But thanks for your advices.

[dingausmwald]

My project isn't using this font, still i get this error. Everything works as before. This still happens in qgis 3.22.4

[danceb]

. It relates to alle fonts which are used within a font marker symbology and are not installed on the system.

To me that's the correct behaviour -- why wouldn't you want to be warned if you are missing an important font used by your project?

As @nyalldawson mentioned before, this isn't an error, it should warn you.

Are you sure, that this font isn't used in a layerstyle? Just open the qgs-file in a text editor and search for the font name.

[dingausmwald]

Sorry, (annoying) warning. Yes, its written down there, but i still dont use it.

[danceb]

If it is written in a layer style, your project try to use it, but can't because it isn't installed on your system. So the warning appears. Just replace 'Dingbats' with 'Arial' for instance in the text editor, open the project again and you would not get the warning anymore.

[kbjshop]

Hi. I realize this is closed, but I noticed something that was not mentioned: The problem really is that when the default (in this case Dingbats) font is not on the system the Font Family dropdown selector shows the first available font. That would be ok IF it actually stored that font in the project. But it does not. It stored "Dingbats".

If the user simply makes another selection from this dropdown-- even reverting to the displayed first font, then it gets updated in the project.
So the real bug is the discrepancy between what is shown in the dropdown and what is stored in the project.

I see that it was fixed by using a suitable replacement default, which fixes it for new Font Markers, etc. It still leaves existing projects slightly confusing for those of us who created Font Markers without selecting a font, thinking we were using whatever was listed in that dropdown.

Not a big deal, but wanted to mention it for other users who may end up here.