@balasankarc
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[Apologies if this issue tracker is not the right place for this query]

I maintain the following font packages in Debian

fonts-smc-anjalioldlipi
fonts-smc-chilanka
fonts-smc-dyuthi
fonts-smc-gayathri
fonts-smc-karumbi
fonts-smc-keraleeyam
fonts-smc-manjari
fonts-smc-meera
fonts-smc-rachana
fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans
fonts-smc-suruma
fonts-smc-uroob

All of them have similar appstream XML files, but I am seeing both Debian and Ubuntu appstream reports showing the font-metainfo-but-no-font error for many of those packages. For example, consider the package fonts-smc-dyuthi.

$ apt-file list fonts-smc-dyuthi
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /etc/fonts/conf.avail/67-smc-dyuthi.conf
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /etc/fonts/conf.d/67-smc-dyuthi.conf
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /usr/share/doc/fonts-smc-dyuthi/README.md
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /usr/share/doc/fonts-smc-dyuthi/changelog.Debian.gz
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /usr/share/doc/fonts-smc-dyuthi/copyright
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/malayalam/Dyuthi-Regular.ttf
fonts-smc-dyuthi: /usr/share/metainfo/in.org.smc.dyuthi.metainfo.xml

$ fc-scan /usr/share/fonts/truetype/malayalam/Dyuthi-Regular.ttf | grep "fullname:"
        fullname: "Dyuthi"(s) "Dyuthi Regular"(s)

$ cat /usr/share/metainfo/in.org.smc.dyuthi.metainfo.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Copyright 2019 Swathanthra Malayalam Computing <contact@smc.org.in> -->
<component type="font">
  <id>in.org.smc.dyuthi</id>
  <metadata_license>CC0-1.0</metadata_license>
  <project_license>OFL-1.1 OR (GPL-3.0-or-later WITH Font-exception-2.0)</project_license>
  <name>Dyuthi font</name>
  <name xml:lang="ml">ദ്യുതി അക്ഷരസഞ്ചയം</name>
  <summary>Dyuthi Malayalam Unicode font</summary>
  <description>
    <p>
      Unicode font for traditional Malayalam script designed by Hiran
      Venugopalan maintained by Swathanthra Malayalam Computing. Ornamental
      font suitable for titles.
    </p>
  </description>
  <update_contact>contact_at_smc_org_in</update_contact>
  <provides>
          <font>Dyuthi Regular</font>
  </provides>
  <languages>
          <lang>ml</lang>
  </languages>
  <url type="homepage">https://smc.org.in/fonts</url>
  <url type="bugtracker">https://gitlab.com/smc/fonts/dyuthi/issues</url>
  <metadata>
  <value key="FontSampleText">മനുഷ്യരെല്ലാവരും തുല്യാവകാശങ്ങളോടും അന്തസ്സോടും
         സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തോടും കൂടി ജനിച്ചവരാണ്. അന്യോന്യം ഭ്രാതൃഭാവത്തോടെ പെരുമാറുവാനാണ്
         മനുഷ്യന്നു വിവേകബുദ്ധിയും മനസ്സാക്ഷിയും സിദ്ധമായിരിക്കുന്നത്.</value>
  <value key="FontIconText">അഇ</value>
  </metadata>
</component>

As seen, the appstream XML file does have a <provides>...<font> directive, the package does include the font, and the font name matches what is given in XML file. Still, https://appstream.ubuntu.com/groovy/main/issues/fonts-smc-dyuthi.html and https://appstream.debian.org/sid/main/issues/fonts-smc-dyuthi.html reports the font-metainfo-but-no-font error for the package.

Other packages with the same issue are

fonts-smc-anjalioldlipi
fonts-smc-chilanka
fonts-smc-gayathri
fonts-smc-karumbi
fonts-smc-manjari
fonts-smc-meera
fonts-smc-rachana

What is more interesting is that this issue does not happen on 4 packages, which follow the same XML syntax - fonts-smc-uroob, fonts-smc-raghumalayalamsans, fonts-smc-keraleeyam, and fonts-smc-suruma.