Bug 2088665 - Noto Sans is chosen to display symbol characters it doesn't contain
Summary: Noto Sans is chosen to display symbol characters it doesn't contain
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: google-noto-fonts
Version: 36
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Akira TAGOH
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2022-05-20 02:07 UTC by talk
Modified: 2023-04-11 22:14 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

Fixed In Version: google-noto-fonts-20201206^1.git0c78c8329-7.fc38 google-noto-fonts-20201206^1.git0c78c8329-7.fc37
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2022-12-03 02:01:35 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
A zipped sample PDF and image of relevant portion of PDF when affected by the issue (129.25 KB, application/zip)
2022-05-20 02:07 UTC, talk
no flags Details
A sample PDF which may be used to reproduce the issue (5.83 KB, application/pdf)
2022-05-20 02:08 UTC, talk
no flags Details
An image demonstrating the appearance of the PDF when the issue is reproduced (135.41 KB, image/png)
2022-05-20 02:09 UTC, talk
no flags Details


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Issue Tracker FC-666 0 None None None 2022-11-25 07:49:16 UTC

Description talk 2022-05-20 02:07:48 UTC
Created attachment 1881507 [details]
A zipped sample PDF and image of relevant portion of PDF when affected by the issue

Description of problem:
Given a PDF lacking embedded fonts which use certain characters (including → and ≥), GNOME's Evince on Fedora 36 chooses to substitute the Noto Sans font, which does not include these characters.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:
Successfully reproduced by two people independently.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot a fresh copy of Fedora 36 (the Live version in a VM will do).
2. Open the attached sample PDF in GNOME Evince (aka Document Viewer).
3. Observe the missing characters in the second paragraph from the top of the page.

Actual results:
See attached image.

Expected results:
The missing characters should be displayed properly as → (that is, https://unicode-table.com/en/2192/). 


Additional info:
The filer initially sought help at https://ask.fedoraproject.org/t/missing-characters-in-pdfs-since-upgrade-from-f35-to-f36/22530, which may be informative in reproducing the issue.

Comment 1 talk 2022-05-20 02:08:53 UTC
Created attachment 1881508 [details]
A sample PDF which may be used to reproduce the issue

Comment 2 talk 2022-05-20 02:09:32 UTC
Created attachment 1881509 [details]
An image demonstrating the appearance of the PDF when the issue is reproduced

Comment 3 talk 2022-05-20 02:10:30 UTC
Comment on attachment 1881507 [details]
A zipped sample PDF and image of relevant portion of PDF when affected by the issue

When I went to file this issue it seemed I could only upload a single attachment. After filing I discovered I could add more, and added the files directly for easier access.

This attachment may be deleted if desired.

Comment 4 Fedora Update System 2022-11-25 11:07:58 UTC
FEDORA-2022-a3bf4d3246 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 38. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2022-a3bf4d3246

Comment 5 Fedora Update System 2022-11-25 11:13:50 UTC
FEDORA-2022-a3bf4d3246 has been pushed to the Fedora 38 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 6 Fedora Update System 2022-11-25 11:56:22 UTC
FEDORA-2022-575472271c has been submitted as an update to Fedora 37. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2022-575472271c

Comment 7 Fedora Update System 2022-11-26 01:29:56 UTC
FEDORA-2022-575472271c has been pushed to the Fedora 37 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2022-575472271c`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2022-575472271c

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

Comment 8 Fedora Update System 2022-12-03 02:01:35 UTC
FEDORA-2022-575472271c has been pushed to the Fedora 37 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 9 Alejandro Ochoa 2023-04-11 18:55:31 UTC
I am a different user still experiencing these exact issues!  I think the bug should be reopened.

I downloaded the sample files and still experience the same exact problem, namely that certain special characters are missing, and displayed as boxes, in evince, but not with other software (i.e. the same PDF opened in Firefox displays all characters correctly).  I am using Fedora 37 fully updated, in fact the same issue is present in 3 different machines with the same system, and I've had this issue for a while just like the original poster, since upgrading to Fedora 36.

I regularly experience this issue with PDFs that I create using R (plots containing innocuous symbols such as a minus sign and greek letters), which interferes with me giving presentations!  This bug is a big deal to me professionally, and at least having a workaround would be greatly appreciated.

Here's what `pdffonts` reports on a recently offending file I created, which matches the original bug report in showing a "Symbol" font that appears the be the source of these problems:

$ pdffonts pq-tgp-delta-boxplot.pdf 
name                                 type              encoding         emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- --- --- --- ---------
Helvetica                            Type 1            Custom           no  no  no      10  0
Helvetica-Bold                       Type 1            Custom           no  no  no      11  0
Symbol                               Type 1            Symbol           no  no  no      12  0

Comment 10 talk 2023-04-11 22:14:38 UTC
I just checked, and the issue is still occurring for me on my main Fedora 37 install. I will try to reproduce in a clean VM later this week.


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