Bug 2493991 - Liberation Mono font: hyphen is placed 30% too low, making it indistinguishable from underscore [NEEDINFO]
Summary: Liberation Mono font: hyphen is placed 30% too low, making it indistinguishab...
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: liberation-fonts
Version: 42
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jens Petersen
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2026-06-28 15:50 UTC by Byron Hawkins
Modified: 2026-06-30 04:21 UTC (History)
6 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: Bug
Embargoed:
petersen: needinfo? (byron.c.hawkins)


Attachments (Terms of Use)
Screenshot highlighting pathological hyphen placement in Liberation Mono font (2.23 KB, image/png)
2026-06-28 15:50 UTC, Byron Hawkins
no flags Details

Description Byron Hawkins 2026-06-28 15:50:46 UTC
Created attachment 2146981 [details]
Screenshot highlighting pathological hyphen placement in Liberation Mono font

Description of problem:

In the Liberation Mono font distributed with Fedora 42 (and possibly everywhere the font is distributed), the hyphen character is placed 30% too low relative to the basic ASCII glyphs. It appears below the cross of a lowercase "x", making it indistinguishable from an underscore when rendered at a usable size (see screenshot). There are certain stylistic liberties available when crafting a font, and this is not one of them. It is simply a bug to place the hyphen at such a low position.

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

liberation-fonts-all.noarch                          1:2.1.5-13.fc42
liberation-mono-fonts.noarch                         1:2.1.5-13.fc42
liberation-sans-fonts.noarch                         1:2.1.5-13.fc42
liberation-serif-fonts.noarch                        1:2.1.5-13.fc42                     

How reproducible: 

Install and use the font.


Steps to Reproduce:
1. dnf install liberation-mono-fonts
2. select the Liberation Mono font in some application
3. type two words connected by a hyphen, then type two words connected by an underscore

Actual results:

At a usable size, the two pairs of words appear identical.

Expected results:

Every font should place the hyphen at least parallel to the cross of a lowercase "x", usually higher. 

Additional info:

Comment 1 Jens Petersen 2026-06-30 04:17:24 UTC
I can't reproduce in current Fedora Rawhide Workstation Live image.
Note also F42 is no longer supported.

More details are needed: what application are you using?
Maybe a screenshot.

You could try whichfont to get additional information perhaps.
Also maybe pango-view or gnome-text-editor.

Also the liberation fonts are very stable:
it seems highly unlikely they have started to misbehave.

Comment 2 Jens Petersen 2026-06-30 04:21:01 UTC
Also you desktop is probably quite relevant information.


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