Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend · Issue #11259 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub

Bug report

Bug summary

Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend

Code for reproduction

import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

mpl.rcParams.update(mpl.rcParamsDefault)
mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = ['serif']
mpl.rcParams['font.serif'] = ['times']

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.set_xlabel(r'$x$ $\alpha$')
fig.savefig('test.pdf')

Actual outcome
test.pdf

Alpha symbol in the x-axis label appears as a streak in the output PDF

Expected outcome

Alpha symbol in the x-axis label to appear as an alpha, rendered by LaTeX

Matplotlib version

Matplotlib 2.2.2, Python 2.7.15, OSX 10.13.4
pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018), kpathsea version 6.3.0
Installed with MacPorts

I can't reproduce MacOS 10.13.4 py 3.6, conda,

$ latex --version
pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017)
kpathsea version 6.2.3

test.pdf

Oddly, your file is 10 bytes larger than mine. Otherwise I don't see a difference.

Similar issue described in this comment: #9139 (comment)

Agreed. Its strange I can't replicate it - I doubt the latex versions are the issue.

Did you clear your cache: (on my machine ~/.matplotlib/tex.cache) ? Maybe you had an old alpha in there causing grief?

You can also look in that directory and see the glyphs you are making... Maybe a clue there..

Thanks. I have tried clearing the cache, but it didn't help.

I am not sure how to use the contents of tex.cache to find clues. Are you able to advise?

The cache should have all the dvi and png files in it for all the text element s You can check that the alpha one looks correct

The alpha dvi in tex.cache looks fine.

What about the png?

There is no png. Should there be?

Oh, maybe not if you just use the PDF backend. I assume if you add a plt.show() the GUI plot looks OK?

Are you 100% sure you are using 2.2.2? i.e. can you add

import matplotlib
print(matplotlib.__version__)

to the above script?

Its strange that our almost-identical setups would behave differently. I suppose I could update TexLive just to be 100% certain...

The GUI plot looks OK when I add plt.show(), but I get a message:

/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1328: UserWarning: findfont: Font family [u'serif'] not found. Falling back to DejaVu Sans
  (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))

I am unsure how relevant this is, because the GUI plot and PDF show Times not DejaVu Sans for the tick labels?

I am using matplotlib 2.2.2. I added the lines you suggested and the output is 2.2.2

I think the warning is because I only have Times.ttc on my machine, not Times.ttf. I don't think it is relevant to my issue.

I can reproduce this issue on Mac OS 10.13.4, Python 3.6.5 :: Anaconda custom (64-bit), Matplotlib 2.2.2, pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018)

Ah, maybe I can't reproduce because I can't find those font families:

/Users/jklymak/matplotlib/lib/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1220: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['serif'] not found. Falling back to DejaVu Sans.
  (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))

and

\Users/jklymak/matplotlib/lib/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1220: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['times'] not found. Falling back to DejaVu Sans.
  (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))

Can anyone produce this not on macOS?

I tried this in a VM (Ubuntu 18.04) with --
Python 3.6.5 :: Anaconda custom (64-bit)
Matplotlib 2.2.2, pdfTeX 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017/Debian)
kpathsea version 6.2.3

with mpl.rcParams['font.serif'] = ['times'] I get the following warning (missing font families).

anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1328: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['serif'] not found. Falling back to DejaVu Sans

with mpl.rcParams['font.serif'] = ['times new roman'] I do not get any warning.

In both cases, the pdf looks fine (with no streaks).

Thanks @pharshalp - times new roman works for me as well.

If anyone wants to figure out where there font is coming from:

from matplotlib.font_manager import findfont, FontProperties
font = findfont(FontProperties(family=['times new roman']))
print(font)

You can make a more minimal example that produces the error if you only change the following rcParams:

mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
mpl.rcParams['font.serif'] = ['times']

I find that changing

mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = ['times']

produces a PDF with all the text is Computer Modern, not Times. As does the following:

mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = ['times new roman']

A minimal example that avoids the warning that matplotlib can't find Times.ttf but still has the problem displaying alpha:

import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

mpl.rcParams.update(mpl.rcParamsDefault)
mpl.rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
mpl.rcParams['font.serif'] = ['times', 'times new roman']

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.set_xlabel(r'$x$ $\alpha$')
fig.savefig('test.pdf')

Has there been any progress on this? I'm now running into this issue on osx after re-creating a figure that was fine before.

(Note that, as temporary workaround, one could save as a png.)

If you have the newtxmath package then another workaround that works with PDF output is to add

mpl.rcParams['text.latex.preamble'] = [r'\usepackage{newtxmath}']

I have tried all the solutions above and they solve my problem if I plot and open them on my mac. But the problem persists when I open a file copied from a linux workstation. I've tried installing times.ttf (and make a copy to /anaconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf) and also ~/Library/Fonts (and installing to the system), but the greek letters still appear as streaks in the copied file.

The greek letters look fine when viewed on the workstation.

* Can anyone produce this _not_ on macOS?

I reproduce it with a figure produced on Debian 4.9.144-3.1 and matplotlib 3.1.0/python 3.7.3 installed from anaconda.

The figure shows correctly on the PDF Viewer opened by Jupyterlab in the web browser. However, when I save and open the file on the Mac with Preview.app, there is a streak. When I open it in Adobe Reader DC, I get an error message that it is impossible to extract the font "StandardSymL_Slant_167" and that some characters may not show properly. When the figure PDF in included in a LaTeX document, there are streaks.

I was also affected by this issue; somewhat embarrassingly, in a paper uploaded to arXiv.
The following Ghostscript command (from here) resolved it for me:

gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -dEmbedAllFonts=true -sOutputFile=my_plot_embedded.pdf -f my_plot.pdf

I had to run this for each figure individually, running the command on the final LaTeX document did not work.

I reproduced also the error on Mac 10.12.6 mit python 2.7.17 und matplotlib 2.2.4.

Screenshot Adobe Reader

Screenshot Preview

I was also affected by this issue; somewhat embarrassingly, in a paper uploaded to arXiv.
The following Ghostscript command (from here) resolved it for me:

gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -dEmbedAllFonts=true -sOutputFile=my_plot_embedded.pdf -f my_plot.pdf

I had to run this for each figure individually, running the command on the final LaTeX document did not work.

This actually works, thanks! On Windows, use gswin64c instead of gs, contained in the bin folder of Ghostscript.

I think this could be the same bug as #16087, which should be fixed on current master (by PR #18080).

I confirmed on the Mac mini that this is fixed by #18080.

Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend · Issue #11259 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub

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Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend #11259

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Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend · Issue #11259 · matplotlib/matplotlib · GitHub

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Symbols appear as streaks with usetex=True, times font and PDF backend #11259

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jklymak commented on May 16, 2018

jklymak commented on May 16, 2018

jklymak commented on May 16, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 16, 2018

jklymak commented on May 16, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 17, 2018

jklymak commented on May 17, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 17, 2018

jklymak commented on May 17, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 17, 2018

jklymak commented on May 17, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 17, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 18, 2018

pharshalp commented on May 19, 2018

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jklymak commented on May 25, 2018

pharshalp commented on May 25, 2018

jklymak commented on May 25, 2018

pdhall99 commented on May 26, 2018

lboogaard commented on Jun 25, 2018

pdhall99 commented on Jun 25, 2018

astro313 commented on Apr 3, 2019

jsalort commented on Jul 1, 2019

calvin-sykes commented on Dec 12, 2019

markushartmann commented on Jan 10, 2020

spmulders commented on Mar 10, 2020

jkseppan commented on Jul 28, 2020

QuLogic commented on Sep 9, 2020

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