Code view displays square box instead of non latin characters

[mashru]

We have two Windows 7 machines. We installed Sigil on both. One Windows 7 home edition works fine and displays non-latin (specifically South Asian script) characters. The second apparently with similar configuration shows only squares in code view. Book view works fine (the epub uses embedded font).

First windows 7 machine that works has AMD processor (about four years old Dell machine).

We experimented with the Preference section where code view font can be specified. A change in specified in either case makes no difference. First machine always displays correct characters and second no matter what font we specify shows square boxes instead.

In both cases, we downloaded fresh Sigil version last week (aug 14 2013). What could be the difference? What can we do to identify the issue on the problematic machine.

[Toxaris]

Have you checked the regional settings in windows on both?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Have you checked the regional settings in windows on both?

Second thought:

Have you checked the font directories on both? On both computers? And did you install/embed any fonts in Sigil to display the non-latin characters? Did you ever install additional fonts on the older or newer computer, to the fonts directory for Windows?

I suspect that one Win7 computer has a different group of default fonts installed with the Win7 system. That's likely the culprit, but I could be dead wrong. I don't know if, like many Windows systems, Sigil will look for/use a font that it can find in the main font directories in the OS. I usually stick to what I know will work, OR, I embed fonts in Sigil to cover any characters that aren't displaying correctly (after I check encoding, etc.).

Hope that helps somehow.

Hitch

[mashru]

Two Windows 7 computers where difference showed up were at two locations. So it was difficult to compare them fully. Now I have been reproduced the issue on XP and Windows 7. Windows 7 works fine. XP does not.

The ebook has non English characters and ebbok uses custom (embedded) unicode font to display non English characters. In book view, the text shows up correctly using the embedded fonts.

The problem is only in code view. Per the documentation, the preference section defines the monospaced font to use in code view. Both computers used mono-spaced Consolas. To be sure, I took Consolas fonts files from Windows 7 and moved to XP (I deleted origianl XP fonts and copied Windows 7 fonts in the font directory). I verified by deleting Consolas font that Sigil is reading the same font directory to select monspaced fonts. The problem remained.

Clearly, all of the three computers are not totally identical. The fonts used as shown in the preference section are identical. It appears to me that Sigil uses some additional information/fonts in the code view.

Help? I am so confused.

[mashru]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Second thought:

Have you checked the font directories on both? On both computers? And did you install/embed any fonts in Sigil to display the non-latin characters? Did you ever install additional fonts on the older or newer computer, to the fonts directory for Windows?

I suspect that one Win7 computer has a different group of default fonts installed with the Win7 system. That's likely the culprit, but I could be dead wrong. I don't know if, like many Windows systems, Sigil will look for/use a font that it can find in the main font directories in the OS. I usually stick to what I know will work, OR, I embed fonts in Sigil to cover any characters that aren't displaying correctly (after I check encoding, etc.).

Hope that helps somehow.

Hitch

WHAT do you mean by "main font directoires"? Are there multiple font directories and if so where they are. I have been keeping all my fonts in Fonts under Windows folder.

[theducks]

There are Windows (system available) fonts and there are other fonts, those that get used only embeded in books.

Windows performance suffers when the font folder gets bloated with gobs of rarely used fonts. There are font navigator utilities to help manage the 'active' font set

[Toxaris]

Like I said, have you checked the Windows regional settings?

[mashru]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

Have you checked the regional settings in windows on both?

Yes. Includes South Asian fonts, IME and other tools.

[Toxaris]

That's not what I meant. In windows you can tell in what region you are. Some core components use it to determine their actions. It should not matter, but you never know...

[mashru]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

That's not what I meant. In windows you can tell in what region you are. Some core components use it to determine their actions. It should not matter, but you never know...

Yes both are set to the US region.

[mashru]

The problem appears to be around the way Sigil picks mono spaced fonts. The default mono spaced font used. By Sigil is Consolas. Even when the two computer had identical Consolas fonts, the problem persisted. It appears that Sigil either due to a bug or some other valid reasons, does not use Consolas but ends up using some other monospaced font which does not have non Latin characters.

The solution, a brute force one though, is to replace fonts on the problematic computer with font files I had on the computer where Sigil worked correctly. Obviously, windows won't allow to replace all fonts easily. I deleted (after creating a backup) all fonts windows allowed me to delete. I was left with about a dozen font family consisting of 200 fonts. I copied fonts from the working computer. Reboot. And Sigil started displaying correctly.

Still don't know which font it was looking for. But problem is solved for now.