Matplotlib cannot find basic fonts

Question

I am using matplotlib version 2.0.0 on Python 3 in a miniconda virtual environment. I am working on a unix scientific computing cluster where I don\'t have root privileges.

Answer 1

There is a conda package for it[1]. So, you don't really need sudo to fix this!

conda install -c conda-forge -y mscorefonts

restart jupyter and/or force rebuild matplotlib font cache

import matplotlib
matplotlib.font_manager._rebuild()

[1] - https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/mscorefonts

Answer 2

I am in macOS with jupyter notebook, I solved with the following, first close your jupyter notebook. Then find out the font path by doing the following in Python

import matplotlib
print(matplotlib.matplotlib_fname())

it prints /Users/zyy/anaconda2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc for me, notice matplotlibrc is a file, not a directory.

Then download font SimHei, and copy it to the directory fonts/ttf under the mpl-data/ directory above.

Delete directory ～/.cache/matplotlib and restart your jupyter notebook, everything should be good.

Answer 3

A solution for Windows users, when confronted with the warning:

UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['serif'] not found. Falling back to DejaVu Sans
(prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))

1. Delete the fonts located in matplotlib's cache.
   Cache's location: import matplotlib as mpl; print(mpl.font_manager.get_cachedir())

2. Find matplotlib's font directory. The path might be similar to
   C:\Miniconda3\pkgs\matplotlib-2.2.2-py36_1\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\mpl-data\fonts\ttf

3. Copy necessary fonts like Computer Modern to this directory.

The warning may persist, but your plots' font should change appropriately.

Answer 4

This work for me::

$ sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts -qq