Font characters as squares after Windows 10 upgrade

Installation & Configuration Windows
#1

Hi,

I am seeing squares instead of numbers for timecode and fader level values. This happened after a big Windows 10 upgrade where font management has been changed.

Doesn’t anyone know what fonts I may be missing for the timecode and fader values? Everything else looks fine.

I went to install new fonts but the uninstalled ones are only for a lot of different languages that I don’t need.

Any insight is appreciated.

#2

Note: I have rebooted Windows 10 and reinstalled Ardour/Mixbus but they both continue to have the numbers-as-squares problem.

#3

We believe that this is caused by the Ardour clock font remaining registered during the windows update. This can happen as a result of a previous crash of Ardour without a new run before the Windows upgrade, or by having Ardour running during the upgrade. The workaround appears to be to reboot and then reinstall Ardour.

#4

There may also be a requirement to uninstall Ardour/Mixbus before reinstalling it. Windows keeps font files open until their use is cancelled, and possibly even reboots. The old file location needs to vanish in order to cancel the system’s (stupid) idea that it knows where the font is on disk.

#5

Thanks Paul, I have uninstalled, then reinstalled, then rebooted, but the squares are still there. I fear I may have corrupted something. …will keep trying.

#6

Check if you have a file C:\Program Files\Ardour5\share\ardour5\ArdourMono.ttf which is used for mono-spaced text in the clocks, and a few other places.

Also launching Ardour in a cmd.exe terminal may shed some light.

#7

Hi x42, Yes, I have that TTF file. I un/installed Ardour a few more times for good measure but squares still there.

Here is the command line output at startup:

C:\Users>“c:\Program Files\Ardour5\bin\Ardour.exe”

C:\Users>Ardour5.11.0 (built using 5.11 and GCC version 4.9.1)
ardour: [INFO]: QPC timer microseconds per tick: 0.39474

ardour: [INFO]: MMCSS Initialized
ardour: [INFO]: Your system is configured to limit Ardour to only 2048 open files
ardour: [INFO]: Loading system configuration file c:\Program Files\Ardour5\share\ardour5\system_config
ardour: [INFO]: Loading user configuration file C:\Users\Neil Klepeius\AppData\Local\Ardour5\config
ardour: [INFO]: CPU vendor: GenuineIntel
ardour: [INFO]: AVX-capable processor
ardour: [INFO]: CPU brand: Intel® Core™ i5-3320M CPU @ 2.60GHz
ardour: [INFO]: Using AVX optimized routines
ardour: [INFO]: Loading default ui configuration file c:\Program Files\Ardour5\share\ardour5\default_ui_config
ardour: [INFO]: Loading user ui configuration file C:\Users\Neil Klepeius\AppData\Local\Ardour5\ui_config
ardour: [INFO]: Loading color file c:\Program Files\Ardour5\share\ardour5\themes\dark-ardour.colors
ardour: [INFO]: Loading ui configuration file c:\Program Files\Ardour5\share\ardour5\clearlooks.rc
ardour: [INFO]: Loading ui configuration file c:\Program Files\Ardour5\share\ardour5\clearlooks.rc
Scanning folders for bundled LV2s: c:\Program Files\Ardour5\lib\ardour5\LV2

#8

(Un)Surprisingly easy fix: Right click on the “ArdourMono.ttf” file and select “Install” from menu. It says it is already installed, but must have gotten corrupted somehow. The reinstall does the trick.