Thunderbird migration from Windows: wrong fonts

[AndreaB]

Hello,
I'm migrating my Thunderbird profile from Windows 10 to Mint 20.2 Cinnamon (same version of Thunderbird, 78.11.0).
Following the classic procedures described here:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... ation.html
everything is migrated correctly.
But the fonts of many emails are wrong (the sizes appear causal, sometimes very large, sometimes very small).
Has anyone had this problem, and found a solution?
Thanks for any advice.

[redx87]

I use Thunderbird in Linux Mint 20.02 and don't have that problem

When I setup Thunderbird in Linux I migrated my profile and mail folders from Windows 7 Pro to Linux Mint, but I also migrated the Windows/fonts folder as well. In Win7 the fonts folder is located at C:\Windows/Fonts. In Linux I created a new folder titled "myfonts" in FileSytem/usr/share/fonts and I placed the contents of the Windows Fonts folder inside the new myfonts folder.

This procedure gave me access to all my favourite Windows fonts in LibreOffice, and in Thunderbird the usual familiar fonts were automatically chosen..

[AndreaB]

Thank you, this is something to try.
Let's see if it solve anything.

[AndreaB]

I created the folder from the Terminal (it doesn't let me in other way), but I don't know how to copy the content of the Windows font folder to this folder from the Terminal...

Update
Done, but it didn't solve anything

[Moonstone Man]

Update
Done, but it didn't solve anything

In a terminal, with thunderbird closed:

fc-cache -fv

Then try your emails. If that fails, back in the terminal:

Code: Select all

mkdir /home/$USER/.fonts

Copy the font using your file manager into the newly created .fonts directory, which is a hidden directory so you will need to show hidden files.

Back in the terminal:

fc-cache -fv

That should make the fonts available.

[AndreaB]

Thank you.

I tried the first suggestion (fc-cache -fv with Thunderbird closed) but it didn't work.

I didn't understand the solution.
I have already created a new folder in FileSytem/usr/share/fonts (called WFonts) with fonts taken from Windows.

[Moonstone Man]

I didn't understand the solution.

Well, I can't assist unless you tell me what you don't understand.

[AndreaB]

I don't understand well the second part:

Code: Select all

mkdir /home/$USER/.fonts

It means I have to create a hidden folder called fonts in home/andrea and put into it the Windows fonts (that are already in FileSytem/usr/share/fonts)?
Then:

Code: Select all

fc-cache -fv

Right?

[redx87]

Back in the terminal:

fc-cache -fv

That should make the fonts available.

That's interesting, I didn't use any command line, mainly because I didn't know you had to..

Once I'd copy/pasted the Windows fonts via a usb flash drive into the /usr/share/fonts folder in Linux I was immediately able to select them in LibreOffice Writer's drop down fonts list, and on opening T/bird I found it recognised the fonts as I had been using them in Windows 7. I did nothing in the Terminal.

Edit: I just remembered that I did have to right click usr/share/fonts and select "open as root". Otherwise it wouldn't allow me to paste the font files in.

[AndreaB]

Anyway it didn't worked.
Tomorrow I will format everything and reinstall Windows 10 to understand if any Thunderbird settings changes in the migration.
In this way Thunderbird is really uncomfortable to use.