QGIS 4.0 displaying "MS Shell Dlg 2" warnings

[Drew France]

Hi all.

Sorry if this has been posted before, or is common knowledge.  I've searched in the QGIS Australia User Group forum and in the QGIS issues list at https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/issues and can't find anything directly relating to QGIS 4.0, so I thought I would post in here before logging as a potential bug.

I have been doing some testing with QGIS 4.0.2 and continually get the following warning when opening numerous QGIS project files in that version.

Font “MS Shell Dlg 2” not available on system

It's clearly an issue with not finding the font that is used in the affected project files.  And I know it can be fixed by changing the font used for labelling in those layers.  But it is interesting that it does not occur when opening the same project in earlier versions of QGIS, e.g., 3.40, 3.44, and so the font must exist somewhere.  And it is visible in the list of fonts in those earlier versions.

(compared to the below screenshot from v4).

I've upgraded to 4.0.3 and the same thing occurs.  My colleague gets the same warnings with the same versions and same project files, so I know it's not just my PC.

Is anyone else getting these messages when opening QGIS project files in version 4.0.x?  I'm interested to know if it's a common issue that others are experiencing before raising it as a possible bug.  And also keen to know if it's a known issue, or done by design, to save me logging it as a bug and clogging up the system :-)

Have a great weekend!

Regards,

Drew France

[Emma Hain]

Hey Drew

You are not the only one experiencing this in 4, I saw another message about it on the QGIS User list, so your experience is really valuable to us to work out what is happening. 

Usually this happens if you are opening an old project as this issue was fixed back in mid 3.x - is this what you are opening up? If not keen to hear.

Are you opening up a project or starting new? 

What system are you using QGIS on? 

Have you tried this using a new user profile?

Here is a general fix for it:

To stop QGIS from choosing this legacy Windows font for new application structures:

1. Go to the top menu and select Settings > Options.

2. Click on the General tab.

3. Under the Application section, look for Font.

4. Uncheck the "system default" setting and explicitly choose a font available on your machine (like Segoe UI, Tahoma, or Ubuntu).

Kind regards

Em

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[Emma Hain]

Hey Drew

Can you download the latest dev version overnight and see if this still occurs? 

Kind regards

Em

[jonah]

Looks like this issue has already been fixed...if you have a QGIS build 2 days old.

https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/66383

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[Emma Hain]

😉💚🌏

Kind regards

Em

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[Drew France]

Thank you Emma and Jonah for your replies.

Sorry for the delay in responding, the week has flown by!

But to follow up, please see my responses below.

Usually this happens if you are opening an old project as this issue was fixed back in mid 3.x - is this what you are opening up? If not keen to hear.

Yes, this is only occurring for projects that have been saved in QGIS version 3.40 and 3.44.  And it isn't all of them.  Several have the warning appear, and they clearly have reference to "MS Shell Dlg 2" font in labelling settings, and one of them doesn't (which, unsurprisingly, doesn't have any reference to that font anywhere).

Are you opening up a project or starting new?    It only occurs for existing projects, and does not occur when opening a new one.

What system are you using QGIS on?  Running on Windows 11 (23H2).

Have you tried this using a new user profile?  Yes, it occurs on the "Clean Installation" and "default" profiles, and using a newly created profile.

Can you download the latest dev version overnight and see if this still occurs?

I'm unable to install the latest build in the work environment to see if the issue still occurs, but I can try at home.  I'll just need to create a project that references that particular font in an earlier version first.

Regarding the Github case at https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/pull/66383, am I correct in understanding that it has been resolved by simply removing the warning about the missing font, and doesn't fix the underlying issue?  Is it a case of the "MS Shell Dlg 2" font not being included with QGIS 4.x which is what is causing this warning?  I am guessing that is what is causing this.  If that is so, maybe a warning along the lines of 

Font “MS Shell Dlg 2” not available from QGIS version 4 and will need to be substituted with another font.

might be a bit clearer to users.  Not sure on the implications of that message for other non-standard fonts though that a user might install on their system.

Is that something I am allowed to suggest on the GitHub case (which I have minimal experience with), or am I reading too much into it and would ultimately just be annoying the developers? :-)   If this is going to be a common warning that displays, it might help the user experience when moving from QGIS 3.xx to QGIS 4.x.

Thanks again for your help, and have a good weekend.

Regards,

Drew

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