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When I am using the Spyder IDE the in-built help (usually called using Ctrl-I) does not work correctly in rich text mode:

enter image description here

The plain text version works but when set to use rich text there seems to be a problem with the font.

I am using Python3.6.5 from anaconda3-5.2.0, installed using pyenv.

Is there a connection here with the sphinx library? Do I need to install a font to get it working?

feedMe
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  • The code works just fine for me in Spyder. – meW Dec 19 '18 at 11:26
  • @meW Please read the question again. The code works fine but the Ctrl-I shortcut key in Spyder provides garbled text as shown in the image – feedMe Dec 19 '18 at 11:44
  • I tried with `Ctrl + I` too, it works as expected. If possible, do reinstall. – meW Dec 19 '18 at 11:46
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    Do you have any idea what the cause of this problem with the display font could be? – feedMe Dec 19 '18 at 13:50
  • @meW: do you get a different font than the ones already visible in the screenshot? – Jongware Dec 19 '18 at 13:58
  • I'm clearly getting what needs to appear. The documentation of `help` – meW Dec 19 '18 at 14:00
  • @meW That's great for you, but telling me that it works for you doesn't answer my question. The question is asking what the source of the problem is, and how to fix it. Re-installing has not helped. Hopefully someone reading this has experienced the same problem and already found a solution to it. – feedMe Dec 19 '18 at 14:44
  • @feedMe my wishes with you. I'd like to skip this discussion. :) – meW Dec 19 '18 at 14:46

1 Answers1

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Under Preferences -> General -> Appearance, change the Rich Text font to something other than what is currently set.

This should fix your problem.

Chris Larson
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  • Thanks. I went to Tools > Preferences > General > Appearance. The existing selection for rich text font was 'Nimbus Mono L'. There are around 27 fonts in the drop-down list. I tried all of them and the only one that worked was Liberation Sans. I am using a (almost) clean install of Ubuntu 19.04. Why would only one of the rich text fonts work correctly? – feedMe Jul 09 '19 at 07:51
  • Further to the previous comment, is there anything specific about Liberation Sans that allows it to work correctly? What happens if I - for the sake of argument - use another system that doesn't have Liberation Sans installed. Will I be able to use the rich text help in Spyder? – feedMe Jul 09 '19 at 07:53
  • That I don't know. Is it possible you have some corruption in your font installation? Anything stand out about Liberation Sans vs the others? Different type? Different origin? Different system provider? You might dig into the font systems on your machine. – Chris Larson Jul 16 '19 at 23:49
  • Seems unlikely due to some type of corruption, as it has happened more than once, on different machines. I'll have a look at your other suggestions thanks. – feedMe Jul 18 '19 at 11:23