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I am trying to set [Inconsolata-dz][1] as my default font to Emacs. Regular Inconsolata works fine, but the dz version is not working properly. Most functions I use keep throwing this error (followed all the instructions online on how to set Emacs font):

set-face-attribute: Invalid font name: "-*-Inconsolata-dz-normal-normal-normal-*-13-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1"

I finally got it to work by doing this in my init.el:

(setq initial-frame-alist '((font . "Inconsolata-dz-13")))
(setq default-frame-alist '((font . "Inconsolata-dz-13")))

I also have this in init.el, which was generated by customize-faces, but it seems to change the font to Helvetica (unless overridden by the code above):

(custom-set-variables
 ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(custom-safe-themes
   (quote
    ("e16a771a13a202ee6e276d06098bc77f008b73bbac4d526f160faa2d76c1dd0e"
     "d677ef584c6dfc0697901a44b885cc18e206f05114c8a3b7fde674fce6180879"
     "8aebf25556399b58091e533e455dd50a6a9cba958cc4ebb0aab175863c25b9a4"
     default))))

(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(default ((t (:inherit nil :stipple nil :inverse-video nil
             :box nil :strike-through nil :overline nil
             :underline nil :slant normal
             :weight normal :height 140 :width normal
             :foundry "nil" :family "Inconsolata-dz")))))

Now the issue with the first code above is that doing a Ctrl+N, to create a new window will throw the same Invalid font name error.

I installed Inconsolata and Inconsolata-dz the same way on my Mac. Just the regular, default way of installing fonts on OS X.

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong and how I can use Inconsolata-dz properly?

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  • 1
    To see what fonts are available, evaluate the following in a *Scratch* buffer: (insert (prin1-to-string (x-list-fonts "*"))) If it is not there, then it's not available.
    – lawlist
    Sep 23, 2015 at 18:30
  • @lawlist I see it there but it is a very long name. When I pasted it into set-face-attribute, ((set-face-attribute 'default nil :family "-*-Inconsolata-g-normal-normal-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1")), I get 'Invalid face foundry'. Any ideas why? What exactly is the name suppose to be? Inconsolata works but Inconsolata-g and Inconsolata-dz do not work, even though they're all available and installed the same way. I suspect it's the dash in the name?
    – darksky
    Sep 24, 2015 at 14:40

1 Answer 1

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Emacs doesn't allow fonts that have hyphens in them. I would rename the font to something that doesn't contain hyphens.

You can do this using ttx. For example, assuming you have a font named Inconsolata-dz for Powerline.otf in your current working directory:

# Convert the font to ttx format (an xml-like font format)
ttx "Inconsolata-dz for Powerline.otf"

# Replace all instances of "Inconsolata-dz" with "InconsolataDZ" in the ttx file
sed -i 's/Inconsolata-dz/InconsolataDZ/g' "Inconsolata-dz for Powerline.ttx"

# Convert the resulting ttx file back to an otf file. 
# (Will create a file called "Inconsolata-dz for Powerline#1.otf".)
ttx "Inconsolata-dz for Powerline.ttx"

You can then rename the produced otf file to whatever you want and move it to your fonts directory.

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6
  • Do you have an example or a link to some documentation to support your belief that "Emacs doesn't allow fonts that have hyphens in them."?
    – lawlist
    Dec 19, 2016 at 0:29
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    My specific problem was that I was seeing the error "Invalid font name: Inconsolata-g for Powerline". I searched the Emacs source code for "Invalid font name:" and found this function. I believe that if you look carefully at the font_parse_name function, you'll find that parses the XFT string by splitting it at the hyphens, assuming that the entire font name is contained between two hyphens.
    – sid-kap
    Dec 19, 2016 at 0:33
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    Thanks so much @sid-kap, finally an answer! I've never figured this one out.
    – darksky
    Dec 20, 2016 at 15:32
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    You can rename the font without using ttx nor converting the font files. I visited the font files Inconsolata-g.otf, Inconsolata-g.sfd, and Inconsolata-g.ttf with Emacs and replaced every occurrence of "Inconsolata-g" and "Inconsolata-d" with "Inconsolata_g" and "Inconsolata_d". This text also appears intermingled with "^@" as in "I^@n^@c^@o^@n^@s^@o^@l^@a^@t^@a^@-^@g^@Inconsolata-g" which I have replaced as "I^@n^@c^@o^@n^@s^@o^@l^@a^@t^@a^@_^@g^@Inconsolata_g". I have then renamed the filenames as Inconsolata_g.* and drag-and-drop'd them into Font Book.app, which worked.
    – armando.sano
    Mar 22, 2017 at 13:24
  • @sid-kap Thank you, your instructions were very clear. Great answer.
    – Harsh Vardhan
    Apr 2, 2018 at 16:27

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