Setting default font to Inconsolata doesn’t work in Emacs 29/macOS

Question

Using macOS Sonoma on M1 Mac Mini and M1 Air. Emacs from https://emacsformacosx.com.

I have Inconsolata installed in ~/Library/Fonts/, validated by Font Book. My .emacs calls up .emacs-custom.el, at the end of which I have (set up via menubar Options > Set Default Font ..., and saved via Options > Save Options, tidied, without the generated comments)

(custom-set-faces
 '(default ((t (:height 140 :family "Inconsolata" :foundry "nil"
                :slant normal :weight medium :width normal)))))

Under Emacs 28.2, this worked fine. Under 29.2 & 29.3, it "takes" for the current frame only. New frames use Helvetica; after restarting Emacs all frames use Helvetica.

I find that if I set the default font to Menlo or Monaco, Emacs uses Menlo/Monaco after a restart.

I would really prefer to use Inconsolata (it's narrower than Menlo, for a start). What should I do?

Answer 1

I’m not sure where I originally got Inconsolata from; you can find it at Raph Levien’s site, downloadable in OpenType (.otf) format.

Drew suggested I look here and here, and the conclusion is that it’s likely the .otf format causing the trouble.

You can get Inconsolata in .ttf (TrueType Font) format from Google Fonts. The download contains many individual faces, but they’re combined in Inconsolata-VariableFont_wdth,wght.ttf.

Moving this into ~/Library/Fonts, and deleting Inconsolata.otf, the Apple Font Book app finds it OK. Emacs only finds Inconsolata if I select the "All Fonts" collection (i.e. not the "English" collection), but having done that it works fine.