I have been using Inkscape since 2020 and recently discovered a font glitch or error regarding Chinese Characters, which only happens in Inkscape but not in other programmes, details are as follows:

Operating System: Windows 11 Home Version (64-bit), touch-screen laptop, Inkscape Version 1.1.1.

The glitch or error involves the font “DFKai-SB”, otherwise known as “標階體” in Chinese or its file name in Windows “kaiu.ttf”. According to the official Microsoft description, “DFKai-SB font is a serif style with Traditional Chinese support. DFKai-SB has graceful strokes”, and this font has been supplied with “Traditional Chinese Versions” of Windows internally since “Windows NT 3.51” and “Windows 95”.

When using “DFKai-SB” in Inkscape, typing non-Chinese Characters is perfectly fine, but all Chinese Characters using “DFKai-SB” will be stretched into enormous shapes. As demonstrated in this screenshot, the second row contains the text “123一二三” using another font which works completely; while the first row also contains the text “123一二三” but using the “DFKai-SB” font, and the three Chinese Characters corresponding to “123” appears to be stretched, so much that only the “一” is visible and “二三”  are not shown at all.

I also tested this issue using Inkscape Version 1.1.1 on a Desktop Computer running Windows 10 Pro and the same thing happened. As this is an internal font supplied by Windows, I’m hoping that this can be solved without having to modify the font file directly, although I do have some knowledge regarding how to use “FontForge” if necessary.

Using Chinese or Asian fonts in Inkscape is relatively less discussed and I was not able to find a solution elsewhere, therefore any help will be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!

I have downloaded and installed the font. Please share an example Inkscape SVG file.

Thanks for the reply. An example Inkscape SVG file can be downloaded here, where the first row of text uses the default “sans-serif” while the second row uses “DFKai-SB”. By comparing the two, it can be easily seen that there is an issue regarding the font “DFKai-SB” when used on Chinese Characters.

Reproduced in 1.1.1 Win8.1 and Linux Mint 20.

Please file a bug report at GitLab: https://inkscape.org/forums/beyond/how-to-report-bugs-or-request-new-features/