Linux Flatpak Fonts look very bad

Utini · October 10, 2025, 3:07pm

I am on Fedora Kinoite and use LibreOffice from flathub in its latest version. In writer and calc the fonts looks really bad. I have microsoft fonts installed and also microsoft office (via RDP) and OnlyOffice (flatpak) installed as well. The bad font quality only exists in LibreOffice. I also tried running it in X11 but that didn’t help.

Attached is a screenshot (left onlyoffice, right libreoffice).

I already tried playing around with all the settings (rendering, hinting, hardware acceleration,…).

Is there any fix to this?

RobertG · October 10, 2025, 5:12pm

Never seen such a behavior. Might be there is something incomplete with the installation.
Go to Help → About LibreOffice → Copy version information with the Button. Post it here.

karolus · October 10, 2025, 5:44pm

Cannot confirm the issue with

Version: 25.8.1.1 (AARCH64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 54047653041915e595ad4e45cccea684809c77b5
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-DE (de_DE.UTF-8); UI: de-DE
Flatpak
Calc: threaded

versus:

Version: 25.2.3.2 (AARCH64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 520(Build:2)
CPU threads: 4; OS: Linux 6.12; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-DE (de_DE.UTF-8); UI: de-DE
Debian package version: 4:25.2.3-2+deb13u2
Calc: threaded

Utini · October 10, 2025, 5:56pm

Version: 25.8.2.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: d401f2107ccab8f924a8e2df40f573aab7605b6f
CPU threads: 24; OS: Linux 6.16; UI render: default; VCL: gtk3
Locale: de-AT (en_US.UTF-8); UI: en-US
Flatpak
Calc: threaded

@karolus @RobertG

RobertG · October 11, 2025, 1:26pm

When I see “Calibri” in the dropdown for fonts it seems Calc doesn’t find this font anywhere. Have a look at the fonts when opening the dropdown.
Might be something like this:
https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=168812

Wanderer · October 11, 2025, 3:16pm

Yes the Calibri written in italics hints to LibreOffice not recognizing the font.
.
I’d check first, if LO shows other “foreign” fonts like Arial properly.
Possible cause:

? Is the container allowed to see fonts? Would not be the first time, when something is missing here.
.
For older fonts/ .ttf one can check, if this are type1-fonts, wich are no longer supported. (But I would be surprised, if OnlyOffice would still show them, therefore not my first guess.)

Utini · October 11, 2025, 4:02pm

@RobertG @Wanderer This is actually a screenshot I found on google which reflect how my fonts look like. On my version the calibri font is detected (i have MS fonts installed). The calibri font is not “italic” style. It also happens with any other font. Here is a screenshot from my desktop

RobertG · October 11, 2025, 5:25pm

Please show a screenshot of the opened dropdown, which show the font “calibri” in your font list. Should look like this:

Something like this?

github.com/flatpak/flatpak

[Bug]: Flatpaks cannot see fonts installed in $HOME by the KDE Font Management KCM

opened 09:11PM - 30 Jan 24 UTC

sfalken

bug

### Checklist - [X] I agree to follow the [Code of Conduct](https://github.com/…flatpak/flatpak/blob/main/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md) that this project adheres to. - [X] I have searched the [issue tracker](https://www.github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues) for a bug that matches the one I want to file, without success. - [X] If this is an issue with a particular app, I have tried filing it in the appropriate issue tracker for the app (e.g. under https://github.com/flathub/) and determined that it is an issue with Flatpak itself. - [X] This issue is not a report of a security vulnerability (see [here](https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/blob/main/SECURITY.md) if you need to report a security issue). ### Flatpak version 1.15.6 ### What Linux distribution are you using? openSUSE ### Linux distribution version Tumbleweed ### What architecture are you using? x86_64 ### How to reproduce 1. Install fonts as a user, running the Plasma Desktop, using the KDE Font Management "Control Panel" 2. Start a flatpak 3. Go to font selection in the flatpak application 4. Only "system" fonts will be available ### Expected Behavior To have fonts installed as "user fonts" in `~/.fonts` through the Plasma Desktop "control panel" available to my flatpak applications for use. ### Actual Behavior "User" fonts, installed with the KDE Plasma "Font Management" KCM are not available to flatpak'd applications The plasma desktop creates both `~/.fonts` and `~/.local/share/fonts` but when installing "user" fonts through the provided GUI tool, they are installed to `~/.fonts` Flatpak attempts to mount `~/.local/share/fonts` first, and if it doesn't exist, then it moves on to `~/.fonts` Since the plasma desktop (or it's control panel) is providing both directories, when flatpak sees the empty `~/.local/share/fonts` it mounts that, and doesn't ever consider `~/.fonts` Per https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/blob/d5f891e0035e50b24211688a7fa5f61924a2e51c/common/flatpak-run.c#L938-L963 ### Additional Information Obviously, the user can just symlink `~/.fonts` to `~/.local/share/fonts` and get around this, but it seems like a relatively small issue to fix. Alternatively, KDE upstream could start installing to `~/.local/share/fonts` but I don't have a good insight into that.

github.com/flatpak/flatpak

flatpaks don't see some installed fonts

opened 03:13PM - 28 Jan 21 UTC

soundsbeard

## Linux distribution and version manjaro plasma all specs: https://pastebin.c…om/vVYLjhDR ## Flatpak version latest shotcut, krita and gimp installed from Discover app center ## Description of the problem i got used to a specific font MyriadPro-Bold.otf which is installed in my system but niether of flatpaks are able to see it tested in shotcut, krita and gimp https://i.imgur.com/C7ZlJuN.png arch/aur repos versions of these apps are able to see this font ## Steps to reproduce - install MyriadPro-Bold.otf font - open shotcut, krita or gimp - go to text tool - try to find this font

Utini · October 11, 2025, 8:02pm

@RobertG I think my fonts are all installed and seen by libreoffice correctly?

Interestingly the “i” in Calibri looks fine in the drop down but not in the top where it shows the currelty used font. You see the spacing?

RobertG · October 12, 2025, 6:14am

Did you try the solution of one of the links above:

without xdg-desktop-portal-gtk package, the gtk-apps installed via Flathub (e.g., LibreOffice) look terrible

Utini · October 12, 2025, 10:19am

@RobertG I have all of these installed:

pm -qa | grep  xdg-desktop-portal    
xdg-desktop-portal-1.20.3-1.fc42.x86_64
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk-1.15.3-1.fc42.x86_64
xdg-desktop-portal-kde-6.4.5-1.fc42.x86_64

Btw, I am on Fedora Kinoite 42 if that matters.

Utini · October 15, 2025, 8:31am

@RobertG @Wanderer any furhter ideas?

RobertG · October 15, 2025, 8:52am

No further idea here. I haven’t installed anything as flatpak.
.
I would try to install LO parallel as user installed version. Works her under OpenSUSE 15.6 8rpm-packages) without such a problem.
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel

Utini · October 15, 2025, 3:31pm

@RobertG I just layered libreoffice (=system installation) and it has exactly the same issue. All settings and everything are the same but the font output is just as bad.

So I am thinking that this has nothing to do with flatpak.

RobertG · October 15, 2025, 4:34pm

So the only differences between our systems might be:
gtk3 (I’m using kde5)
Wayland (I’m using X11)

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/pojntfx/29dd51b13109a8bac06f71cfd37096d9

main.sh

flatpak install flathub org.libreoffice.LibreOffice
sudo flatpak override --socket=wayland org.libreoffice.LibreOffice

Wanderer · October 15, 2025, 4:59pm

Seems so. The first pair of screenshots suggested LibreOffice not recognizing a font and replacing it.
.
Your own later screenshot shows rendering a font with different metrics. And I have no idea where this may be caused.

Utini · October 16, 2025, 5:53am

I am running Fedora Kinoite 42 so its KDE + Wayland.
I already tried forcing it as X11 (and currently it is forced as wayland) through flatpak permission.
No change there

RobertG · October 16, 2025, 6:50pm

Could you try to install an older version parallel? Sometimes I’m using this one:
https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/7.4.7.2/