Displayed fonts won't change

notwitless · **Joined:** May 31, 2026 **Posts:** 4

GIMP Version: 3.2.0
Operating System: Windows
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

Hey all,
I had an issue start literally overnight - I can tell GIMP to change fonts, and it tells me it changed the font, but the new font doesn't display. It worked fine one day and didn't the next; as far as I know, there weren't any updates or anything installed in between. I've tried restarting GIMP, restarting/shutting down the computer, uninstalling and reinstalling GIMP, and based on recommendations found online I moved font files to the C:\Users\...AppData\Roaming\GIMP\3.2\fonts and the the AppData\Local\Programs\GIMP 3\Share\gim\3\fonts folders. None of it has made any difference. It doesn't seem to matter what font it is. Because of this, the program is pretty useless to me for my current purposes. Any thoughts? Am I missing something obvious? or less obvious?

TIA!

Wallace · **Posted:** Sun May 31, 2026 11:55 am **(#2)**

Hi notwitless and welcome to Gimp Chat.
:jumpclap

Does this happen with newly created text layers as well?
If GIMP shows the font changing but the text doesn't,
it could be an issue with font loading or text formatting overrides.

Based on your screenshot,
GIMP is showing "Old English Text MT" as the selected font,
but the text is still rendering as a default sans-serif font.
That suggests GIMP isn't actually loading/applying the font and is falling back to another one.
Does this happen with all fonts or just certain fonts?
Even something obvious like Old English should look very different.

TeaMouse · **Joined:** Jan 01, 2026 **Posts:** 452

Attachment:

Welcome-08.JPG [ 317.01 KiB | Viewed 348 times ]

Over in the Text Palette on the left, uncheck...

Show On-Canvas Editor!

Because it is check you are using two sets of options, until you understand
how it works, the Canvas text Editor should be unchecked. Once you get
the hang of the regular options, then you can try using the on-canvas one,
which takes first place and works slightly differently than the one on left side panel.

Been there, done that!

notwitless · **Joined:** May 31, 2026 **Posts:** 4

It's happening with newly created text layers as well as existing layers, and it's All fonts except this group of very boring default type ones. I picked Old English for the example specifically because it's pretty obvious

Checking and unchecking the on-canvas editor box does not seem to affect the issue.

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 16017

Could be something amiss in the gimprc file. remove and place on your desktop the C:\Users\...AppData\Roaming\GIMP\3.2 folder and restart Gimp. Gimp will rewrite the folder upon restart. If that works, then just take the files from the old 3.2 folder and move them to your newer 3.2 folder. plugins, scripts, whatever you need to move back.

Welcome to Gimp Chat by the way.

notwitless · **Joined:** May 31, 2026 **Posts:** 4

Tried that, still nothing. :gaah

I also just tried uninstalling, deleting all the program files I could find, and updating to 3.2.4 but didn't fix it either.

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 16017

That is strange. This usually fixes most problems. The only other thing i can think of is to restore Windows to an older date.
Not sure if that is possible after Windows 7 though.

sallyanne · **Posted:** Tue Jun 02, 2026 7:19 am **(#8)**

Welcome to Gimp Chat
Hope you get your font problem fixed.

Wallace · **Posted:** Tue Jun 02, 2026 3:28 pm **(#9)**

If moving/renaming the GIMP profile and doing a clean reinstall didn't fix it,
this doesn't sound like a font-cache or settings issue.
GIMP recognizes the font change but the text on canvas doesn't update,
I'd check whether it's a rendering/display problem.
Does the font actually change if you export the image,
or is it only the on-screen preview that's stuck?
That might help narrow down whether it's the text tool itself or the display.

Export the image (PNG/JPG) after changing the font and view it outside GIMP.
If the exported image shows the correct font,
the problem is likely with GIMP's display/rendering rather than the text tool itself.
Try disabling hardware acceleration/OpenGL in GIMP or try updating your graphics driver.

notwitless · **Joined:** May 31, 2026 **Posts:** 4

Thank you all for the suggestions, I really appreciate you! Unfortunately, I'm still having issues with it and have about reached my frustration limit for now so I'll keep poking at it...later sometime.

Jappaloe63 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 07, 2026 11:26 am **(#11)**

Did you select the text? I don't see any yellow boxes.