How to get XKCD font working in matplotlib

Question

I've followed through this post.

I'm trying to reproduce the example from here

This is how mine looks

This is how it should look

The code is on that page and at the end of this post

System that I'm using

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Release:    14.04
Codename:   trusty

Python version that I'm using

3.5.2 |Continuum Analytics, Inc.| (default, Jul  2 2016, 17:53:06) 
[GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-1)]

Matplotlib version

import matplotlib
matplotlib.__version__
Out[37]: '1.5.1'

Humorsans font installed on system

This shows that I have installed the font

$ fc-list | grep "Humo"
/usr/share/fonts/Humor-Sans-1.0.ttf: Humor Sans:style=Regular
/home/vco/.fonts/Humor-Sans-1.0.ttf: Humor Sans:style=Regular

Matplotlib backend that I'm using

Here is the back end that I'm using

  plt.get_backend()
  Out[42]: 'TkAgg'

---

Output error

I've followed the instructions from a post here;

Error from python output:

/home/vco/anaconda/envs/math_general/lib/python3.5/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1288:
UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['Humor Sans', 'Comic Sans MS'] not
found. Falling back to Bitstream Vera Sans

  (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))

/home/vco/anaconda/envs/math_general/lib/python3.5/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1298:
  UserWarning: findfont: Could not match :family=Bitstream Vera
  Sans:style=normal:variant=normal:weight=400:stretch=normal:size=medium.
  Returning /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/cmtt10.ttf UserWarning)

I also tried to move the downloaded Humorsans font to

/usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf

But still got the following error

/home/vco/anaconda/envs/math_general/lib/python3.5/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1288: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['Humor Sans', 'Comic Sans MS'] not found. Falling back to Bitstream Vera Sans
  (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))
/home/vco/anaconda/envs/math_general/lib/python3.5/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1298: UserWarning: findfont: Could not match :family=Bitstream Vera Sans:style=normal:variant=normal:weight=400:stretch=normal:size=medium. Returning /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/cmtt10.ttf
  UserWarning)
/home/vco/anaconda/envs/math_general/lib/python3.5/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1298: UserWarning: findfont: Could not match :family=Bitstream Vera Sans:style=normal:variant=normal:weight=400:stretch=normal:size=large. Returning /usr/share/matplotlib/mpl-data/fonts/ttf/cmtt10.ttf
  UserWarning)

---

code

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

plt.xkcd()

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
ax.spines['right'].set_color('none')
ax.spines['top'].set_color('none')
plt.xticks([])
plt.yticks([])
ax.set_ylim([-30, 10])

data = np.ones(100)
data[70:] -= np.arange(30)

plt.annotate(
    'THE DAY I REALIZED\nI COULD COOK BACON\nWHENEVER I WANTED',
    xy=(70, 1), arrowprops=dict(arrowstyle='->'), xytext=(15, -10))

plt.plot(data)

plt.xlabel('time')
plt.ylabel('my overall health')

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
ax.bar([-0.125, 1.0-0.125], [0, 100], 0.25)
ax.spines['right'].set_color('none')
ax.spines['top'].set_color('none')
ax.xaxis.set_ticks_position('bottom')
ax.set_xticks([0, 1])
ax.set_xlim([-0.5, 1.5])
ax.set_ylim([0, 110])
ax.set_xticklabels(['CONFIRMED BY\nEXPERIMENT', 'REFUTED BY\nEXPERIMENT'])
plt.yticks([])

plt.title("CLAIMS OF SUPERNATURAL POWERS")

plt.show()

Answer 1

If you still see an error after installing HumorSans font, I advise running:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.font_manager._rebuild()

It will rebuild the font cache.

Answer 2

Try deleting Matplotlib cache and see if it works (i.e., rm -r ~/.cache/matplotlib).

In my case it solved the problem:

user@host:~$ ./xkcd.py
/home/user/.pyenv/versions/3.7.1/lib/python3.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1241:
UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['xkcd', 'Humor Sans', 'Comic Sans MS'] not found.
Falling back to DejaVu Sans. (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))
user@host:~$ rm -r ~/.cache/matplotlib
user@host:~$ ./xkcd.py
user@host:~$

Answer 3

With matplotlib==3.4.3 I had to do:

import shutil
import matplotlib

shutil.rmtree(matplotlib.get_cachedir())