René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"[ENH]: Explicit file paths for font rcParams","articleBody":"### Problem\r\n\r\nI'm always frustrated while setting the fonts of text in plots. To begin with, I want the readers to be noticed that I **do know** a couple of ways to set fonts, and I am here just to give an advise.\r\n\r\n---\r\n\r\nI use **Windows** to be the environment here. The phenomenons are as follows.\r\nThe `font.sans-serif property` in file \"matplotlibrc\" in the \"site-packages\\matplotlib\\mpl-data\" directory is \"DejaVu Sans, Bitstream Vera Sans, Computer Modern Sans Serif, Lucida Grande, Verdana, Geneva, Lucid, Arial, Helvetica, Avant Garde, sans-serif, **simkai**\". As you can see,\r\n- there is an item called \"simkai\" in it, \r\n- and \"simkai.ttf\" is located in both \r\n  - `site-packages\\matplotlib\\mpl-data\\fonts\\ttf`\r\n  - `C:\\Windows\\fonts`\r\n\r\nHowever, Matplotlib **is not able** to find the font name, and raise the warning \"findfont: Generic family 'sans-serif' not found because none of the following families were found: SimKai\".\r\n\r\nSo, where could the user find and set it? There is a json file within the folder `%Userprofile%\\.matplotlib`. The font \"simkai.ttf\" is named by \"kaiti\" in json.\r\n\r\nOn the contrary, after I set `plt.rcParams['font.sans-serif']=['SimSun']`, the font \"**simsun**\" could be recognized correctly. To be noticed, there are no font files named like \"simsun*.ttf\" in directories mentioned above. There is only a \"C:\\Windows\\fonts\\simsun.ttc\".\r\n\r\nSimilar to what occurred with \"kaiti\", the way and the only way to recognize \"simsun\" is to search by the **json** file under `%userprofile%`.\r\n\r\nI consider this searching mode to be wired and inconvenient.\r\n\r\n\r\n### Proposed solution\r\n\r\nMaybe, the logic could be removed from the personal configuration on the system disk. Or add the behavior in **User Guide**?","author":{"url":"https://github.com/ChestnutA","@type":"Person","name":"ChestnutA"},"datePublished":"2024-04-28T11:30:47.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":4},"url":"https://github.com/28147/matplotlib/issues/28147"}