# \[Makie.jl\] All the symbols shown as boxes

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-all-the-symbols-shown-as-boxes/80933>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question, plotting, bug, makie\
**Created:** [May 12, 2022, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-all-the-symbols-shown-as-boxes/80933 "2022-05-12T06:26:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kunzaatko](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kunzaatko/32/25153_2.png) [@kunzaatko](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kunzaatko)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 6:26am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-all-the-symbols-shown-as-boxes/80933/1 "2022-05-12T06:26:47Z")

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Yesterday, `Makie` started showing boxes instead of all symbols in my plots. I tried everything that I could think of and don’t know what else to try to fix it. Can you point me in a direction?

- I tried downgrading Makie but that does not fix it.
- It is only a problem for `WGLMakie` and `GLMakie`, but `mesa` did not update from when it worked.
- It did look like a font problem but when I try to specify any font, the plotting function throws an error:

```julia
julia> s = scatter(rand(Point2, 100), marker = :diamond, font = joinpath("/usr/share/fonts/TTF/", "Iosevka Thin Nerd Font Complete Mono.ttf"))
Error showing value of type Makie.FigureAxisPlot:
ERROR: MethodError: no method matching gl_convert(::FreeTypeAbstraction.FTFont)
Closest candidates are:
  gl_convert(::Quaternion) at ~/.julia/packages/GLMakie/TfSB1/src/GLVisualize/visualize/particles.jl:30
  gl_convert(::Function, ::Any) at ~/.julia/packages/GLMakie/TfSB1/src/GLAbstraction/GLUniforms.jl:264
  gl_convert(::T) where T<:GeometryBasics.Mesh at ~/.julia/packages/GLMakie/TfSB1/src/GLAbstraction/GLUniforms.jl:194

```

 ![makie_rendering_issue](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/b/5b9014540a178c8e06e86445ead2fdb9d63f5a18.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jipolanco](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jipolanco/32/12129_2.png) [@jipolanco](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jipolanco)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 6:35am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-all-the-symbols-shown-as-boxes/80933/2 "2022-05-12T06:35:13Z")

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Seems related to [this issue](https://github.com/JuliaPlots/Makie.jl/issues/1854) I opened a few days ago.

By any chance, are you using an unofficial build of Julia? In my case, I found out the issue was “fixed” by switching from a custom-compiled Julia (nothing fancy, I was using the default build parameters) to the official binaries. Not sure why though.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kunzaatko](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kunzaatko/32/25153_2.png) [@kunzaatko](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kunzaatko)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 6:57am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-all-the-symbols-shown-as-boxes/80933/3 "2022-05-12T06:57:04Z")

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This looks like it is exactly the same issue. I will try to compile julia from source and then try if it is fixed. Thanks!

It looks like it is possible that the issue is with the julia build because it was updated just about the time when this issue first occurred for me.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kunzaatko](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kunzaatko/32/25153_2.png) [@kunzaatko](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/kunzaatko)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 7:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-jl-all-the-symbols-shown-as-boxes/80933/4 "2022-05-12T07:30:20Z")

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I installed the _beta3_ binaries from the julia website and it works. Thank you!