[R] Wrong symbol rendering in plots (Ubuntu)

[Peter Langfelder]

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Ben Bolker <bolker at ufl.edu> wrote:
> Eduardo J. Chica <ejchica <at> gmail.com> writes:
>> Hi I am having problems with the rendering of scientific symbols (mu and
>> degree) in my plots. Whenever I use these symbols they are rendered
>> changed (mu is changed to the proportionality symbol and degree is
>> changed to something resembling a gamma) in the X-device. If I make a
>> pdf of the plot and open the file in Evince or Okular symbols are also
>> rendered wrong, however if I open the file with Xpdf or Acroread they
>> are rendered correctly.
>>
>> I did not have this problem before, it arose after I upgraded both R and
>> my system (Ubuntu karmic koala to lucid lynx), so I can not tell for
>> sure if the problem is R-related or Ubuntu related (I have posted in a
>> Ubuntu forum also http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1325289).
>
>  Could you please post a reproducible example?  It would be
> good to see exactly what you are doing, and it will save time
> for anyone who wants to try your example on their machine to
> try to narrow down the problem.
>
>   Ben Bolker

I have noticed something similar. Even a regular plot, say

plot(c(1:10))

when put into a pdf file via pdf() device, will display incorrect
symbols in linux pdf viewers (evince, okular). The circles (o) become
q, literally the letter q, and lose colors. In Acroread I see the
plots as they should be. This started happening around R-2.9 or so. Am
also not sure whether it's the R pdf or pdfCairo, or whether it's a
bug in the evince/okular backend.

Peter