OpenType fonts are the trigger for many serious problems in LibreOffice. Tested this on my distro version 3.4.4, as well as 3.5.2 RC1. (on two different architectures running Ubuntu 11.10) The effect is: text in some Indic languages such as Hindi and Sinhala was just mangled, evidently because necessary font features (ligatures, positioning, etc) were not activated. But then the problem would go away. And then come back. But I have been messing with the installed fonts a lot. The trigger =========== The problem occurs precisely when OpenType versions of the fonts are installed. If TrueType versions of the exact same fonts are installed, the text looks fine. The font features in question are not specific to OpenType. The type of outline has nothing to do with it.
Created attachment 59149 [details] Hindi text with OpenType version of Gargi font -- many letters scrunch together
Created attachment 59150 [details] Hindi text with TrueType version of Gargi font -- readable
Created attachment 59151 [details] Sinhala text with OpenType version of FreeSerif font -- many letters scrunch together
Created attachment 59152 [details] Sinhala text with TrueType version of FreeSerif font -- readable
Some web searches show a lot of remarks to the effect that LibreOffice/OpenOffice do not support OpenType features. I suspect these refer to just this bug. Also see for example https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31821 Bug 31821 - Writer ignores OpenType ligatures.
I applied Caolán's patch from https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31821 It had a decidedly positive effect. Most font features are suddenly working in OpenType as well as in TrueType, so he's on the right track. However this uncovered other issues, which I'll report separately.
Steve White, is this still an issue for you? It seems from the comment that the immediate issues might have been fixed. If it is still an issue, could you please upload a sample file that could be used to see the problem.
lets consider this mostly a duplicate of bug 31821 and use bug 48191 to try and get an example of the follow up problems *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 31821 ***