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Windows: Gimp loading fonts on each startup: possible workaround

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Windows: Gimp loading fonts on each startup: possible workaround
Ofnuts Offline
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#1
02-28-2018, 03:15 PM (This post was last modified: 03-13-2018, 03:08 PM by Ofnuts.)
Gimp displays "Looking for data files / fonts (this may take a while)" on each startup

This is not the normal behavior. See https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793918

Gimp should rebuild the font cache only when the fonts are added to/removed from the system.

A possible workaround:
  • Navigate to C:\users\{your id}\AppData\local\fontconfig\cache
  • There should be four files:
    • CACHEDIR.TAG
    • someverylongname (usually 1MB or more)
    • someverylongname.NEW (usually 1MB or more, slightly bigger that the one above if you added fonts)
    • someotherverylongname (small: 1K)
  • rename someverylongname to someverylongname.OLD
  • rename someverylongname.NEW to someverylongname
  • restart Gimp which should no longer rebuild the font cache

If this works for you please confirm below.
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Kevin Offline
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#2
02-28-2018, 04:09 PM (This post was last modified: 02-28-2018, 04:12 PM by Kevin.)
OK it's slightly more complicated for me...

I have several verylongname files:  (listing done in cygwin for convenience)
Code:
$ ls -l
total 15360
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     104 Mar 27  2014 0b95873e39d18f9d260130f412d6fa99-i686.cache-4
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users    2480 Mar 12  2014 0b95873e39d18f9d260130f412d6fa99-le64.cache-3
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     104 Jun 26  2015 0b95873e39d18f9d260130f412d6fa99-le64.cache-4
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     104 Sep 14  2016 0b95873e39d18f9d260130f412d6fa99-le64.cache-6
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     112 May 30  2017 0b95873e39d18f9d260130f412d6fa99-le64.cache-7
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     136 Nov 13  2015 5b546aeb64f007379a5930f9448a6891-le64.cache-5
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     136 Jun  2  2015 a3d6e7677fc65e610d62340af2244e75-le64.cache-5
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     128 Nov 13  2015 b0ee7089c3ce32e63661cbd8ba698137-le64.cache-5
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 2006480 Nov 19  2014 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-i686.cache-4
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 1860504 Oct  3 11:34 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-i686-w64-mingw32.cache-4
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 1620024 Aug 13  2013 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-3
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 2079448 Mar  3  2017 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-4
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 2014536 Nov 13  2015 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-5
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 2000248 Feb 28  2017 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-6
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 2058912 May 30  2017 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-7
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users 2062296 Feb 28 15:59 d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-7.NEW
-rwxrwx---+ 1 Administrators Domain Users     128 Jun  2  2015 deede82fbc9e08a93846c07167faee6e-le64.cache-5

So working on the assumption that the someverylongname.NEW shares the same base name as the file we want, then I'm re-naming d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-7 to d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-7.OLD and d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-7.NEW to d031bbba323fd9e5b47e0ee5a0353f11-le64.cache-7

And success Smile no more long wait at looking for fonts AND no more long wait to close GIMP (on Windows 7)
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Ofnuts Offline
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#3
02-28-2018, 07:15 PM
Ah, so you also have the long wait to close? I noticed that too, but thought it was a separate problem (and yes, renaming the .NEW also fixed it).
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Creative Scott Offline
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#4
03-07-2018, 09:42 PM
(02-28-2018, 03:15 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Gimp displays "Looking for data files / fonts (this may take a while)" on each startup

This is not the normal behavior. See https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793918

Gimp should rebuild the font cache only when the fonts are added to/removed from the system.

A possible workaround:
  • Navigate to C:\users\{your id}\AppData\local\fontconfig\cache
  • There should be four files:
    • CACHEDIR.TAG
    • someverylongname (usually 1MB or more)
    • someverylongname.NEW (usually 1MB or more, slightly bigger that the one above if you added fonts)
    • someotherverylongname (small: 1K)
  • rename someverylongname to someverylongname.OLD
  • rename someverylongname.NEW to someverylongname
  • restart Gimp which should no longer rebuild the font cache

If this works for you please confirm below.

Renaming the font cache file works perfectly.  Startup went from 30 seconds to 3 seconds and I still have all the fonts to use.
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Ofnuts Offline
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#5
03-08-2018, 01:41 AM
(03-07-2018, 09:42 PM)Creative Scott Wrote:
(02-28-2018, 03:15 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Gimp displays "Looking for data files / fonts (this may take a while)" on each startup

This is not the normal behavior. See https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793918

Gimp should rebuild the font cache only when the fonts are added to/removed from the system.

A possible workaround:
  • Navigate to C:\users\{your id}\AppData\local\fontconfig\cache
  • There should be four files:
    • CACHEDIR.TAG
    • someverylongname (usually 1MB or more)
    • someverylongname.NEW (usually 1MB or more, slightly bigger that the one above if you added fonts)
    • someotherverylongname (small: 1K)
  • rename someverylongname to someverylongname.OLD
  • rename someverylongname.NEW to someverylongname
  • restart Gimp which should no longer rebuild the font cache

If this works for you please confirm below.

Renaming the font cache file works perfectly.  Startup went from 30 seconds to 3 seconds and I still have all the fonts to use.

Thanks for the confirmation!
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cousinit99 Offline
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#6
05-14-2018, 12:21 AM
(02-28-2018, 03:15 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Gimp displays "Looking for data files / fonts (this may take a while)" on each startup

This is not the normal behavior. See https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=793918

Gimp should rebuild the font cache only when the fonts are added to/removed from the system.

A possible workaround:
  • Navigate to C:\users\{your id}\AppData\local\fontconfig\cache
  • There should be four files:
    • CACHEDIR.TAG
    • someverylongname (usually 1MB or more)
    • someverylongname.NEW (usually 1MB or more, slightly bigger that the one above if you added fonts)
    • someotherverylongname (small: 1K)
  • rename someverylongname to someverylongname.OLD
  • rename someverylongname.NEW to someverylongname
  • restart Gimp which should no longer rebuild the font cache

If this works for you please confirm below.

This worked for me too.  Startup is virtually instantaneous now.   Thanks!
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Ofnuts Offline
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#7
05-14-2018, 08:03 PM
(05-14-2018, 12:21 AM)cousinit99 Wrote: This worked for me too.  Startup is virtually instantaneous now.   Thanks!

On 2.8 or 2.10? It seems the problem also exists on 2.10...
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StephenW Offline
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#8
05-21-2018, 05:28 PM
(02-28-2018, 03:15 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: A possible workaround:
  • Navigate to C:\users\{your id}\AppData\local\fontconfig\cache
  • There should be four files:
    • CACHEDIR.TAG
    • someverylongname (usually 1MB or more)
    • someverylongname.NEW (usually 1MB or more, slightly bigger that the one above if you added fonts)
    • someotherverylongname (small: 1K)
  • rename someverylongname to someverylongname.OLD
  • rename someverylongname.NEW to someverylongname
  • restart Gimp which should no longer rebuild the font cache

If this works for you please confirm below.

This worked for me as well. Using Gimp 2.8x, it was taking several minutes to start. Since it was taking to long to open I was becoming very discouraged with using Gimp. I was beginning to look for some other program that I would use for quick little edits. After making your suggested changes the first startup went to about 15 seconds and the following startups went to about 4 seconds. I am greatly encouraged and am looking forward to using it more! Ofnuts, thank you so much for showing how to improve my experience of Gimp. 

After first reading this message I saw that Gimp 2.10.2 was available. So, I downloaded and installed the new version. When it first opened it took about 20 seconds to open. The following startups took about 5 or 6 seconds. After installing Gimp 2.10.2 I did not make any of your suggested changes, but it still opened up quickly. Out of curiosity, I looked in the cache folder where I changed the names of the someverylongname files and they had remained unchanged after the installation of Gimp 2.10.2. 

Anyway, it looks the developers have changed the appearance of the new version of Gimp a lot.

Best Wishes
Stephen
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Espermaschine Offline
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#9
05-21-2018, 08:19 PM (This post was last modified: 05-21-2018, 08:19 PM by Espermaschine.)
I tried to look into this (win7), but found 250+ files in my cache, two of them with a NEW ending.
Tried deleting the cache and after restarting Gimp i found three new files, all ending with cache-7.

Is this expected behaviour ?
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Espermaschine Offline
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#10
07-05-2018, 03:54 AM
I tried ofnuts method, with the help of Kevin's post and now the problem is fixed. Nice !

Before Gimp 2.8 searched minutes for new fonts evry time i started the program, although nothing new was installed.
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