When creating text not all fonts are available. Especially the symbol and music fonts. I found a remark concerning this subject but that applied to inkscape version 0.46 or lower. I use 0.48. Does anybody has a suggestion how I can load these fonts. I can find the fonts in openoffice.

Regards,

Arnold

So the problem gets solved faster...you might like to include a few more specifics about your setup, e.g. operating system, what kind of fonts are the missing fonts (ttf, otf, other).

I should have thought of that. I use windows 7, most recent updates, inkscape 0.48, I am missing several .ttf fonts and one .fon font, as far as I can see. Fonts I see in OpenOffice and miss in Inkscape are engraverfonts, finale, fixedsys, maestro, modern, petrucci. All of them .ttf except modern (.fon). Most of these fonts (finale, maestro, petrucci, I am not sure of the rest) are installed by Finale (music notation software). Some randomness appears to pop up. The maestro font is not seen, but The Maestro Times font is.

Hopes this helps

Thanks. So all those are additional fonts. From past experience and reading up some more on the web..seems that inkscape cares a bit more about the quality of the true type or opentype file itself, ie. if the font is poorly encoded into the relevant .ttf file, then inkscape will have issues. bitmap fonts are not supported afaik, like fixedsys.
you're bound to have 100% good fonts when you buy them from a font shop...but looks like quality can vary quite a lot otherwise. It all looks like the same thing to users (a .ttf file) but there's more to it. By the way, do make sure that the fonts are actually "installed" and not just copied to the fonts folder...apparently sometimes makes a difference.
if all else fails, find a suitable replacement font...i'm sort of into the technology but couldn't for the life of me recommend suitable alternatives (that don't entail cost.)
when i get a chance i'll download engraverfonts on my win7x64 box and see if inkscape picks them up.

argh...that all looks like fonts bundled in an expensive music software...and the demo version doesn't include many of the fonts.
hmm...maybe download a good font manager (typograf is a shareware one) that might at least show a clue as to the innards of the true type font files being of good quality or otherwise, and go from there.
as stated earlier, the bitmap fonts will not show up in inkscape at all.
ask the people for the music software as to further details about those fonts, they might be able to help.

Wow, thanks for all your trouble! I'll follow your suggestion and try to experiment with a font manager. The fonts are all music symbols. In the past MS did have a music font but that disappeared too. I just need good music symbols.

Come to think of it, is there workaround? I am thinking about typing the symbols in OpenOffice, capture the bitmap and next trace the bitmap with inkscape. In this case I do not need the music symbols but I do need the trace. Or do you think that unwise?

have a look around for other "open source music fonts" and try.
OR tracing your existing music fonts would work best in inkscape if you export your repertoire of characters as a pdf in a decent size. you should be able to trace the whole repertoire of the music symbols in one go and use the individual glyphs.
btw if you didn't already know (and I just recently re-discovered) inkscape allows you to setup guidelines...which would work great for music notation symbols to snap to, so you don't need to align individually. just create the guidelines in the same place as the staff lines. if that's what you're making.

I did trace one symbol already and I am pleasantly surprised by the potrace utility. I really get some nice paths. Good suggestion of tracing a pdf in one sweep. I found some license free fonts which I have to test. It is a good thing anyhow because I can use music symbols in my application now without worrying about licenses.

This guideline suggestion is a good one. I could make a score in Inkscape for illustration purposes and use the great inkscape filers.

Thanks for your time and suggestions!