[Matplotlib-users] Inconsistent font handling in axis labels

[Daniele N. <da...@gr...>]

Hello,

I would like to create PDFs of plot using the Helvetica font in the
Light variant. In my old Mac OS X installation I somehow achieved this,
I don't remember exactly how, but probably with an ugly hack that
involved making matplotlib aware only of this variant of the font. In my
new Mac OS X install I would like to solve this more properly.

I have Mac OS X 10.9 and I installed matplotlib 1.3.1 via Mac Ports.

I also installed "fondu" to and I converted the Helvetica.dfont bundle
into TTF fonts that I places into the mpl-data folder. I deleted the
matplotlib font cache file and modified my matplotlibrc configuration
file like this:

  font.family: sans-serif
  font.sans-serif: Helvetica
  font.weight: light

The effect is that the plot title, legend, and tick mark labels are
correctly rendered in Helvetica Light, while axis labels are rendered in
Helvetica Regular.

I'm I missing something or there is a problem in matplotlib for which
the weight font attribute is not respected for axis labels?

Thanks. Cheers,
Daniele