Having tried for the first time in Cubase to create notation, I was (obviously) disappointed. Enter Dorico. Great.
I’m not much of a music person, but can someone please help me understand just what the heck is going on with the icons in the attached picture? I can’t even begin to use this software with it like this. I’ve spent 4 hours looking for answers.
This looks like your system font cache has messed up. Firstly try rebooting to see if that fixes it, otherwise try the steps listed here: How To Rebuild Font Cache in Windows 10
Were you disappointed with the results or was it too hard to use?
I fixed the problem. I uninstalled Dorico and installed Finale.
…to djw, I am a very long time Cubase user with a pro studio. I don’t think Cubase was ever intended to write scores via notation. I’ve seen it do an OK job of creating sheet music from MIDI parts, but writing with it was a disaster. Again, I don’t think that was what it was meant to do so I don’t fault it.
Did you even try following the instruction? The developer tries to help you personally and that’s how you act in return?
That didn’t answer my question, and just sounds like you didn’t try here either…
For what it’s worth, djw, I felt gitterson’s answer was really not appropriate. The kind we are definetely not used to in this forum.
What you did was buy yourself into a myriad of other problems, buddy. 
Well, I can see the point somewhat: If I installed a piece of software - any software - and the basic user interface was a complete mess, I would remove the software, too. I do understand that the underlying problem my not be 100% Dorico’s fault, but I’ve never seen something like this (read: to rely on fonts so much as to the extent that they can mess up the main user interface) anywhere else.
You would remove it after posting about your problem and getting a clear solution?
Well, as a previous long time user of Finale, (around 25 years or so) I can tell you categorically that this fonts mix-up after installing has and does happen with Finale and I have personal experience of this not to mention the times it was reported in the Finale forums over the years.
The solution is exactly as Paul offered you in his reply, a simple reboot of the computer after installing to reset fonts and everything is fine.
I have now switched completely over to Dorico and I have to say this ‘issue’ has not yet once happened here for me with Dorico and, if it did, I am confident that a simple reboot is all that would be needed.
Maybe after trying the most basic thing of rebooting a computer after a main install and correct fonts still had not been registered correctly on the system there may be a valid point. As far as we know this wasn’t done despite receiving a quick response with an easy potential solution from a team member.
For the record, Daniel has explained elsewhere on this forum that the reason icons depend on fonts is to avoid confusion where people are using SMUFL fonts that are not Bravura. SMUFL’s range of glyphs covers a whole host of oddities, some of which may be missing from non-standard fonts, and where a glyph is missing it’s helpful to see that in the user interface. That’s the theory, anyway.
Another reason Dorico uses glyphs from icons for its buttons etc. rather than bitmap graphics is that this is truly resolution-independent and can look good at any pixel density. With more and more computers on both Windows and macOS using displays with a high pixel density (known on macOS as Retina Display), this is a more future-proof way of designing a user interface. However, we’re still subject to the same old problems with font caching on Windows as every other application…
Fwiw this can happen on the mac too; I have also had font caching problems causing glyphs to disappear on toolbars.
…says the Windows apologist.
Of course it can happen on macOS too, and the issue can be compounded by the presence of duplicate fonts in any of the several different locations in which fonts can be installed on Mac, but it’s a more common occurrence on Windows, to be sure, not only with Dorico but with other software too.
Interesting, but not my experience with Windows.
I don’t think this has ever happened to me before, right back to Windows 3.1 in the 1990s, except for Dorico, where it happened 3 times since 1.1 was resleased - and the incidents didn’t have any obvious correlation with installing new software or fonts.
OTOH it might have been something to do with a major Windows 10 update. Since I’ve just got the next major update after that one, let’s wait and see it if happens again!
This happened to me once with Dorico. Reboot was all that was required to fix it.
But perhaps the installer could prompt the user to restart the computer. It seems quite a few people get caught by this.
I see the reason for doing that, but then it should be stable. As others have pointed out, I have never experienced anything like that in other software than Dorico.
And please find a solution where the user does not have to reboot the system. This feels so 1998…
I can’t imagine any reason why Dorico or any other software should force the OS to rebuild the font cache. Besides, the problem isn’t with Dorico per se, but with any operation that deals with installing or modifying font files.
Daniel,
On a slightly different tack: I just upgraded my Windows system to include a 40" 4K monitor so I can work on 17x11" scores at actual size. It works pretty well, but I wonder if there is some way (or can be in the future) where the icons in the sidebars (and the side bars themselves) can be adjustable so that I can reduce them to be the same size on the 3840x2160 pixel screen to be the same actual size they would be on a more conventional monitor. I can reduce the size of the work area to 100% but not the sidebars.
