Text shown as question marks on MacOS *Sequoia*

[Eric Pettersen]

The following bug report has been submitted:
Platform:        macOS-15.7.3-arm64-arm-64bit
ChimeraX Version: 1.12.dev202601132346 (2026-01-13 23:46:05 UTC)
Description
Log is all question marks

Log:
UCSF ChimeraX version: 1.12.dev202601132346 (2026-01-13)  
© 2016-2026 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.  
How to cite UCSF ChimeraX  

> open 5tal

5tal title:  
Structure of rabbit RyR1 (Caffeine/ATP/Ca2+ dataset, class 1&2) [more info...]  
  
Chain information for 5tal #1  
---  
Chain | Description | UniProt  
A F H J | Peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase FKBP1B | FKB1B_HUMAN 0-107  
B E G I | Ryanodine receptor 1 | RYR1_RABIT 12-1275 1573-2479 2734-2939 3639-4253 4541-5037  
  
Non-standard residues in 5tal #1  
---  
ATP — adenosine-5'-triphosphate  
CA — calcium ion  
CFF — caffeine (3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione)  
ZN — zinc ion  
  
76 atoms have anisotropic B-factors. Depict anisotropic information with
Thermal Ellipsoids [start tool...] or the aniso command.  




OpenGL version: 4.1 Metal - 89.4
OpenGL renderer: Apple M3
OpenGL vendor: Apple

Python: 3.11.9
Locale: en_US.UTF-8
Qt version: PyQt6 6.9.1, Qt 6.9.0
Qt runtime version: 6.9.2
Qt platform: cocoa
Hardware:

    Hardware Overview:

      Model Name: iMac
      Model Identifier: Mac15,5
      Model Number: Z19K0011DLL/A
      Chip: Apple M3
      Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 performance and 4 efficiency)
      Memory: 16 GB
      System Firmware Version: 13822.61.10
      OS Loader Version: 11881.140.96

Software:

    System Software Overview:

      System Version: macOS 15.7.3 (24G419)
      Kernel Version: Darwin 24.6.0
      Time since boot: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Graphics/Displays:

    Apple M3:

      Chipset Model: Apple M3
      Type: GPU
      Bus: Built-In
      Total Number of Cores: 10
      Vendor: Apple (0x106b)
      Metal Support: Metal 3
      Displays:
        iMac:
          Display Type: Built-In Retina LCD
          Resolution: Retina 4.5K (4480 x 2520)
          Main Display: Yes
          Mirror: Off
          Online: Yes
          Automatically Adjust Brightness: Yes
          Connection Type: Internal


Installed Packages:
    aiohappyeyeballs: 2.6.1
    aiohttp: 3.13.1
    aiosignal: 1.4.0
    alabaster: 1.0.0
    annotated-types: 0.7.0
    anyio: 4.11.0
    appdirs: 1.4.4
    appnope: 0.1.4
    asttokens: 3.0.0
    attrs: 25.4.0
    babel: 2.17.0
    beautifulsoup4: 4.13.5
    blockdiag: 3.0.0
    blosc2: 3.11.0
    build: 1.3.0
    certifi: 2025.8.3
    cftime: 1.6.5
    charset-normalizer: 3.4.4
    ChimeraX-AddCharge: 1.5.20
    ChimeraX-AddH: 2.2.8
    ChimeraX-AlignmentAlgorithms: 2.0.2
    ChimeraX-AlignmentHdrs: 3.6.1
    ChimeraX-AlignmentMatrices: 2.1
    ChimeraX-Alignments: 3.1.1
    ChimeraX-AlphaFold: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-AltlocExplorer: 1.2
    ChimeraX-AmberInfo: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Animations: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Aniso: 1.3.2
    ChimeraX-Arrays: 1.1
    ChimeraX-Atomic: 1.63.0
    ChimeraX-AtomicLibrary: 14.2.2
    ChimeraX-AtomSearch: 2.0.1
    ChimeraX-AxesPlanes: 2.4
    ChimeraX-BasicActions: 1.1.3
    ChimeraX-BILD: 1.0
    ChimeraX-BlastProtein: 3.0.0
    ChimeraX-Boltz: 1.1
    ChimeraX-BondRot: 2.0.4
    ChimeraX-BugReporter: 1.0.2
    ChimeraX-BuildStructure: 2.13.1
    ChimeraX-Bumps: 1.0
    ChimeraX-BundleBuilder: 1.6.0
    ChimeraX-ButtonPanel: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-CageBuilder: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-CellPack: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Centroids: 1.4
    ChimeraX-ChangeChains: 1.1
    ChimeraX-CheckWaters: 1.5
    ChimeraX-ChemGroup: 2.0.2
    ChimeraX-Clashes: 2.3
    ChimeraX-Cluster: 1.0
    ChimeraX-ColorActions: 1.0.5
    ChimeraX-ColorGlobe: 1.0
    ChimeraX-ColorKey: 1.5.8
    ChimeraX-CommandLine: 1.3.1
    ChimeraX-ConnectStructure: 2.0.1
    ChimeraX-Contacts: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Core: 1.12.dev202601132346
    ChimeraX-CoreFormats: 1.2
    ChimeraX-coulombic: 1.4.5
    ChimeraX-Crosslinks: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Crystal: 1.0
    ChimeraX-CrystalContacts: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-DataFormats: 1.2.4
    ChimeraX-Dicom: 1.2.7
    ChimeraX-DistMonitor: 1.4.2
    ChimeraX-DockPrep: 1.1.4
    ChimeraX-Dssp: 2.0
    ChimeraX-EMDB-SFF: 1.0
    ChimeraX-ESMFold: 1.0
    ChimeraX-FileHistory: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-FunctionKey: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Gamepad: 0.3.0
    ChimeraX-Geometry: 1.3
    ChimeraX-gltf: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Graphics: 1.4.1
    ChimeraX-Hbonds: 2.5.3
    ChimeraX-Help: 1.3
    ChimeraX-HKCage: 1.3
    ChimeraX-IHM: 1.1
    ChimeraX-ImageFormats: 1.2
    ChimeraX-IMOD: 1.0
    ChimeraX-IO: 1.0.4
    ChimeraX-ItemsInspection: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-IUPAC: 1.0
    ChimeraX-KVFinder: 1.8
    ChimeraX-Label: 1.2
    ChimeraX-ListInfo: 1.3.1
    ChimeraX-Log: 1.2.2
    ChimeraX-LookingGlass: 1.1
    ChimeraX-Maestro: 1.9.2
    ChimeraX-Map: 1.3
    ChimeraX-MapData: 2.0
    ChimeraX-MapEraser: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-MapFilter: 2.0.1
    ChimeraX-MapFit: 2.0
    ChimeraX-MapSeries: 2.1.1
    ChimeraX-Markers: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Mask: 1.0.2
    ChimeraX-MatchMaker: 2.2.2
    ChimeraX-MCopy: 1.0
    ChimeraX-MCPServer: 0.1.0
    ChimeraX-MDcrds: 2.17.2
    ChimeraX-MedicalToolbar: 1.1
    ChimeraX-Meeting: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Minimize: 1.3.3
    ChimeraX-MLP: 1.1.1
    ChimeraX-mmCIF: 2.16
    ChimeraX-MMTF: 2.2
    ChimeraX-ModelArchive: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Modeller: 1.5.22
    ChimeraX-ModelPanel: 1.6
    ChimeraX-ModelSeries: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Mol2: 2.0.3
    ChimeraX-Mole: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Morph: 1.0.2
    ChimeraX-MouseModes: 1.2
    ChimeraX-Movie: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-MutationScores: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Neuron: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Nifti: 1.2
    ChimeraX-NMRSTAR: 1.0.2
    ChimeraX-NRRD: 1.2
    ChimeraX-Nucleotides: 2.0.3
    ChimeraX-OpenCommand: 1.15.2
    ChimeraX-OrthoPick: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-PDB: 2.7.11
    ChimeraX-PDBBio: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-PDBLibrary: 1.0.5
    ChimeraX-PDBMatrices: 1.0
    ChimeraX-PhenixUI: 1.4.9
    ChimeraX-PickBlobs: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Positions: 1.0
    ChimeraX-PresetMgr: 1.1.4
    ChimeraX-ProfileGrids: 1.4.2
    ChimeraX-PubChem: 2.2
    ChimeraX-ReadPbonds: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Registration: 1.1.2
    ChimeraX-RemoteControl: 1.0
    ChimeraX-RenderByAttr: 1.6.5
    ChimeraX-RenumberResidues: 1.1
    ChimeraX-ResidueFit: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-RestServer: 1.3.3
    ChimeraX-RNALayout: 1.0
    ChimeraX-RotamerLibMgr: 4.0
    ChimeraX-RotamerLibsDunbrack: 2.0
    ChimeraX-RotamerLibsDynameomics: 2.0
    ChimeraX-RotamerLibsRichardson: 2.0
    ChimeraX-SaveCommand: 1.5.2
    ChimeraX-Scenes: 0.3.1
    ChimeraX-SchemeMgr: 1.0
    ChimeraX-SDF: 2.0.3
    ChimeraX-Segger: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Segment: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Segmentations: 3.5.10
    ChimeraX-SelInspector: 1.0
    ChimeraX-SeqView: 2.17.4
    ChimeraX-Shape: 1.1
    ChimeraX-Shell: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Shortcuts: 1.2.1
    ChimeraX-ShowSequences: 1.0.3
    ChimeraX-SideView: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-SimilarStructures: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Smiles: 2.1.2
    ChimeraX-SmoothLines: 1.0
    ChimeraX-SpaceNavigator: 1.0
    ChimeraX-StdCommands: 1.19.1
    ChimeraX-STL: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Storm: 1.0
    ChimeraX-StructMeasure: 1.2.1
    ChimeraX-Struts: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-Surface: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-SwapAA: 2.0.1
    ChimeraX-SwapRes: 2.5.2
    ChimeraX-TapeMeasure: 1.0
    ChimeraX-TaskManager: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Test: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Toolbar: 1.2.3
    ChimeraX-ToolshedUtils: 1.2.4
    ChimeraX-Topography: 1.0
    ChimeraX-ToQuest: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Tug: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-UI: 1.50
    ChimeraX-Umap: 1.0
    ChimeraX-uniprot: 2.3.2
    ChimeraX-UnitCell: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-ViewDock: 1.5.2
    ChimeraX-VIPERdb: 1.0
    ChimeraX-Vive: 1.1
    ChimeraX-VolumeMenu: 1.0.1
    ChimeraX-vrml: 1.0
    ChimeraX-VTK: 1.0
    ChimeraX-WavefrontOBJ: 1.0
    ChimeraX-WebCam: 1.0.2
    ChimeraX-WebServices: 1.1.5
    ChimeraX-Zone: 1.0.1
    click: 8.3.0
    colorama: 0.4.6
    comm: 0.2.3
    contourpy: 1.3.3
    coverage: 7.11.3
    cxservices: 1.2.3
    cycler: 0.12.1
    Cython: 3.1.4
    debugpy: 1.8.17
    decorator: 5.2.1
    docutils: 0.21.2
    executing: 2.2.1
    filelock: 3.19.1
    fonttools: 4.60.1
    frozenlist: 1.8.0
    funcparserlib: 2.0.0a0
    glfw: 2.10.0
    grako: 3.16.5
    h11: 0.16.0
    h5py: 3.15.1
    html2text: 2025.4.15
    httpcore: 1.0.9
    httpx: 0.28.1
    httpx-sse: 0.4.3
    idna: 3.11
    ihm: 2.2
    imagecodecs: 2024.6.1
    imagesize: 1.4.1
    iniconfig: 2.3.0
    ipykernel: 7.1.0
    ipython: 9.9.0
    ipython_pygments_lexers: 1.1.1
    ipywidgets: 8.1.8
    jedi: 0.19.2
    Jinja2: 3.1.6
    jsonschema: 4.25.1
    jsonschema-specifications: 2025.9.1
    jupyter_client: 8.8.0
    jupyter_core: 5.9.1
    jupyterlab_widgets: 3.0.16
    kiwisolver: 1.4.9
    line_profiler: 5.0.0
    lxml: 6.0.2
    lz4: 4.3.2
    Markdown: 3.8.2
    MarkupSafe: 3.0.3
    matplotlib: 3.10.7
    matplotlib-inline: 0.2.1
    mcp: 1.18.0
    msgpack: 1.1.1
    multidict: 6.7.0
    narwhals: 2.15.0
    ndindex: 1.10.0
    nest-asyncio: 1.6.0
    netCDF4: 1.6.5
    networkx: 3.3
    nibabel: 5.2.0
    nptyping: 2.5.0
    numexpr: 2.14.1
    numpy: 2.4.1
    numpy: 1.26.4
    OpenMM: 8.4.0
    openvr: 1.26.701
    packaging: 25.0
    ParmEd: 4.2.2
    parso: 0.8.5
    pep517: 0.13.1
    pexpect: 4.9.0
    pickleshare: 0.7.5
    pillow: 11.3.0
    pip: 25.2
    pkginfo: 1.12.1.2
    platformdirs: 4.5.0
    plotly: 6.5.2
    pluggy: 1.6.0
    prompt_toolkit: 3.0.52
    propcache: 0.4.1
    psutil: 7.0.0
    ptyprocess: 0.7.0
    pure_eval: 0.2.3
    py-cpuinfo: 9.0.0
    pybind11: 3.0.1
    pycollada: 0.8
    pydantic: 2.12.4
    pydantic-settings: 2.12.0
    pydantic_core: 2.41.5
    pydicom: 2.4.4
    Pygments: 2.18.0
    pyKVFinder: 0.8.4
    pynmrstar: 3.3.6
    pynrrd: 1.0.0
    PyOpenGL: 3.1.10
    PyOpenGL-accelerate: 3.1.10
    pyopenxr: 1.1.4501
    pyparsing: 3.2.5
    pyproject_hooks: 1.2.0
    PyQt6: 6.10.2
    PyQt6: 6.9.1
    PyQt6-Qt6: 6.10.1
    PyQt6-Qt6: 6.9.2
    PyQt6-WebEngine: 6.10.0
    PyQt6-WebEngine: 6.9.0
    PyQt6-WebEngine-Qt6: 6.10.1
    PyQt6-WebEngine-Qt6: 6.9.2
    PyQt6_sip: 13.10.3
    PyQt6_sip: 13.10.2
    PySDL2: 0.9.17
    pytest: 9.0.1
    pytest-cov: 7.0.0
    python-dateutil: 2.9.0.post0
    python-dotenv: 1.2.1
    python-multipart: 0.0.20
    pytz: 2025.2
    pyzmq: 27.1.0
    qtconsole: 5.7.0
    QtPy: 2.4.3
    qtshim: 1.2
    RandomWords: 0.4.0
    referencing: 0.37.0
    requests: 2.32.5
    roman-numerals: 4.1.0
    roman-numerals-py: 3.1.0
    rpds-py: 0.28.0
    scipy: 1.14.0
    setuptools: 80.9.0
    sfftk-rw: 0.8.1
    six: 1.17.0
    sniffio: 1.3.1
    snowballstemmer: 3.0.1
    sortedcontainers: 2.4.0
    soupsieve: 2.8
    Sphinx: 9.0.4
    sphinx-autodoc-typehints: 3.6.1
    sphinxcontrib-applehelp: 2.0.0
    sphinxcontrib-blockdiag: 3.0.0
    sphinxcontrib-devhelp: 2.0.0
    sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp: 2.1.0
    sphinxcontrib-jsmath: 1.0.1
    sphinxcontrib-qthelp: 2.0.0
    sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml: 2.0.0
    sse-starlette: 3.0.3
    stack-data: 0.6.3
    starlette: 0.50.0
    superqt: 0.7.6
    tables: 3.10.2
    tcia_utils: 1.5.1
    tifffile: 2025.3.13
    tinyarray: 1.2.5
    tomlkit: 0.13.3
    tornado: 6.5.2
    traitlets: 5.14.3
    typing-inspection: 0.4.2
    typing_extensions: 4.15.0
    tzdata: 2025.2
    urllib3: 2.5.0
    uvicorn: 0.38.0
    wcwidth: 0.2.14
    webcolors: 24.11.1
    wheel: 0.45.1
    wheel-filename: 1.4.2
    widgetsnbextension: 4.0.15
    yarl: 1.22.0

[Eric Pettersen]

I upgraded to the latest version of *Sequoia* (15.7.3) and got the same log-is-question-marks behavior that other people are reporting on Tahoe. Elaine is at the same version on her laptop and the log is fine.

I'm going to reset my fonts and see if that fixes it.

[Eric Pettersen]

Resetting fonts did fix the problem.

[Tom Goddard]

This has been reported a couple times and appears to be a Qt bug where it uses a "Times New Roman" font which is in your font path but is not the Mac system font, instead a font installed by some other application (e.g. Microsoft Word), and apparently that font trips Qt up, probably Qt is making some assumptions about the font that are not valid.

[Tom Goddard]

Details from previous report #19549