Change Matplotlib's default font

I'm trying to change matplotlib's default font to Helvetica Neue. On my Mac with EPD/Canopy everything worked fine some time ago. Trying to do the same on ubuntu now and it's not working. This is what I did: Installed Helvetica Neue ``` $ fc-match 'Helvetica Neue':Light HelveticaNeue-Light.otf: "Helvetica Neue" "細體" ``` Converted the odt/dfont into ttf: ``` fondu -show HelveticaNeue.dfont ``` changed matplotlibrc to ``` $ cat ~/.config/matplotlib/matplotlibrc ... font.family: Helvetica Neue ``` I also tried with: ``` font.family: sans-serif font.sans-serif: Helvetica Neue ``` I removed the font cache ``` rm ~/.config/matplotlib/fontList.cache ``` But none of these steps are working for me. ``` $ python -c 'from matplotlib import pyplot as plt; plt.plot(1); plt.savefig("/tmp/test.png")' /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib-1.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1236: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['Helvetica Neue'] not found. Falling back to Bitstream Vera Sans ``` (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext])) Version is 1.3.0 ``` $ python -c 'import matplotlib; print matplotlib.__version__' 1.3.0 ``` I also tried moving the fonts to `~/.config/matplotlib/fonts/ttf` but it didn't work. EDIT: As suggested I tried selecting a specific font for a specific text. ``` import matplotlib as mpl mpl.use('Agg') import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager path = '/home/<myusername>/.fonts/HelveticaNeue.ttf' prop = font_manager.FontProperties(fname=path) prop.set_weight = 'light' mpl.rcParams['font.family'] = prop.get_name() mpl.rcParams['font.weight'] = 'light' fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.set_title('Text in a cool font', fontproperties=prop, size=40) plt.savefig('/tmp/test2.png') ``` But it makes no difference. ``` /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/matplotlib-1.3.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/matplotlib/font_manager.py:1236: UserWarning: findfont: Font family ['Helvetica Neue'] not found. Falling back to Bitstream Vera Sans ``` However I seem to experience this problem only with this Helvetica/Helvetica Neue font. (prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))