How to fix ugly emojis on social networks in Linux

[rado84]

For quite some time I had noticed that sometimes (for unknown reasons) the emojis on different social networks suddenly appear as ugly monochrome icons. Eventually I got sick of the ugliness and did some digging on how to fix it. Then using the principle "trial and error" I found a way to fix them - for all browsers in Linux.

1. Download this archive

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12OWjPvUSZE9aJNEAACqK75vlr2yDeinN/view?usp=sharing

and unpack it in your home directory. In my case it's /home/rado, in your case will be /home/[something-else].
2. Close all open browsers. Or kill their processes, if necessary.
3. Using your file manager enter ~/.fonts and open the file named "flush fonts cache". There's a terminal command inside the file to copy and paste in terminal. Hit enter and wait for the task to finish. Then close the terminal.
I've put the command in a file on purpose, so that if I ever forget what the command was, it would be easy for me to find it.

Now you can open your favorite browser and resume what you were doing.


This is what your emojis will look like:

 

[stan]

Then using the principle "trial and error" I found a way to fix them - for all browsers in Linux.

A nice tip, @rado84! However, it may not work in all Linux. I'm using Ubuntu-based Zorin OS, and I do not have a ~/.fonts folder, so everything else is moot. Not to worry for me as I don't use social networks anyway, but others may be disappointed.

Also, a Catfish search of my home folder finds no file at all named "flush fonts cache" or "flushfontscache" or "flush_fonts_cache".... so perhaps you have installed some app that provides these things for you, or else it may be due to our different Linux distributions.

Plus, it would be rare for me to download anything from some random Google Drive storage location. I do tend to be paranoid when it comes to things like that.

 

[Tolkem]

For quite some time I had noticed that sometimes (for unknown reasons) the emojis on different social networks suddenly appear as ugly monochrome icons

I don't have this problem. Do you have ibus pkg installed? Check with

pacman -Qs ibus

if not install, install with

sudo pacman -S ibus

You might want to read here too https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/579933/what-happened-to-the-emoji-picker-from-linux-mint-19

 

[rado84]

Apparently from now on when I find something interesting or a fix for a problem, I'll keep it to myself and I won't share it bc there's always someone crying about this and that.

 

[Tolkem]

Apparently from now on when I find something interesting or a fix for a problem, I'll keep it to myself and I won't share it bc there's always someone crying about this and that.

That's not true and totally unfair. I was merely pointing something that might or might not be the cause of the problem. Again, I've never had this problem, so implying that it is a "Linux general" problem is not accurate nor 100% true. Please, don't take this personal because it isn't, at least not for me.

 

[stan]

That's not true and totally unfair. I was merely pointing something...

As was I. There's nothing wrong with learning that you have made a mistake. I make 'em all the time... it's called experience. And it makes us stronger.

Please, don't take this personal because it isn't, at least not for me.

Nor me.

 

[KGIII]

Apparently from now on when I find something interesting or a fix for a problem, I'll keep it to myself and I won't share it bc there's always someone crying about this and that.

I wanted to acknowledge your post - but I didn't feel comfortable clicking 'like', 'cause I don't actually like the idea that you'd keep it to yourself.

Let's just say I can relate. Every other day, I share an article that I wrote. A goodly percentage of the time, the feedback comes from people who didn't even read the entire article - in some cases they'd not read it at all.

Someone's always going to kvetch, but I assume they mean well. It takes a thick skin, but I love the feedback I get on these articles - even from people who didn't read it. I don't take it personal, or at least I try not to. I just keep doing my thing, because I set out to do my thing and I'm going to keep doing my thing until I'm done doing my thing.

So, maybe by sharing my experience... You get the idea. Anyhow...

Once in a while, someone says thanks. That feels nice when they do, so thanks for contributing. Really, thanks.

 

[stan]

there's always someone crying about this and that

My first words were complimentary to you... "A nice tip, @rado84!" Because it is indeed a nice tip. It is just not as generic and all-encompassing as you thought it was. Don't confuse "crying" with "criticism." We all critique each other here... all the time. No matter how much any of us knows, we can still grow and learn more too... and so can you. Maybe @Tolkem's comments would have helped you. Keep your mind open. Each of us is here to learn, or to teach, or both.

 

[KGIII]

@stan's last comment reminds me of something else that I probably should have added.

Like more eyes on the source code, the feedback I get makes my articles better.

So, as I was saying above, maybe there's something from my perspective that will help you get through this without feeling like you need to shut down or making you feel less comfortable sharing in the future.

 

[rado84]

from people who didn't even read the entire article - in some cases they'd not read it at all.

Like stan. If he had bothered to read what I wrote, he would have realized 2 things:
1. Normally there's no /.fonts folder in the home dir, that's why the archive I gave link to contains that folder and when it's unpacked in the home dir, /.fonts will be created.
2. The file I was talking about (flush font cache) is inside the unpacked /.fonts folder. It's in that folder because I created it there, it didn't come by any application! I've put it there, so in case I ever need it again, I'll know where it is, instead of wasting time in Googling for that command.

Normally when I don't have the described problem in any topic, I don't comment it. And I certainly don't show any distrust to the author bc he or she decided to save you the time by putting all the files in an archive.
When I share something, I do it with the idea that if someone has come across the given problem, my topic might help them bc that's me IRL too - if I can help someone in any way, I will. I don't share things for the thanks or for the likes. But apparently some people feel it's their duty to stop you from sharing any useful knowledge you might have. And I have never in my life (since I knew what a computer was in 1994) put malicious software in package as a bait but I was just accused of that - by the same person who didn't even bother read and understand my post. That's why I lost my... enthusiasm to share anything in the future.

 

[stan]

Like stan. If he had bothered to read what I wrote, he would have realized 2 things:
1. Normally there's no /.fonts folder in the home dir, that's why the archive I gave link to contains that folder and when it's unpacked in the home dir, /.fonts will be created.
2. The file I was talking about (flush font cache) is inside the unpacked /.fonts folder. It's in that folder because I created it there, it didn't come by any application! I've put it there, so in case I ever need it again, I'll know where it is, instead of wasting time in Googling for that command.

Fair enough rado, and I apologize to you. I misinterpreted the Google Drive storage to simply be the collection of emoji's. My mistake.

Yes, indeed, I do make mistakes. Not my first one, and it won't be my last.

 

[JasKinasis]

You can add a personal fonts directory in your home directory by simply adding a directory called .fonts and then copying some fonts into it.

Many applications that use fonts search in the users .fonts directory (if it exists) when they start up. So if a .fonts directory exists in the users home directory, I think any additional user fonts will typically be automatically detected and added. I’m pretty certain it works for things like gimp, libreoffice, Inkscape and scribus, where you use fonts to create content.
And also browsers that display content using fonts like Firefox and Chrome.

I could be wrong on that though. I haven’t messed around with fonts for a while! But I seem to recall doing something a few years ago where I needed a couple of Adobe fonts for a graphical/art project I was working on for a friend. They sent me the fonts and I just put them in a .fonts directory and then fired up gimp and used them straight away, without having to manually flush the font-cache! After finishing the project, I backed up the .fonts directory and removed it. Next time I started gimp, the fonts weren’t there.... simple!

However, as I get older my memory seems to be slowly turning into Swiss cheese..... Full of holes! Pretty certain no caches were harmed though!! Ha ha!

 

[rado84]

Fair enough rado, and I apologize to you. I misinterpreted the Google Drive storage to simply be the collection of emoji's. My mistake.

Yes, indeed, I do make mistakes. Not my first one, and it won't be my last.

Apology accepted, though the bad feeling remains and I'm not yet sure whether I'll share anything in the future.
The Google Drive storage IN A WAY IS a collection, just not in the way you think. It's my personal backup storage where I upload things to share or to store, if they're rare enough (such as my 3+ GB collection of images and videos of Melissa Benoist). The archive I posted a link to in the first post contains a font file, only this font file doesn't contain letters and numbers, it contains the emojis. Some social networks use their own emojis, others (such as Instagram) look for the emojis in certain local folders and when they're missing, instagram displays ugly monochrome icons instead of emojis. In order to spare you the boring details and save you the time of doing everything manually, I put everything in one archive and posted the link to it with a short explanation how to make the emojis work.

 

[KGIII]

That's why I lost my... enthusiasm to share anything in the future.

Well, I hope you find it again.

 

[Tolkem]

But apparently some people feel it's their duty to stop you from sharing any useful knowledge you might have.

No one is stopping you from sharing anything, you can share all you want, we all do, we all get often corrected when wrong too and that's fine. Thing is, you wrote "For quite some time I had noticed that sometimes (for unknown reasons) the emojis on different social networks suddenly appear as ugly monochrome icons" and implying this is a Linux issue, and it's not, like I said, I've never had this problem, it might only happen in your end. You might've added to your post "for those facing this situation, this how I solved it and I share it with you". Did you check the ibus pkg is installed in your system? Because that pkg is in part responsible for making this kind of things available in keyboards. Did you read the link I shared? Because it refers to emoji problems in Cinnamon desktop. Anyways, I was simply complementing your post. We're here to help, I don't know if people want the likes or whatever and I don't really care if they do, otherwise I've spent my time in social media instead of dealing with other people's computer problem only to get "liked", com'on, for real? Enjoy the open source with an open mind; community builds community.

 

[rado84]

....

I read your link but I don't want emojis on the keyboad, so I didn't install it.
As for the quoted part, I was referring to stan, not to you.