Until a few weeks ago, Emacs crashed when passed a non-existent font/fontset, like emacs -Q -fn "-*-nonexistent" Now it does not crash, but I'm still getting a weird effect (as witnessed in the font log below, and the attached image). AFAICS, Emacs is selecting fonts (Estrangelo Edessa, Gautami, Latha, Mangal, etc.) that do not have Latin characters. In the case shown in the image, Emacs displays Latin characters using U+072C SIRIAC LETTER TAW (glyph #x9A) of the following font -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-13-*-*-*-p-*-iso10646-1 If I remove Estrangelo Edessa from my system, Emacs chooses the Gautami font (though in that case it uses more than one glyph to display latin characters). Juanma uniscribe-list: -*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Gautami-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Latha-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Mangal-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-MV Boli-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Raavi-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Shruti-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Tunga-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent w32font-list: -*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Gautami-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Latha-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Mangal-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-MV Boli-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Raavi-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Shruti-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Tunga-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Gautami-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Latha-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Mangal-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-MV Boli-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Raavi-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Shruti-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Tunga-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Gautami-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Latha-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Mangal-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-MV Boli-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Raavi-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Shruti-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Tunga-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -*-normal-normal-normal-*-16-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent open: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe-list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-*-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent w32font-list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-*-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-*-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-italic-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent open: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Gautami-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Latha-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Mangal-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-MV Boli-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Raavi-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Shruti-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Tunga-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Gautami-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Latha-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Mangal-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-MV Boli-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Raavi-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Shruti-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Tunga-normal-normal-normal-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -*-unspecified-unspecified-unspecified-*-428567-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent open: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-428567-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-*-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-light-normal-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-*-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-light-normal-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-*-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-bold-normal-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent list: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-*-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent sort-by: -outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-italic-normal-script-16-*-p-*-nonexistent uniscribe:-outline-Estrangelo Edessa-normal-normal-normal-script-*-p-*-nonexistent