Hi Ian Have you really rendered the font? I just checked with my application and everything works as expected when changing the font via font name. (Gtk+ 2.4.1 et al). I'm using the following code: desc = pango_font_description_from_string(font_str); if (desc != NULL) { old_desc = pango_context_get_font_description (pango_layout_get_context(STATUS->text_layout)); if (!pango_font_description_equal(desc, old_desc)) { pango_context_set_font_description (pango_layout_get_context(STATUS->text_layout), desc); pango_layout_context_changed(STATUS->text_layout); } else { pango_font_description_free(desc); } } HTH Jan-Marek _______________________________________________ gtk-list@xxxxxxxxx http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gtk-list