Anki UI buttons displaying incorrect/bold “Impact-like” font (macOS)

Anki Help
1

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing a UI issue in Anki where several interface buttons (e.g. Review, Add, Import Deck, etc.) are displayed in a font that looks similar to Impact or a very bold/incorrect fallback font instead of the normal UI font.

This affects the readability and overall interface appearance.

Anki version: Version ⁨26.05 (e64c6b1a)⁩ Python 3.13.11 Qt 6.11.0 Chromium 140
Operating system: macOS Tahoe 26.5
Device: Mac M1 2020

Problem description:
The UI text for buttons such as Review, Add, and Import Deck is rendered in an unusual bold font (similar to Impact or a fallback font). The rest of the interface is mostly normal, but these elements appear visually broken.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open Anki
  2. Go to the main screen
  3. Observe the toolbar / main buttons

What I already tried:

  • Changed video driver / rendering settings
  • Reinstalled Anki completely
  • Disabled all add-ons
  • Restarted the system
  • Checked system font settings (no changes solved the issue)

Additional notes:
The issue persists even after a clean reinstall, so it seems related to UI rendering or font fallback behavior rather than add-ons or local configuration.

If anyone has seen this before or knows a fix, I’d really appreciate the help.

2

Have you always seen this problem when using Anki on your Mac, or did the problem begin after a recent Anki or OS update?

Each time you change the video driver setting (in Anki > Preferences), you must quit and restart the Anki app. Could you please confirm, when you tested changing video driver settings, did you perform this quit-and-restart step?

What video driver setting are you using currently?

I note that your operating system is not up-to-date. Have you considered updating your OS to the latest version, Tahoe 26.5.2? I don’t know whether doing so might affect the UI issue, but because the update contains important security fixes, I highly recommend updating the OS.

(I am not able to reproduce this behavior, using almost the same configuration of hardware and software: Anki 26.05, macOS Tahoe 26.5.2, M1 Mac mini 2020.)

3

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Yes, I can confirm the issue persists even after updating macOS to the latest version (Tahoe 26.5.2). The behavior did not change after the OS update.

Regarding your questions:

  • I have the Metal (default) video driver on, but it presents also with the other 2 drivers even after quitting and restarting the app.
  • I did perform a full quit and restart of Anki each time I changed the video driver setting (I made sure Anki was completely closed, not just minimized).
  • Currently, I have tried all available video driver options in Anki Preferences (Auto / OpenGL / Software, etc.), but the issue persists across all of them.
  • I have noticed this problem only in the last two Anki updates. Before that, the UI looked normal.

So far, the problem seems specific to recent Anki versions rather than macOS, since:

  • It appeared only after updating Anki
  • It persists after OS update and clean reinstall
  • It is independent of video driver selection and restart cycles
  • All add-ons were disabled during testing

Let me know if there’s any additional log or debug information I can provide that would help narrow it down.

4

Thank you for that information.

(FYI, I am using the “Metal (default)” video driver setting in Anki, for the configuration where I am not seeing the issue.)

I’m not sure what the issue might be or how it might be fixed. At this point I’m just thinking of possible things to try:

  • Possibly try restoring the fonts on your Mac using the Font Book app. (Restoring fonts has fixed Mac Anki app font issues in the past: 1, 2.)

  • Possibly try clearing the font caches via sudo atsutil databases -remove, followed by restarting the Mac to have the caches rebuilt. (I just tested this procedure on my Mac, to make sure the command worked and that my Mac seemed to work normally afterwards, with no ill effects.)

  • Possibly try creating a new user account on your Mac, logging in as the new user, and running Anki to see if the problem is still seen. (This test doesn’t really tell us much, but if the problem is not seen with the new user, that might be an interesting data point.)

  • Possibly try downgrading to different older versions of Anki (like 25.09, 25.02.7, 24.11, or the specific versions you were using previously, if you remember what they were) to see if it can be determined in which version the issue first starts appearing.

    • If you do this, I would recommend removing the existing Anki installations entirely each time (via deleting /Applications/Anki.app and the ~/Library/Application Support/AnkiProgramFiles directory if it exists) before re-installing Anki from scratch.
    • If the problem is now seen with all older versions of Anki, even the ones you previously used with no problem, that might suggest that the problem is elsewhere, not with Anki.