Can't import matplotlib.pyplot, IOError related to a font

Question

I recently installed the Anaconda distribution of Python. When I try to import matplotlib.pyplot, I receive a "Permission denied" error as the font manager tries to access one of the fonts on my computer.

Python 2.7.8 |Anaconda 2.1.0 (x86_64)| (default, Aug 21 2014, 15:21:46) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5577)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
Anaconda is brought to you by Continuum Analytics.
Please check out: http://continuum.io/thanks and https://binstar.org

>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 27, in <module>
import matplotlib.colorbar
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/colorbar.py", line 34, in <module>
import matplotlib.collections as collections
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/collections.py", line 27, in <module>
import matplotlib.backend_bases as backend_bases
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backend_bases.py", line 56, in <module>
import matplotlib.textpath as textpath
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/textpath.py", line 19, in <module>
import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1412, in <module>
_rebuild()
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1397, in _rebuild
fontManager = FontManager()
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 1052, in __init__
self.ttflist = createFontList(self.ttffiles)
File "/Users/lck/anaconda/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 579, in createFontList
font = ft2font.FT2Font(fpath)
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'/Library/Fonts/Finale Lyrics Italic.ttf'

How can I get matplotlib.pyplot to load and not stop at this "Permission denied" font error? I don't need any particular font (eg, I don't need to use "Finale Lyrics Italics" - any font is fine). Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

I have the same problem in Linux Mint 17.2. I do this in my terminal : sudo chmod 644 /my-fonts-path/*

For you, try : sudo chmod 644 /Library/Fonts/Finale/*

More information can be found here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1976037