Why is my output not aligned correctly on Stata for Unix?

Some Stata for Unix users may have output that is aligned incorrectly after commands. An example of this alignment problem is shown below.

 . sysuse auto, clear
 (1978 Automobile Data)

 . summarize make mpg price

     Variable |       Obs        Mean    Std. Dev.       Min        Max
 -------------+--------------------------------------------------------
       make   |         0
         mpg  |        74     21.2973    5.785503         12         41
     price    |        74    6165.257    2949.496       3291      15906

This problem can occur if the font alias that Stata requests does not exist on your system. By default, Stata requests the font “Fixed”, which typically points at the fixed-width font Monospace. We believe that this font looks better than Courier on many systems.

If this alias does not exist on a computer, the font-management library used by Stata may substitute a proportional-width font rather than a fixed-width font. This substitution will result in the misalignment shown above.

To fix this problem, do the following:

1. Right-click the Results window and select Font.
2. Change the font setting to a fixed-width font that exists on your system, e.g., Courier 10.