@nyamatongwe Being aware of this now its visible in lots of places, not just lines of the same character, but lines with the same text on successive lines which occurs often in normal code. Note that lines of the same character occur often in markup if not in code.
For example in `Platgtk.cxx` in `FontHandle()` constructor the three `pango_font_description...` calls the gaps between `n` and `t` and `e` and `s` appear wider or the constructors of `SurfaceImpl` show wider gaps between `r` and `f`. Because these pieces of code make a column the artefact is more intrusive.
Given that code and markup are the main use-case for Geany, setting `TRUE` seems to be the correct default, but its currently hard coded so #3111 (the less common use-case) will regress, maybe making it settable is the solution until something (a Pango change maybe) allows both #3111 and this issue to be fixed at the same time.