Hi,
I was asked to file an Issue here on github, although I'm not sure if the problem is not in front of my PC... .

from pylab import *
from math import sin
rc('text', usetex = False)
la = matplotlib.font_manager.FontManager()
lu = matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties(family = 'Heuristica')
print la.findfont(lu)
x = np.arange(0,5,0.1)
y = map(sin,x)
title('This is an unnecessary title', family = 'Heuristica')
plot(x,y)
show()

As a result I get (besides a graph using an unwanted font):

C:\Windows\Fonts\Heuristica-Regular.otf
C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\font_manager.py:1279: UserWarning: findfont: Font   family ['Heuristica'] not found. Falling back to Bitstream Vera Sans
(prop.get_family(), self.defaultFamily[fontext]))

If I add Heuristica on first spot of the serif-font-Types this will also not work, (i. e. font.serif : Heuristica, Bitstream Vera Serif)

I am using matplotlib 1.4.0 and Python 2.7.6, I asked this question on StackOverflow first