It turned out that *not* .pdf, but .dvi files cause the missfont.log file to appear in the user's home folder while (? evince-thumbnailer) was trying to create a thumbnail. In search for more example .dvi files I downloaded the AUCTeX manual[1] that also generates the mentioned .log file and (to my suprise) couldn't[2] be opened by evince.
[1] http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/manual/auctex.dvi.gz [2] "DVI document has incorrect format" -- Nautilus generates missfont.log while generating PDF thumbnails in opened folder https://launchpad.net/bugs/53452 -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs
