Firstly, I am aware that a similar question was asked some time ago that went unanswered. Currently, it has multiple upvotes but no answer.

The error

com.badlogic.gdx.utils.GdxRuntimeException: Error reading file: data/font/font1.ttf (Internal)
...
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: font/font1.ttf

occurs when I use the class FreeTypeFontGenerator provided by Libgdx as a extension to use freetype fonts(link). This is the line in my project that caused error:

FreeTypeFontGenerator generator = new FreeTypeFontGenerator(Gdx.files.internal("font/font1.ttf"));

I can be fairly certain that my path to the .ttf is correct, as the desktop configuration runs perfectly, showing the font as desired.

My guess: I didn’t include the freetype extension when creating this libgdx project. When following the tutorial to include it (that is, adding the freetype dependencies in build.gradle), something somehow went wrong. But even this is not convincing enough.

build.gradle:

project(":desktop") {
    apply plugin: "java"


    dependencies {
        compile project(":core")
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-backend-lwjgl:$gdxVersion"
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-desktop"
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-desktop"
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-tools:$gdxVersion"
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-desktop"



    }
}

project(":android") {
    apply plugin: "android"

    configurations { natives }

    dependencies {
        compile project(":core")
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-backend-android:$gdxVersion"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-armeabi"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-armeabi-v7a"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-arm64-v8a"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-x86"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-x86_64"
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d:$gdxVersion"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-armeabi"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-armeabi-v7a"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-arm64-v8a"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-x86"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-box2d-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-x86_64"
        compile "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype:$gdxVersion"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-armeabi"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-armeabi-v7a"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-arm64-v8a"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-x86"
        natives "com.badlogicgames.gdx:gdx-freetype-platform:$gdxVersion:natives-x86_64"


    }
}