Bug report: Firefox5 uses the wrong unicode fonts (tested on Hebrew fonts)
Even though the css defines the fonts as font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
Firefox5 which I have just upgraded to does not use the Hebrew Ariel font but goes for the first Hebrew font it finds installed on my system. In my case it's a font family called TheSmokerSerif, but since this is not a system font I assume this issue would be encountered by other users too.
I recommend updating FF5 with a bugfix soon as this is bound to affect many unicode sites and would render Firefox5 unreadable (literally)
All Replies (4)
Can you please add a screenshot to allow us to visually see the issue?
There are some bugs regarding 'ugly fonts' on Hebrew, but I am not sure if this issue is actually one of them.
I have changed the settings by changing the default Hebrew font from Ariel to Ariel Hebrew and it fixed the problem. I changed it back to Ariel so to create the screenshot. I can see that the fonts rendered are varied, in my case not only "TheSmokerSerif" but also "Darom".
Since I could recreate this bug I assume this will be quite wide spread. Note: I'm on OSX 10.5.8
I am also experiencing this annoying issue in FF5. On some websites (usbank.com, tweetdeck.com, for example), the primary Helvetica/Arial fonts are being replaced with the first Helvetica font it finds in my Windows fonts folder. As a result, ALL text on the screen was using some ultra wide + bold Helvetica font and near impossible to read.
It took me a while to track it down, but after finding and manually DELETING the wrong Helvetica font being used from the Windows fonts folder, I restarted Firefox, and then the main font was replaced with some Ultra Light variant of Helvetica (the next font in line). I then deleted THAT font, restarted, and now websites are displaying correctly again.
This is pretty annoying, as somehow the two Helvetica fonts I deleted are being automatically reinstalled on my system after a day or two. And when this happens, Firefox starts using the wrong Helvetica fonts again.
Unfortunately I JUST fixed it again otherwise I would provide a picture or two. But I searched for "Firefox using wrong helvetica font" in Google and found this support thread.
I hope this bug gets resolved very soon!
(Using Windows 7 Professional on Core i5 notebook w/4gb ram)
Modified by geminiman7
I spoke too soon. The issue just occurred again and I've attached a couple of before/after screenshots now. Notice how in the first screen shot the font is very wide and pixelated? The 2nd screen shot is after I deleted the next "culprit" font...
About 10 minutes after posting my last response, I went to USBank.com again and saw that the default font was no longer Helvetica, again. I tracked the "new" font being used down to "Helvetica Neue Extended Thin" and deleted it from the Windows fonts folder. Restarted FF and now it's displaying correctly again.
It's like Firefox keeps changing the standard Helvetica font to the first odd family variant it finds just after a few minutes now, it seems.
UPDATE 2: About 30 minutes after I "fixed" it again, FireFox started using "Helvetica Neue 35 Thin" as the new font. Highly annoying!
Modified by geminiman7