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Scrambled test on certain websites

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  • Last reply by Ken D.

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On certain websites I am getting scrambled text, mostly in headings and titles, not so much in body text. I have followed several tips from other posts like mine, i.e., installed Open Sans font, but that did not do it. I turned off hardware acceleration, and cleared the cache. The only thing that did work was to start Firefox in troubleshooting mode. I only have two add-ons running, Short URL and Dashlane, I doubt they're responsible for this. Any other ideas?

On certain websites I am getting scrambled text, mostly in headings and titles, not so much in body text. I have followed several tips from other posts like mine, i.e., installed Open Sans font, but that did not do it. I turned off hardware acceleration, and cleared the cache. The only thing that did work was to start Firefox in troubleshooting mode. I only have two add-ons running, Short URL and Dashlane, I doubt they're responsible for this. Any other ideas?
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Chosen solution

You can check in Font Book for font issues like corrupted and duplicate fonts.

This can be caused by a problem with fonts you have installed locally and that might be corrupted or are missing variants. You will have to identify and remove corrupted font(s).

You can right-click and select "Inspect" to open the built-in Inspector with this element selected.

You can check in the Rules tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font-family is used for selected text. You can check in the Fonts tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font is actually used because Firefox might be using a different font than specified by the website.

Note that you shouldn't disable "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above" as this will cause issues with iconic fonts used by webpages to display small icons (you may see text labels instead of icons).

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All Replies (5)

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I disabled all add-ons, and it made no difference.

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Here's one of the pages I am having the issue with, just scroll through the page. https://therecipecritic.com/baked-rigatoni/

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I am on a 27" iMac, and it has one resolution; 5120 x 2880. Since this does not happen on every web page I go to, and I have checked the pages with Safari (no scrambled characters) I tend to think it's a Mozilla issue.

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Chosen Solution

You can check in Font Book for font issues like corrupted and duplicate fonts.

This can be caused by a problem with fonts you have installed locally and that might be corrupted or are missing variants. You will have to identify and remove corrupted font(s).

You can right-click and select "Inspect" to open the built-in Inspector with this element selected.

You can check in the Rules tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font-family is used for selected text. You can check in the Fonts tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font is actually used because Firefox might be using a different font than specified by the website.

Note that you shouldn't disable "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above" as this will cause issues with iconic fonts used by webpages to display small icons (you may see text labels instead of icons).

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Thank you for the detailed help. I found that Helvetica Neue was corrupt, and I was able to replace it.