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Twitter style looks wrong, fonts appear invisible

  • 8 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by user633449

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After upgrading Firefox to 11, it appears that fonts are 'invisible' when I go to Twitter.com (this is the only site so far where I notice this is happening). It appears only certain letters are showing, such as "N" and "l". This is not just on the home page, if I log in it continues across the site. I am on Windows 7 and have not made any major changes on my computer lately (no new programs, no new Firefox plugins).

Firefox 11: http://i.imgur.com/Pc2Bd.jpg Google Chrome: http://i.imgur.com/8i8j7.jpg

After upgrading Firefox to 11, it appears that fonts are 'invisible' when I go to Twitter.com (this is the only site so far where I notice this is happening). It appears only certain letters are showing, such as "N" and "l". This is not just on the home page, if I log in it continues across the site. I am on Windows 7 and have not made any major changes on my computer lately (no new programs, no new Firefox plugins). Firefox 11: http://i.imgur.com/Pc2Bd.jpg Google Chrome: http://i.imgur.com/8i8j7.jpg

Chosen solution

If you go into the Firefox button, then Options, then Advanced, then uncheck "Use Hardware Acceleration" and restart Firefox, does it make a difference?

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (8)

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Try to start Firefox in Safe mode. This mode disables all extensions, user customizations, hardware acceleration, etc. temporarily for diagnostic and troubleshooting. If Firefox works find in Safe Mode, then this is likely an add-on issue. Restart Firefox in normal mode, then type "About:addons" (without the quotes) in the address bar. Disable your extensions one by one, restarting Firefox between each one, until you find the trouble maker. Once you do, you can disable that add-on and report the issue to that add-on's developer.

A few other basic trouble shooting things you can try is this: Run all Windows Updates, install all needed service packs, etc.

Update your graphics driver (Firefox uses your graphics card for some rendering, and an out of date graphics card driver can cause problems. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-upgrade-my-graphics-drivers.

Update all your plugins (Flash, Java, etc.): http://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/.

Download and Install MalwareBytes Anti-Malware, run a full Scan. http://www.malwarebytes.org/. This helps check that there are no viruses on your computer causing issues. You can uninstall this program after you clean off any infections.

If none of these help, read Websites look wrong, specifically the "Clearing the Cache" and "Reset the Page Style" sections.

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You can do a font test to see if you can identify corrupted font(s).

You can try different default fonts.

  • Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced
  • [ ] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"

You can use this extension to see which fonts are used for selected text.

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Strangely, I'm still having this problem. When I use Safe Mode, the fonts on Twitter.com read properly. I tried disabling extensions/plugins/etc one by one. I got to the point where everything was disabled (in normal mode) and the font STILL reads incorrectly. When I go into advanced font options and uncheck "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above" to rely on a custom selection, it of course shows properly, but I'd rather not force a font on every page I load when it's only Twitter giving me this issue.

No virus/malware, my computer is up-to-date... There's no strange page styles, or uncleared cache. I'm really stumped.

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Chosen Solution

If you go into the Firefox button, then Options, then Advanced, then uncheck "Use Hardware Acceleration" and restart Firefox, does it make a difference?

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Ah, eureka! Hardware Acceleration was the culprit, Tylerdowner. Will disabling this affect anything greatly? Thanks for your help.

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It will slow down some web page rendering, but nothing very dramatic. Would you mind going into about:support (just type it into your address bar and press enter), and copy and paste the information from there into this thread? I'm try to find if this is a bug in firefox or not, as there are other users reporting the same thing.

Bug 735277

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Application Basics

       Name
       Firefox
       Version
       11.0
       User Agent
       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0
       Profile Directory
         Open Containing Folder
       Enabled Plugins
         about:plugins
       Build Configuration
         about:buildconfig
       Crash Reports
         about:crashes
       Memory Use
         about:memory
 Extensions
       Name
       Version
       Enabled
       ID
       Adblock Plus
       2.0.3
       true
       {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}
       Greasemonkey
       0.9.18
       true
       {e4a8a97b-f2ed-450b-b12d-ee082ba24781}
       Web Developer
       1.1.9
       true
       {c45c406e-ab73-11d8-be73-000a95be3b12}
       Java Console
       6.0.31
       false
       {CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0031-ABCDEFFEDCBA}
 Modified Preferences
     Name
     Value
       accessibility.browsewithcaret
       true
       accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar
       0
       browser.places.importBookmarksHTML
       false
       browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion
       2
       browser.startup.homepage
       http://google.com/
       browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID
       20120312181643
       browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone
       rv:11.0
       extensions.lastAppVersion
       11.0
       gfx.blacklist.layers.opengl
       5
       gfx.blacklist.suggested-driver-version
       8.15.10.2202
       gfx.blacklist.webgl.opengl
       5
       gfx.direct2d.disabled
       true
       layers.acceleration.disabled
       true
       network.cookie.prefsMigrated
       true
       places.database.lastMaintenance
       1334263005
       places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages
       52765
       places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size
       84423146
       places.last_vacuum
       1315588340
       privacy.donottrackheader.enabled
       true
       privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs
       true
       security.warn_viewing_mixed
       false
 Graphics
       Adapter Description
       Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset
       Vendor ID
       8086
       Device ID
       2e32
       Adapter RAM
       Unknown
       Adapter Drivers
       igdumdx32 igd10umd32
       Driver Version
       8.15.10.2302
       Driver Date
       2-11-2011
       Direct2D Enabled
       false
       DirectWrite Enabled
       false (6.1.7601.17776)
       ClearType Parameters
       Gamma: 2200 Pixel Structure: RGB
       WebGL Renderer
       Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset) -- OpenGL ES 2.0 (ANGLE 1.0.0.930)
       GPU Accelerated Windows
       0
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Thanks for the info! We are looking into the issue, so hopefully if it is a bug it will be fixed in a near release :)