What is your default char set or codec in this menu View > Character encoding

Unicode.

Try to select a Western or Windows encoding if currently Unicode is selected.

I did so. It made no difference. I had only the Western option, not Windows. Also, the setting switched back to Unicode when I restarted Firefox.

Also stranger was something that I noticed. I see this problem with gadgets, such as ABC News: Top Stories. The apostrophe appears correctly in the headline, but not in the body. Very unusual.

In the address bar, type; about:preferences#content Across from Fonts & Colors press the Advanced key. Near the bottom, turn on Allow pages to choose their own

Then try again.

If that did not help;

Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link} While you are in safe mode;

Type about:preferences<Enter> in the address bar

Select Advanced > General. Look for and turn off Use Hardware Acceleration.

Poke around safe web sites. Are there any problems?

Then restart.

You can right-click on a web page and select "Inspect Element" to open the Inspector (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer). You can check the font used for selected text in the Font tab in the right pane of the Inspector.

This can be a problem with the font that is used to display the text.

You can try different default fonts and temporarily disable website fonts to test the selected default font.

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

This was the only suggestion that helped. It knocked out most (but, strangely enough, not all of the instances. It is now down to a level that is not distracting. I am considering this one solved.