Hi evmoore, those little boxes represent a character that Firefox couldn't find in the font assigned to that text. Some "fonts" consist of icons, so if website icons/buttons show the same kind of box, it's likely linked to the same problem.

But what's strange is, sites use a wide variety of fonts, so while you might see one or two corrupted or blocked fonts, you wouldn't normally see it everywhere.

What is the current status of your Firefox? Have you reinstalled it so we can ask you to poke around and try some things?

https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

The AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles folder stores your personal browser data like bookmarks and saved logins. You might want to restore that from the Recycle Bin so you can rescue relevant files from it.

Thanks for the reply. I did reinstall Firefox, and I saved a backup of all my Mozilla files in the AppData directory before I uninstalled Firefox a few days ago.

Okay, let's see what font has a problem. On my "new tab page" the text is written using Segoe UI, which is a standard built-in Windows interface font. You can check yours using the "Inspector" tool:

right-click the box text, then click Inspect Element (Q)

(If the menu is gibberish, just press the Q key)

Is the Inspector readable? The left side usually shows a tree-diagram of the HTML code of the page. The right side has several panels, including Rules, Layout and toward the end of the list/row, Fonts. If you click Fonts, does that show what font is used for the text you right-clicked? I'm attaching an example screenshot.

See also:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Tools/Page_Inspector
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Tools/Page_Inspector/How_to/View_fonts

jscher2000 said

Okay, let's see what font has a problem. On my "new tab page" the text is written using Segoe UI, which is a standard built-in Windows interface font. You can check yours using the "Inspector" tool: right-click the box text, then click Inspect Element (Q) (If the menu is gibberish, just press the Q key) Is the Inspector readable? The left side usually shows a tree-diagram of the HTML code of the page. The right side has several panels, including Rules, Layout and toward the end of the list/row, Fonts. If you click Fonts, does that show what font is used for the text you right-clicked? I'm attaching an example screenshot.

It's readable. The font that is selected is Twemoji Mozilla.

That is an emoji font and is meant to display emoji and not general text.

What is the default font setting?

Make sure you allow pages to choose their own fonts.

• Options/Preferences -> General: Fonts & Colors -> Advanced

Possibly similar thread from a few months ago (unsolved): https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1236309

cor-el said

That is an emoji font and is meant to display emoji and not general text. What is the default font setting? Make sure you allow pages to choose their own fonts.

• Options/Preferences -> General: Fonts & Colors -> Advanced

My settings are as you stated they should be. Webpages are allowed to choose their own fonts. No idea what you otherwise mean by default setting. Clearly Twemoji Mozilla isn't the default. How can I change the font to something else?

See also this thread about a similar issue:

• [/questions/1236309] When I open a new tab, no inscriptions can be read, as they are shown in strange characters

cor-el said

See also this thread about a similar issue:

• [/questions/1236309] When I open a new tab, no inscriptions can be read, as they are shown in strange characters

I looked at this thread as well. Does not appear to offer a solution.

What do you see in the Font tab in the Inspector when you right-click an area with these little boxes?

Is there any mention that this font is used as a replacement font?

Twemoji Mozilla. And here is what it looks like when I attempt a google search.

cor-el said

What do you see in the Font tab in the Inspector when you right-click an area with these little boxes? Is there any mention that this font is used as a replacement font?

doesn't look like there is a mention of replacement fonts. here is a screenshot.