We're calling on all EU-based Mozillians with iOS or iPadOS devices to help us monitor Apple’s new browser choice screens. Join the effort to hold Big Tech to account!

This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

How can I manually set the character encoding for a page?

  • 3 antwoorde
  • 1 het hierdie probleem
  • 6 views
  • Laaste antwoord deur cor-el

lesguillemets
lesguillemets
more options

I noticed that firefox lately hides more specific options from the character encoding settings.

For example, it now has only one option for Japanese: "Japanese". It should contain encodings such as Shift-JIS, euc-JP, etc.. I want to, and I used to be able to, specify which of the encodings I need.

The auto detection really often messes it up, and this is a huge problem when browsing old-fashioned websites.

Is there any way I can specify the encoding manually? I'm OK with digging into about:config, or even use the developer tools if necessary (for an emergency measure).

I noticed that firefox lately hides more specific options from the character encoding settings. For example, it now has only one option for Japanese: "Japanese". It should contain encodings such as Shift-JIS, euc-JP, etc.. I want to, and I used to be able to, specify which of the encodings I need. The auto detection really often messes it up, and this is a huge problem when browsing old-fashioned websites. Is there any way I can specify the encoding manually? I'm OK with digging into about:config, or even use the developer tools if necessary (for an emergency measure).
Aangehegde skermkiekies

All Replies (3)

Senali Madawala
Senali Madawala
more options

Firefox checks if changing the character encoding has any effect for the current site. If not, it's disables. For further information, can read this: https://superuser.com/questions/783864/why-does-firefox-disable-the-character-encoding-menu-for-some-sites/783976#783976

lesguillemets
lesguillemets Vraag-eienaar
more options

No, it's not about it disables the functionality. I'm not talking about the buttons being grey. Maybe my attachment was confusing.

For some site (e.g. https://www.kantei.go.jp/ ) we can choose "Japanese" as the encoding as of now. What I can't do is choosing between "Japanese (euc-jp)" and "Japanese (shift-JIS)" etc.

I think "Japanese" is a locale, or a *group of encodings*, rather than specific encoding I mentioned in the title.

Gewysig op deur lesguillemets

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Websites should use Unicode these days and not an 8-bit legacy Encoding used in old days. For www.kantei.go.jp "Tools -> Page Info -> General" shows UTF-8 as send by the server, so there shouldn't be any need to change the Text Encoding (Unicode is selected and can't be changed).

You can only change the Text Encoding if the server doesn't send an encoding. There is a fallback encoding setting available in "Options/Preferences -> General -> Fonts"

Do you have a test page where the server doesn't send an encoding ?