Browser can't display certain HTML coding
On certain website searches, i.e. (Google search: browse from Search window, "foxnation") certain words with the HTML tag "text string " will not display the text. If I employ the Inspect feature and edit this code, i.e., remove it then the text is displayed. I also searched the "em" tag from the Google search engine and the same problem is displayed.
I using Firefox 95.0.2 on a MacPro running Mojave.
I have tried editing the about:config setting for the sandbox.content from the default "3" down to "0" without success.
Any ideas would be helpful. For now, it's back to Safari.
All Replies (5)
We have seen reports that this can be caused by a problem with fonts like Helvetica that 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 Font 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.
Using the Inspector, I selected the Font tool and invoked the italic selection and the font displayed correctly, at least I presumed it was correct. The font actually displayed as bold, italic.
I have tried several different fonts: arial, times new roman, verdana and tahoma all with the same problem. I have checked Font Book for the properly installed fonts - no problem there. Additionally, I tried Nightly to see if it behaved differently, it does not.
Isn't the real question: why does Safari, Chrome, and other browsers correctly display the pages and only Firefox has the problem?
See attached. Firefox's own Application Menu page does not display correctly.
Update I did some reading on the proprietary nature of various fonts. Even though a font like Arial is present in my system for some reason, possibly because of the licensing, Firefox won't use the "bold, italic" version.
I changed the font to Georgia, a true type font that has all the features necessary: regular, bold, italic and bold italic. The page now displays correctly as do the fonts in the Application menu.
Go figure!
MORE confusion.
I understand that browsers are not the Unitied Nations of display, that is, a browser can't always be expected to translate the programming from the developer into something that is discernible. That being said, Firefox seems to have the greatest trouble of properly displaying a webpage.
As this pertains to my initial post (a correction, the search was made from the URL bar not the browser search window), I was viewing a new page, "https://www.empireabrasives.com/9-x-11-non-loading-sandpaper-sheets-silicon-carbide/#tab-related" (see attachment) and this page displayed question marks where stars were supposed to be displayed. Using the Inspector I learned that "Open Sans" was the font being requested. As this didn't exist in my system I installed it. Wa La! Stars were displayed. Back to my original search, "foxnation" - question marks again. I changed back to Georgia, as that worked before and still question marks. I had to uncheck the feature in Settings/Language and Appearance/Advanced: "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your choices above." So this tells me that Firefox CAN'T choose a font even if it exists in my system.
Wow, what a hassle; I like the browser, I hate it's bugs. This one has been around along time.
Firefox will only use fonts installed in specific white listed locations on Mac due to sandbox security, so having fonts installed in an unusual location can cause Firefox not to use the font and fallback to a 'last resort' font that displays all the glyphs as a '?'.
If you use uBlock Origin make sure not to "block remote fonts".