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Installed fonts do not work in FF, but in other browsers

  • 7 replies
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  • Last reply by cor-el

kiipa
kiipa
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I'm using Arch Linux, and the system is completely up to date. Whenever I visit a website that uses a helvectica font stack it displays in sans-serif instead of helvectica. In the picture I have Firefox on the left and google chrome on the right. Firefox is using sans-serif and chrome is using Helvetica. I just noted that Thunderbird doesn't seem to be using the same fonts as it does in Windows.

I'm using Arch Linux, and the system is completely up to date. Whenever I visit a website that uses a helvectica font stack it displays in sans-serif instead of helvectica. In the picture I have Firefox on the left and google chrome on the right. Firefox is using sans-serif and chrome is using Helvetica. I just noted that Thunderbird doesn't seem to be using the same fonts as it does in Windows.
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kiipa
kiipa Question owner
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Update, I downloaded the helvetica fonts and installed them. Running "fc-list | grep helv" lists multiple Helvectica fonts. Still no helvetica fonts in FF.

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

Do you see those Helvetica fonts as a choice?

  • Edit > Preferences > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced

You can do a font test to check what fonts are detected.

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

  • Edit > Preferences > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced
  • [ ] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"
kiipa
kiipa Question owner
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cor-el said

You can right-click on a web page and select "Inspect Element" to open the Inspector (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer). You can check what font is used for selected text in the Font tab in the right pane of the Inspector. Do you see those Helvetica fonts as a choice?
  • Edit > Preferences > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced
You can do a font test to check what fonts are detected. You can try different default fonts and temporarily disable website fonts to test the selected default font.
  • Edit > Preferences > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced
  • [ ] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"

I'm using a addon to see what fonts are requested to be used, and which is actually used. In a helvetica stack (helvetica nue, helvetica, sans-serif) it defaults to sans-serif.

I see helvetica as a choice, yes.

I visisted that site, and I see helvetica fonts, but not just standard "helvetica". I'll look for a helvetica TTF, as I think I have helvetica in another format.

kiipa
kiipa Question owner
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According to browserspy I have arial installed, and the rendered font looks like arial. According to FontFinder (addon) it's rendering "system default". fc-list gives results for arial. In Chrome it renders arial (according to WhatFont).

cor-el
cor-el
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Can you post a link to such a website that uses Helvetica?

Note that Helvetica is normally a font that comes on Mac computers and is not common on other (Windows, Linux) platforms. I'm not seeing any specific fonts with Helvetica in the name in the detected fonts in "Preferences > Content" apart from Adobe Helvetica (I personally prefer Verdana and DejaVu fonts).

kiipa
kiipa Question owner
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http://stackoverflow.com/

That has a pretty extensive font-stack, and all of the fonts should work for me. Only sans-serif does.

cor-el
cor-el
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That website uses Nimbus Sans L Regular and Bold for me when Helvetica is specified.