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.

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

Firefox 5 having encoding (utf8) problems? Twitter looks messed up...

  • 3 replies
  • 27 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I'm really clueless why the twitter site (among others) looks so messed up?

Does Firefox have problems with encoding and displaying utf-8 websites correctly? I already had this problem with Firefox 4 but not with older versions... I can't believe they launch a new browser version with utf-8 problems?

Am I the only one having this problem?

Help!

I'm really clueless why the twitter site (among others) looks so messed up? Does Firefox have problems with encoding and displaying utf-8 websites correctly? I already had this problem with Firefox 4 but not with older versions... I can't believe they launch a new browser version with utf-8 problems? Am I the only one having this problem? Help!

All Replies (3)

more options

Can you attach a screenshot?

Use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot and make sure that you do not exceed the maximum file size (1 MB).

You may have a problem with old versions of the Helvetica fonts installed on your computer.

more options

Here's the screenshot.

more options

Yes, I was already expecting to see something like that.

This issue can be caused by an old bitmap version of the Helvetica font or other fonts that Firefox can't display in that size.
Firefox can't display some old bitmap fonts in a larger size and displays gibberish instead.
You can test that by zooming out (View > Zoom > Zoom Out, Ctrl -) to make the text smaller.

Uninstall (remove) all variants of that not working font to make Firefox use another font or see if you can find a True type version that doesn't show the problem.
There have also been fonts with a Chinese name reported that identify themselves as Helvetica, so check that as well.