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Arabic text displayed incorrectly on sites!

Matrix Leader
Matrix Leader
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Arabic text characters are all connected one to another in a word, but FireFox displays the letters right, except they are disconnected and each letter is on its own, making it very difficult if not impossible to read.

What I used to do in the past is, pages that contain Arabic Text for me such as Facebook, I used to install IETAB2 and set facebook to always open with IETAB and then the text would display correctly.

The strange thing is, if you use IE, it would display the same garbage isolated Arabic letters, but the IETAB with IE7 emulation works like a charm.

With that said, recently, FF stopped displaying arabic text correctly even with IETAB2

But Google Chrome always works like a charm without the need for anything.

I have tried changing the encoding on the site but that doesn't help

Can anyone suggest anything please?

Google Chrome, Correct display of Arabic Text:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9937/chromefc.png


FireFox with IETAB or without, same result:

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8855/firefoxlh.png


Anything other than UTF-8 will just display as jibberish.

But the problem with UTF-8 is that the Arabic letters are not linked one to the other, each one is seperated, makeing it very difficult to read.

What's even weirder is, I checked with Chrome, which displays Arabic Text just fine, and it is also using the UTF-8 encoding but it works!? Please help as I don't want to use Chrome :(

Arabic text characters are all connected one to another in a word, but FireFox displays the letters right, except they are disconnected and each letter is on its own, making it very difficult if not impossible to read. What I used to do in the past is, pages that contain Arabic Text for me such as Facebook, I used to install IETAB2 and set facebook to always open with IETAB and then the text would display correctly. The strange thing is, if you use IE, it would display the same garbage isolated Arabic letters, but the IETAB with IE7 emulation works like a charm. With that said, recently, FF stopped displaying arabic text correctly even with IETAB2 But Google Chrome always works like a charm without the need for anything. I have tried changing the encoding on the site but that doesn't help Can anyone suggest anything please? Google Chrome, Correct display of Arabic Text: http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/9937/chromefc.png FireFox with IETAB or without, same result: http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8855/firefoxlh.png Anything other than UTF-8 will just display as jibberish. But the problem with UTF-8 is that the Arabic letters are not linked one to the other, each one is seperated, makeing it very difficult to read. What's even weirder is, I checked with Chrome, which displays Arabic Text just fine, and it is also using the UTF-8 encoding but it works!? Please help as I don't want to use Chrome :(

Chosen solution

Maybe there is a problem with the Lucida Grande font (font-family:"lucida grande") that Facebook uses on their website that doesn't work well in Firefox.

As a test you can try to disable the website fonts and try some different default fonts like Arial or Verdana.

  • Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced > [ ] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"
Read this answer in context 👍 10

All Replies (5)

Matrix Leader
Matrix Leader Question owner
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I just realised this only happens in www.facebook.com . other sites with arabic text display fine, but Google Chrome always displays everything right even in Facebook

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Chosen Solution

Maybe there is a problem with the Lucida Grande font (font-family:"lucida grande") that Facebook uses on their website that doesn't work well in Firefox.

As a test you can try to disable the website fonts and try some different default fonts like Arial or Verdana.

  • Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced > [ ] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"
Matrix Leader
Matrix Leader Question owner
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Wow!!! Thanks a lot man!!! That was so easy! I unchecked that option and now it worked as it was selected by default!!

Thank you sooooooooooo much!! Now I can install that crappy Google Chrome!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Noone on any other forum was able to solve this issue!

Modified by Matrix Leader

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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The point is to see if disabling that setting temporarily and selecting some other fonts makes a difference.
It is possible that the Lucida Grande font that you have isn't working properly.

Matrix Leader
Matrix Leader Question owner
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You're right, when I set the font to Lucia Grande, the Arabic text gets messed up and each letter is separated, so it is the default font that Facebook uses which is the problem. Great find man! You're a true pro!