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

Characters such as hearts and stars won't show up on Firefox

  • 9 replies
  • 50 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I'm running on a Mac OS X 10.4.11 and my Firefox is 3.6.6. When I run all my other browsers (safari, opera) I'm able to see characters such as hearts and stars on a site like facebook. Only on firefox does it not show up, it doesn't even show boxes - it's just a blank space. It's really annoying, and I've tried everything with the character encoding to no avail. Font is still set to Western ISO 8859-1. is there a font I'm missing? But that can't be because I can see it in other browsers. Please please tell me someone's encountered something like this before. I haven't found anything anywhere so far. :/

.

This happened

Every time Firefox opened

== since I downloaded Firefox (approx. 3 years ago - only actively using now)

I'm running on a Mac OS X 10.4.11 and my Firefox is 3.6.6. When I run all my other browsers (safari, opera) I'm able to see characters such as hearts and stars on a site like facebook. Only on firefox does it not show up, it doesn't even show boxes - it's just a blank space. It's really annoying, and I've tried everything with the character encoding to no avail. Font is still set to Western ISO 8859-1. is there a font I'm missing? But that can't be because I can see it in other browsers. Please please tell me someone's encountered something like this before. I haven't found anything anywhere so far. :/ . == This happened == Every time Firefox opened == since I downloaded Firefox (approx. 3 years ago - only actively using now)

All Replies (9)

more options
more options

Do you see the the suite symbols here? https://bug212745.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=130222

No, I just see Numerical reference:

Word-like reference:

Actual characters:

But I could see the characters in the last link, but most were squares.

more options

Anonymous was me.

more options

If you do not see the characters in Firefox, but you do see them in other programs then that would indicate a problem with the font.

You can do a check for corrupted fonts and other font issues: http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/garbled_fonts_troubleshooting_guide.html - CreativeTechs Tips: Garbled Fonts Troubleshooting Guide http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/multipleappsquit.html - Font Book 2.0 Help: Checking for damaged fonts

more options

Thanks for the reply, I downloaded FontDoctor to diagnose the fonts and it found nothing wrong with them. Same with the FontBook validation. I don't know what's wrong. :/

more options

I have the same exact problem and always have. Sux.

more options

I've had this problem (specifically, & hearts ; ) for years.

When Firefox 3 was released I thought the upgrade from FF 2 would fix it. Nope.

I went all out today and upgraded to Firefox 6. I created a fresh, new profile in the Profile Manager. No dice.

I took the advice of those above and checked my OS X Font Book. I disabled many of the fonts that didn't validate, but some of them I use, so I'm hoping this isn't causing the issue.

Safari (see screenshot attached) and Chrome display ♥ just fine, so why can't Firefox. Surely, some savvy open source gal/guy can figure this one out. :)

Modified by Derek Steen

more options

You can do a check for corrupted fonts and other font issues:

-> CreativeTechs Tips: Garbled Fonts Troubleshooting Guide

-> Font Book 2.0 Help: Checking for Damaged Fonts

Check and tell if its working.

more options

In older Firefox versions (2) on Mac was to use a monospaced font to get the card suit characters to display (bug 212745), so you can try that to see if it works or try some other fonts.