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Cross-computer site rendering issues in Firefox

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I'm having a problem with how Firefox renders a site we recently deployed at our company.

Our site has a standard link list navigation set at the top - block display, floated left, height/width padding to fit, the usual. However, the navigation breaks to the next line when viewed on my computer. In a fixed-width layout, this becomes an issue. Normally, I would adjust the padding values to get it to fit on one line, but the odd part is that through most of the initial development for the site, the navigation remained on one line and was never touched or adjusted after being created. Let me further elaborate by saying that this isn't a CSS inheritance issue or cascade issue. I'd be posting in the wrong forum if that were the case. I know this because the site renders the navigation in one line on several co-workers computers while breaking it to two lines on mine.

I attributed this to the 9.01 update as I had installed it a few hours before the navigation started breaking. I did an uninstall/reinstall of Firefox, system restore (in case it wasn't Firefox), and I even attempted to push the version back to FF8. However, I had my co-worker install the same updates through 9.01, and the site looks fine on his computer. Same for someone else's.

TL;DR - Our website looks different on the same browser/computer setup.

I poked around these forums a little bit and found a thread about the hardware acceleration setting "gfx.direct2d.disabled" and how it affects rendering. I switched the value to "true" and the site immediately corrected itself. However, I don't understand why this fixes the problem on my computer and why my co-workers computers (or anyone else for that matter) do not need to perform the same fix to have an unbroken experience. I went home later that weekend and my home computer also breaks the navigation into two lines.

Anyone have any insight into this? Thanks in advance.

I'm having a problem with how Firefox renders a site we recently deployed at our company. Our site has a standard link list navigation set at the top - block display, floated left, height/width padding to fit, the usual. However, the navigation breaks to the next line when viewed on my computer. In a fixed-width layout, this becomes an issue. Normally, I would adjust the padding values to get it to fit on one line, but the odd part is that through most of the initial development for the site, the navigation remained on one line and was never touched or adjusted after being created. Let me further elaborate by saying that this isn't a CSS inheritance issue or cascade issue. I'd be posting in the wrong forum if that were the case. I know this because the site renders the navigation in one line on several co-workers computers while breaking it to two lines on mine. I attributed this to the 9.01 update as I had installed it a few hours before the navigation started breaking. I did an uninstall/reinstall of Firefox, system restore (in case it wasn't Firefox), and I even attempted to push the version back to FF8. However, I had my co-worker install the same updates through 9.01, and the site looks fine on his computer. Same for someone else's. TL;DR - Our website looks different on the same browser/computer setup. I poked around these forums a little bit and found a thread about the hardware acceleration setting "gfx.direct2d.disabled" and how it affects rendering. I switched the value to "true" and the site immediately corrected itself. However, I don't understand why this fixes the problem on my computer and why my co-workers computers (or anyone else for that matter) do not need to perform the same fix to have an unbroken experience. I went home later that weekend and my home computer also breaks the navigation into two lines. Anyone have any insight into this? Thanks in advance.

All Replies (2)

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Are there special font used to display that text properly?

You can verify which font is used with the FontInfo extension:

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No. We use standard system fonts for the entire site. Someone at the Mozillazine forums mentioned that the hardware acceleration feature triggers font metrics problems with certain system setups. Can anyone elaborate on this?