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Help! I have distorted text on my Mac (10.4.11 version). Zooming it didn't help.

  • 6 respostas
  • 1 has this problem
  • 17 views
  • Last reply by ellenemoore

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I have distorted text on my screen, regardless of when I first open my computer or go to another site. By distorted I mean it looks as though the text has zoomed beyond the ability for the individual letters to maintain their integrity. As a result the letters start to look as though they are getting a shadow or thickened. Similar to what happens when an ink pen empties extra ink on to paper when you're writingr. In addition, the screen moves around as my cursor moves.

I went to the FAQ site and it was suggested to try the Zoom feature. This did not help.
I have distorted text on my screen, regardless of when I first open my computer or go to another site. By distorted I mean it looks as though the text has zoomed beyond the ability for the individual letters to maintain their integrity. As a result the letters start to look as though they are getting a shadow or thickened. Similar to what happens when an ink pen empties extra ink on to paper when you're writingr. In addition, the screen moves around as my cursor moves. I went to the FAQ site and it was suggested to try the Zoom feature. This did not help.

All Replies (6)

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Just to be sure:
Reset the page zoom on pages that cause problems: View > Zoom > Reset (Ctrl+0 (zero); Cmd+0 on Mac)


If you have increased the minimum font size then try the default setting "none" as a high value can cause.

  • Firefox > Preferences > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced > Minimum Font Size (none)
  • Firefox > Preferences > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced > [X] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"

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

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Hi cor-el,

I did as you suggested in number 1 and 2 above. It did not improve. Then I went to the sites for corrupted fonts. I became overwhelmed and left the site. In staring at the screen and playing with the mouse while trying to think more information to give to you I saw that the distortion becomes somewhat worse as I move my mouse around. Moving the mouse/cursor left to right fixes the distortion on some letters while making it worse on others. Or, sometimes an entire line of words will look as though each letter in the line of words is underlined with a skinny line. This happens when I move the cursor up but not down. Moving the cursor down takes the 'underlined' look away. Does this new information help give you any new ideas? If not, thank you for the effort you have put forth so far. I am always amazed how some people have the ability to travel through the language and workings of a computer. ellen

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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).


Try to disable hardware acceleration.

  • Firefox > Preferences > Advanced > General > Browsing: "Use hardware acceleration when available"
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HI cor-el,

Everything is resolved. My 16 year old son fixed it! Here is what he did:

He went into the system preferences and made a keyboard shortcut to"zoom out" which solved the distorted text. Then he went to dock under system preferences and made it so that the dock would move up and down, this solved the small window problem.

Thanks for all your help, Ellen

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You're welcome and glad that you got it solved.

What kind of zooming out was required because it didn't work previously?

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Hi,

I'm afraid I can't tell you anymore than that he made a 'zoom out shortcut' using the System Preferences. I tried to simply go to 'Zoom out' under the 'View' button on top of the screen. My son said he went through a "bunch of menus" under the System Preference and then he got to Keyboard Shortcuts. What needed to happen he found there. Again, thank you for all of your input. I hope I can contact you again with any problems that come up.

ellen