Fonts displaying as question marks on search page and some websites
MacOS Catalina Version 10.15.6
My Mac just crashed and following restart, Firefox is behaving strangely. Some websites and the main Google search page (which renders fine until I type in a search query) are displaying as boxed question marks, (see screenshot). I have done nothing to any fonts and other browsers are working fine.
Having searched this site, I have already:
1 Gone to Preferences > General > Language and Appearance > Advanced and made sure that Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above is turned on.
2 Checked that Preferences > Privacy & Security is set to Standard.
Nothing is helping. Any thoughts, please?
Modified by julie43
All Replies (7)
Type about:preferences#general<enter> in the address bar. Across from fonts and colors, press the Advanced button. On the bottom, turn on Allow Web Sites To Choose Their Own.
Fonts Information - Detected via Flash http://browserspy.dk/fonts-flash.php?detail=1
Thanks Fred... but as I mentioned in my original post, I've already done that and it hasn't worked. I also restarted Firefox after turning on that option (see attached). Still doesn't work.
(On the Mac version, the wording for that option is Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of your selections above.)
Modified by julie43
Make sure you are not blocking content.
Start Firefox in Safe Mode {web link}
A small dialog should appear. Click Start In Safe Mode (not Refresh). Is the problem still there?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop
You usually see Firefox using a 'last resort' font when you try to use a font that is denied access due to a sandbox limitation because it is added by a third party font manager.
You can right-click and select "Inspect Element" to open the builtin Inspector with this element selected.
You can check in the Rules tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font-family is used for selected text. You can check in the Font tab in the right panel in the Inspector what font is actually used because Firefox might be using a different font than specified by the website.
Hi, thanks for your response. It's showing that Arial is the 'last resort' font and I assume by the question mark, Firefox assumes it's not available, even though it is and other apps are using it with no problem. I'm attaching a screenshot of the Inspector. How can I get Firefox to see Arial? It was fine until my Mac crashed (whilst being checked by CleanMyMac X).
I appreciate your help.
Fred, thanks for your response. When I start in safe mode, the problem is still there, yes.
Thanks.
We have seen more cases where the Arial font isn't working properly on Mac and you can check the Arial font in Font Book and possibly move it to a location used by other system fonts if this font is provided by a third-party font manager.