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Fonts on some sites appear condensed

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 11 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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I recently installed Firefox on a brand new custom-built machine. However the fonts on certain pages appear condensed and almost illegible (shown in the picture here).

The link to the image is here - http://i58.tinypic.com/8wcuuf.png

Can someone help me fix this please?

I recently installed Firefox on a brand new custom-built machine. However the fonts on certain pages appear condensed and almost illegible (shown in the picture here). The link to the image is here - http://i58.tinypic.com/8wcuuf.png Can someone help me fix this please?

All Replies (3)

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Can you post an example link?

Is "Allow pages to choose their own fonts" checked under Options - Content - Advanced?


  • The default font size has no effect on pages that specify fixed font sizes. Most pages do that.
  • A lower font size merely makes text smaller, not narrower.
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Hello electrophile, try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  • Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  • In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
  • In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  • Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

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What font is used for the text if you right-click this text and click "Inspect Element" to open the Inspector (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer) and check the Font tab in the right pane?