Stubborn Safari Font Problem

Brown Study · Apr 1, 2007

Anyone know why my installation of Safari 2.0.4 won't display text properly? The preferences are set up as closely as I can match them to Firefox's and iCab's, with the default typefaces in all three set at Times and Courier.

The test page for the pic was created with Nvu. The test-page properties:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html lang="en-gb">

It doesn't matter if I change the typeface defaults. Safari still won't display properly. The encoding was set at Western (ISO Latin 1) for the pic. Font Book passed all the typefaces.

This isn't new with Safari. It's never worked properly through it's software updates and three or four OS X complete system reinstalls (for other reasons) over the years. I never bothered with it because Mozilla's were my browsers of choice. But because of a few additions Safari can run now, I'd like to use it more.

I wonder whether other Safari users have the same problem but don't know it. I used these typefaces in the test because they make the problem obvious. It isn't likely anyone would come across Apple Chancery and Zapfino in the wild, but less flamboyant web-page typefaces that don't render properly might well go unnoticed.

MacHeadCase · Apr 1, 2007

Hmm. That's quite a difference. Have you reset Safari? That's about the only thing I can think of. That and maybe getting rid of the Safari plist file...

Brown Study · Apr 1, 2007

I've reset it a million times. I know I've had the problem for years because I have a simple page of Mac links I built that uses Apple Chancery. Even my copy of WaMCom's Mozilla 1.3.1 for OS 9 renders it properly (more or less).

Edit: I occasionally use an AppleScript that tosses the plist with every Safari quit.

MacHeadCase · Apr 1, 2007

Why not report the bug to the Surfin' Safari gang? There's a link on that page that allows you to download the source, report bugs, etc.

You might have a ball checking out the code, that's for sure! You have a way with code and it might be fun.

Brown Study · Apr 1, 2007

Thanks, MHC. I'll check it out.

If you'd care to try this to see if your Safari works properly (and I'd like to know before reporting it as a bug), paste this code into a new TextEdit document and switch it to plain text. Then save it as Chancery.html and open it with Safari. It might prove interesting.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="content-type">
<title>Apple Chancery Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1 style="text-align: center;"><span
style="font-family: Apple Chancery;">Apple Chancery</span></h1>
</body>
</html>

MacHeadCase · Apr 1, 2007

I saved it as you asked and only get the same text as in the HTML document in the Safari page.

To make sure there wasn't any hidden characters, I used BBEdit which I use for my blog entries.

MacHeadCase · Apr 1, 2007

Ahh! Never mind I replaced the copy/paste text I put in TextEdit the first time and started from scratch in BBEdit and indeed, this is what I get...

Brown Study · Apr 1, 2007

Hah! Yours doesn't work, either!

Brown Study · Apr 1, 2007

Anyone else who comes across this thread and tries it, could you post your results? (Check the pic in Post 1.)

Stubborn Safari Font Problem

Brown Study

MacHeadCase

Guest

Brown Study

MacHeadCase

Guest

Brown Study

MacHeadCase

Guest

MacHeadCase

Guest

Attachments

Brown Study

Brown Study

Shop Amazon