Safari: More on scrambled text

Yesterday we covered reports of an issue where Safari occasionally displays "scrambled" text when viewing websites. (A post in Apple's Discussions forums links to a screenshot illustrating the problem.) We noted a few factors that appeared to contribute to this behavior; after receiving a good amount of feedback from MacFixIt readers, we're beginning to get a clearer picture of the causes of the problem, as well as potential solutions.

The issue appears to occur when (1) particular variations of Times and/or Helvetica fonts -- different from those that come with Mac OS X itself -- are installed in addition to the stock versions; and (2) Mac OS X attempts to use these variations, for whatever reason, instead of the versions located in /System/Library/Fonts (the standard location for system-installed fonts).

The specific fonts involved appear to be the Times RO font, the Helvetica Fractions font, and certain PostScript versions of the standard Helvetica font. When one or more of these fonts are installed, they are sometimes substituted for the versions included with Mac OS X -- and expected by Safari -- resulting in scrambled text. (It's not necessary to have all of the problematic fonts installed; some users have experienced problems with only one of them present.)

(We should note that we're not yet experts on the dirty details of OS X's font system, so we're still trying to nail down exactly when and how these conflicts occur -- specifically, why having these fonts installed sometimes causes the problem, whereas other times it doesn't. Several readers have pointed to complex circumstances involving when a font file is first opened vs. when the application in question is launched. We'll try to clarify these issues as we learn more.)

Solutions Many readers report that simply disabling these fonts fixes the problem. Forrest Tosie notes, "Deactivating Helvetica Fractional fixed the problem for me." Similarly, Chung-Hsin Lou writes:

"Any time I have [the Adobe Helvetica Fractions] font activated not only will Safari display scrambled text but also iChat too. The only work around is to deactivate the Helvetica Fractions font or avoid using Safari and iChat when using that font."

Julian Hearne isolated the issues to a PostScript version of Helvetica; disabling it fixed the problem:

"My Mail or Safari programs occasionally display garbage text if I have my Helvetica postscript font set activated in Suitcase X1. It apparently conflicts with the Helvetica.dfont in the System font library (which I?ve been advised not to remove)...My Helvetica font set consists of roman, black, condensed, compressed, narrow and light familys ? no fractions or Times RO... Since deactivating Helvetica postscript usually clears up the problem, it?s more of a nuisance than a dire issue. Occasionally the system font cache won?t forget the deactivated fonts and I have to restart the applications."

Using Font Book to disable fonts If you're not using any third-party font management utilities, and you don't need to use these troublesome fonts, the easiest solution to these issues is to simply use OS X's Font Book to disable the fonts. As Apple documents in OS X 10.3's Help system:
1. Double-click Font Book in the Finder, or choose Manage Fonts from the Action pop-up menu in the lower-left corner of the Font panel to open Font Book.
2. To turn off a font family or an individual font, select the font collection in the Collection column, then select the font family or individual font you want to turn off. Click Disable at the bottom of the Font column, and then click Disable again in the dialog that appears. The font name is dimmed and labeled Off in the list. (To turn off a group of fonts, select a collection or a font and press the Option key, then click Disable All.)

Suitcase fixes A significant proportion of readers experiencing this scrambled text issue report that they have a font management utility such as Suitcase installed. One solution is to simply use Suitcase to deactivate the fonts noted above. However, Bill Pendry provides another possible solution:

"In Suitcase's preferences you should disable 'Allow Suitcase to override system fonts' to resolve this. Once you change this setting you will see error messages pop up from time to time, but it's better than garbled fonts."

If you need to use the PostScript version of Helvetica, Angus Hume provides a workaround:

"We had same problem in our studio. Suitcase was the cause, specifically related to a clash between the Helvetica.dfont required by the system and the Helvetica PostScript font activated by Suitcase, required for our workflow. I resolved it by replacing the postcript font with the CD version (not compiled into one suitcase) and making sure the postscript font is activated before any of Apple's apps are loaded."

Other font utilities also affected These font conflict issues don't appear to be limited to Suitcase; readers have reported the same issues with other products. Simon Davidson writes, "I have the same problem in Safari...running Font Agent Pro 2.1. Opening the Times font or restarting normally fixes things."

Changing font size A few readers have commented that when they experience this problem, it only affects certain font sizes. Darrell Keach writes:

"One work-a-round I have found is increasing or decreasing the font size in Safari. Text will remain scrambled at certain point sizes but is fine on other sizes."

Deleting font caches offers temporary fix A number of readers report that deleting font caches -- using a utility such as Font Cache Cleaner -- and then restarting clears up some problems with scrambled fonts. However, if the underlying cause is a font conflict, this will only provide a temporary fix; in order to avoid the problem altogether, you'll need to address the font conflict itself.

Also affects Mail and iChat A number of readers have also reported that this issue affects HTML messages in Mail, as well. As Mail uses Safari's HTML rendering engine to display HTML mail, this isn't surprising. As noted above, some users have also reported similar issues with iChat. Disabling the problematic fonts noted here should fix issues with these applications, as well.

(As a side note, this isn't the only issue related to improper font substitution that we've seen in Mac OS X. Apple's Knowledge Base even documents an issue where having the Times RO font installed can cause Software Update to crash when installing software that includes a license agreement.)

Having font display issues in Safari? Drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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