Snow Leopard Firefox Fonts Fix
I had a strange problem today when I upgraded my office computer to the new Snow Leopard OS. Upon launching Firefox I noticed that all the fonts in the user interface got really fat and bold looking. I immediately started checking the preferences for a default font selection thinking the font choice had been changed. Tried resetting the preferences, tried checking the about:congig for FF thinking there might be something there. I was turning up empty handed. I had already updated my home machine without incident, so I knew it had to be localized.Here is a screen shot below of the offending UI:
After turning up empty handed in my search for a changed or damaged preference, I turned to Suitcase. I noticed that I had a lot of duplicate fonts that were not there before. I keep a tight library and instantly recognized the issue. After turning off and removing duplicate MS Office fonts both from Suitcase and from Apples Font Book — I was able to determine that the missing font was LucidaSans and/or Lucida Sans Unicode. After reactivating these two fonts the problem was fixed.
Also worth noting: On my home system I used Suitcase Fusion, and at the office I am using Suitcase Fusion 2 Other than that the systems are the same. I know Suitcase Fusion 2 has a different way of handling fonts. So this might be the root problem, but I am not really sure.
I hope this will help someone else just upgrading to Snow Leopard.
Update
I was alerted by Jason Reed that there is another possible fix for this issue. Interestingly enough also involving the font "Lucida". Design blog Stucel, has this alternate fix posted on his site: Firefox bold font UI problem in Snow Leopard So there are at least two possible fixes for this issue. If you find another solution to this issue that works for you, feel free to comment or shoot me an email.
3 comments so far ↓
Had the same problem - although not life threatening - is a real pain in the a$$.
Anyhow, Im using Linotype Font Explorer and this didnt fix the issue either. Hopefully Firefox will have a fix soon.
Leave a Comment