# IE 5 Problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-5-problem/96962>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 5, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-5-problem/96962 "2001-12-05T03:12:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2001, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-5-problem/96962/1 "2001-12-05T03:12:43Z")

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I’ve got a computer here that’s showing sites and fonts as completely different from what they should be. Example: A site with a black background and Verdana font shows up as a site with a white background and some other font.

What’s causing this, and how to fix it?

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**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2001, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-5-problem/96962/2 "2001-12-05T03:20:18Z")

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Is your text coding set to Western European (Windows)? You can check it by going to the **View** menu and highlighting **Encoding**. I know if I use a computer in the library the coding is often set to Chinese or Japanese character sets, which can make things look a little weird.

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**Author:** ![annalamerino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@annalamerino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annalamerino)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2001, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ie-5-problem/96962/3 "2001-12-05T03:28:41Z")

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If you are at a public terminal, like at a library, the **accessibility** settings in the browser might be set to high contrast by a user with vision problems, and others don’t realize it to unset the option.