# Why can't I read the text on some web pages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 25, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457 "2010-08-25T21:29:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/1 "2010-08-25T21:29:55Z")
I’m using my laptop with a Vista OS and Firefox. Some of the text that appears on web pages seems to be rendered incorrectly on my screen. I’m hoping someone can tell me how this happens. Here is a [screen shot](http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/151/54855858.jpg) of what the homepage for [Digg.com](http://Digg.com) looks like. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/2 "2010-08-25T21:32:36Z")
Looks like the browser thinks the page is in some other language encoding. The random gibberish looks just how pages in, say, Japanese appear when you don’t have the right fonts installed. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/3 "2010-08-25T21:49:05Z")
Odd… I can’t make mine do that even when I force the wrong encoding. I’m assuming you’re using an English version of Vista? And you’re not in a country that would make the site assume you want the page encoded in the native alphabet? ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/4 "2010-08-25T21:54:49Z")
Yea, I’m in NYC with an English version of Vista. The text looks fine in Explorer. I think the problem is with Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/5 "2010-08-25T22:00:53Z")
And it’s the latest version of FF? And View/character encoding = UTF-8? Tried the zoom thing? Zooming out or in ought to reveal if it’s a corrupt font. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/6 "2010-08-25T22:27:04Z")
Yea, latest FF and UTF-8. The zoom function works normally. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/7 "2010-08-25T22:31:00Z")
Looks like thai writing. I’m guessing there’s a setting somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/8 "2010-08-25T22:46:04Z")
Digg’s down. Could be they had the problem. _shrug_ ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/9 "2010-08-25T23:48:00Z")
Maybe Digg’s down because of the SDMB effect - so many people here are going to the Digg home page that we exceeded their bandwidth! Serves them right, I say. How do they like it now that the shoe’s on the other foot? 😛 P.S. [digg.com](http://digg.com) looks fine to me using Firefox 3.6.8 / Windows 7. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/10 "2010-08-26T00:04:26Z")
> [@GHO57](#): > > Digg’s down. Could be they had the problem. _shrug_ No it happens on other websites. Here it is on [The Onion](http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2669/81316247.jpg). I can read most text on the web just fine, it’s just small number (that probably have a certain coding) that I can’t read. It wasn’t a problem before until Digg had to go and redo their whole website. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/11 "2010-08-26T03:31:11Z")
Check your Character Encoding settings under View in the menu bar. Make sure Auto-Detect is off, and Western (ISO-8859-1) is selected. Or, at least, that’s what works for me. Other things you can try are [creating a new profile](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Creating_a_new_Firefox_profile_on_Windows) and [reinstalling Firefox](http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_(Firefox)#Clean_reinstall). (Also included in that last link is a whole host of Firefox troubleshooting techniques.) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/12 "2010-08-30T03:45:25Z")
The problem was with the font. Some time ago I downloaded Helvetica for MS Word after watching the [movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/). Apparently the version I downloaded can’t be displayed by Firefox. I removed the font and now everything works normally. Thanks to everyone that helped. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/13 "2010-08-30T19:21:18Z")
I was going to respond with something about Zalgo, but this browser blows and can’t handle the fonts. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-i-read-the-text-on-some-web-pages/551457/14 "2010-08-31T00:49:39Z")
Helvetica is a proprietary font licensed by [Linotype](http://www.linotype.com/). If you did not download and pay for a license from them, you probably obtained an illegal or fake copy.