Font problems in Safari 5.1 (Lion)

Definitely an issue with font explorer. If you switch it off, and restart, everything is fine. If you then launch Font Explorer - the fonts go bad....

Technically, the problem can't be with FontExporer. Like any font manager, all it does is enable, or disable fonts.

Solution for me was to switch off Helvetica Rounded in Font Explorer.

And there's the problem. Safari 5.1 doesn't like something about your copy of Helvetica Rounded. What that could be, I'm not sure. Especially when Safari 5.0.2 doesn't seem to have an issue.

That also has to do with what font(s) the browsers think they're trying to display. For example, it doesn't matter in the least if you have Helvetica Black enabled if the web page being displayed isn't calling for it.

Somewhere in there, there's a font conflict which is throwning 5.1 for a loop.

I removed non system fonts from the system fonts folder via fontexlporer and it works fine in all restart scenarios, the deleting caches was only a temporary fix as others noted. My helvetica rounded was never activated and I still had the A IN THE BOX problem so not sure that has anything to do with it.

I removed non system fonts from the system fonts folder via fontexlporer

I assume you mean you turned them off?

the deleting caches was only a temporary fix as others noted.

Two things normally cause this. Duplicate, or damaged fonts are active. So clearing the cache files only works temporarily. As soon as you activate the dupe or damaged fonts, the cache gets hosed again.

Kurt Lang wrote:

Technically, the problem can't be with FontExporer. Like any font manager, all it does is enable, or disable fonts.

The issue appears to be Arial, and the solution for me was to turn it off in Font Explorer and restart. That's all you have to do and fonts in Safari come back.

The issue appears to be Arial, and the solution for me was to turn it off in Font Explorer and restart.

My bet is (almost 100% sure) that Arial is not the problem, but a free font you have active which is conflicting with Arial. Something you have on the system has an incorrect internal name. To see what I'm talking about, read sections 12-14 in my article, Font Management in OS X

The link, or one of the links above directs you to my personal web site. While the information is free, it does ask for a contribution. As such, I am required by Apple's rules for these discussions to include the following disclaimer.

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

That is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, seeing as I have a number of weird, free typewriter fonts lurking about. I'll invesitgate that!

In my view it's an accumulation of things.

e.g. I use Font agent pro. I have the same issue. When i turn off all versions of Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Rounded etc the page renders fine. Then, when i activate just plain helvetica, problems. When i activate linotype Helvetica Neue, all is OK. All is OK when i activate linotype helvetica rounded also.

This font issue has plagued the system since the beginning of...er, OSX iirc.

I am pretty sure I hacked a solution to kill off a deeply embeded system font back in 10.6.x to stop a similar conflict. Pretty sure it was Helvetica Neue.

WHY can't apple simply attribute a seperate ID to system fonts???? This would sort it.

e.g. AppleHelveticaNeue.

I have thousands of fonts collected over years of designing. Every new system release this issue pops up over and over again.

Nightmare.

Well, I finally got it fixed. I use Suitcase Fusion 3. (They just updated it today, 7/28/2011) and I read somewhere to turn off all activated non-system Helveticals, empty the cache and then restart Safari.

Sure enough, I turned off all my own fonts that are in a separate folder in my Documents folder, then I turned off all Arial and Helvetica fonts I could turn off. Emptied the cache and then restarted Safari, and now everything is find! Yay!

Kurt, I have it confirmed that Apple are aware of the bug and a fix will emerge that does not involve removing fonts etc. FEX help desk also confirms that it is an Apple problem. For now I recommend all Lion users to use Safari 5.0.5 which renders all pages correctly. I mention this to save all those who are spending valuable time trying to fix their fonts when it is not required. Somewhere I recall reading about Sandboxing in Lion and this may be part of the problem. PT

Hi REDNIRT,

You mention a bug, and then Safari 5.0.5. Do you mean they're related to the issue? If so, that's not the only major bug in Safari 5.1.

Try this, at just about any forum, on a post you don't intend to save. Type something like this:

asdkfdkow weie dsdd iiie

Notice that Safari 5.1 won't flag a single item as a misspelled, or unrecognized word, even with Check Spelling While Typing turned on.

This one's even better. With you gibberish still on the screen, now press Command+Shift+; to call up the spell check. It will finally flag the first nonsense word you typed. On any one of them, click the Ignore button and watch as you not only get thrown out of the edit window, but also get logged out of the forums.

Kurt, The bug is in 5.1 - I have yet to test the Spelling bug you mentioned. Meantime happy with 5.0.5 until there is a fix!

I had a similar issue with fonts in safari, I am using FontAgent Pro and eneded up deActivating all fonts that were the same as system fonts and things seem to be working. But I'm also having problems with fonts that are activated in FontAgent Pro not showing up in application font menus. Been going back and forth with their tech support for a couple days with stil no progress.

May I suggest that instead of fighting this issue you revert to Safari 5.0.5 (Snow Leopard version) and your font problems will be resolved until Apple issue a fix for 5.1 -PT

There are also many alternative browsers, one of which—Chrome—is both faster than Safari and supports full-screen in a very smart way.

I found that restarting in safe mode fixed the issue. To do this restart holding down the shift

Key, once you see the grey bar along bottom of the screen release the the shift key, once it has booted fully restart again into normally mode.