Strange symbols in e-mail

It's probably an encoding problem. This note covers the most common one:

http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/woutlook.html

I'm having the same problem, but the font is garbled only when it quotes the addresses, timestamp and subject of the original email. The font I'm getting looks like very tiny fractions.

I'm not familiar with using Terminal. Can you explain a bit?
Many thanks.
Valerie

I'm having the same problem, but the font is garbled
only when it quotes the addresses, timestamp and
subject of the original email. The font I'm getting
looks like very tiny fractions.

Your problem is actually totally different. Find the font Helvetica Fractions on your machine and get rid of it.

I am not familiar with what all each and every font does, but in the "Fonts & Colors" Preferences, there are settings for "Message font." Someone may have changed that setting for some font that has the characteristics that you describe.
The "Default Setting" is for "Helvetica" Size 12.

iMac 1.9 GHz PowerPC G5 1.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Slot Loading 8X Dual Layer SuperDrive, iSight & Apple Remote; iPod Video

The "Default Setting" is for "Helvetica" Size

12.

If you have the Helvetica Fractions font on your machine, and you are using this default setting, you will sometimes see fractions instead of latin letters.

Yes, Tom, IF a person HAD the font "Helvetica Fractions", which I DO NOT, on their machine.

And you quoted me correctly EXACTLY what I intended Mr. Hughes to know-thank you.

The Default Setting for Fonts for Messages in Mail is:
Helvetica [just plain Helvetica] - Size 12. My quote did not tag the word "Fraction" onto the end of Helvetica - thank you!
Now back to answering Mr. Hughes question like he as requested.

Mr. Hughes,
Here is a quote from Mail Help under Fonts:

"Helvetica Fractions font may cause text to display improperly in Address Book, iChat, Safari, Mail

If you have the Helvetica Fractions font installed, text in some applications (including Address Book, iChat, Safari and Mail) may appear as overlapping numbers and symbols.

To avoid this issue in Mac OS X 10.3 and later, use Font Book to turn off the Helvetica Fractions font.

If you're using Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier, check these two font locations for the Helvetica Fractions font:
• /Library/Fonts/
• ~/Library/Fonts/ (the tilde represents your Home folder)

If you find a Helvetica Fractions font (or fonts), which may appear as "HelveFra" or "HelveFraBold," remove it from the folders. (To avoid other issues, do not disable the Helvetica font.)

Article ID: 301245 Date Created: 2005-06-21 Date Modified: 2005-06-24"

iMac 1.9 GHz PowerPC G5 1.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Slot Loading 8X Dual Layer SuperDrive, iSight & Apple Remote; iPod Video

Now back to answering Mr. Hughes question like he as
requested.

Sorry if there has been some confusion.

Hughes was not seeing fractions, that was vhmascitti.

Hughes' problem, which involves recipients seeing accented latin characters at odd places in his emails, can't be caused by some font selection. Helvetica Fractions has no connection to this one.

vhmascitti's problem isn't caused by someone changing her font settings to something odd. It results from keeping the default settings but having installed Helvetica Fractions, which Mail thinks is Helvetica.

I see that. And "someone changing font settings" was in my response to Hughes and not vhmascitti.

When more than one person who have the same problems enter into the discussion after the original problematic post, and one person is doing all the answering, it does get confusing at times.


iMac 1.9 GHz PowerPC G5 1.5 GB DDR2 SDRAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Slot Loading 8X Dual Layer SuperDrive, iSight & Apple Remote; iPod Video

Just fyi to those who helped out on this question, removing those Helvetica Fractions (HelFra and Helefrabol as well) from my fonts folder fixed the problem. Of course I had to remember to look in the Library for my login to find them! Thanks to everyone who helped out with this problem. I can now read my emails and those web pages that use Helvetica. This is very very helpful.