[Edgy] Default font in Firefox too big

Bug #78687 reported by Kyromaster
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
firefox (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Low
Mozilla Bugs

Bug Description

Binary package hint: firefox

The font which is set by default is very bug, and so there are problems with several websites (such was www.n24.de and www.wetter.de) which immediately disappear when I decrease the font size (so these are no firefox rendering errors).
Another thing that I noticed, when I go to the "font settings" there's no font selected in the appropriate field, so I guess firefox chooses an arbitrary one. There should be a default font set.

Revision history for this message
Alex Latchford (alex.latchford) wrote :

Hello Michael,

Thank you for the bug report, I cannot seem to reproduce the text disappearance bug, I got to the pages hit Ctrl+- and it seems to re-render the font-size fine? Can you elaborate on this a little please?

I agree there should be a default font selected when going to 'Edit -> Prefs -> Content -> Fonts/Colours'..

Thanks again, Alex.

Changed in firefox:
assignee: nobody → mozillateam
status: Unconfirmed → Needs Info
Revision history for this message
Kyromaster (kyromaster) wrote :

Of course :)
When I enter www.wetter.de there are rendering errors in the various boxes in the upper part of the screen. The font is too big, so the contents don't fit into one line (of the box) so they're wrapped and the whole contents of the box don't fit the height of the box any more.
Hitting CTRL-- will change the font to a smaller value, so the font is fine. The font size should be the same as in firefox under windows IMHO so that there are no such errors any more.

David Farning (dfarning)
Changed in firefox:
importance: Undecided → Low
David Farning (dfarning)
Changed in firefox:
assignee: mozillateam → mozilla-bugs
Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

does this still happen in feisty ... and gutsy?

Revision history for this message
Timon Reinhard (timon-netnoise-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

The same happened to me (on Gutsy) after the automatic update of firefox today. Firefox now displays text (that has given a fixed font-size in CSS) bigger than before the update.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de; rv:1.8.1.10) Gecko/20071126 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.10

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

dpi issue. wont get fixed in firefox 2 anymore. firefox 3 should be fixed by RC1/2

Changed in firefox:
status: Incomplete → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Felix Miata (mrmazda) wrote :

This bug is in a sense a DPI issue, but Firefox is behaving as expected, and this bug is not a duplicate of bug 118745.

Unlike the rest of a typical X desktop, in which font sizes are set and customized in pt sizes, Firefox defaults are set in px. Firefox's default default is 16px, (shown in default font settings "advanced", even though omitted from the initial settings tab) which is designed correspond to 12pt @ a DPI of 96, the DPI used by default in M$ Windows. Because the pt size to px size relationship varies with DPI, it is expected behavior for Firefox defaults to be "too big" or "too small" when DPI varies from 96, In this case, your DPI is lower, making 16px "too big". For those with high resolution screens, 16px will typically be "too small".

No fix for bug 118745 can or will change this. A fix for https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=414427 or a similar upstream bug for have to be fixed for this problem to go away in default profiles. User solution currently requires manually changing the Firefox default.

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.