FONT Question marks (???????) in Firefox browser...MAC OS

[Reesche]

Hi you guys.... I think I am having an issue in Firefox browser with a specific FONT. I just reloaded my Fonts on my Mac Pro tower and these ???? are showing up. I am attaching a few shots of my Firefox Preferences to show you where I am as of now... Thank you Reesche

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi you guys.... I think I am having an issue in Firefox browser with a specific FONT. I just reloaded my Fonts on my Mac Pro tower and these ???? are showing up. I am attaching a few shots of my Firefox Preferences to show you where I am as of now... Thank you Reesche

You just need to clear your font caches. I used to do this in Terminal but found an easier method. For this you will need the freeware Onyx. If you don’t have it, you can get it here:

Titanium Software | Operating System Utilities for Mac - OnyX

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the startup disk and the structure of its system files; run tasks of cleaning and computer maintenance; configure some hidden parameters of many Apple applications; and more.

www.titanium-software.fr

There is a specific version for each version of macOS, so make sure you download the one for you.

It can still be hard to find the place for cleaning font cashes. From the main window, select Maintenance. Towards the bottom, under Cleaning, click on the circled “I” for Other. In that window, you will see Fonts cache. Make sure the toggle is turned on.

Click on Done to get back to the previous page. You will notice that a lot of other tasks are turned on. All those are default procedures for regular macOS Maintenance tasks. You can turn off the ones you don’t want to be performed. Finally, click on Run Tasks to start.

I use this function often, mostly for rebuilding Launch Services or reindexing Spotlight, but I always let it do font cashes as well.

Much easier than Terminal. Whenever I use Onyx, I usually first reboot into Safe Mode and run it from there.

 

[Reesche]

Hi Tony.....I tried the Onyx software and was excited how easy it was to operate...... and YES it got rid of the ???? marks in my browser Firefox. However, I woke up this morning and noticed that many of my fonts in several of my apps (Illustrator/Photoshop etc) could not find several of the fonts that I created reciently. Any ideas here? If I run Onyx again will the same thing happen? Thanks again! Reesche

 

[Reesche]

Hi again Tony.... just had a revelation...... I just went on to Firefox and did a search on Sean Connery to Wikepedia and noticed that what ever I looked up on Wikepedia the type was the ???? question marks. Went to several other sites and every thing looked normal.....went back to do another search on someone else on Wikepedia and boom.... same ???? marks. I think this all has something to do in my Firefox Preferences..... FONTS....... Let me know what you think. Reesche

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi Tony.....I tried the Onyx software and was excited how easy it was to operate...... and YES it got rid of the ???? marks in my browser Firefox. However, I woke up this morning and noticed that many of my fonts in several of my apps (Illustrator/Photoshop etc) could not find several of the fonts that I created reciently. Any ideas here? If I run Onyx again will the same thing happen? Thanks again! Reesche

Wow. What version of Adobe CC are you running? Starting January 2023, Adobe, and for that matter, Apple, will no longer be supporting PostScript type. Everything has to be OpenType. Can you imagine my frustration when my font library of over 10,000 fonts is mostly PostScript? Fortunately, I have Adobe Creative Cloud so I have access to all their fonts, but not available to other apps.

So I believe that your installed fonts were still functional for a while because of the font caches, but it was just a matter of time. Those ⍰⍰⍰⍰⍰s was a symptom of the demise of your PS fonts. Check your browser preferences to make sure that your font assignments are from the fonts provided by Apple in macOS.

If you’re not using any third-party font management utility, look around in Font Book to see if some of your installed fonts are not working. Browse your font lists in Font Book and look for PostScript fonts. The system will not automatically remove them with the update. Of course, with any update to macOS, the default fonts that come with the system would have been updated.

 

[Reesche]

Wow interesting Tony...... I pulled up the same pages that had the ????? marks on my other work station and used Firefox and that Tower did NOT show any ????? marks. FireFox on both towers with the same page on Wikapedia...... Tower 1 showed the ????? marks Tower 2 did NOT show the ???? marks. So I am confused. Reesche

 

[TonyAguila]

Hi again Tony.... just had a revelation...... I just went on to Firefox and did a search on Sean Connery to Wikepedia and noticed that what ever I looked up on Wikepedia the type was the ???? question marks. Went to several other sites and every thing looked normal.....went back to do another search on someone else on Wikepedia and boom.... same ???? marks. I think this all has something to do in my Firefox Preferences..... FONTS....... Let me know what you think. Reesche

Your latest post didn’t come up while I was replying to the previous. Yes, I mentioned that your browser font settings were probably the cause. Open Font Book, select your user fonts and select list view. It should show there if the fonts are PostScript or TrueType. Before you do any trashing, see if you can disable the PostScript fonts… for now. Then check to see what FireFox has to say. (Aside… I recommend trying Brave. It’s better than FireFox, in my opinion. But, of course, as a beta tester, I need to run Safari and Safari Technology Preview myself.)

 

[Reesche]

Issue Solved. Reesche