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How do I stop tab symbols from appearing as hex code?

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  • 1 has this problem
  • 21 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

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Symbols, especially within yahoo mail, appear as hex codes rather than buttons. Difficult to decipher which tab is which. I have already followed advice re: Options>Content>Fonts And Colors>Allow pages to choose their own fonts...does not work.

Symbols, especially within yahoo mail, appear as hex codes rather than buttons. Difficult to decipher which tab is which. I have already followed advice re: Options>Content>Fonts And Colors>Allow pages to choose their own fonts...does not work.

All Replies (3)

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In order to better assist you with your issue please provide us with a screenshot. If you need help to create a screenshot, please see How do I create a screenshot of my problem?

Once you've done this, attach the saved screenshot file to your forum post by clicking the Browse... button below the Post your reply box. This will help us to visualize the problem.

Thank you!


In the meantime, please try Firefox in safe mode to see if the issue goes away. For more information on Firefox safe mode, please refer to the following Mozilla support article:

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Special icons are usually supplied by a font that is downloaded from the server (@font-face) as you might see by little boxes that show the hex code of the characters instead. If you have a font installed that covers this Unicode range then you may see a real character and not the little box with the CSS code.

Make sure that you allow pages to choose their own fonts.

  • Tools > Options > Content : Fonts & Colors > Advanced: [X] "Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections above"

You can check the gfx.downloadable_fonts.enabled pref on the about:config page and make sure that it is set to true (if necessary double-click the line to toggle its value to true).

You can open the about:config page via the location/address bar. You can accept the warning and click "I'll be careful" to continue.

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If this don't help then you may have security software that is blocking downloadable fonts.

You can check the log in the Web Console for error messages and the Network Monitor (Firefox/Tools > Web Developer) to see if content fails to load or is possibly blocked.

Use Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R to reload the page and bypass the cache to generate a fresh log.