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Text displays on sites like Google Spreadsheets, as well as all PDF documents is transparent, even in Safe mode.

  • 4 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 10 views
  • Last reply by L-Smith

L-Smith
L-Smith
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Recently I have noticed a very strange phenomenon in Firefox. I first noticed it in Google Spreadsheets; text does not display in the cells, but does if I bring a specific cell up for editing. I thought this limited to the new Google Spreadsheets, since the old Google Spreadsheets still function normally. It's just the new ones exhibiting this behavior.

However, I quickly noticed that PDF files opened in Firefox exhibit the same behavior. The text is not white; it is totally transparent, like it's not being rendered at all. HOWEVER, if Firefox is not in focus, AND some text is selected, the text renders in the selection. Shown: http://imgur.com/bWWLvLr Windows cleartype does not seem to affect this, nor does it seem to be any of my addons; even in safe mode the problem persists. This problem is not present in Windows Internet Explorer, so it doesn't seem to be my system. I'd appreciate fixing this problem, as I make frequent use of Google docs.

Recently I have noticed a very strange phenomenon in Firefox. I first noticed it in Google Spreadsheets; text does not display in the cells, but does if I bring a specific cell up for editing. I thought this limited to the new Google Spreadsheets, since the old Google Spreadsheets still function normally. It's just the new ones exhibiting this behavior. However, I quickly noticed that PDF files opened in Firefox exhibit the same behavior. The text is not white; it is totally transparent, like it's not being rendered at all. HOWEVER, if Firefox is not in focus, AND some text is selected, the text renders in the selection. Shown: http://imgur.com/bWWLvLr Windows cleartype does not seem to affect this, nor does it seem to be any of my addons; even in safe mode the problem persists. This problem is not present in Windows Internet Explorer, so it doesn't seem to be my system. I'd appreciate fixing this problem, as I make frequent use of Google docs.

Chosen solution

That's for the reply cor-el, but that does not fix the problem.

EDIT: The problem had been fixed, but I wasn't sure what did it. It reoccured recently, and I decided to do a bit more investigation. It seems to have been a problem with my GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6950). Updating the drivers (again, since they'd been rolled back for some reason) has fixed this problem. The previous driver version that exhibited this problem was 14.4

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All Replies (4)

guigs
guigs
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Two things that come to mind: Have you set the colors and fonts in the FIrefox options to be white, or is your graphics driver up to date? Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

L-Smith
L-Smith Question owner
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No, I have not. Firefox text & font options are default. Driver-wise, yes, this is up to date. I should note that in the case of Google Spreadsheets, the text appears briefly before disappearing. This would have led me to believe it was one of my addons, but the safe mode test dismissed that idea.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Try to disable OMTC and leave hardware acceleration in Firefox enabled.

  • about:config page: layers.offmainthreadcomposition.enabled = false
L-Smith
L-Smith Question owner
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Chosen Solution

That's for the reply cor-el, but that does not fix the problem.

EDIT: The problem had been fixed, but I wasn't sure what did it. It reoccured recently, and I decided to do a bit more investigation. It seems to have been a problem with my GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6950). Updating the drivers (again, since they'd been rolled back for some reason) has fixed this problem. The previous driver version that exhibited this problem was 14.4

Modified by L-Smith