1827465 - Bitmap fonts are no longer rendered, just a blank space

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1827950

(Core :: Graphics: Text, defect)

Description

[Mark Hills]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/112.0

Steps to reproduce:

• Linux
• Have bitmap fonts (eg. Helvetica) available via fonts.conf
• Launch Firefox 112.0
• Navigate https://web.whatsapp.com/ or https://www.ebay.com/

---

$ fc-list | grep -i Helvetica | head
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvO18.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR08.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR10.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvB12.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Bold
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR18-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvR18.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvBO24-ISO8859-1.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Bold Oblique
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR08.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/helvR10.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Regular
/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/helvB18.pcf.gz: Helvetica:style=Bold

Actual results:

• See screenshot. Font is simply not rendered, just blank space.
• The space can be highlighted with the mouse; characters have 'width' but text is not shown.
• It renders when drag+drop is used.

See screenshot and video, which show two versions of the browser with a fresh profile.

Expected results:

To see the text, rendered in Helvetica bitmap font.

This is a regression from Firefox 111.0.1 -> 112.0.

Comment 1

[Mark Hills]

Attachment: firefox-111.0.1-vs-112.0-comparison.png

Comparison of Firefox 111.0.1 and 112.0, showing regression in bitmap font render.

Comment 2

[Mark Hills]

Attachment: firefox-bitmap-font-missing.mp4

Video shows the bitmap font has dimensions and is rendered in the drag+drop operation.

Comment 3

[Molly Howell (she/her) (mostly inactive)]

I've just seen another report of this same problem at https://yiff.life/@koko/110192716624469954. Moving this bug to hopefully a relevant component.

Comment 4

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

I wonder if this is the same as bug 1827950. It wasn't clear there that bitmap fonts are involved, but seems possible.

Mark, would you be able to try a test build with a patch that might help here, and let us know the result? The build is at:

https://firefox-ci-tc.services.mozilla.com/api/queue/v1/task/bRfWOwu_Sje4ImlGwtJDKA/runs/0/artifacts/public/build/target.tar.bz2

It should work to download the archive and extract the contents to a local folder, and then find the enclosed firefox executable and launch it -- no need to install or replace your existing version. Be sure to fully quit any running copy of firefox, though, to avoid confusion (otherwise, I think it may open a new window in the existing version instead of running the new one).

Comment 5

[aaq7for]

this build seems to work fine. Helvetica bitmap font is displayed as it should

Comment 6

[Mark Hills]

That build looks good to me. I tested the eBay and WhatsApp sites from my original test and fonts are now displayed.

I'll continue to use this browser for further testing.

Comment 7

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

That's great - thank you both for testing it.

Comment 8

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

Dup'ing this forward to bug 1827950, where the relevant patch landed.