1830525 - Tofu boxes are shown for some of the American group languages if font visibility is set to 1 or 2

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Core :: Layout: Text and Fonts, defect)

Description

[Simona Badau, Desktop QA]

Found in

• Nighty 114.0a1

Affected versions

• Nightly 114.0a1

Tested platforms

• Affected platforms: macOS 13 and Ubuntu 20.04 x64
• Unaffected platforms: Windows 11

Preconditions

• in about:config, set the preference "layout.css.font-visibility.private" to 1.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a private window.
2. Navigate to Wikipedia and look for the following American languages: cherokee, deseret, osage, unified canadian aboriginal syllabic.
3. Observe the fonts.

Expected result

• The fonts should be properly displayed in Private Browsing.

Actual result

During private browsing, the following languages are displaying tofu boxes:

• cherokee, deseret, osage, unified canadian aboriginal syllabic on Ubuntu 20.04.
• osage on macOS 13.

Regression range
This is not a regression, the font visibility preference is set to 3 on all previous versions: ESR, Beta, and Release.

Additional notes

• The tofu boxes are also displayed in private browsing when the preference "layout.css.font-visibility.private" is set to 2.
• The tofu boxes are not displayed in normal browsing or when "layout.css.font-visibility.private" is set to 3.

Comment 1

[Ciprian Georgiu, Desktop QA]

The issue is still reproducible on Ubuntu 22.04 x64 with latest Nightly 116.0a1 with cherokee, desert, osage and unified canadian aboriginal syllabic fonts installed.

On macOS 13 the issue is not repro anymore.

Comment 2

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

(In reply to Ciprian Georgiu, Desktop QA from comment #1)

The issue is still reproducible on Ubuntu 22.04 x64 with latest Nightly 116.0a1 with cherokee, desert, osage and unified canadian aboriginal syllabic fonts installed.

Please confirm what specific fonts are being used for these characters in the normal-browsing window - thanks.

Comment 3

[Ciprian Georgiu, Desktop QA]

(In reply to Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame] from comment #2)

(In reply to Ciprian Georgiu, Desktop QA from comment #1)

The issue is still reproducible on Ubuntu 22.04 x64 with latest Nightly 116.0a1 with cherokee, desert, osage and unified canadian aboriginal syllabic fonts installed.

Please confirm what specific fonts are being used for these characters in the normal-browsing window - thanks.

I've inspected each script (via Devtools - Fonts inspector) and the fonts being used in normal windows are as follows:

• cherokee - DejaVu Sans
• unified canadian aboriginal syllabic - DejaVu Sans

Deseret, osage it seems that are displayed with tofu boxes in normal window as well, so I did not check the fonts used for those. Let me know if we can help with more info!

Comment 4

[Tom Ritter [:tjr] (OOTO until April)]

Ubuntu 22 - I don't see any difference between standard and PBM. I get a few Tofu boxes towards the ends of the tables, but things mostly work. DejaVu Sans is in the list of default fonts and I'd expect it to be there.

This one is weird. Ciprian, could I ask you to re-test this on Ubuntu 22.04 (FF version doesn't matter really, 116, 117 are all fine)? Do you still see the same behavior? And if so could you do the following:

1. Open the 'Fonts' application (you should see a folder with a bunch of Aa and font names
2. Browse to 'DejaVu Sans' - just the regular one, not Bold or anything. There might be more than one. For each one:
3. Click the Icon (the Aa) and then go to the Info button
4. Note the location and version.

I have two:

1. /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf and 2.37
2. /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSansCondensed.ttf and 2.37 (This one is like a Bold, but it isn't noted in the name.)

Comment 5

[Ciprian Georgiu, Desktop QA]

(In reply to Tom Ritter [:tjr] from comment #4)

This one is weird. Ciprian, could I ask you to re-test this on Ubuntu 22.04 (FF version doesn't matter really, 116, 117 are all fine)? Do you still see the same behavior? And if so could you do the following:

I am still able to reproduce the bug with Firefox 116.0, I see tofu boxes in private window when accessing this page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_language, on the Cherokee Supplement table, but I don't see them on normal window.

I have only one on my VM machine:

1. /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf version 2.37

Let me know if I can help with more info.

Comment 6

[Tom Ritter [:tjr] (OOTO until April)]

Attachment: image.png

Okay I think I figured out what's happening - at least for me.

Looking at Cherokee and specifically upper-case 'Yi' or Ᏹ or U+13F1. It tries to render in DejaVu Sans - but DejaVu doesn't have it, so it falls back to the next font which has it - FreeSerif. For me this happens regardless of pref value.

Ciprian, can you look at that specific character - and capture a similar image like mine? The fonts pane on the right should probably show a second font after DejaVu Sans like me. (Ubuntu 22)

And then - if this is not one of the characters that works/doesn't work depending on pref - can you also show the same image for one of those characters with a working and non-working pref value (and specify if that pref value is 1/2/3?

Comment 7

[Ciprian Georgiu, Desktop QA]

(In reply to Tom Ritter [:tjr] from comment #6)

Ciprian, can you look at that specific character - and capture a similar image like mine? The fonts pane on the right should probably show a second font after DejaVu Sans like me. (Ubuntu 22)

This is a screenshot from PBM, for the Ᏹ character with pref layout.css.font-visibility.private set to 3. I don't see any tofu boxes with this value, neither with the value 2.

And then - if this is not one of the characters that works/doesn't work depending on pref - can you also show the same image for one of those characters with a working and non-working pref value (and specify if that pref value is 1/2/3?

This is a screenshot from PBM, for Ᏽ character with pref layout.css.font-visibility.private set to 1. This character is properly shown if switching the pref to 2 or 3.

Let me know if I can help with more info!

Comment 8

[Tom Ritter [:tjr] (OOTO until April)]

Thanks! You must have some local font installed that has the G character (Cherokee Letter MV, shown in the second secreenshot), although I'm not sure what it is. I don't think I need to bug you to investigate it further though.