Closed Bug 762325 Opened 12 years ago Closed 12 years ago

Minimum font size is ignores for text/plain emails in UTF-8

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Message Reader UI
Version:
13 Branch
Platform:
x86_64
Linux
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 323747

People

(Reporter: hugo, Unassigned)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0
Build ID: 20120603165110

Steps to reproduce:

I upgraded from Thunderbird 12 to Thunderbird 13


Actual results:

SOME text/plain emails no longer respect the minimum font size set in Preferences>Display>Formatting.

Minium font size, and all others are set to 22.  Some text/plain emails are shown in the default font size, which is too small to read.

After a careful analysis for the source of the affected messages; I've found that messages in ISO-8859-1 are shown properly:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

While messages in UTF-8, have the default font:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8


I've looks at about 25 messages, and it's the only thing they seems to have in common.


Expected results:

All text/plain emails should still be seen at the configured font size, just like on Thunderbird 4 thru 12.
Severity: normal → major
I've changes the importance to "mayor" since this prevents me from reading ~50% emails.  Not being able to read emails in an email client is almost as mayor as a bug can get.
(In reply to Hugo Osvaldo Barrera from comment #1)
See bug 507795 & bug 469303.
(a) "Font choice", "Minimum Font Size" are per language setting(per "Fonts for:" setting at Tools/Options/Display/Formating/Advanced).
(b) For Unicode text(UTF-8 in you case), confising but "Fonts for: Other Language" is currently the "per language" setting.

What do you set at "Fonts for: Other Language"?
FYI. Bug 323747 is for "confusing Fonts for: Other Language".
This is not related to 507795; I've configured font sizes to 22px BECAUSE of this bug.
My current configuration has also worked fine since Thunderbird 4 (or maybe 3.5) until version 12.

I don't understand 469303.  I'm not switching locales, I'm using firefox en english, just as I always have.

@WADA: I don't understand what you mean by "per language".  I never mentioned any language, nor am I using more than one language.


To be more specific, in Edit>Preferences>Display, the "Default font" is set to size 22.
In Advanced, all sizes are set to 22, and minimum font size is also 22.

This has been set like this for over a year now and did not break until I upgraded to thunderbird 13 - YES, older email also exibit the same problem.

I've regrettably had to turn to mutt as a fallback in the meantime, since I can't really see the small font to well, but I'm hoping this won't be permanent :)
(In reply to Hugo Osvaldo Barrera from comment #5)
> In Advanced, all sizes are set to 22, and minimum font size is also 22.

For any "Fonts for:" at Display/Advanced?
What is select at "Fonts for:"?
Does your problem occur when "Fonts for: Other Lanuage" is selected at Display/Advanced with appropriate font selection for "Fonts for: Other Lanuage"?
No, changing that setting fixes the problem (Thanks!).

Why is this so?  Both emails are in english, and I'm not changing the language... is thunderbird 13 trying to auto-detect the language or something?  Can this behaviour be disabled?
Following is bugs which has "minimum font size" in bug summary and is changed within one year.
> bug 181722 minimum font size pref only works for some encodings by default because there's a separate pref for each language group
> bug 372178 font-size-adjust allows minimum font size prefs to be defeated
> bug 524755 there needs to be 2 (or 3-5)_minimum_ font sizes corresponding to font-sizes in font UI
> bug 546392 'Minimum Font Size' does not work in XP
> bug 603053 minimum font size pref is ignored
> bug 687297 Minimum font size setting carried over after visiting a non UTF-8 encoded page
> bug 754702 youtube video playlists shown from the middle of the frame instead of the left side when minimum font size is set

Similar issue to bug 687297?

I could see following.
(0) Two identical html mails with <font size=N>, except charset of Content-Type:
      mail-1 : utf-8,       html, some Japanese chars, some Cyrillic alphabets
      mail-2 : iso-2022-jp, html, some Japanese chars, some Cyrillic alphabets
          (as iso-2022-jp has some Cyrillic chars, this kind of mail is possible)
    For ease of test, "Allow messages to use other fonts" and "Use fixed width
    font for plain text messages" are uchcked.
(1) Fonts for: Other Language : Font-X, minimum size=14
    Fonts for: Japanese       : Font-Y, minimum size=None
    Text in <font size="1" & "2"> is NOT rendered in minimum size of 14px
    for both mail-1 ad mail-2.
(2) Fonts for: Other Language : Font-X, minimum size=None
    Fonts for: Japanese       : Font-Y, minimum size=14
    Text in <font size="1" & "2"> is rendered in minimum size of 14px
    for both mail-1 ad mail-2.
Phenomenon (1) was observed in Tb 12, Tb 11, Tb 10, Tb 9.

What kind of characters are used in utf-8 mail?
If CJK chars, Cyrillic chars etc. is contained, what is your setting of "Fonts for: xxx Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cyrillic etc.?

For text/plain mail;
There is no way to request font size in text/plain mail, so "minimum font size" is usually irrelevant to text rendering of text/plain mail.
(a) Font selection and size for text/plain mail looks afected by used characters
    in text/plain & utf-8 mail.
    What is your "Fonts for:" setting for used chars in the utf-8 text mail?
(b) Font selection for text/plain mail is afected by "Use fixed width font for
    plain text messages".
    Is this option checked?
In "font selection" and "size selection" for both text/html mail and text/plain mail, Tb looks to use "Fonts for: Japanese" for iso-2022-jp mail and "Fonts for: Other Laguage" for utf-8 mail.
And, for text/plain mail, it looks;
  used "Fonts for:" : Japanese if iso-2022-jp, Other Language if utf-8
  size selection    : Size of Monospace of "Fonts for:"
  font selection    :
    "Use fixed width font for plain text messages"
       unchecked : font pointed by Proportinal of "Fonts for:"   
       checked   : font set in Monospace of "Fonts for:"   

What Size do you set at "Fonts for: Other Language"?
As I said, configuring the font size in "Fonts for: Other Language" sort of fixes the issue.

Emails are en English, letters, numbers, commas and periods.  About half of my emails are UTF-8.

Can this "language detecion" be somehow disabled?
(In reply to Hugo Osvaldo Barrera from comment #10)
> As I said, configuring the font size in "Fonts for: Other Language" sort of
> fixes the issue.

There are three size settings in "Fonts for:".
  (i)   Size of Proportional:
  (ii)  Size of Monospace:
  (iii) Minimum font size:
By which setting was your problem resolved?
As for plain/text mail in utf-8, by (ii) of "Fonts for: Other Lanuage", wasn't it?
If by (i) or (ii), it indicates "your bug summary is INVALID".
(In reply to Hugo Osvaldo Barrera from comment #10)
> Can this "language detecion" be somehow disabled?

No, because "charset -> font/size mapping" is ineternally mandatory.
Currenltly, it looks one like next.
(a) Hard coded "charset in Content-Type: of mail -> language" mapping.
(b) UI of "Fonts for:" for each "language".
    For Unicode(UTF-8 etc.), it's "Fonts for: Other Language"(Bug 323747)
(c) Monospace: setting is used for plain/text mail, but it's modified by
    "Use fixed width font for plain text messages" setting.
(c-1) "Use fixed width font for plain text messages" = Checked
       Font is selected by "Monospace: -> Monospace font".
       Size of Monospace: is used.
(c-2) "Use fixed width font for plain text messages" = Unchecked
       Font is selected by "Proportional: -> Serif or Sans-serif",
       "Serif: -> Serif font" or  "Sans-serif: -> Sans-serif font".
       Size of Monospace: is used.

Some kinds of user's confusion are produced by above.
(1) "charset in Content-Type: of mail -> language" mapping is not shown to user
    in Tb's UI.
(2) "Unicode charset in in Content-Type: of mail" is mapped to "Other Language".
    Who can know "Other Language" is for utf-8 mail?
(3) Monospace font/size setting use by Tb is confusing for user.
(4) Font name/size shown at Tools/Options/Display/Formatting,Fonts is 
    a part of settings in "Fonts for:" which is currently selected at "Advanced"
    ("Fonts&Encoding" panel).
    What is meaning of "Default font:" at Display/Formatting panel
    even though "Fonts&Encoding" panel is for setting of multiple languages?
As I said, about 50% of my send and received emails are UTF-8, while 99% of them are english.

The menu to configure "fonts according to encodings" should NOT be listed by "languages", but rather "encodings" - otherwise it's plain confusing.

As I said; in western, ALL settings were set to 22; "Proportional", "Monospace", and "Minimum font size".  What fixed the issue was to copy those settings over to "Other Languages".   A naive user might interpret that English is both "western" AND "other languages".

UTF-8 is pretty standard for English, so the UTF-8 combo option should not be called "other languages", but just "utf-8".



In reply to your second post; YES charset -> font size mapping IS mandatory, but there's no need to mention languages AT ALL, and in fact, this dialog is totally unrelated to languages and only deal with rather encodings.
Content-Type != Language.  There's plenty of valid content-types that can be set for perfectly valid english emails.

All of the confustion is added because the dialog has texts related to languages, but under the hood, actually deals with encodings.  Just list the encodings, NOT languanges.

IMO, all reference to "language" should be removed from this dialog, and it should say "encoding instead".



I'm still puzzled as to why I never had this issue in the last couple of years though.
(In reply to Hugo Osvaldo Barrera from comment #13)
> IMO, all reference to "language" should be removed from this dialog, and it
> should say "encoding instead".

As seen in panel title of "Fonts&Encodings" of "Advanced" button, it was "ENCODING for a language" since initial, until "Unicode related encodings" was supported by "Fonts for: Other Lanuages" at UI.
  "Western encodings", "Japanese encodings", ..., and "User defined encodigs"
Due to added string of "Other Languages" to the UI, it was altered to "Western language", "Japanese language" etc.
If Bug 323747 will be fixed, this kind of confusion will be reduced.  

> I'm still puzzled as to why I never had this issue in the last couple of
> years though.

I guess change like next was made in font selection.
- before Tb 12
  "Fonts for:" that is currently selected at "Advaced",
  which is shown as "Default font:" at Display/Formatting/Fonts,
  is first candidate of font/size selection even for utf-8 mail.
- after Tb 12
  "Fonts for: Other Language" is always first candidate of font/size selection
  if utf-8 mail.
  By this, issue like "different base line due to font switch" or "different
  Glyph design between asci chars and no-ascii chars like CJK by font switch"
  may be reduced, when chars of multiple languages are contained in utf-8 mail.
Anyway, "minimum font size" is for html mail which can specfy very small font size, and is irrelevant to "plain/text mail rendering" by design. So I think your bug summary is invalid. Are you wanting "close as INVALID"?
Yes; I'm guessing that once one (or two) of the bugs you previously mentioned get fixes, the UI will be redesigned and the confusion will fade, so you can close this as INVALID (I can't! :P)

Thanks!
Closing as dup of Bug 323747.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 12 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE
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