Why can’t Firefox render certain characters? Instead of certain letters you get a box with a question mark. This issue has been a minor annoyance to me but I could see this being a major adoption blocker for people who are international and trying to use this browser.
It looks like perhaps an encoding problem. I spotted this problem from Hallmark.com.
It’s also interesting to note how differently Safari displays fonts using anti-aliasing. Subjectively speaking it looks both bolder and easier to read but readability is tough to gauge without running a readability speed and comprehension test. When I worked at Microsoft we would have heated debates about turning clear-type on or off for Windows XP. Many people claimed that it made the text easier to read while others claimed it made text look blurrier. I’m not aware of any formal testing on this subject.
Either way I’m certain that Firefox has some improvements to readability as a question marks in the middle of a word will certainly slow down comprehension.
I’ve noticed the encoding problem before but assumed that I was missing a font. Thanks for the post.
Regarding anti-aliasing, some people like Safari’s rendering (e.g. me) while others don’t (e.g. Joel Spolsky). See this post:
http://www.curiouschap.com/?p=4
I specifically mention the option to turn off Clear Type on/off and why I moved away from IE precisely because that option never quite worked 100%.
I’ve noticed the encoding problem before but assumed that I was missing a font. Thanks for the post.
Regarding anti-aliasing, some people like Safari’s rendering (e.g. me) while others don’t (e.g. Joel Spolsky). See this post:
http://www.curiouschap.com/?p=4
In the post, I mention the option to turn off Clear Type on/off and why I moved away from IE precisely because that option never quite worked 100%.
Safari on Windows actually uses the Mac OS X font rendering engine (or a similar port) to keep it closer to the experience they want to achieve. Windows vs Mac font rendering is quite a hot topic (at least the discussions I’ve read got quite hot
I remember reading the results of some studies, but I cannot remember where, you’ll have to dig around to find anything on this subject. I don’t think the results are conclusive anyway, it’s not clear which version is “better”, though the philosophies behind each are fairly clear.
Microsoft likes to focus on pixel optimization while Apple wants to retain the real dimensions of the font as they would appear in print. As a result, Windows fonts usually look a little too starved and pixely, while the Mac fonts are sometimes too fat or blurry (though for average sizes the main fonts seem to be quite well optimized on the Mac as well).
Having used both Windows and OS X for a long time I’d have to say that I personally like the Apple variant better, even if some fonts do get a little big or blurry, the general experience is smoother and nicer looking — also retaining good contrast for readability. It’s interesting that Apple has gone through the trouble of porting the font rendering engine over to Windows with Safari.
Regarding Firefox — is this a Windows specific problem? I’ve never had this problem with Firefox on OS X. Looking through the Hallmark website now on Firefox 3.0 b3 OS X and it seems ok.
My friend Lou Amadio actually worked on the Safari port to Windows and wrote a short write-up on some of the font work on Safari. He also has some links to some font research.
One study apparently found faster performance for ClearType on LCD screens, whether searching for strings or reading.
Dillon, A., Kleinman, L., Choi, G. O., & Bias, R. (2006). Visual search and reading tasks using ClearType and regular displays: Two experiements. CHI 2006 Proceedings, April-22-27, p503-511.
In a character-identification study, font designed for ClearType doesn’t necessarily perform better than other fonts. Characters appeared more distinct with Consolas, Cambria, and Verdana than Constantia, Times New Roman, Candara, and Corbel.
Chaparro, B. S., Shaikh, A. D., & Chaparro, A. (2006). The legibility of ClearType fonts. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, p1829-1833.