Scrambled Font

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Although the on-screen fonts in certain drop down boxes display fine, when printed out using IE 5.5 SP1 the fonts are graphic characters such as triangles, boxes, almost like the font is corrupt. When using Netscape Navigator 4.08 not only do the same fonts display fine on screen, they also print out fine… to the same printer.

Comparing the font related settings the encoding is set to Western, the fonts are Times New Roman and the fixed font is Courier New and “use doc specified fonts, including dynamic fonts”. Explorer font settings are language script, Latin, with fonts set to Times New Roman and Courier New.

Under View, encoding IE is Western European Windows but I’ve tried several settings here.

Does anyone have suggestion as to the difference between IE and Navigator or has anyone seen this in IE’s various flavors?

Thanks,
Jester

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Hi Jester:

I don’t know if this will help or not. I found a couple of KB articles that describe some printing problems with certain printers. They are:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/ar…s/Q271/5/82.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/ar…s/Q177/0/37.ASP

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Thanks however no BD Denver font is present and no HP Laserjet. Also, the same printer is involved with the successful printing via Netscape Navigator. The printer happens to be an Epson Stylus 850.

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Although you are printing fine from NS, you may want to check the Epson 850 Download library to verify you have the latest drivers and/or patches for your set-up.

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The newest driver for my Epson Stylus 850 is dated 1998 and I have it installed. The print preview shows the font in question incorrectly just as it appears on paper.

Since Netscape passes the font information to the printer and the printer is able to both display and print correctly I wish there was a utility which would enable me to trace the flow of information since whatever IE 5.5 is passing to the printer is not being accurately deciphered somewhere in the process.

I do not have an HP 1100. I believe someone else wrote about a similar problem with their HP.

-Jester

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I have a similar, but not quite identical, problem. When printing, the contents of combo boxes or fields are not scrambled, but they are printed in some super wide font that I don’t recognize. Most of the time this is just a minor nuisance, since the contents of the box are usually short enough to completely print; other times, part of the contents get truncated. All font settings for IE are the install default, and the printing is on an HP1100.

It would be nice if whatever fixes your problem would help correct mine too.

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Hi, David. My advice to you is similar, however you would need to visit HP’s Driver Download page for the 1100 series printer.

HTH

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See post somewhere in the thread above. I do not have an HP 1100. I believe someone else wrote about a similar problem with their HP.

-David

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Hi, Jester! You’re so right, and my reply regarding the HP was made to David Rasley who mentioned his HP1100. I presume you’re viewing this thread in flat mode, and understand that it can be a bit confusing because posts are listed in chronological and not thread-logical ( ) order.

I am unaware of a utility to do this for you. Good luck.

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Here is the latest in the IE 5.5 sp1 font display/font print preview/font printing issue.

I uninstalled IE 5.5 and went back to “previous version” which turned out surprisingly to be IE 4.x SP2. That version displayed and printed (no print preview until IE 5.5) correctly. I have printed samples of good stuff.

I then went back to MS and downloaded IE 5.01 SP2 (whatever is still available) and installed, browsed and found that fonts in the drop down boxes displayed and printed fine. By fine, I mean correct… like they should.

However, downloading and reinstalling IE 5.5 SP1, again whatever is currently available from MS, displayed fonts correctly BUT once again both print preview and printed output are incorrect.

The printers are Epson Color Stylus 850 and HP DeskJet 540 although the 540 is on the shelf and was reinstalled just to test.

The print drivers are both the latest from the vendors.

Something was introduced in IE 5.5 which does not cooperate with these two “older” printers. The comments regarding the HP Laserjet 1100 and fonts point to that printer having the ability to print truetype fonts as graphics, or similar feature, which provides a workaround for similar inability to translate or render or print these fonts correctly.

-David

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I am having the same problem in IE 6.0.2 with all the fixes. I get questions marks for some unprintable characters and boxes for apostrophes. This occurs when a sites content is displayed. I have the usual font settings Times New Roman, Latin Based, etc. It displays correctly in Netscape. I can’t find where it is translating the text. My fonts are okay and do not appear to be corrupt. I have emptied my cache, and my font cache. Emptying my font cache caused the problem to disappear until I went to a secure site.

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