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Unreadable non-latin letters in h1 and h2 headers on Windows
Closed, DeclinedPublicBUG REPORT

Description

Steps to replicate the issue (include links if applicable):

  • Use Firefox browser on Windows OS, Vector 2022 skin and a Wikipedia branch with complex latin letters (with diacritics) or non-latin alphabets like Arabic Wikipedia.

What happens?:

  • Non-latin characters are presented as square symbols in h1, h2, and sticky headers because these symbols are not part of Windows Times font. It seems that this problem occurs since about two days.

UnreadableHeaders.jpg (1×1 px, 219 KB)

  • The problem is caused by CSS rules like the following one:
@media screen
.mw-body h1, .mw-body-content h1, .mw-body-content h2 {
  font-family: 'Linux Libertine','Georgia','Times',serif;
  line-height: 1.3;
}

On Windows systems usually Times font is used which contains only a small part of Unicode letters. "Times New Roman" font should be added.

What should have happened instead?:

  • Non-latin letters should be presented as normal letters.

Software version (skip for WMF-hosted wikis like Wikipedia):

Other information (browser name/version, screenshots, etc.):

  • Firefox 106.0.5
  • Windows 22H2 19045.2251
  • Vector 2022 skin

Event Timeline

Is this also a problem on Vector which uses the same font stack?

The problem occurs on old Vector skin, too. But there are different behaviors on different wikis:

For instance:

  1. apparently correct (Arabic):

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9

h1/h2: font-family: Arial;
but this rule comes from Mediawiki:Common.css. If this rule is killed, the same problem occur.

  1. incorrect (Egyptian Arabic)

https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9

h1/h2: font-family: 'Linux Libertine','Georgia','Times',serif;

The problem occurs on German Wikivoyage, too. But I added a CSS rule as a workaround

UnreadableHeadersOldVectorSkin.jpg (1×1 px, 239 KB)

ovasileva triaged this task as Medium priority.Nov 17 2022, 3:30 PM
ovasileva moved this task from Incoming to Not ready to estimate on the Web-Team-Backlog board.
ovasileva subscribed.

@RolandUnger - we were unable to replicate this issue from our side so will decline for now. If you're still experiencing it, feel free to re-open.

Aklapper renamed this task from Unreadable non-latin letters in h1 and h2 headers to Unreadable non-latin letters in h1 and h2 headers on Windows.Dec 7 2023, 12:05 AM

If the team was unable to reproduce, could you share which Windows version was used and which browser and browser version and which URL? Thanks.