Powerbook/Safari/Mail gibberish text

[buzz1975]

Wondering if anyone can help me on this. I have a new (to me) Powerbook G4 1.33 running OS 10.3 and every so often the text in Safari and Mail will turn to gibberish. Meaning all text will be rendered unreadable, characters changed...etc. I have a screenshot, but cant figure out how to upload it.

If anyone has experienced this or heard of it, can you point me in a direction of how to fix it. The text does return to normal after closing and reopening the program but it happens fairly often and is getting annoying. Thanks in advance.
rp

 

[perfessor101]

This is a relatively common problem caused by a corrupted Font. In 99% of the cases the faulty font is Helvetica Fractions. Remove it from your font folder and most likely the problem will be solved. Before you ask, I have never seen an explanation of why it is always Helvetica Fractions. I don't have it on any of my Macs and I don't even know what app installs it.

 

[Natobasso]

I have had this problem too from time to time, and usually it's hotmail that does it first and the most, though other pages have done it as well. I think if a web programmer specifies helvetica as it's screen font then that conflicts with helvetica on the mac with safari. It's a very strange and frustrating problem, and it keeps me from fully committing to safari.