Internet Explorer 8, Input fields or auto complete data too small to read

highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
edited August 2011 in Science & Tech
I'm having a font issue and after much reading I haven't found a solution
yet. I'm using IE8 on Vista. (I upgraded to the beta version to see if it would help. This problem existed already with IE7) The text I see on a webpage looks fine. The text
I see on menu bars/address bars/search bars, also looks fine. What I'm having
trouble with is anything that I have to "input" on a webpage. It's too small
to read and it appears to be a strange font. For example, when I log into an
account my username and password appears too small to read while I'm typing
it. It's very bothersome as you can't tell if you've typed something
correctly or not. They're are a couple of instances where it shows up that
way on a page somewhere but it "always" does it in any field in which I have
to "input" data.

My view: text size is set to "Medium" and changing this has no affect on
these fields. It only changes to text that appears on webpages. I did make
one discovery though. When I change the "encoding" from Unicode (UTF-8) to
Western European it seems to fix the problem (my input text shows up
normally) but it's only temporary. As soon as I reload, visit another page,
or open another window it reverts back to Unicode (UTF-8) and the problem
returns. I've tried using the "Auto Select" after switching but I get the
same result.

I am running IE7 on my other machine with WinXP and I don't have this
problem. View: text size is set to medium and the encoding is Unicode (UTF-8)
yet input data on that machine appears normal.


I have just noticed that My Norton bar at the top of this windown has a drop
down menu in which the text appears normal but 2 "buttons" beside that which
have this same small and strange looking font.

Is there an option to change the font that is used for "input" fields?

I just opened my <NOBR style="FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" id=itxt_nobr_25_0>Windowsmag-glass_10x10.gif</NOBR> Mail and I noticed that some of the messages in my
inbox have this same small font in the headers. The "From", "To" and
"Subject" look normal but the text that follows them is the same small font
that I get in the "input" fields of IE7. It only appears on a few of the
emails though. The headers in the rest of the emails look normal.



Put that in your DVD drive and smoke it. :grumble:<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Comments

  • highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
    edited February 2009
    Just as a note........... I'm seeing this font in several differnt places/programs on my computer so it's not going to be an IE issue. It's also showing up in my Nortons Internet Security software so it's apparently a default font on my system. I can tell form Nortons that the font isn't uniform. ie, the smaller case letters are not all the same size. It's weird. I'm going to see if I locate the font and remove it to see what the computer reverts to.
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    Ugh, I know what you mean! This has been bugging me for the LONGEST time! I, however, have not experienced anything like this with my ie7.

    Last year when Microsoft released the beta version of ie8, I immediately downloaded it but was very disappointed how I could not see anything written inside inputs, or even the text that's supposed to show inside my toolbar thingies, I can't describe it well enough so I took a couple of screen shots:

    Here's what I see of inputs on webpages:
    ie11111.gif

    & down here is what I see when I try try to use one of those toolbar buttons I have there: (The drop-down is supposed to be a menu of options with visible text on them, but nothing is there)
    ie1111.gif

    When I saw how buggy it was then (this was last year), I uninstalled ie8 & reverted back to ie7, planning to wait it out until enough time's passed for them to fix all issues they had with ie8, because back then I believe some people had trouble seeing some fonts too..

    Just this month (March), I decided to try ie8 again, hoping it would be better by now. But voila! Nada, all bugs I've had with it are all still very much there.


    The only way to avoid the input bug, is to make sure the inputs have their fonts specified (which includes font-size, font face, etc) inside the webpage's style sheet, which is basically no solution at all because we do not have access to these sites' style sheets & there's no way for us to modify those for them.

    I am actually not an ie user, I just have the browser for other purposes, like checking browser compatability etc, because I think around 90% of the world still uses ie. I actually use firefox, but this bug with ie is completely annoying me. I do have "ie tab" installed as an add-on, yet it does not change the fact that ie is CUURRAZY.

    It's not anything on my PC, I'm sure of that, & I actually found this thread on google while I was searching for a fix for this problem & I just couldn't help replying. :)
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Hi p1nk,

    These aren't normal bugs. I too downloaded the IE8 beta and experienced none of the problems you're having. If you're having this problem even after uninstalling and reinstalling IE8, I'd seriously consider reinstalling Windows; you have bigger problems here, and it would probably take longer to track it down than it would to put 3 or 4 hours into a backup/reformat/reinstall.

    I wish I had a better fix for you, but if entire dropdown menus are blank you have a serious software problem.

    highperf4x4,

    Sorry no one had any ideas about this one. Were you able to fix it?
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    ^ The one in my screenshot is the "Command bar", & it's not the toolbar, just didn't know what it was called but I just found out now..

    My toolbar actually shows up just fine, the text shows up fine.. But my "Command bar" icons which I have on my upper left browser corner, does not show anything once clicked.

    I don't even know what it could be because I have nothing on my computer that could cause this, perhaps an add-on on ie? I only have ie pro, & I don't think that's the one.
    I don't see this anywhere else at all, not in any of my folders, etc., just with ie.

    The only explanation that comes to mind here is that I might have deleted a system font, or something, which could be why this certain font does not show up for me, I don't know, but it's a very logical explanation & the only one I could think of.
    I'm not considering viruses, or anything, & I would never reformat or reinstall windows because I don't think ie deserves that much bother.
    I just think they could have missed this issue because probably not a lot of computers experience this, I don't think it's my system though..


    I don't use windows live mail, so I'm just going to take highperf4x4's word on this when he says the font shows up on his windows live mail too, & hearing this it does make me think that this is very much a system font, since apparently only ms-related softwares use it, since I only ever see it on IE..
    I think Microsoft is the only one using this font, they probably included it in one of their updates which some might have missed to download, I don't know.. LOL



    <cite class="ic-username"></cite>
    <cite class="ic-username">

    </cite>
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    IE8 uses the same system font as every other Windows component and application (including Firefox). A missing font is most likely not the problem in your case.
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    Well you don't need rocket science to figure that one out, but since this is a font-seeing problem, & it's only experienced while using ms-related programs such as ie, the only explanation that comes to mind is that ie could be calling for a font that isn't there, & since all my other softwares' fonts show up fine, it couldn't possibly be the same font my other softwares are calling since the ones IE calls for are not showing up at all.

    ie7 for me works perfectly, I just have this issue with ie8. I really don't think it's my system because it's pretty much healthy, I don't have any problems or anything with it, but I don't know, you guys could be right.

    When I use "ie tab" on firefox to emulate ie, it shows exactly the same stuff, the same input problems, it's funny.
    But anyway, my super-duper solution to this was I stopped using my command bar. :D
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    When Microsoft programs call for a font that doesn't exist, they fall back to any number of alternatives. Trebuchet MS, Segoe UI, Verdana, Arial, the bold/italic form of the missing font, etc. The point is that a menu wouldn't come up blank if a font were to blame; the menu would appear with something (possibly) hideous but workable.
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    Ok, thanks for all your help. It's no big deal really, I don't use ie that much, probably 2x a month, but I just wanted it to work without kinks during the little times that I do use it. But if it's going to take that much effort to correct it then I'm absolutely fine with it how it is, it's perfect then.

    Seriously, thanks for trying to help guys! I'm fine with not using the command bar, I've removed it & only access the commands using my toolbars. :)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    :) Welcome to Icrontic, then.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Why would you tell me you don't need rocket science to figure it out, then repeat the same (wrong) deduction? :wtf:

    It's the same font. This also isn't how a font problem would manifest (as Thrax said). It's not a font problem.

    If you have the same problem in Firefox's IE tabs, then it's a systemic problem in IE or Windows. I'd recommend uninstalling any IE plugins and reinstalling IE again if you want to use it and don't want to format.

    //edit: bah, cross-posted. oh well, nevermind then. :)
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    Thank you! I already can see it's a pretty active forum. :D


    edit: Ok Lincoln, gotcha.. I *will* do that, uninstall ie & add-ons, then reinstall ie. I think that's not too much hard-work there, if I continue to experience problems with it despite that let's just say ie hates me & leave it as that. :P
  • highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
    edited March 2009
    wow, I waited almost a month for a response and now it's a hot topic but still no help! lol


    Actually Lincoln, you were correct at least in my situation. It is some type of systemic problem. The screwy font was showing up in IE7 and the IE8 beta, my mail program, and even my nortons bars. So, what I did was a little bit of southern engineering. (this might take a minute) I opened a webpage with a login field, typed something in that field then resized the window to take up one half of my screen, magnified it to like 500% then I opened Word, resized it to take up the other half of the screen, typed the same thing on a blank page, right clicked it, chose font, and used the sample window to scroll through the font list until I found a match. It was something screwy like danking, I can't remember exactly what it was now but there were several close matches so it took a little while. Once I found it, I went to the font folder in control panel and deleted that font. It took me a little while to change the permissions of that font file so that I could delete it even though I was an administrator. Once I got it deleted, the system reverted to another font that isn't exactly what I'd want but it was definitely 5000% better than what I had and at least now I could read it. I'm still looking for the proper solution and if I find it I'll bring it here.

    I still think I should be able to make an edit in the registry somewhere to control this font situation.
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    highperf4x4 wrote:
    wow, I waited almost a month for a response and now it's a hot topic but still no help! lol
    LOL I actually didn't expect anyone to reply at all, seeing that no one did for like a month after the post was made.. :eek3:

    edit: Could it be, at all by any chance, connected with Windowblinds? Coz I have windowblinds & maybe it's not compatible with the skin or something coz I have the pc fonts modified from there?
    .. I might disable Windowblinds for a sec to check, but ugh, I'm so lazy, maybe tomorrow.. :mouldy:
  • p1nkp1nk
    edited March 2009
    Sorry for double-posting, but I wanted to make this post seen because I actually now know what could have caused the problem I had..

    Today, I actually disabled Windowblinds & restarted my computer. With Windowblinds not loading, I opened my ie8, put back my "Command bar" icons, & clicked them.
    Guess what, all the text was there, everything, no problems with it whatsoever.

    I don't know why Windowblinds caused that at all, I noticed that I have deleted the skins from my computer but I thought after loading them onto Windowblinds once they'd already be there forever. Now when I try to use a skin with Windowblinds, it asks where the skin is in my computer, or if I'd want to download it from the internet.. wiiieeerd...
    Anyway, my problem is solved. :D I never actually thought it was windowblinds, & was very surprised when I tried to check & it turns out that it actually really was.
  • highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
    edited March 2009
    Yeah, I've had several people mention the windowblinds thing for my situation as well but I've never had windowblinds on the computer. I also wasn't missing characters anywhere I just had a font showing up in certain fields that was way too small to read without magnification.
  • bedex78bedex78
    edited May 2009
    Try unchecking "Enable visual styles on buttons and controls in webpages" in Internet Options > Advanced > Browsing

    It did the trick for me.

    I got it from here:

    http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=34007075&threadid=34007070
  • highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
    edited May 2009
    bedex78 wrote:
    Try unchecking "Enable visual styles on buttons and controls in webpages" in Internet Options > Advanced > Browsing

    It did the trick for me.

    I got it from here:

    http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=34007075&threadid=34007070

    I tried that and it didn't help. Thanks for the advice though! :rockon:
  • sharfsharf
    edited September 2009
    not sure if anyone cares...or if anyone will read this, but I've been looking to fix this myself. The issue IE8 has, that they admitted to, is that it does not fully support skins, so, when I used my alienware skin it messed it up. The way to fix it (the input fields etc.) is to make a custom CSS(Cascading Style Sheet) and have IE use that as the default style.

    To do this, open up notepad, and type:

    INPUT {
    font-size: 10pt;
    }

    Now save it as what ever you want, but make sure the file extension is .css and not .txt from here go to internet options, then on the main page click on accessibility in the bottom right, in the new window check the box under User Style Sheet, then click browse and locate your CSS file. Note that the CSS must remain intact to function, so I suggest placing it somewhere safe. I put mine in the ie8 folder.

    This only fixes input fields(buttons, and password/username fields) textareas(large text fields for comments or something) are unaffected. I've been trying to add textarea {font-size: 10pt;} to the CSS but it does not appear to work.

    Hope this helps
  • highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
    edited September 2009
    My problem originated in IE7. I did the upgrade to IE8 in hopes it would fix it but it didn't. I will try this and see what happens. My other problem was that the font IE was using (actually outlook express was using it too) was a really screwy lookin font. I had to figure out which one it was and delete it from my windows folder to get rid of it. Do you have an option to add to this .css file to change the font that IE uses?
  • sharfsharf
    edited September 2009
    Yup. While you could set the default font with CSS by adding another line like this:

    html, body, td, th {
    font-family: arial;
    }

    The easier way is to go to internet options, and on the general tab(main tab) click fonts at the bottom. There you can pick which fonts are displayed by default.
  • highperf4x4highperf4x4 US
    edited September 2009
    sharf wrote:
    Yup. While you could set the default font with CSS by adding another line like this:

    html, body, td, th {
    font-family: arial;
    }

    The easier way is to go to internet options, and on the general tab(main tab) click fonts at the bottom. There you can pick which fonts are displayed by default.

    That's a negative. There isn't any option in IE that will get rid of the font. I've tried them all each time I went to a new forum to find the answer to my problem just so I could say "thx but it didn't work" lol I will try your method tomorrrow maybe and see if it works.
  • kissyface702kissyface702 Windsor, Ontario
    edited November 2009
    bedex78 wrote:
    Try unchecking "Enable visual styles on buttons and controls in webpages" in Internet Options > Advanced > Browsing

    It did the trick for me.

    I got it from here:

    http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=34007075&threadid=34007070

    This fixed my problem! Thanks for the info! :rockon:
  • OrtosucioOrtosucio
    edited January 2010
    DEVELOPERS:

    You can prevent users to experience this problem just by specifying the font-size for inputs.
  • bimphbimph The Cybercave
    edited February 2010
    p1nk wrote:
    LOL I actually didn't expect anyone to reply at all, seeing that no one did for like a month after the post was made.. :eek3:

    edit: Could it be, at all by any chance, connected with Windowblinds? Coz I have windowblinds & maybe it's not compatible with the skin or something coz I have the pc fonts modified from there?
    .. I might disable Windowblinds for a sec to check, but ugh, I'm so lazy, maybe tomorrow.. :mouldy:

    The same type of thing was happening to me mate - and you got me thinking about windows blinds as well. You dont have to completely disable windows blinds though to get around it. Just go to per application settings and set up WB to ignore internet explorer. Its not a problem with WB but with the skin - as some skins are fine and some are not.
    This was driving me crazy until I read this post because - in my case - I suspected it may have had something to do with windows blinds.
  • elvesbrewelvesbrew
    edited August 2010
    bedex78 wrote:
    Try unchecking "Enable visual styles on buttons and controls in webpages" in Internet Options > Advanced > Browsing

    It did the trick for me.

    I got it from here:

    http://www.eggheadcafe.com/conversation.aspx?messageid=34007075&threadid=34007070


    It did the trick for me too.

    I am still experiencing another issue regarding Win XP Pro SP3 themes, that I thought was related. When I open up desktop properties and select "Themes" the Sample: window is completely blacked out on everything except for the Modified Theme I am using and the Windows XP theme. This seemed to occur after I went online and added a few more themes one day.

    Any ideas?

    EB
  • mikemcmmikemcm West Midlands
    edited November 2010
    I too have recently installed IE8 and experienced the smallfont issue.
    I have found a fix which I have tested by powering down and restarting.

    All you need do is select left click the view settings from the task bar and run the mouse down to 'Zoom" Initially I used 125% to do the first test - but finished up using the "Custom" setting seat at 110% works fine for me - hope it does for you!!
  • rdohertyrdoherty
    edited August 2011
    I had this same problem of small form fields in IE and having WindowBlinds installed, it was trying to "skin" the program. I went into the tool and excluded IE and its all fixed.

    So - Try all the other options as well, but if you have WindowBlinds or any other theme type programs running...look to see if you can exclude IE.

    Good luck!
Sign In or Register to comment.