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Internet Explorer 9 Does Not Render Certain Websites

Internet Explorer 9 may not render certain websites correctly, yet it renders the same sites properly on another system. Resetting the Internet Explorer settings or using software rendering does not help, nor does creating a fresh profile on the system, or logging in as a different user. The sites render correctly on Internet Explorer 7 or 8.

This may occur if a font the webpage is requesting is corrupt or cannot be rendered by Internet Explorer.

Normally a website requests fonts by specifying a list of desired fonts, in order of preference. For example, the following instruction may appear in the site's style sheet (.CSS):

{ font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

The browser will read the list and render the site in the font requested in the order specified. In the above example, if Tahoma exists on the system, it will be rendered in Tahoma, otherwise it will be rendered in Arial if it exists, otherwise in Helvetica if it exists, etc.

However, if the first font exists, but cannot be rendered, the site will not display properly.

One example of this is when using Type 1 (Adobe) fonts.

Sites which fail to render will most likely specify Helvetica above the other fonts, as Arial, Tahoma are very commonly specified for websites and are included in Windows as TrueType or OpenType fonts. Yet Helvetica may be a Type 1 font depending on your configuration.


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