Browser Japanese Font Changed

[malik11111]

Hey! Thanks for stopping by ^^

So I recently reinstalled my Windows 10 Pro and set everything up (in English as it's my primary language). I then wanted to add Japanese to my windows languages, so I went into Region & language and pressed Add a language.

I installed the Japanese pack and restarted my PC. After logging on, my Japanese font on Google Chrome has changed to something ugly, so I tried different methods of changing it within windows and Chrome through different apps or commands, but I didn't find anything that helped after 3 hours.

I've had this error once before where the font changed, but fixed it with a glitch (lucked out on that), so I don't know how to do it again - plus it was a year or two ago.

Why did (and still does, it seems) this happen? Is there a way to turn back to the previous font? And as a side question: if there is, is it also possible to change it to a custom font? If not then I'll be content with the default font before the change.

Thank you for your time

 

[viveknayyar007]

Hello

Can you please confirm what commands and apps did you try to fix the issue?

I was wondering if you already tried changing the language back to English, and then trying to switch back to Japanese?

Just in case, here's a link for your reference.

Also, if possible, can you please try removing Chrome from your computer and then try re-installing it?

Cheers!!

 

[malik11111]

Hello

Can you please confirm what commands and apps did you try to fix the issue?

I was wondering if you already tried changing the language back to English, and then trying to switch back to Japanese?

Just in case, here's a link for your reference.

Also, if possible, can you please try removing Chrome from your computer and then try re-installing it?

Cheers!!

Hey, thank you for replying

Ok so I did as the link said, but all it did is change the font and language settings on that page and any links it shows, so if I open a new tab then everything turns back to English. Even if I search for a Japanese result by typing some words in, the ugly font still exits and is not overwritten by the link's language setting change.

I also uninstalled and reinstalled Chrome, but nothing changed.

The font also exists on Edge, not only Chrome. I also installed Firefox to see what happens, and the same ugly font is there as well.

I've been using an extension on Chroma called "Google Input Tools", and even in the pre-enter box, the font is the ugly one.

Here's what I tried so far (iirc):

• 
  ■ Going into Region & language and installing and deleting and reinstalling the Japanese pack, and editing its position, in Windows Settings. I also went into the Microsoft IME within that pack and went into Conversation in the Advanced Settings for Microsoft IME to turn Use fixed font for candidate list items off, just in case it did anything (it didn't).
  ■ I also followed the instructions given here: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-default-system-font-windows-10. What it did was change my English font (to slightly less quality) but did not change the browser fonts. I followed their instructions again to reverse this.
  ■ I tried going into Settings in Chrome, then Customize fonts and change the fonts there but nothing changed.
  I also installed the Advanced Font Settings extension and changed the font there, on Default Script, and on the Japanese one with zero change again.
  ■ That, and some more time typing in different combinations of the same question only for the results to not be relevant. I've had this error before so I figured someone must talk about it, but doesn't seem like it, it seems.

I probably missed something 'cause it's 5 am lol

I use Jisho.org to test my font, and this is the font I'm seeing everywhere (the ugly font):

I would show you how it looked before, but that's exactly the issue I'm trying to solve now

Update:
I've been on Google for about an hour when I glance at a Youtube video and see that the font is different. It turns out, the font has changed for everything but Jisho.org after I left the PC off for a few hours; that's to say, every single website, as far as I'm aware, has a new font (which is different from the default before installing the Japanese language pack, but looks better than both of them). Jisho.org, as well as Google's tab names, have the ugly font, everything else has a new (nice) font. (Edge's font is still the ugly font.) I'm going to change fonts to different ones on everything I can find to see what actually changed the font.

Another update:
I went into Settings on Google Chrome, went to Customize fonts, Advanced font settings. I set the Default Script to (Use default) on everything, and then switched to the Japanese Script.
I set Standard to "UD Digi Kyokasho NK-B", Serif to "SimSun", Sans-Serif to "Sazanami Mincho, and Fixed to "Microsoft YaHei". I restarted my PC, but there was an update to windows. After login in on again, the previous nice font was gone and every Japanese character is back to being that ugly font. So, it seems like Advanced font settings won't solve the issue, nor was it the thing that changed the font to the nice font.

I deleted the Japanese language pack from windows and restarted, but the fonts stayed ugly. I then reinstalled Chrome, but the fonts are still ugly.

This is what the Advanced font settings says: "Chrome will use the font settings controlled by this extension when BOTH of the following are true:
1) The web page has declared the language of the content (e.g., by using the HTML lang attribute); and
2) The web page has not specified a font to use."
Which probably means that the ugly font is stored somewhere, and so could probably be changed.

 

[malik11111]

I tried a few more minor things or redid the things already said, but I really don't know how to fix this.

 

[malik11111]

I went back to this link and changed the default language to Japanese and then restarted Chrome so it takes effect on the whole browser instead of just that page.

What changed:

• 
  ■ Tabs with Japanese letters have the nice font
  ■ Youtube turned into the Japanese language (with the nice font)
  ■ Font on Japanese websites is the nice font (though I think this might've not changed) but some texts are still the ugly font

What didn't change:

• 
  ■ The font on Jisho.org is still ugly
  ■ When you Google anything in Japanese, the font in the results is ugly
  ■ The extension "Google Input Tools"'s pre-enter box has the ugly font

I then changed the default language back to English and restarted Chrome.

What changed:

• 
  ■ Youtube is now in English, but any Japanese displayed has the ugly font
  ■ Japanese websites might have more ugly font
  ■ Tabs with Japanese now have the ugly font

I forgot to see before I started this, but Google Translate's Japanese font is the nice one.


I think Window's Japanese font is interfering with browsers' fonts, and when it doesn't is when the custom (nice) font can be seen. I'll try to contact Microsoft and see if there's a way to reverse this override.

 

[malik11111]

I was(n't) able to find a solution. I bought an SSD so I restarted my OS, and that 'solved' it, I guess you could say. I won't install the Japanese language pack as that started the problem. I'll probably come across this problem again if I need to use Japanese other than in Chrome.

 

[SiriusB8]

Hi there,

I also encountered the "ugly font" on jisho.org (and other sites, like Evernote for me for example) after adding the Japanese language pack in Windows 10.
How I fixed this was by deleting the ugly font from the windows folder.

1. Go to C:\Windows\Fonts
2. Look at the icon previews for the fonts that resemble what you see in Jisho (For me it was Meiryo and BIZ UDGothic)
3. Select target fonts
4. Press Delete button
5. Restart browser

If at step 4 an error pops up with "...cannot be deleted because it is a protected system font", follow the steps:

1. Go to Windows Search
2. Type in regedit and enter the Registry Editor app
3. Go to: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts
4. Look for the registry corresponding (by name) with the font you are trying to delete
5. Select > Right Click > Delete
6. Go back to C:\Windows\Fonts and repeat deleting steps.

So if you still want/need the Japanese language pack, you can try doing this.
Hope it helps.