Helvetica Fractions font may cause text to display improperly in Address Book, iChat, Safari, Mail

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If you have the Helvetica Fractions font installed, text in some applications (including Address Book, iChat, Safari and Mail) may appear as overlapping numbers and symbols.

To avoid this issue in Mac OS X 10.3 and later, use Font Book to turn off the Helvetica Fractions font.

If you're using Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier, check these two font locations for the Helvetica Fractions font:

  • /Library/Fonts/
  • ~/Library/Fonts/ (the tilde represents your Home folder)

If you find a Helvetica Fractions font (or fonts), which may appear as "HelveFra" or "HelveFraBold," remove it from the folders. (To avoid other issues, do not disable the Helvetica font.)

Last Modified: Feb 19, 2012

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