Likely  issue 610466 ; please reactivate if this still happens on canary.

Per https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=610466#c27, seems like you're actually experiencing a different bug. Let's try a few things to help us diagnose. 

First, to make sure we're testing with the latest code, please install Chrome canary from https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html and see if the bug still happens there. Canary can be installed and run side-by-side with another Chrome installation, so you do not need to uninstall anything.

If the bug still happens in canary, open a command prompt and run the following command:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts" >reg_fonts.txt

That will create a reg_fonts.txt file - please attach that file to this bug.

You also mentioned that this bug happens with several other sites and extensions. Check that this bug still happens with no extensions installed (you can check when you first install canary, before installing extensions). Also please include a list of some of the sites and extensions that this bug happens on - that might help us find something that they have in common that's causing this.

Hello Again. Thanks for making this it's own bug. I'm happy to help troubleshoot. I'm very much a Chrome user and need it to work properly. // I've installed Canary. When I opened it, no change in font bolding or condensing on various pages. I then disabled all the extensions. No change. I then removed all the extensions. No change. My fonts still look like the my original screenshot. Attached is the txt file you requested. Thanks again for your help. 

Looks like the reg_fonts.txt file did not get attached. Could you attach it again?

Can you also provide a few more sites where the font problem occurs?

Strange it didn't attach. I've attached the txt file as well as a PDF of screenshots of pages where the fonts are messed up. I even show a comparison of how the Chrome Download page appears in Chrome vs Firefox. Besides Google Inbox and the OneTab extension I showed in my original bug post (see above) these are the only "sites/pages" I notice the fonts issue. But between Google Inbox and all my Worpdress "backends" - it's a pretty big deal! ;-) Thx again for your attention for a solution. 

Deleted: reg_fonts.txt 65.7 KB

reg_fonts.txt 65.7 KB View Download

Deleted: CHROME.pdf 343 KB

CHROME.pdf 343 KB Download

It looks like you have Helvetica installed, but only in the bold variant. That's probably causing inbox to be unable to display non-bold text, since it finds the Helvetica font, but that only has one style. Please try this: go into C:\Windows\Fonts, find the Helvetica font, and delete it (you can make a copy outside the fonts folder first, if you do not want to completely remove it). Then restart Chrome and see if that fixes inbox (you might also need to restart your computer).

I think the Google Chrome download page is suffering from the same problem but with the Open Sans font in the condensed variant. Please try deleting 'Open Sans' from your C:\windows\fonts folder, similarly to Helvetica.

Genius! That worked. I did what you said and then restarted it. I've checked all those page issues and all of them are now working perfectly. So you know, the Chrome I'm using is > Version 53.0.2785.57 beta-m (64-bit) < Should I go back to the stable version? I'm fine w staying w this beta but if I keep using it, will this beta update automatically when the stable catches up? Thanks again for your great help. :-) 

I think you can go back to stable without any problems. The beta version will also update, so it's up to you which one you want to use.

In the meantime, I need to think about what Chrome should do if we get a font family that doesn't have the full set of styles, and if we can even detect that case...

Thanks for the info. // Glad you're on the case for this font family issue. Maybe you could implement a "check parameters" test where Chrome can install or write-over existing font styles that are needed by the Chrome system. But I really don't know this area at all. 

The existing behavior is correct according to https://www.w3.org/TR/css-fonts-3/#font-style-matching, but clearly results in suboptimal user experience.

Tentatively marking as M53 stable blocker.

Similar issues were dealt with in  issue 366983  and  issue 408488 , but I'd like to try to get a more comprehensive fix.

M53 Stable launch is coming VERY soon.Your bug is labelled as Stable ReleaseBlock, pls make sure to land the fix asap so it gets chance to bake in beta before stable promotion later this month. Thank you.

Hi. I'm having the same problem. My fonts are blurry. I tried running with the beta (currently Version 53.0.2785.57 beta-m (64-bit))

I don't seem to have either Helvetica or Open sans font in my fonts folder (this is a pretty fresh install of Windows 10)

Currently Chrome is pretty much unusable. I've tried disabling hardware accelaration, and that does help a tiny bit but makes other reproducable bugs (squares of the UI not being rendered at all or flickering). - I also tried disabling font smoothing in windows 10 itself, but that doesn't make it better either.

Deleted: reg_fonts.txt 9.9 KB

reg_fonts.txt 9.9 KB View Download

Re: #15/mmo@: there appears to be nothing wrong with your reg_fonts.txt. However, this bug is about wrong font family selection, not blurriness. Please create a new bug (or comment/star on another existing bug) and include a screenshot of your font rendering. Please also note whether you are running at your monitor's native/recommended resolution and whether you are running in hidpi mode.

Please try to resolve this ASAP as we're very close to M53 Stable promotion. Please request a merge to M53 branch 2785 once change is landed/baked/verified in Canary. Thank you.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/0bf300d07fe226dc48da9cbfaa6d9ea36480f66d

commit 0bf300d07fe226dc48da9cbfaa6d9ea36480f66d
Author: kulshin <kulshin@chromium.org>
Date: Sat Aug 20 04:55:14 2016

Require certain faimilies to contain certain styles

This is a workaround for 635932, so that Chrome will ignore certain font
families unless they contain the specified font styles. We start out
requiring that Helvetica and Open Sans contain the regular variant,
because in some cases they get installed only in specialized variants
which results in fonts incorrectly displaying bold or condensed.

BUG=635932

Review-Url: https://codereview.chromium.org/2259733002
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#413323}

[modify] https://crrev.com/0bf300d07fe226dc48da9cbfaa6d9ea36480f66d/content/browser/renderer_host/dwrite_font_proxy_message_filter_win.cc
[modify] https://crrev.com/0bf300d07fe226dc48da9cbfaa6d9ea36480f66d/tools/metrics/histograms/histograms.xml

Assuming no problems in today's canary, I'd like to merge #18 to M53.

Your change meets the bar and is auto-approved for M53 (branch: 2785)

A friendly reminder that M53 Stable is launching VERY soon! Your bug is labelled as Stable ReleaseBlock, pls make sure to land the fix and get it merged into the release branch ASAP (before 5:00 PM PT, Tuesday) so we can take it for this week LAST Beta release for Desktop. Thank you!

Note: Merge has to happen by Friday, August 26th, 5:00 PM PST in order to make into the desktop Stable final build cut. 

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/8708aee2406f5bd80ea6a13093a85959d0af9ed9

commit 8708aee2406f5bd80ea6a13093a85959d0af9ed9
Author: Ilya Kulshin <kulshin@chromium.org>
Date: Mon Aug 22 21:54:51 2016

Require certain faimilies to contain certain styles

This is a workaround for 635932, so that Chrome will ignore certain font
families unless they contain the specified font styles. We start out
requiring that Helvetica and Open Sans contain the regular variant,
because in some cases they get installed only in specialized variants
which results in fonts incorrectly displaying bold or condensed.

BUG=635932

Review-Url: https://codereview.chromium.org/2259733002
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#413323}
(cherry picked from commit 0bf300d07fe226dc48da9cbfaa6d9ea36480f66d)

Review URL: https://codereview.chromium.org/2265373002 .

Cr-Commit-Position: refs/branch-heads/2758@{#2}
Cr-Branched-From: d5df93afba71062944c9609c72cbef1e03becec9-refs/heads/master@{#397861}

[modify] https://crrev.com/8708aee2406f5bd80ea6a13093a85959d0af9ed9/content/browser/renderer_host/dwrite_font_proxy_message_filter_win.cc
[modify] https://crrev.com/8708aee2406f5bd80ea6a13093a85959d0af9ed9/tools/metrics/histograms/histograms.xml

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/556b24d9cba9c23e7e804e28776b4a1034b76410

commit 556b24d9cba9c23e7e804e28776b4a1034b76410
Author: Ilya Kulshin <kulshin@chromium.org>
Date: Mon Aug 22 22:28:30 2016

Revert "Require certain faimilies to contain certain styles"

This change was accidentally landed on the wrong branch.

This reverts commit 8708aee2406f5bd80ea6a13093a85959d0af9ed9.

R=brucedawson@chromium.org
BUG=635932

Review URL: https://codereview.chromium.org/2269443004 .

Cr-Commit-Position: refs/branch-heads/2758@{#3}
Cr-Branched-From: d5df93afba71062944c9609c72cbef1e03becec9-refs/heads/master@{#397861}

[modify] https://crrev.com/556b24d9cba9c23e7e804e28776b4a1034b76410/content/browser/renderer_host/dwrite_font_proxy_message_filter_win.cc
[modify] https://crrev.com/556b24d9cba9c23e7e804e28776b4a1034b76410/tools/metrics/histograms/histograms.xml

#23 was accidentally merged to the wrong branch. It was reverted in https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/556b24d9cba9c23e7e804e28776b4a1034b76410

The correct merge is https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/8af1a7e6c09bdfe6622538e9f31b1c5265d68596

URL tested: https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/
Font installed: Open Sans Condensed Bold
Chrome versions tested: 52.0.2743.116(without fix) and 53.0.2785.80(with fix)
OS platform: Windows 10.


Merged is working as intended hence adding the verified label and attached is the screenshot.

Deleted: 635932.jpg 471 KB

	635932.jpg 471 KB View Download

@kulshin: Could you please change the status of this issue since it was verified as per the comment #26

Removing releaseblock-stable. I want to keep this bug for now, since there's still more work that needs to be done here.

It's funny because according to Wikipedia: In 2011, one of Google's April Fools' Day jokes centered around the use of Helvetica. If a user attempted to search for the term "Helvetica" using the search engine, the results would be displayed in the font Comic Sans.

And now Helvetica came back for a revenge.

Deleted: Direct Write Fiasco.png 81.9 KB

	Direct Write Fiasco.png 81.9 KB View Download

Updated to Chrome 53, fonts are rendered properly, no more Helvetica. Thanks!

Started some discussions in https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2016Aug/0089.html and https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-style/2016Sep/0001.html, but didn't seem like there was a lot of enthusiasm. Not sure how to best move this forward...

Any update here kulshin?

I'm not actively working on Chromium at this time, so I haven't made any recent progress.

In terms of immediate impact, on Windows we have a mechanism to require that certain font families require certain styles (see https://codereview.chromium.org/2265373002). If this problem occurs on other platforms, we could consider implementing a similar mechanism in a more central location.

In terms of standards, my read of the situation is that at this time there isn't any wide-spread desire to make any changes to the standard, but perhaps someone with more experience with the standards process could effect some changes. Ultimately, the problem is that the standard assumes that all font-families will be able to provide a reasonable implementation of all font styles (this is clearly not the case), or that selecting the preferred font-family is always preferable to selecting any particular font style (this is more debatable, but I think users would argue that ensuring a useful font style is more important than picking the font-family specified by css). There's also the issue that the same font style doesn't mean the same thing with all font families - some families are inherently more bold, for example - which is also not addressed by the W3 standard.