How to fix Chrome when weird characters appear in the password fields

This is something that I have faced in Google Chrome version Version 35.0.1916.153 m and earlier on a PC running Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. I have never experienced it on a Mac. This issue arises when a font called Helvetic Neue is installed. Helvetic Neue is a favoured font among a lot of graphic designers. While I do not use it very often myself, I do have clients who send me documents that often use this font, compelling me to install it. While it allows me to work with documents in the form that they are intended to be seen in the print world, it ends up causing me a fair bit of angst when I try to log into WordPressor Mailchimp, or read content on 500px. It causes Chrome to display characters incorrectly.

There are two ways of solving this issue. The first is to remove the offending font. In my case, it has always been Helvetica Neue. Once I removed it, it was no longer an issue.

The other way to remove it is to update your custom CSS file for Chrome. (Note – I found this solution on the Mass Media Design UK blog) Chrome allows users to define their own custom CSS changes which override the website CSS. By editing this file, we can force Chrome to replace Helvetica with something more reliable, such as Arial.

To find the custom CSS file, go to

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\User StyleSheets\

Open the file “Custom.css” in your favourite text editor, and paste in the following 3 lines:

@font-face { font-family: 'helvetica neue'; src: local('Arial'); }
@font-face { font-family: 'HelveticaNeue-Light'; src: local('Arial'); }
@font-face { font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light'; src: local('Arial'); }

Save the file, and close and restart Chrome. This ought to solve the issue without the need to remove the Helvetica Neue font from your system. (Note – this is under the assumption that the font causing the issue is indeed Helvetica Neue).