Degraded (editable) text in Product Pages and EZ Pages

This is going to sound strange however on all 5 ZC sites (4 x 1.3.9h and 1 x 1.5.1) the text in product details pages (creating/editing product details) and in EZ pages in Admin is 'degraded' or faded not unlike an old thermopaper fax, very hard to read, especially non text characters. All other text on the 'form' is perfect, it is just the editable area of the product description (and EZ Page description), the other 'blocks' are perfect (price, qty, title etc.)

I was about to buy a new monitor however every other text examples on the many, many sites I have just visited is perfect, whether 'editable' as in forum posts or otherwise. The monitor shows no other signs of deterioration of color, text or anything else so it cannot be the monitor.

Has anyone else experienced this? (yes I have been to an optometrist recently, my glasses are clean and I have taken my meds :smile: )

cheers,
Mike

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Are you referring to in the admin???
If so, then I have not experienced this

posted image is reduced to 640px wide - hard to see - capture a smaller area for more clarity

check the CSS - opacity, shadows, gradients, etc can make a textarea unreadable

kobra:

Are you referring to in the admin???
If so, then I have not experienced this

Yes in the admin - subsequent to posting I have gone ahead and purchased a new Samsung LED Monitor and the issue remains. Typing in here is perfect but in admin entering product description (only in that specific panel - boxes are OK) and entering text in EZ PAGES it is very hard to read.

Is there a setting I can adjust to (a) modify contrast and/or (b) increase the size of text for editing? Are there any computer settings to look at?

here is another screenshot (note the text in the form is OK but not in the description panel; (not sure how to get the images larger in here?)

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which css file and where in the file?

testing image clarity - this is better - see text inside panel is 'faded' - note in line 4 there should be a 'space' '-' 'space' between words ball and such, i.e. ball - such.

It is there, it shows up in the product page on the site but it cannot be seen when editing as per in this image. Some characters are impossible to discern so editing is a nightmare. You can see that the text in the form is fine.

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Not that it would completely solve your problem, but have you considered or tried adding ckeditor to your installed files for the site? It is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type editor instead of the default text editor that you seem to have been working with: http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1098

Sorry unable to offer help on the CSS file(s) at the moment as away from computer/tools.

What editor are you using? Does the problem persist when you switch to a different browser?

This might well be related.

A recent update for Windows Vista SP2 has caused a lot of random 'blurred text' across my machine - including browsers. Others out there have had similar problems.
I'm putting up with it until Microsoft get a patch issued, but I have read that uninstalling the KB3013455 security update will provide a fix - although this opens the security hole that that patch filled.

Google the KB for more info.

Hope you get it sorted.

stevesh:

What editor are you using? Does the problem persist when you switch to a different browser?

I am using the standard editor with the install and I switched from Firefox to Chrome and no difference - still stumped.

mc12345678:

Not that it would completely solve your problem, but have you considered or tried adding ckeditor to your installed files for the site? It is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) type editor instead of the default text editor that you seem to have been working with: http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=1098

Sorry unable to offer help on the CSS file(s) at the moment as away from computer/tools.

I do have ckeditor on one site and yes it works well in text mode but not in 'source' mode. I can install it on all sites and start using it as the norm - is there some way I can make it default editor? This can be a countermeasure but it doesn't solve the problem as you say. The site I have ckeditor on is in fact a v1.5.1 whereas the other four are v1.3.9h so the problem occurs also in 1.5.1 even using htmlAREA.

One thing that comes to mind is that I recently changed all sites to a new template, a 'responsive' template (Responsive All Business by Anne at Picaflor Azul) - I cannot see that a template change would affect the editor however I will ask the question of Anne.

Switching browsers didn't improve the situation.

Looking forward to your assistance,
cheers, Mike

simon1066:

This might well be related.

A recent update for Windows Vista SP2 has caused a lot of random 'blurred text' across my machine - including browsers. Others out there have had similar problems.
I'm putting up with it until Microsoft get a patch issued, but I have read that uninstalling the KB3013455 security update will provide a fix - although this opens the security hole that that patch filled.

Google the KB for more info.

Hope you get it sorted.

Thanks for the good input Simon - I will first see what mc12345678 can offer as a solution - if all else fails I will try removing the patch temporarily to see if it resolves the issue, needless to say I am loathe to play around with Winows.

cheers, Mike

Mike, what browser are you using?
Do you have Firebug installed?

If you're using Chrome or have Firebug installed, then if you right-click on that "blurry" textarea field, you can click on 'Inspect Element', and then you'll have some tools to see what CSS classes are being applied to that textarea element on the page, including what font, etc. You can then try changing some of those settings to see whether that helps visually. Then once you've decided on your desired changes, go make those changes in the corresponding css file.

Hi Doc - I am using Firefox browser - found and used Inspect Element - results are below however the information did not match with the stylesheet.css, i.e. lines didn't correlate and even section nomenclature. I did increase font size in these lines in includes/templates/template_default/css/stylesheet.css to no effect;

CODE {
font-family: arial, verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 1em;
}

FORM, SELECT, INPUT {
display: inline;
font-size: 1em;
margin: 0.1em;
}

info from Inspect Element;

element {
}
textarea {
width: 80%; line: 138
}
checkbox, input, radio, select, textarea, file {
font-size: 11px; line: 135
}
a, body, html, table {
font: 11px Verdana,sans-serif; line: 16
}
body {
color: #333; line: 96
}

I also switched to previous templates including the default classic green and there was no difference so I guess it rules out the recent changeover to All Business Responsive, unless of course there is a glitch with responsive code in general? T

The existing font size 11 and color #333333 (dark grey) should be fine (and are standard right?) and increasing font size and shade of color in my opinion isn't going to fix the problem as much as I wish it would.

cheers, Mike

p.s. I must admit to being a novice with Inspect Element so didn't mess with debugging

Your admin uses /admin/includes/stylesheet.css .... not your /includes/templates/whatever-storefront-template-you're-using/common/xxxxxxx.css
Perhaps the cross references would have more meaning looking at that file?

DrByte:

Your admin uses /admin/includes/stylesheet.css .... not your /includes/templates/whatever-storefront-template-you're-using/common/xxxxxxx.css
Perhaps the cross references would have more meaning looking at that file?
Thanks Doc - yes all correlates using that css, again the elements are fine, font size and color - interestingly using Inspect Element the same lines govern the 'product name' box on the form and pretty much all text aspects on the form - those elements are spot on so it is puzzling why just the description panel / table/ form is the issue (same with an EZ page) - could there be issues with templates / javascript / something else that governs these areas specifically?

cheers,
Mike

You said you tried on another browser. Did you try on another windows computer? Or a tablet? Or a Mac?
Just trying to rule out the computer operating system.

Next I'd compare all the /admin/ folder files against original files, using WinMerge. ... find out any "added" files, and any "changed" files, and any "missing/deleted" files.

DrByte:

You said you tried on another browser. Did you try on another windows computer? Or a tablet? Or a Mac?
Just trying to rule out the computer operating system.

Next I'd compare all the /admin/ folder files against original files, using WinMerge. ... find out any "added" files, and any "changed" files, and any "missing/deleted" files.

Just tried using a Samsung Tablet and all was OK - will try another PC when I get an opportunity - refer post above from Simon regarding a patch for Windows Vista which I am running, I think I will try deleting the patch just long enough to see if it is the culprit then reinstate the patch - will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for your help so far Doc

cheers, Mike

At one time I installed a Lexmark Printer which installed a number of extra fonts.
This significantly changed my browser display that I had to uninstall these fonts.
Check that you haven't installed something that includes extra fonts

I can now confirm that the issue was caused by the Windows Security Update KB3013455 - I uninstalled it and everything was perfect. I am now re-installing the patch and will wait for Bill Gates to get out of bed and fix it - he owes me for a new monitor that has now been used that I didn't need !!

to everyone that has helped me a big Thank You - Simon your call was spot on.

cheers, Mike