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In Linux Mint KDE 17.2 (KDE4) the Google search fonts are different than in other systems.
In Linux Mint Xfce 17.2 (that is, the same OS, different DE), it is normal one, that is the one that I prefer and have on the other systems that I tested (Ubuntu Unity, Lubuntu, Manjaro KDE5 and Netrunner KDE5, Kubuntu 14.10 (KDE4), Windows 7 and 10, and this no matter the browser (Firefox, Google Chrome):
So, this is not browser specific. the same happens in Chrome and Firefox, it is system specific. I have tested from live USB different OSes that use KDE, it only happens in Mint 17.2 KDE. Kubuntu 14.10 which also uses KDE4 is not affected.
The most common font, and the one that I prefer to have is Arial I guess, while the other one may be Segoe. I think I have seen the latter in other systems/desktops but trying to check this I couldn't confirm.
I have customized the KDE fonts (FreeSans all around) but the system settings don't seem to affect this.
The place where I see this kind of difference more clearly is Google Search results page. But I expect it to be present in other Google services.
UPDATE:
This affects other Google services like Gmail and Google Translate, but not Youtube and Google+.
I have even tried to see if the same difference is present between Firefox for Windows installed under Playonlinux in LMint Xfce and LMint KDE: yes, the same difference!
UPDATE to answer comments:
~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini
contains:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=mwad0hks.default
1what browser are you using? – Art Gertner – 2015-09-08T08:59:42.127
@smc - I have updated the question body to be more clear that this is not browser specific. In fact it is not DE specific either, it only affects Mint 17.2 KDE4 (AFAICT) – None – 2015-09-08T12:31:32.360
I feel this is Linux Mint-KDE4-specific and so fits better U&L. - I pasted the question there. I will delete this after a while.
– None – 2015-09-08T13:28:19.1001I wonder if this is due to the fonts being downloaded into your browser. Have you tried launching Chrome from the command line as google-chrome --disable-remote-fonts or going to about:config in Firefox and changing gfx.downloadable_fonts.enabled to false? – Kevin Follstad – 2015-09-11T18:46:14.420
@KevinFollstad - Yes, this is the answer. (If you think this is a Linux issue, post as answer under here, if not, post it below. Or you may post it in both places but I think I should delete one of them. Tell me if you think this is Linux specific or not.) Launching Chrome as you said and making the change in Firefox about:config fixed the problem in both browsers. After changing the about:config back to true, and logging off and on, the problem was still fixed in FF and Chrome launched the normal way is also rid of the problem.
– None – 2015-09-11T20:13:47.107@KevinFollstad - Would you please explain more what "fonts being downloaded into the browser" means? – None – 2015-09-11T20:15:30.767
Absolutely, glad this helped. It's not Linux specific, but we tend to see more of these issues because of lack of commercial font availability on Linux and web developer awareness of this availability. – Kevin Follstad – 2015-09-11T20:34:03.980