Font Weight Issue After WordPress 6. 6 Update

This may be a plugin or theme conflict. Please attempt to disable all plugins, and use one of the default (Twenty*) themes. If the problem goes away, enable them one by one to identify the source of your troubles.

If you can install plugins, install and activate “Health Check”: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/health-check/
It will add some additional features under the menu item under Tools > Site Health.
On its troubleshooting tab, you can Enable Troubleshooting Mode. This will disable all plugins, switch to a standard WordPress theme (if available), allow you to turn your plugins on and off and switch between themes, without affecting normal visitors to your site. This allows you to test for various compatibility issues.
There’s a more detailed description about how to use the Health Check plugin and its Troubleshooting Mode at https://make.www.ads-software.com/support/handbook/appendix/troubleshooting-using-the-health-check/

Thank you @t-p. I appreciate the prompt response.

I will post here if I run into any issues.

@barryseal

Since the update, some of the fonts on my website appear significantly bolder than before. It seems like the font weight has increased, making the text appear thicker.

@barryseal if you are still facing this issue, could you provide some extra details on which text appears to have changed in font weight?

Also, WordPress 6.6.1 should be released in the coming days, that might resolve the issue you were seeing.

Hi Aaron,

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am still facing this font issue.

In terms of the details, if you take a look at this webpage of a recent blog article I published, these are the fonts affected on the page:

1. Menu titles: All appear extra bold now
2. Under the Headline: Tags, published by, filled under, & views appears extra bold
3. Right sidebar: Popular, Latest, Random article feature: Article names are extra bold
4. Quotes: Under the three subheadings in the article, each quote appears extra bold
5. About the Author: Extra bold
6. You may also like: Further down the page, article titles appear extra bold
7. Footer: ABOUT & RECENT POSTS titles as well as the text beneath appear extra bold

My web developer is trying the fix suggested by the user @t-p in this thread, to install the plugin https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/health-check/ to see whether there’s a plugin conflict.

Hopefully the WordPress 6.6.1 update should fix these issues, assuming they are aware of them.

Thank you Aaron.

@barryseal

Hi @t-p & @aaronrobertshaw,

My web developer tried the “Health Check”: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/health-check/ plugin method suggested by @t-p but unfortunately it didnt improve the font situation. He also updated WordPress to version 6.6.1 and that too didn’t fix the issue. So, we’re at a loss to know what is the cause of the fonts displaying differently after the 6.6 WordPress update?

Thank you,

@barryseal

Thanks for the detailed list of locations to check @barryseal ??

I worked through each area listed and in all cases the font-weight is coming from a theme style and those styles weren’t overriding a core WordPress style. If the font weights have changed, it appears to be related the theme itself rather than changes in WordPress.

1. Menu Titles: These get their weight from a very high specificity style coming from the theme: #main-na>li>a
2. Under the headline: (tags, published by, filled under, and views): All these areas receive their font weight via a p.meta style defined by the theme. I couldn’t see any styles from WordPress that would have previously overridden this one.
3. Right Sidebar: The weight here is coming from another theme style using a simple h3 selector. It isn’t overriding any core WordPress styles.
4. Quotes: The body of these quotes are wrapped in a <h5> heading element which is given a font-weight by the theme using another simply h5 selector.
5. About the Author: This is a h3 heading element that also gets a theme style applied.
6. You may also like: The article titles are heading elements as well, so they still get the theme styles applied. No sign of core WordPress styles being overridden again.
7. Footer: Same story. The headings only get styles from the theme and don’t override anything from WordPress

Hi @aaronrobertshaw,

Thank you for that detailed reply, I appreciate it.

What would you suggest is the cause of all these font changes when a couple of weeks ago they were working fine? More importantly, how can I fix them and return the font styles back to their original state?

Thank you,

@barryseal

I can only see the current state of the site, so unfortunately, I can’t speak to what may have changed.

On the current site, all I can see are styles coming from your theme being applied. There’s no sign of WordPress styles that the theme is overriding that might have been in effect previously. In other words, I can’t find any evidence of a change with the information I can see looking at your site.

I’d suggest the following:

• Confirm whether your theme has been updated at all
• Get in touch with the theme author about the issue
• If you are sure there was a change and the theme hasn’t updated, you could downgrade your site to WP6.5.5 and check what styles are being applied and where they are coming from
• Remember to update your site to the latest version again once issues are resolved as it is important for your site’s security

Thank you once again @aaronrobertshaw. I’ll forward your suggestions to my web developer.

Hopefully, this should fix the issues.

@barryseal