Ok, I narrowed down what kills Chrome. minimalist example: data:text/html;charset=utf-8,<p style='font-family: "Times New Roman";'>%D9%88%20%D2%88%D2%88%D2%

Ok, I narrowed down what kills Chrome. minimalist example: data:text/html;charset=utf-8,<p style='font-family: "Times New Roman";'>%D9%88%20%D2%88%D2%88%D2%88 It seems to be a problem with utf-8 vs. unicode + Times New Roman. tested on: Chrome 24.0.1312.57 | OS x 10.8.2 Edit: also works with other fonts for example Arial