How to get Cross Browser Compatibility Every Time

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How to get Cross Browser Compatibility Every Time 18th June, 2008 | 26 Comments | Filed under Browsers Cross-browser compatibility is one of the most time consuming tasks for any web designer. We’ve seen many different articles over the net describing common problems and fixes. I’ve collated all the information I could find to create some coding conventions for ensuring that your site will work first time in every browser. There are some things you should consider for Safari and Firefox also, and IE isn’t always the culprit for your CSS woes.

I’ve conducted all this research so I have a better understanding of the bugs of IE6 for my Grid Plugin. I want people to be able to forget about browser bugs when creating layouts, and the plugin will remove all these problems - well, that’s the goal.

I’m only going to be concerned with the major browsers - Firefox 2+, Safari 3+ and Internet Explorer 6+. IE6 is slowly declining and my site only has 3%. I don’t actually even support it. This luxury isn’t an option on client sites however, and it needs to be catered for. If you know the IE6 bugs you can generally know if your site will break before you even check it in a browser. This isn't an article for the super-experienced web designer, but hopefully will give some insight to some people who don't understand the mysteries of IE6 and cross browser compatibility.

Summary Here is a quick summary for those of you who don't want to read the whole article: 1.

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Always use strict doctype and standards-compliant HTML/CSS Always use a reset at the start of your css Use opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Safari Never resize images in the CSS or HTML Check font rendering in every browser. Don't use Lucida Size text as a % in the body, and as em's throughout All layout divs that are floated should include display:inline and overflow:hidden Containers should have overflow:auto and trigger hasLayout via a width or height Don't use any fancy CSS3 selectors Don't use transparent PNG's unless you have loaded the alpha

Element Inconsistencies Every browser renders particular elements differently - different amounts of padding, margins, borders etc. This means your site can look different in every browser if you use default styles. http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Solution The first thing you should do, which most people most likely know about, is to reset your styles. A reset is some css you place at the start of your styles that removes the padding, margin, border and other inconsistencies from elements, and rebuilds them in a standard way. I like to use Eric Meyers reset, as it is specific in the elements it is resetting. Some people would argue that reset styles aren’t needed - but thats another story.

Download the reset.css and place the code at the start of your styles. Bam! Clean, cross browser styles.

Image Rendering IE6 and IE7 both render resized images extremely badly. You should ever resize an image smaller or larger, in either the CSS or HTML, as it will look ugly in the browser.

Font Rendering I told you not all issues were with IE. Safari 3+ has an issue with the way it renders light type on a dark background. Some would argue whether this is good or bad, but there’s a way to make it appear lighter. Here’s an example of standard white on black text rendering in Safari 3.1:

Solution Easy fix. You need to add this to your code. p { opacity: 0.99; }

You will probably have to be more specific with the elements you select. I wouldn’t suggest using this fix on the body tag.

Other elements you might need to fix are the li, dt, dd, blockquote etc. Use this on any text element you want to appear ‘thinner’.

The type will now be rendered like this:

Font Selection http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

There are common web fonts that we use - Arial, Georgia, Verdana etc. But there are some fonts that are common to both PC and Mac and can be used - Century Gothic, Arial Narrow etc. However, different browsers and OS’s render type different, and you need to be aware of these differences, as your site could look dam ugly if you use the wrong font.

Here are some examples of fonts rendered across different browsers and platforms:

Solution The font you choose is ultimately up to you. As long as it’s a safe font you will be fine. However you should be aware of these rendering issues. One font you should probably not use is Lucida Grande/Sans. It renders awful in IE. Take a look at its rendering in Safari(Mac):

Looks nice doesn’t it? Too bad it looks like this in Internet Explorer(PC):

Font Sizing The ability to resize text differs amongst browsers and OS’s. IE won’t resize text thats set in pixels. If we set all text in em’s, IE will exaggerate the text sizes when resized.

Solution The best reference for font sizing is the article How to Size Type in CSS by Richard Rutter. The results - You need to specify the size as a percentage in the body element, and then size it in em’s through the rest of the sheet. For line height, you need to define it in em’s, rather than pixels, for consistent rendering.

One thing to remember is that the default font size is 16px. So to resize our type to 12px we use: body { font-size: 75%; line-height: 1.5em; }

Now you can size your type in em’s like so: h1 { font-size: 3em; }

Another suggested technique is to resize it down to 10px, which makes it easier to size upwards in em’s. For example. body { font-size: 62.5%; line-height: 1.5em; } h1 { font-size: 1.8em; /* 18px */ } p { font-size: 1.2em; /* 12px */ }

There is an issue with this however, if people use small font option in Internet Explorer, it could be so small that it’s unreadable. It’s only a small chance. But worth noting. http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Double Margins on Floats We create CSS layouts by floating div's up against each other, like some form of horizontal tetris. When it reaches the end of a row, it drops down to the next. The common method for creating a grid is this: #content { float:left; width: 300px; margin-right: 10px; } #sidebar { float:left; width: 100px; }

This is what it should look like in a browser:

This is what IE does to it:

The margin width is doubled. Don’t ask why. It’s just IE. This means the element on the left will have that margin stretched out to 20px, which will probably break the layout.

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Solution To fix it, all you need to do is put display:inline on your layout divs. #content { float:left; width: 300px; margin-right: 10px; display:inline; } #sidebar { float:left; width: 100px; display:inline; }

Now that margin bug is all fixed.

Expanding Box The expanding box problem is a big issue with many css layouts. When you have a standard layout, with floats sitting next to each other, with set widths, but an image or long string of text is longer than this width, the layout will break in IE6. Take a look at this example: #content { float:left; width: 300px; margin-right: 10px; display:inline; } #sidebar { float:left; width: 100px; display:inline; }

This will render like in this most browsers:

However, in IE6, it will break like so:

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Solution The solution is to use the overflow property. If you place overflow:hidden; into the layout divs, the layout won't break in IE6. #content { float:left; width: 300px; margin-right: 10px; display:inline; overflow:hidden; } #sidebar { float:left; width: 100px; display:inline; overflow:hidden; }

This could, however, cause some issues with layouts depending on how complex they are. It also won't cause the text to wrap, and it will just remain hidden. It's unlikely you'll have a string long enough to break a layout, but it could happen. Another option is to use word-wrap: break-word; in an IE specific stylesheet. This won't effect images though, so you'll have to make a choice about with method is appropriate for your situation.

Clearing Floats What we mean when we talk about clearing floats, is when a container or wrapper div doesn't correctly wrap around the containing divs. Take a look at this example:

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

See how the container is correctly containing the div's? This is what should happen. However, sometimes it does not clear correctly, like so:

The container isn't correctly wrapping around it. You probably won't notice this until you try and put a background on your container.

Solution There are a few different solutions for clearing. The best solution however, is a simple overflow:auto or overflow:hidden in your container #container { width: 966px; margin: 0 auto; overflow:auto; }

Apart from just adding this, you'll need to make sure hasLayout is triggered in IE6. You can do this by specifying a width or height. If you don't have a width in your container, you can use height:1% to trigger it. http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

CSS Selectors Although we would like to use all the brand spanking new CSS3 selectors, IE6 doesn't support all of the major ones. There are some selectors you simply shouldn't use if you want to support IE6                          

E > F E + F E ~ F :root :last-child :only-child :nth-child() :nth-last-child() :first-of-type :last-of-type :only-of-type :nth-of-type() :nth-last-of-type() :empty :not() :target :enable :disabled :checked Any of the E[attribute] Selectors :first-child :lang() :before ::before :after ::after

Of course, a lot of these selectors aren't supported by even Firefox 3. For a full list of supported selectors, check out evotech.net's post on browser css selector support

Solution Stick to your standard selectors. Nothing fancy. Only use E + F, E > F, E ~ F when it won't make a huge difference in IE. If you really need to use these selectors, you should look at using IE8.js which gives IE6 better selector support. However this will slow down your site. But we don't really care about IE6 users do we? :)

PNG Transparency IE6 doesn't support alpha transparency in PNG's. This is possibly the most annoying bug/issue with IE.

Solution There are a few solutions for this problem. You can either use AlphaImageLoader in an IE specific stylesheet, link to a behaviour file in an IE specific stylesheet or use JS to fix the issue. Not matter which way you choose, there is no way to have transparent repeating background images.

To use AlphaImageLoader, it's a little bit tricky. Add these properties to any png image you want to have transparency. (You need to put this code in an IE specific stylesheet if you want your CSS to validate) .trans { background-image: none; filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader (src='/images/transparent.png', sizingMethod='image/scale/crop'); }

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Let's say you've given all your png image tags a class "trans", you select them with your css and use the filter property. You need to create a 1x1 transparent png file and link to it in the src attribute. Drew McLellan wrote a great article over at 24ways last year.

An even better way to do this is via a behaviour. Olav Bjorkoy, creator of Blueprint CSS, wrote a good article on this method.

It's similar to the AlphaImageLoader, except that you link to a behaviour script that triggers the transparency.

The third method is to use IE8.js which I mentioned earlier. It's even safer than the previous method, and you are very unlikely to run into any problems. Link to the script in your HTML, and it will make any png ending in -trans alpha-capable. eg. myimage-trans.png.

With all this methods, you need to be aware that you might still run into problems with transparent pngs. Make sure you test it in IE6 extensively

Further Reading http://warpspire.com/tipsresources/web-production/css-column-tricks/ http://www.onyx-design.net/weblog2/css/css-coding-for-cross-browser-compatibility/ http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/02/21/powerful-css-techniques-for-effective-coding/ http://www.positioniseverything.net/ http://www.noupe.com/css/using-css-to-fix-anything-20-common-bugs-and-fixes.html Enjoy this post? Share it with others.     

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26 Comments

Alfred Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply good read. didn’t know about the height: 1% trick. thanks

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Niall Doherty Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Lots of useful stuff in there. Thanks for doing the research and putting it all together.

Loving your h2 styling, btw.

Dariusz Siedlecki Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply I swear, this is one of the best articles I ever saw regarding cross browser compatibility, huge thumbs up!

Sandi Gauder Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Brilliant! Great tips. Your writing style deserves awards for clarity and brevity - thanks!

Elvis Tam Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply AMAZING! I used to use clear:both to clear floats, but this is even cleaner!!! You rock thanks so much!!! http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Janko Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Fantastic tips! Thanks!

Nik Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Excellent summary - thanks.

clark Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply excellent list clear explanations great read

Benjamin J Doherty Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

This article is really about accommodating IE6’s limitations. I don’t really understand the Safari quirk you’ve identified where text appears “too bright.” The alternative shows text that appears shimmery and multicolored.

Child and sibling selectors are part of CSS2, not CSS3. IE’s rendering of Lucida Sans is not worse than its rendering of Verdana, and Lucida Sans renders fine in IE if you ask me.

The YUI CSS is a great way to achieve cross-browser consistency, and it actually employs some of these tactics.

eyn Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply

What’s the problem with Lucida Grande? If a user uses IE, it is almost certain that the user will not have Lucida Grande installed on his computer, thus the alternative font, say Arial, will be used for rendering in IE. (font-family: Lucida Grande, Arial, sans-serif;) I don’t see the deal of not using Lucida Grande for cross browser compatibility, what you should have said is “use font family wisely, don’t expect user to come from the same OS by relying on a single, OS dependent font”.

eppsilon Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Besides, Lucida Grande looks fine when rendered in IE - your screenshot makes it look far worse than normal because ClearType (font smoothing and hinting) is turned off.

Anthony Short Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Lots of Lucida fans here I see :) In regards to falling back on Arial, I was mainly talking about the Lucida Sans alternative that is generally used. I probably should have stated that.

The Safari text rendering is really up to opinion. I personally like the way it renders text on its own, but I know a lot of people don’t, so I included it in there anyway.

Thanks to everyone who commented, I’ll take your feedback on board and update the article when I get a chance :)

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Leevi Graham Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Gotta pull you up on a couple of things :) “Use opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Safari” To create ‘thin’ text on Safari you will need to use: text-shadow: #000 0 0 0; For firefox you can use: -moz-opacity:.99 however this will cause issues with Flash & Firefox 2 on Mac. Double Margins on Floats I’m pretty sure you need to float the element left and have the margin on the left to see this bug in action. Floating right with a margin right will also trigger this bug.

Clearing Floats Using overflow:auto sometimes causes issues with Firefox and the dotted border on active links. These dotted borders can trigger scrollbars on some elements.

There are a couple of better ways ofclearing floats.

I know this post was about achieving cross browser compatibility which is an admirable goal, however I personally think that building for obsolete browsers is more time consuming than its worth. A final word.

Anthony Short Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Good work Leevi, I’ll have to make some more changes.

You were correct with the Double Margin bug, I double checked it. It only effects margins that are on the same side as the float. Doesn’t hurt to put it on your layout divs anyway I suppose, just in case.

I didn’t know about the dotted border issue with Firefox and cleared floats. I wouldn’t recommend the :after and content: ‘.’ method, as it can leave a gap at the bottom of your page. I can’t seem to find the article that described it, but the ‘.’ will leave a ~50px un-removable margin at the bottom of the container.

Thanks for the suggestions, I didn’t think I’d get it all right first time :) And yes, death to IE6!

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Wayde Christie Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Just following on from Leevi’s comment that -moz-opacity causes issues with Flash in Firefox…

I’ve come to the conclusion that using this hack for Firefox is completely unmanageable if you plan to have any Flash in the page.

The bug comes about when a Flash element touches another element with any amount of opacity applied to it. This causes the Flash to disappear, and there appears to be no solution for this.

My advice: don’t use the Firefox opacity hack if you plan to use Flash elements also.

PS. Your button elements are doing crazy stuff on hover ;)

Ric Website Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Thanks - very useful. :-)

Jackie Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply Fantastic tips..thanks!

kl http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Posted on 19th June, 2008 | Reply “Use opacity:0.99 on text elements to clean up rendering in Safari” Noooo! Please don’t! It disables pretty font smoothing in Safari and makes them look blurry. I absolutely hate that.

And Opera 9.5 makes such fonts bolder. Pretty annoying too.

Jem Website Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply The irony of this being you have a bit of an overlap problem in IE - the Font Sizing title is overlapping the image above it in IE6. eppsilon correctly identified the fact that Lucida looks like that because whichever PC you took that screenshot on has ClearType disabled.

Apart from those two picky bits, this was a very comprehensive article. Kudos! :)

Andrew Website Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply Wow this is one of the most well-written articles on cross browser compatibility I’ve ever come across. Very helpful!

danbee Website Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply Great article, bookmarked!

http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Nikki Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply This is a great article, and I would love to share it with my co-workers!

However your choice of font for your content text is extremely hard to read. Since your article specifically focuses on this issue, don’t you think your site should comply as well? I don’t believe Helvetica Neue is the best choice for readability.

(Ps.. I am using Win XP, FF3, Cleartype enabled, and I do have Helvetica Neue on my system. It doesn’t look pretty! I can send a screenshot if you’d like.)

André Medeiros Website Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply Thanks for all the useful tips. I’m sure they’ll save me a lot of time in the near future.

Stanley Website Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply In my experience the height: 1% hack is the #1 lifesaver when working with IE6.

Here’s another tip: use line-height if you’re having problems assigning height/padding to your display: block links.

Neil MacLean Website http://anthonyshort.com.au/blog/comments/how-to-get-cross-browser-compatibility-everytime/

Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply Brilliant. Really helpful.

And you just know I am looking forward to seeing how you use this in the grid plugin :-)

Joshua Paine Website Posted on 20th June, 2008 | Reply zoom:1; is the best property for turning on hasLayout. You can safely use it in a general-purpose stylesheet since no other browser does anything with it.

Lucida Grande at many sizes looks friggin’ awful on anything that isn’t a Mac (or Safari running on PC). Font smoothing makes it worse, not better. And lots of PC users have it--it’s just not safe to use on the web, unfortunately.

IE7 and up does a page resize now instead of a text resize. I propose stop worrying about setting font sizes in px--it’s the easiest thing to do, and it works fine with page zoom in Firefox 3 an IE 7. overflow:auto for clearing does indeed do weird things in Firefox at times. overflow:hidden is the better choice.

in my experience many fonts render more bold on Mac regardless of whether they’re light on dark or what. For the most part I think they look better, but at any rate they look like what Mac users expect them to look like, so it’s probably unwise to force a change.

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