Through A Scanner Perfectly…?
In today's modern internet we're spoilt for choice in how we view this intagible world. Be it through a computer, a laptop or a mobile device - some form of software is rendering those pages to you, the viewer.
The page itself is not perfect, it never will be but to what degree of iterative perfection do we take this content?
Some companies/designers/coders push themselves to create pages and websites that look exactly the same, pixel perfection in all modern and some less modern browsers.
First, lets look at a normal list of supported browsers:
- Internet Explorer 6+
- Firefox 2+
- Safar 4+
Then add newer or lesser known/used browsers:
- Opera 10
- Google Chrome 4+
And now you have over 10 browsers that your page should display exactly the same in each. This isn't including mobile devices, if you want to consider that - that is another 5+ different ways your page would be displayed.
To what purpose?
When a normal user views a website they do so in usually one browser, at most two - if their first chosen browser doesn't work properly.
And that's the key: if a user's first choice browser doesn't work properly, if they can, they will try another.
So, in effect a web designer's job isn't to create a page that renders perfectly the same, to pixel perfection in 10+ browser - it is their job to ensure that all important details and features work and look as intended in all browsers, with as close to pixel perfection.
An example, you have a page that looks great in Firefox 3 but when you check it in Internet Explorer 6 the right sidebar has disappeared. You spend some time hacking at your CSS and you get the sidebar back in IE6, but not exactly where it is on FF3 - is this a big problem?
Ask yourself this:
Does the sidebar look good where it is in both browsers?
Does it function the same in both browsers?
If you answer yes to both, their is no point in spending extra time, which equates to extra money on figuring out a new way of making the page display correctly in both.
An argument would be that if you did things right from the start you wouldn't run into this problem, but that isn't always possible in a working, commercial environment.
Conclusion
http://dowebsitesneedtolookexactlythesameineverybrowser.com/
