What causes browser display differences?

Most of the time while browsing the same over many browsers you might have noticed considerable differences between the displays across the various browsers. These differences cause a lot of annoyance to the users.

There are various reasons why there occur differences across the different browsers. This article is focussed up on such browser display differences and errors as well as suggestions to avoid them.

ABOUT WEB BROWSER DISPLAY DIFFERENCES

- Earlier it was quite difficult and time consuming task to compare the web sites displays under many different browsers but nowadays several tools have been developed that have proven to be quite effective in testing the appearance of a web site on various browsers.

- These tools help in checking out the differences by taking the snap shots of the web site across the various browsers and then comparing them.

- You can even have the snap shots of your web page under different computers and screen resolutions.

- An HTML tool box is incorporated in these tools which tell whether the differences have occurred due to the incompatibility of the HTML code used in the web site or are they because of the browser incompatibility.

- The HTML tool box in some of the tools has also the capability for repairing off the code errors in just a few clicks.

Some of the most common factors that causes browser display differences are:
1. Browser bugs
2. Browser incompatibility
3. HTML errors
4. Different font sizes
5. Different computer types
6. Different screen sizes
7. Different versions of the browsers

RARE CASES
- In some very rare cases, the problem of differences might also occur due to certain features of a web site that have been exclusively designed for certain browsers and are not meant for others.

- Usually a web site is developed so that all of its features are accessible by all the web sites.

- For example, the web site for downloading Google chrome extensions and tools has been designed exclusively for the Google chrome browser.

- Though this web site can be viewed in any other browser but, one cannot download extensions through that browser.

STEPS FOR ELIMINATING DISPLAY DIFFERENCES ARE:

There are several steps that one can take for eliminating such differences:
1. Avoiding using cutting edge HTML as far as possible.
2. Set some goals for your web site.
3. Always check for the browsers incompatibilities.
4. Follow the trial and error debugging method.
5. Never forget to validate your web pages.

WHAT WEB BROWSERS ACTUALLY DO?

- They translate the web site code in to the formatted web pages.

- Every individual web browser has its own way of translating the web pages.

- This can be compared to the following example: you give a sentence written in German to a few people and ask them to translate it in to English. Checking the results, you will observe that all of them though have translated the sentence but their ways of translation are different i.e., the have used different words and grammar composition.

- Though the rules and standards for using HTML have been stated by the World Wide Web consortium, web site designers have their own way of implementing it.

- There is a fact that you should know which is that there is no such an effective browser that supports the hundred percent of the HTML, though there are certain browsers that come a little far away than their counterparts.

- If your browser does not supports a part of the code, it is sure to affect the display of your web site.

- This problem is further exaggerated by the HTML extensions that are specific to certain browsers.

- Such problems have forced the designers to put a label on their web site stating on which browser their web site can be viewed.