I'm attempting to add a lightbox to an older website. This site will only display correctly in IE 8 with quirks mode on. Given this constraint, are there any lightbox plugins that function correctly? Are there workarounds for plugins that don't support quirks mode?
I've tried ColorBox with no success (the ColorBox FAQ states outright that quirks mode is not supported).
There is virtually nothing available today that is intended to work correctly with Quirks mode.
Quirks mode was obsolete in 2001 -- it's basically an IE5-compatibility mode. If your code is still using it, then it's got a serious problem. By far the best answer would be to upgrade your site not to use quirks mode any more.
The good news is that this actually isn't difficult, if you only need to support IE8 and above, because IE8 supports a CSS feature called box-sizing. (This doesn't work in IE6 or IE7, which is why quirks mode has lingered so long, but it's fine in IE8)
box-sizing is a standard CSS feature that works in all browsers, and allows you to specify the box model to work like quirks mode.
The box model is the primary difference between quirks mode and standards mode, so in order to make a site written for quirks mode work in all browsers, simply set the box-sizing across the whole site: the following code should do it:
* {
-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
-ms-box-sizing: border-box;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
You can then add the doctype and put the site into standards mode, and it should continue to work as before.
Once you've done that, you should be able to start using some modern browser features and up-to-date script libraries like the one you're asking about.
Hope that helps.
It looks like slimbox support quirks mode, but I don't try it myself. http://www.digitalia.be/software/slimbox2
Related
(Sorry for my poor English)
Yesterday, I encountered a problem when using #font-face with a really large font-size (200px): one of my div rendered differently in Firefox and Chrome. After doing some research, I learned that it was due to Firefox and Chrome calculated line-height differently, and a specified line-height could solve my problem.
BUT, to my suprise, even if I did nothing, when I start FF in safemode, the problem solves itself! (it renders similar to Chrome) So I wonder that's because I've customized FF too much? I creat a new profile (no addon, disable all plugin, reset all settings to default) but the newly created profile works the same like my old profile, and different with FF in safemode. I don't understand it?
Safe mode, in addition to turning off all add-ons, also turns off the JIT and hardware accelerated rendering.
And if you're on Windows (which I assume is the case given the described behavior), then turning off hardware-accelerated rendering also turns off DirectWrite rendering of text and uses GDI instead.
But DirectWrite and GDI end up with different font metrics for the same text: for one thing DirectWrite can do subpixel glyph positioning, and GDI cannot. So if you turn on safe mode, line heights and various other aspects of text layout can change.
Note that Chrome uses GDI to start with. IE 9 and 10 on the other hand, use DirectWrite, so it's worth testing how your page behaves in those; I'll bet it's similar to Firefox not in safe mode.
I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I can't find any canonical question / answer.
Currently, IE9 and Firefox 4+ both use different font rendering that produces (for some) more blurry fonts but overall better kerning and more consistent results. Also, it renders non-standard fonts on Windows much better. I've have not done a thorough investigation, but I think it has to do with the fact that both IE9 and Firefox use now a different graphics layer which in apparently renders fonts differently. Also, the reason some of the standard fonts such as Arial, Tahoma etc. look in Firefox the same as 10 years ago is that it actually has a list of exceptions for them (look for gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.force_gdi_classic_for_families).
So far so good. The problem is Chrome. It still uses the old font rendering that makes the non-standard fonts practically unusable. Just for illustration, the font I had in mind was: http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Play. Just open the sample in Firefox/IE9 and Chrome and you should see the difference. Is there anything I can do? Or should I look for a more optimized font.
Update: I see it's a common problem: the headings on http://www.smashingmagazine.com look very jaggy in Chrome.
Update: Sample image:
I have read that Chrome (originally Chromium) has anti-aliasing issues that's why it's jaggy.
Using font-faces also makes a difference than using local fonts in your system. So, all we can do is just wait until they fix this issue or help the Chromium Project if you can.
Known issue. You can try gdipp or MacType.
Copying my anwswer from Making CSS3 #font-face font rendering play nice with ClearType on Windows
A similar question here: Font-face embedded fonts look fuzzy in Windows 7 browsers got an answer that solved the same issue for me.
The fontsquirrel font generator http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator optimizes fonts and adds them with hinting/rendering info that helps the windows font rendering engine render them better. It also generates smaller files, which will download faster.
I have developer toolbar, any other tools I am missing ?
I am not doing any fancy graphics/html 5.
I have just been told I need to a support ie8; so want to know if I need to test in both, or just ie8.
Have used ms superpreview, but this is only good for static sites - I am developig a large data driven jsp website. and as far as I can see there is not any easy way to test on both ie6 ie8, without using a separate machine (albeit virtual).
edit
Will ietester remove my standard ie install (I want to keep developer toolbar). ietest will enable me to test under both, and then develop usign developer toolbar in whichever is my browser (ie6/ie8)
IE6 one of the most dumbest browser and biggest pain for both designer and developer. There is no guarantee that your site will work in both IE8 and IE6. As for checking you can use the IE Tester software which is free. Some even say that we should stop considering IE6 :)
You'll need to test in both. IE6 renders pages in a vastly different manner than IE7 or IE8.
Definitely not. If you need a page / site to work properly in IE6 then develop for that. More often than not a page that works in IE6 will work in everything else.
IE6 in particular is terrible with it's calculations regarding spacing, especially where padding is involved.
Test in both browsers on all systems possible.
Simple answer: NO.
you will need to test in all browsers you support as they all have differences to some degree.
IE6 is terrible at rendering css correctly.
you can use a tool called IETester to view your site in multiple version of IE although you wont have developer toolbar support. The other solution is to have different version on an windows image in a virtual machine.
The best way to develope a site is to develope it in a browser with the best support of css. (firefox, chrome, etc). Once you have done that then start adding browser specific fixes for browsers which do not display correctly.
Have a look at this article for how to setup your css file structure CSS
IE6 doesn't support HTML5 and CSS 3. In essence, your IE8 markups may not render well (in fact, many won't work at all) on IE6 (unless you do some CSS hack for IE).
If you want your system to work in both IE6 and IE8, test your system on both browser versions and make visual adjustments (CSS, HTML markup, etc.) accordingly.
Short answer: You cannot just code in IE8, you will need to test in IE6, too.
It's a very strange request to start coding only for those two browsers. Are you absolutely sure that's what you want? For example, what about IE7 or IE9? If you DO want to make your site as compatible as possible, in as many browsers as possible, you should make your site Standards Compliant (e.g. HTML 4 or XHTML).
Even if you don't, it's definitely where I'd start if I was going to focus on just IE6 and IE8. Unfortunately, IE6 will still likely give you trouble, but making your HTML/CSS standards compliant will make it easier a lot to ensure compatibility with IE8.
Tip to remember in IE6: If things aren't lining up exactly the way you imagine, it might be a carriage return in your HTML (yes, IE6 doesn't always ignore them *facepalm*).
Edit: Ah, corporate logic. I see.
have searched previously asked questions but still not getting quite the answers I need.
I built wwww.broadstairsfoodfestival.org.uk in DreamWeaver 8.
Ran both the page code and CSS through W3C to clean up any errors.
Ive looked at Check Target Browser in DW but all looks clean.
However Preview in Browser shows problems.
On some pages blocks of text flash; on others its the paragraph title that flashes . . and I'm damned if i can see what to chnage.
Help!
....................................
Remove text-decoration: blink from
the styles applied to some of the
elements and the blinking will stop.
Please do not use any the following:
Tables for layout
Marquee for scrolling headlines
The blink text-decoration property or the blink element
Dreamweaver's WYSIWYG mode. Especially a version that is as old as 8
Stop referring to Firefox as Netscape. One is the second most popular browser on the web today, the other an old outdated browser from the era of the First Browser Wars.
That is all.
What are the main differences (if any) between the box models of IE8 and Firefox3?
Are they the same now?
What are the other main differences between these two browsers? Can a web developer assume that these two browsers as the same since they (seem to) support the latest web standards?
The Internet Explorer box model has been "fixed" since Internet Explorer 6 so long as your pages are in standard compliants mode.
See: Quirks mode and Internet Explorer box model bug.
Until I learnt about doctype declerations getting IE to work properly was a real PAIN, because IE runs in "quirks mode" by default. So having a standards mode doctype will eliminate a whole bunch of the most painful CSS problems.
I would never assume that any browser renders a page exactly the same.. always test!
Even though they support standards, there are plenty of variations between different browsers and even different versions. FF1 renders differently to FF2 which renders differently to FF3.
You also have to remember that each browser has their own JavaScript engine which again, will cause some scripts to work and other to fail.
You can ofcourse reduce these differences by using CSS and JavaScript frameworks which have been developed to support multiple browsers.
However, you still must test in all browsers. There will always be something that doesn't quite look or behave right.
Things that will always differ between the two (and other browsers) are default values (font sizes in headings, for example). The way they achieve default visuals is often different, as well, such as whether or not they use padding or margin to achieve the indentation in bulleted lists.
Something quite positive that I just noticed is that IE8 finally fixes IE's handling of margin: 0 auto for block elements that you want horizontally centered in their respective parents.