Some time ago, Todd Fahrner devised the Box Acid Test in order to demonstrate how well various browsers implement the CSS1 standard correctly.
It's been a really significant force over the years into shaming browser makers to actually pay attention to the way things were designed to work on the web (rather than imposing their own warped little viewpoint).
It'd certainly be even more effective if more people were aware of it.
The purpose of this page is:
- to further publicize Todd's work, which I think is cool
- to provide an easy side-by-side comparison of how various browsers stack up
- to demonstrate that the older version of Netscape (NS 4.x) is really bad juju for web design
The important part of this test is whether the boxes and colors are exactly identical. If the fonts (word wrapping) or radio buttons look a little different (as long as they're in the same general place), that's okay.
Without further ado: the test!
- The Ideal Browser (Windows fonts):
- Your Browser:
- Netscape 6 (Windows fonts): (good!)
- Opera 6 (Windows fonts): (good!)
- Netscape 6 (MacOS 9 fonts): (good!)
- Netscape 6 (Unix fonts): (good!)
- Netscape 4 (Unix fonts): (uh ...)
Contributing to the Gallery
I'm always happy to take more contributions to this gallery. I have quite a lot of shots of Netscape 6 now, so maybe those of you who have browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera and iCab would like to contribute some?
Credits:
- Mike S.
- Netscape 6 (Mozilla) on MacOS
- Erki Esken
- Netscape 6 (6.2.1) on Windows
- Opera 6 on Windows
- MenTaLguY
- Netscape 6 (Mozilla) on Unix
- Netscape 4 (Crap) on Unix
Someone sent me a second screenshot of Netscape 6 in Windows, although I seem to have lost their email. It didn't get used because it was a JPEG, which introduced a number of artifacts.
The box acid test rendering and test document are © Todd Fahrner
By the way, don't bother Todd if your browser doesn't display the test correctly. Believe me, he knows by now! ... in a similar vein, he doesn't seem to be really interested in screenshots.