Firefox showing pages differently to other platforms
 

Picture is attached.

The scrollbars you see around the form do not show up on Firefox on Mac or Windows, and don't show up in Opera.

Why is Firefox on Slack displaying pages in a slightly different manner?

Probably different fonts resulting in slightly different sizes of content being rendered inside a fixed size container. Pretty common occurance.

Hmm.

The default font on Windows and Linux is Serif 16, and the mail2web.com page does not specify any custom fonts so I don't think it's that.

Well, I said "different fonts", but actually that would include any number of font (and other) rendering rules that might result in slight size differences of the content. It also can vary considerably with CSS rules in the page.

Try ctrl-minus to reduce font size and see if the scrollbars disappear, just for example.

Yes, zooming out causes the scroolbars to disappear, but then so does zooming in even more.

Given that it's such a very basic page, and the font settings are the same on all platforms I do wonder if there is a different cause. Also, there are very few words inside that rather large area.

Perhaps my GTK theme is causing the submit button to be slightly larger than it normally would be or something?

But that is the point - somewhere in the sum of all rendering rules in that page and it's stylesheets and the javascript modifiers and that platform and it's available fonts and GTK rules as you point out - somewhere in that mix Firefox decides that at that font size in that container it needs to add scrollbars...

It has nothing to do with Slackware and no single "cause". it is the nature of HTML/CSS/Platforms... etc.

somewhere in that mix the Linux version of Firefox decides that at that font size in that container it needs to add scrollbars...

It's a very simple page. Firefox on Linux is the only platform affected. Given that on every other platform this doesn't happen I'm more inclinded to think it is a bug or something attributable to something else on Linux such as the GTK theme.

I'm not convinced it's to do with font rendering.

Well, I am not trying to be argumentative, so I'll just add this and invite others to comment...

That implicitly ASSUMES that rendering should be the same on all platforms, and that is simply a FALSE assumption - it simply is not true. Firefox and other browsers VERY OFTEN render pages differently on different platforms. It is hugely affected by CSS rules and it is the job of the web designer to write those rules to make pages render as consistently as possible. That is "cross-browser/cross-platform design 101". It is certainly NOT the job of the OS version to make sure Firefox renders the same as every other OS at every possible zoom level!

It certainly WILL be affected by the GTK theme on GTK Firefox builds - and what if a particular user or distro uses a slightly different GTK theme? That is not a bug - that is a choice! And Firefox respects that choice, and adds scrollbars where indicated...

Well, as I said, I did not intend to limit the cause to font rendering - it is the sum of all rendering rules in effect at the time. But as choice of font size demonstrates, it is hugely affected by font rendering rules - as well as all other rendering rules.

If the web designer was concerned about it they could have included a CSS rule to prohibit scrollbars on that container - and it would not have happened, and you would not have made the original post... so in effect, the "fault" if any, lies with them!

Good luck!

astrogeek I know you are trying to help, and I'm not trying to be needlessly argumentative, however I don't agree with your premise.

The same version of the same browser on different platforms will render a page in the same way. If it doesn't, it is because of something specific to that platform, or a bug.

I'm not using any zoom levels when I view the page, and it is only with the version of Firefox on Linux that this occurs.


Rather than blaming this on the web designer and font rendering, I am interested in finding out why exactly this happens only on a specific platform.


I used to do webdesign back in the day, and I'm still quite well versed on all of this stuff. I guess it will be trial and error to figure it out, with the first step to try removing my current gtk theme.


I'll leave the thread as is unless anyone is interested and would like me to update if with what I find?

But that is simply not a true statement. That is my point.

Hopefully someone else can provide some better insight - good luck!

Actually, if I turn off "Allow site to specify it's own fonts" in ff options while viewing the site, the fonts change, so I think that statement is incorrect.

However, whether fonts are on, or off, I don't see the scroll-bars when I view that page, no matter what size I resize to.

This is with 13.1 BETA/64 and FF 3.6.3 with no non-standard fonts or ff plugins installed.

It's something strange. When I take just the form, and copy it and the encasing layers into a new html file it displays exactly the same, but without any scrollbar. It's a curious thing.

Did you install webcore-fonts packages and change your DPI to 96x96? Else, there are not much to argue about. Since "serif" font family default to Times New Roman font on Windows, and Liberation on Linux. They are very different.

But not in a way that would affect this; the Times New Roman and Liberation Serif fonts have the same sizes and metrics.

Exactly. In any event, I do use the MS fonts as well.