Could Firefox 3.5 Spark a Web Design Boom?

One feature of Firefox's new version allows the browser to display any font. Here's how good-looking the results can be.

Mozilla recently released version 3.5 of its browser, Firefox, and it contained one tiny feature that could be a huge boon for web design: The ability to display any font, thanks to "@font-face," which allows designers to store fonts on their own servers, and reference them on their web pages. Designers Ian Lynam and Craig Mod have just posted a primer on the new feature, which shows just how much is possible. (A screencap of the primer is pictured above.)

If you have Firefox 3.0 but not 3.5, update now to see how dramatic the page looks, before and after. Previously, web designers who couldn't bear the thought of compromising on their type have relied on Flash or Javascript--which are, of course, clunky and annoying. @font-face is miles more elegant.

Safari has offered @font-face linking ever since version 3.1; Opera, meanwhile, has announced that the protocol will be supported in its next version. Internet Explorer, of course, is waaaaaay behind.

If you're interested in a longer, more detailed discussion of @font-face, check out this post on Mozilla Hacks.

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Not All Web Browsers are Created Equal

You might not have given it much thought, but the browser your website is viewed on can completely change its appearance. Today there are two main types of browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox. The purpose of this week's article is not to get you to change over to Firefox, listing about why it has tabbed browsing, blocks popups, and is generally more stable. No, today we will discuss how the difference between Internet Explorer and Firefox affect your website.

If you haven't recognized yet by the tone of this email, Internet Explorer 6 (IE 7 is getting better) is a curse on browsing the internet. Besides being a regular target for hackers and bugs, IE has a difficult time loading webpages the way they should be displayed. If you are designing a standard website with flat images you're fine for the most part, but as soon as you start trying to work with transparent images, or arrangements of images that make your site look polished, Internet Explorer puts the caibosh on your dreams of layered images by filling in any transparent screen with an ugly gray box.

Also if you ever want to line up your site's content using tables and you would like to left justify your content, sometimes IE doesn't recognize this and centers all your content until you go into the code and figure it out. Firefox, on the other hand is great, it shows the page the way it was made to be seen, without silly images glitches and the like.

I know that many of you are saying to yourselves: "but hey! aren't there are other browsers out there like Netscape or Safari?" Basically they are all falling in line with Firefox's platform and are far less used than Firefox or IE. The stark facts remain, until Microsoft stops installing IE on applications of windows, we will continue to have cross-browser conflicts. At present, 54% of the visitors to QTweb.ca use Internet Explorer.

So what does that mean for you and your website? Not a heck of a lot, if you are a client of QT Web Designs - since we constantly check your website against defects on all current and past versions of major browsers and try to build your site in a way that is accessible and consistent for all. Contact us today if you would like us to see how your site works across several different browser platforms. If you are designing a site yourself, our best advice is to always preview your site on multiple browsers since you never know how it might translate.

About Author : QT web designs, we’re in the business of building websites and we know that your site is really only as good as the business it generates for you. We create unique solutions for you to make money from your website!For more information about QT Web Designs or our products visit us online at www.qtweb.ca