What could cause the same browser on different PCs to render the same HTML differently?

Question

I\'m stumped. A client and I are both running Firefox 3.0.12 on XP machines. We view the same page in the same browser on different machines and have different results. Note: Al

Answer 1

Since we can't take a look at the site in our own browsers, here is the process that I would use to try to nail down the issue:

• Start removing code blocks piece by piece until the two browsers look the same.

• Whichever block of code you last removed that made everything line up perfectly (even if you are missing a chunk from the body), that's near where the culprit is.

• Since you've found the culprit, place all of the code back. Start messing around with the fonts first off. Change fonts, sizes, remove text, etc. until you can find a condition under which the browsers are the same. If it's not a font issue, start messing around with other parts of it until you've found the condition that matches it up.

• Once you've done that, you will know your issue and you can work around it.

Answer 2

I know my FF3.0 makes everything look different than other people's because I have it set in Preferences to use a minimum font size of 16. I dont get fine print, I get a pile of legible writing.

Also, being on a Mac, the default fonts are sans serif, whereas on windows everything is serif, which also can change the font widths and heights even further.

If anything on your page is specified with "em" or "ex" units, they are dependent on font size.

Answer 3

I'd compare plugins/addons.

Answer 4

How about your font smoothing settings - are they the same (none/antialias/ClearType)? That can change the width of a given text, and might just be what you're looking for.

Answer 5

IF you're using Firefox make sure you hit Ctrl-0 to default the zoom level.

Answer 6

Are you both using the exact same screen size? Does firefox try to scale the fonts to the apparent size of the person viewing the page, or to a specific number of pixels?