Why I Like Safari — July 18, 2007
Recent Apple products have proven to be very well designed. In my opinion the Apple way of using things are very natural. Take the iPod Click Wheel for an instance. The standard volume control proven to be effective for decades has been successfully integrated to a modern product. It can’t get any better than that. This post is not about the iPod thought. It’s about Apple’s latest release of their web browser; Safari for Windows1.
My website looked as intended on all major web browsers2 except for Safari. Safari for Windows rendered my site with messed up font sizes, missing page backgrounds, paragraph misalignments along with other issues. I was perplexed as even Dreamweaver Browser Compatibility Check didn’t report any issues.
After reflecting for a while it hit me. Safari is fully standards compliant. Since my HTML and CSS were not standards compliant reported by the W3C Markup Validation Service, Safari failed to render the website properly. Correcting the issues reviled by W3C rendered my website as I desire on Safari and other browsers. Again, Apple has released a product that adheres to standards and maintains quality.
The coolness doesn’t end there. Safari also seems to understand ICC profiles3 embedded on images. That explains why some photos you upload to Flickr looks great on Safari (as if it’s opened in Photoshop) but not on other browsers. This understanding between devices and the computer had been a major reason for photographers and other creative professionals to use Apple computers for their work.
Despite speculations that Safari was released for Windows to assist iPhone application developers, I think it is the browser of choice if you are having a fondness for appearance. However on the flip-side as many developers might have not tested their website on Safari, there is a fair chance of visiting some broken sites; especially personal websites and blogs as apparently some WordPress themes have the same issues that I had with Safari.
In my opinion, Apples level of adhering to the standards should be highly regarded. There level of standard compliancy confirmed to be in the highest point too. Check your website on Safari; it ought to look prettier.
1 - Safari 3 Beta for Windows on Windows XP
2 - Firefox 2, Opera 9 and Internet Explorer 6
3 - Safari’s color management is discussed in detail on this post by John Nack and on this CNet Article.
Note: The original file of the image displayed on this post was taken from the Apple Safari Website.