HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
A
Browser Support for HTML5
Browser support is critical for any aspect of HTML5 — or any other web technology, for that
matter. This appendix is a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art regarding the various new
features of HTML5 and CSS3. Each section lists a feature and what version of the five major
browsers — Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome — support that
feature, if any.
As a web designer who often pushes the limits, I feel it's necessary for me to accompany this
appendix with a caveat. As always when you're deciding whether or not to include a tag or
attribute in your code, it's not enough to see that it is supported on one or more browsers.
The key is to make sure that the supporting browsers make up the vast majority of the visitors
to the site you're building. It doesn't matter if the latest bleeding-edge feature is available in
WhizBang 3.1, if hardly anyone who visits your site has that browser.
As of this writing, the final version of Internet Explorer 9.0 has not been released,
but it is in beta testing. The following charts include Internet Explorer 9.0 sup-
port if it is included in the beta version or has been announced by Microsoft
that the feature is expected to be supported. It is entirely possible that some
announced or even beta-based features may not make it to the released version.
HTML5 new FeaT
ew FeaT
ew Fea ures
As this topic attests, HTML5 is overlowing with new tags and attributes that bring greatly
enhanced functionality. Overall, browser support for many of these new features is rather good —
certainly good enough for web designers to play and test the advanced functionality. Check the
following tables to find a suitable browser for seeing the HTML enhancements in action.
