Comparison of layout engines (Non-standard HTML)

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The following tables compare deprecated and proprietary HTML elements and attributes compatibility and support for a number of layout engines. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up-to-date. Unless otherwise specified in footnotes, comparisons are based on the stable versions without any add-ons, extensions or external programs.

In the early years of the World Wide Web, the standards which today are used in most web browsers and web pages were mostly non-existent. Different browsers and HTML editors were being offered by competing vendors such as Netscape, Microsoft and WebTV, all of whom possessed their own ideas for how web sites should be constructed. These varying standards resulted in web developers coding for specific web browsers, using elements which could often be recognized by only one browser.

Explanation of the tables

Engine nomenclature

Rather than the names of web browsers, the names of the underlying engines are used. The browsers that use the various engines are listed below.

Layout engine Used by
Trident Internet Explorer and other Internet Explorer shells (Microsoft Windows operating systems only)
Tasman Mac OS X versions of Internet Explorer and MSN
Gecko All Mozilla software, including Firefox; SeaMonkey; Galeon; Camino; K-Meleon; Flock; also Epiphany-gecko
WebKit Apple Safari; Google Chrome; Shiira; iCab 4; OmniWeb 5.5+; Epiphany; Adobe AIR; Midori; Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
KHTML Konqueror
Presto Opera; Opera Mobile, Nintendo DS Browser; Internet Channel; future Adobe Systems products
iCab iCab 1-3
Prince XML Prince

Values

Values indicate the level of support in the most recent version of the layout engine, or (if a version number is given) in the specified version. Version numbers without any other value indicate the version at which the layout engine first fully supported the feature.

Value Meaning
Yes Indicates that the layout engine fully supports this property/element when valid values are used.
No Indicates that the property/element is completely ignored.
Partial Indicates that the property/element is understood, but that not all values are supported. Supported values are implemented correctly.
Incorrect Indicates that the property/element is understood, but that it is not implemented correctly in all cases.
Experimental Indicates that the property/element is understood, but supported under an alternate name. May be incomplete or buggy.
Dropped Indicates that the property/element is no longer supported.
Nightly build Indicates that the property/element is supported to some extent in an experimental/nightly build. Future support is expected.

Deprecated HTML elements

Element Function Supported first by Deprecated in HTML version Alternative solution Trident Tasman Gecko WebKit KHTML Presto iCab
applet Insert an applet HotJava 4[1] embed, object 4.0 Yes 1.7 Yes Yes 7.0 Yes
basefont sets font styles Internet Explorer 4 CSS Styles: font-family, color, font-size 2.0 Yes No[2] 1.0 Yes Yes ?
blackface Used to display text in a double-weight bold font face WebTV Alternate fonts, CSS style: font-weight No No No No No No No
center centers its contents Netscape[3] 4 CSS styles: text-align:center; (text), margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; (block elements with set width) Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
dir directory list 4 ul, ol Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
font applies font styles Netscape 4 CSS styles: font-family, color, font-size Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
isindex[4] adds a search field 4 form, input type="text" 5.5 ? 1.7 1.3 Yes Partial ?
listing displays preformatted text IETF 2 pre, samp, code, CSS styles: font-family:monospace;, white-space with the value pre, pre-wrap or pre-line 1.0 ? 1.7 1.2 3.3 Yes ?
menu menu list 4 ul, ol Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
plaintext Designates that all HTML be ignored, and to display the page as is 3.2 the text/plain MIME type Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
s strike through 4 del, CSS styles: text-decoration:line-through 4.0 Yes 1.7 Yes Yes 7.0 Yes
shadow Adds shadow to text WebTV CSS 3 Style: text-shadow No No No No No No No
strike strike through 4 del, CSS style: text-decoration:line-through; 4.0 Yes 1.7 Yes Yes 7.0 Yes
u underline 4 CSS style: text-decoration:underline; 4.0 Yes 1.7 Yes Yes 7.0 Yes
xmp Similar to pre and plaintext, but ignores all HTML within and displays as is. 2 pre, samp, code 1.0 ? 1.7 1.2 3.3 4.0 ?

Deprecated HTML attributes

Attribute Element Alternative solution Trident Tasman Gecko WebKit KHTML Presto iCab
align caption, div, fieldset, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, img, input, legend, p, object, table CSS Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
alink body CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
background body CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
bgcolor body, table, td, tr, th CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
border img, object CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
clear br CSS Yes ? ? ? Yes Yes ?
compact dl, ol, ul CSS No ? No ? Yes Yes ?
color basefont, font CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
height td, th CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
hspace img, object CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
language script Attribute type Yes ? No ? Yes ? ?
link body CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
noshade hr CSS Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
nowrap td, th CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
size basefont, font, hr CSS Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
text body CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
type li, ul, ol CSS Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
version html DTD declaration Yes ? ? ? No ? ?
vlink body CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?
width hr, pre, td, th CSS Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
vspace img, object CSS Yes ? Yes ? Yes Yes ?

Proprietary HTML elements

Tag Function Supported first by Alternative solution Trident Tasman Gecko WebKit KHTML Presto iCab
animate loads a series of images which are then used as a replacement of the throbber animation. IBM WebExplorer Template:N/a No No No No No No No
audioscope Used to display the audioscope, a graphical display of sound waves WebTV Flash, SVG, Canvas No No No No No No No
bgsound Used to add sound to the background of a website Internet Explorer audio 2.0 Yes No No No 5.12 ?
blink Used to display a blinking text Netscape CSS Style: text-decoration:blink No No 1.7 No No 7.2 ?
bq Used to display a blockquote WebTV, HTML 3.0 blockquote No ? No No No No ?
comment Used to allow the addition of comments to HTML documents Internet Explorer, WebTV <!-- ... --> Yes ? No No No No ?
fn Footnotes WebTV, HTML 3.0 a href="#anchor" combined with element id="anchor" where anchor is a valid id No ? No No No No ?
ilayer Inline layers Netscape (4 only) iframe No No No No Partial No ?
image Synonym of img img Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
layer Used to create multiple layers of text and images which lay on top of each other in a given order Netscape (4 only) CSS styles: position, z-index, iframe, AJAX No No No No Partial No ?
limittext Used to set the width of the text display WebTV CSS style: width No ? ? ? No No ?
marquee Used to display a scrolling, marquee-like text. Internet Explorer, WebTV JavaScript, CSS 3 Style: marquee Yes Yes 1.7 1.2 3.3 7.2 ?
multicol Used to format and display multiple columns of text and images Netscape CSS 3 Style: columns No No No No No No ?
nobr Prevents any line breaks from occurring within the flow of a text CSS style: white-space:nowrap Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
noembed Displays an alternative text for browsers which do not recognize the embed tag Netscape Child elements of object used as fallback Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
nolayer Displays an alternative text for browsers which do not recognize the layer and ilayer elements Netscape Template:N/a Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
nosmartquotes Prevents regular single '...' and double "..." quotes from automatically being replaced with smart single ‘...’ and smart double “...” quotes WebTV Template:N/a No No No No No No ?
sidebar Creates a sidebar window that displays control elements. WebTV Template:N/a No No No No No No No
spacer Adds whitespace between words Netscape CSS style: padding, margin
&nbsp;
No No Yes No No No ?
sound Used to add sound to the background of a website Mosaic audio No No No No No No No
wbr Placed inside a nobr element to add a line break UTF-8-separator 2.0–7.0[n 1] Yes 1.7 Yes 3.1 No ?
xml Delimits an XML data island inside an HTML page Internet Explorer ? Yes Yes ? ? No ? ?

Proprietary HTML attributes

attribute Deprecated if used in tag Function Supported first by Trident Tasman Gecko WebKit KHTML Presto iCab
autoactivate select viewer selects the list, it is activated automatically WebTV No ? ? ? ? No ?
bgproperties body Determines whether background image scrolls with the background Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? Yes No ?
bordercolor body Sets colors for 3-D table borders in the table, td, th, and tr elements Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? Yes No ?
bordercolordark body Sets colors for 3-D table borders in the table, td, th, and tr elements Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
bordercolorlight body Sets colors for 3-D table borders in the table, td, th, and tr elements Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
controls img Uses the image tag to place video or audio clips Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
dynsrc img Uses the image tag to place video or audio clips Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
event script Defines function to call for an object. Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
for script Defines the object to bind a scripting event. Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
frame table Controls the display of the outer borders of a table in the table tag Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? Yes No ?
framespacing frameset Sets the amount of space between frames Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
ibmlogo img used to show some internal mini images IBM WebExplorer No No No No No No No
internal-gopher-menu img used to show some internal mini images IBM WebExplorer No No No No No No No
left_arrow img used to show some internal mini images IBM WebExplorer No No No No No No No
leftmargin body Sets the margin between the browser window and the contents of the page Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? Yes No ?
loop img Uses the image tag to place video or audio clips Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
red_bullet img used to show some internal mini images IBM WebExplorer No No No No No No No
rightmargin body Sets the margin between the browser window and the contents of the page Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
start img Uses the image tag to place video or audio clips Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?
target form Specifies a target window or frame for the output of a form Internet Explorer Yes ? No[6] ? Yes No ?
usestyle caption ??? WebTV No ? ? ? No No ?
valign caption Sets vertical alignment of table caption Internet Explorer Yes ? ? ? No No ?

Notes

  1. wbr isn't supported for IE5.0.[5] The support is removed in Internet Explorer 8.

References

See also