Comparison of layout engines (XHTML)

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The following tables compare XHTML 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.

Only XHTML 1.1 is considered. XHTML 1.1 is necessarily XHTML 1.0 Strict with more elements and attributes deprecated. XHTML 2.0 is still a working draft with no layout engine support. XHTML 1.0 and HTML 4 (both served with text/html) are covered in comparison of layout engines (HTML). The comparison of XML capabilities are covered in comparison of layout engines (XML).

Version number, if possible, is provided for feature that is fully supported. Proprietary extensions are not included.

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.

Media types

The responses when a well-formatted XHTML document is served with different media types. Note that only application/xhtml+xml is the recommended media type.

Internet media type Trident Tasman Gecko WebKit KHTML Presto iCab Prince XML
application/xhtml+xml Prompt for download Prompt for download XHTML XHTML
125
HTML XHTML
1.0
(X)HTML ?
application/xml XML Crash XHTML XHTML
125
XML XHTML
1.0
Text ?
text/xml XML Crash XHTML XHTML
125
XML XHTML
1.0
Text ?
text/html HTML HTML HTML HTML HTML HTML HTML ?

KHTML media type notes

  1. application/xhtml+xml — KHTML supports this media type, but processes the document as HTML.
  2. application/xml, text/xml — HTML entities and custom entities defined by custom DTD are not recognized.

iCab media type notes

  1. application/xhtml+xml — Type selector in CSS is matched case-insensitively.

Combined profiles

Extending XHTML by combining with other applications of XML (not referring using img/object element).

Trident Tasman Gecko WebKit KHTML Presto iCab Prince XML
MathML No No 1.0 No No 2.1 No 6.0
SVG 1.8 522 3.2 1.0 5.1
XForms No No No No ?
VoiceXML No 1.0 No

References