text on a mac in bold but not on a pc?!

Erm...

Just got back from holiday. When away i thought i would just see what my site would look like... on an apple.

The apple used safari. However most of the text was being displayed in bold. When i've checked how my site works in safari but on a pc it looks fine.

Is this a fairly standard issue? How do i get around this?

More than likely this is an issue with the way each browsers handles CSS and HTML. There can be a number of differences between browsers and the way they render pages. It is best to use standards and test your code on a browser that supports the latest in HTML5 and CSS3.

Then check your site against older browsers or ones that don't fully support standards. You can then modified your CSS to get around these issues.

In my experience, IE seems to render the pages the most different. You can even create a separate stylesheet for clients using IE. Good news is that IE9 is moving very close to fully support code standards. This way the differences between Safari and IE9 should be minimal. Hope this helps and good luck!

Ok well, I kinda guessed that much, just wondered if anyone had come across this issue themselves and found a solution.

Back in my office today and I cannot replicate the problem as there are no mac's in site.

Does anyone know of a way of viewing a website through the eyes of a mac user on a pc?

Does anyone know of a single site which can show me what my site will look like in lots of different browsers and on different platforms?

Is the best way to test your site if you have one computer and one screen to emulate another operating system (for ie6 when 7 is installed, or view mac op system on pc))? If so, anyone know a good one to emulate mac on pc xp?

OK, got onto another mac.

Tested my site in FF and safari on the mac and it looks completely different to a PC. The text is generally bolder through out, everything from std txt to txt on buttons and nav bars.

It is really throwing my layout... out.

Should i be setting some std text decorations in my stylesheet... none bold...etc?

Are you forcing a particular font? Is it possible that font isn't installed on the Mac you're testing on, and it's using a different one?

If you aren't forcing a font, the default font in Safari is probably different from the default in IE.

In the CSS i have just used a std font family.

The odd thing is, it is the entire mac computer which is changing the font...

From what i could test (the mac is not mine so i have limited access) was how the site looked on a mac in FF and Safari. In both the site looked bold.

To confirm this further... I know the site looks fine in FF and Safari on my XP computer.   

OK I think i have resolved the issue.

When you zoom in from 0x zoom on this website (here on phpfreaks)  to 3x zoom (hitting shift and plus in FF) you will see the text become all bold and ugly looking... I was trying to have the font size of my website at the size you see on here at 2x zoom (just before it goes bold...etc).

I can only assume that macs automatically have the zoom level at one up from pc's, thus rendering my whole site in the bolder looking font.

So, to resolve the issue i have been forced to reduce the std font size through out the sight to 10pt.

I'm yet to test the site again on a mac so can't mark this thread as solved yet, although i'm pretty sure this is what it is. If anyone else could confirm?

Macs and PCs will always render text differently. You're also going to get various depending on which browser is used and what the resolution is on that certain machine.

Mind posting a quick screenshot comparison of the affected text though? It could be something else...

I would put the font weight to zero. Also I always check my sites in at browsershots.org it could help you in the future since it shows all the different types of browsers