Firefox 3 vs. Safari 3: typography showdown

Ralf Herrmann recently took a look at the new typography features found in Firefox 3, pitting them against what's been available in Safari 3 for a while. The results show some major advances, and some major problems. The current OpenType or Apple Advanced Typography features in Firefox 3 include promising features like basic ligatures, which is exciting to those who live and breathe typography, but it fails in some non-English languages. Overall, it seems there are a lot of would-be nice new features that don't quite provide enough detail to be universally helpful. But it's a step in the right direction.

Check out the post at Ralf Herrmann's Typography Weblog for a very complete overview and comparison.

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Source: http://opentype.info/blog/2008/06/14/kerning-and-opentype-fe…

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Ralf Herrmann recently took a look at the new typography features found in Firefox 3, pitting them against what's been available in Safari...

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Low Impact Development

Can't wait until this is a part of all browsers. Seems to be about 10 years overdue, really.

http://www.filterra.com

June 19 2008 at 4:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

I just wish Firefox would make use of the OS X Dictionary, like Safari does. That's a losing mark for FF3, and that's a shame because it's fast, has a great "awesome bar", and does some things much better than Safari--- They jut couldn't be bothered to make it as well-integrated with OS X as Safari.

I ask for two things from a browser that would try to replace Safari:

1. Full right-click Dictionary usage, as it is in Safari.

2. An item in the Right-click menu: - Save Image to "Downloads" - making image-taking a one-click affair instead of the multi-click affair it is in FF3.

Those are monumental tweaks that make Safari more efficient and more user-friendly. I'd trade the "awesome bar" for those items.

June 19 2008 at 3:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to CZ's comment

required

What are you talking about? FireFox has always had those features (and more).

June 19 2008 at 3:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

glebec

@required:
Read slightly closer:

1. Full right-click Dictionary usage, as it is in Safari.

Note the capital "D" - this Dictionary is a proper noun. As he said in his post, he wished Firefox used the integrated OS dictionary. It doesn't; it has its own dictionary built-in. On the other hand, I don't know why ZeroCorpse mentions right-click capability as Ff naturally does have that.

2. Save Image to "Downloads"

Ff does not have this. It has a "save as" command, but no auto "save to downloads."

Personally I think that's nowhere near a "monumental" feature. Actually I think that's complete hogwash. It would be a nice little bonus, but compared to memory usage and speed? Please.

Also, ZeroCorpse, you realize if you're using a mouse in the first place you can just drag the image to your downloads folder, right? You DO keep an alias to your downloads folder in the dock, no?

June 20 2008 at 12:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joseph

Love it, had no clue browsers could do some of those things, but now that I know, I want it to.
Very Nice. Levels above my design.

June 19 2008 at 1:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply