Vivre la difference!
Another challenge you face as a web designer is the lack of control over how your page is displayed.
You have seen how text is handled differently with PCs and Macs. Another difference is their gamma values. Gamma refers to the degree of contrast between the mid-level gray values of an image.
For instance, Mac users will see their images get much darker and more contrasty on Window displays. And to return the compliment, Window users will see their images as flat and washed out on a Mac.
You have probably also discovered that Web browsers interpret your HTML tags a little differently too. Tables, forms, graphic positioning and alignment tags will all work a bit differently in each brand or version of Web browser.
Offset variations provide challenges too. The offset is the built-in margin that Web browsers automatically create between the edge of the browser window and the graphics you place on your page.
Every browser seems to have slightly different dimensions for the vertical and horizontal offsets. The different platform versions of Netscape all give slightly different offsets.
The bottom line is you just never know how your page is going to look from one viewer to another. The good news is Microsoft and Netscape are addressing the problem. That's great, but how many are using the latest browser? So, play it safe.
