CSS in Firefox 3.6

Sat 9/Jan/2010

Date

Firefox 3.6 is in a late beta stage and approaching final release. The current version (3.5) added long awaited support for @font-face. What is there to look forward to in 3.6? Here are some of the highlights.

Gradient backgrounds

Safari has had support for this for some two years now, and with 3.6 Firefox gets in the game. Using just CSS you’ll be able to create both linear and radial gradients – in different angles and with an indefinite number of colors. Read more

Multiple backgrounds

A frequently occurring problem when creating visually complex sites is the fact that each HTML element can only have one background image. The solution to this is often superfluous mark-up and/or unnecessarily large images. Firefox 3.6 adds support for multiple layered backgrounds that each can have their own position and repeat properties. Might seem like a minor thing at first glance, but I’m telling you: once widely supported, this is something that will really set the table for clean mark-up and visually complex interfaces. Read more

Scaling background images

A property somewhat contradicting the bitmapped property of images is background scaling. With this you’ll be able to scale a background image anyway you see fit. Might come especially handy for scalable interfaces in general and large photo backgrounds in particular. Read more

Image rendering

Along with the possibility to scale background images comes the one of defining whether to optimize rendering for speed, quality or keeping edges crisp (the latter a Mozilla extension). Read more

WOFF File Format

The perhaps most exciting news (to me anyway) is the support for the WOFF font format. While it is still in development, WOFF enables the possibility of having licensed fonts on your web site, and many important type foundries have already expressed their support. The WOFF spec

The final release Firefox 3.6 is expected sometime early this year.