Showcase (and application) size differences Chrome 35 vs FF 26 / IE 11 (no zoom)

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

please see this 3 screenshots and one overlay of all three of them of this online showcase example (v9.1p_2014-06-04, no zoom).

As you can see the IE 11 and FF 26 images are almost identical (all screenshots taken in fullscreen-mode in order to have full 1920x1080 screen size for display (images resized to 800x450)).

Is it expected that all the Chrome UI-elements are that small (also resulting in different amount of displayed data, in the showcase as well as in my application)?

I find that disturbing in testing and I'm pretty sure this might lead to user complaints as well.

Best regards,
Blama

[Isomorphic]

We don't see this effect, sizes are identical.

Although you claim that your browser is not zoomed, it seems that it must be.

[Isomorphic]

To clarify, you are at normal zoom in FF and IE, but you are zoomed out in Chrome (eg, 90% zoom).

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

I made another overlay, Chrome 35 (v35.0.1916.114 m under Win8) at 110% and no zoom (it does not display anything, but I think it has to be 100%).

I change zoom-levels with Ctrl-"+" and Ctrl-"-" or reset with the button displayed in Chrome when you change the zoom to anything non-normal.

You can see that the white area in the new screenshot is as wide as it was in the screenshot of the 1st post.

Do you have an idea what could cause such a behaviour? Perhaps it is only Chrome/Win8 related?
I just cleared all Chrome user-data under Chrome's "Ctrl-Shift-Del"-menu. No change.

Best regards,
Blama

[Isomorphic]

Perhaps you have OS-level settings causing all applications to zoom slightly, or asking for smaller fonts, and Chrome is either ignoring this setting or is the only browser interpreting this setting.

Any which way, this is not something SmartGWT is doing, and not something SmartGWT could possibly compensate for (the browser isn't even reporting that it's zoomed!), but we would appreciate it if you can let us know if you discover the underlying problem.

[Blama]

Hi Isomorphic,

OK, I got it. It was a Windows 8 setting. Please see the screenshots. With that setting back to 100%, all browsers look the same (in fact I might have copied the same fullscreen screenshot twice because they look so much alike :).

Thank you & Best regards,
Blama

[Blama]

Comparing the Overlay-screenshots it turns out Chrome is the one browser not adjusting to that setting. I dislike that because I really like the other display better. The font size is too low at Win8-100% IMHO.

Regarding zoom: I know that you don't support other zoom settings than 100%. Does this refer to browser-zoom only or to system-zoom as well?

For my better understanding:
Do you know how the zoom-setting (browser-zoom in all browsers and system zoom in IE and FF) works? Does the browser "lie" to SmartClient about the available pixels, SmartClient layouts for a small area and the browser expands that area to the full size?

Thank you & Best regards,
Blama

[Isomorphic]

It's browser zoom that is unsupportable. Generally we can't even tell if system zoom is in effect.

The problem with browser zoom is that some browser APIs that report sizes and positions take it into account, some don't, there is no reliable method of translation, and there are several outright bugs as well.