Mozilla default background question

[Erica C.]

I use Mozilla 1.7.12 for general browsing. I find that when sites don't specify a background color for the body, I see gray. In other words, the default if unspecified seems to be gray in Mozilla and white in any other browser I've seen. It makes many sites look bad.

Has anyone else come across this?

Erica

[phppete]

In FF you can go to Prefrences > Content > Colors and choose your own for the default. I would imagine its similar for Moz 1.7x

[Andilinks]

...choose your own for the default.But I don't think Erica is as much concerned about the aesthetics of her own experience as that of all the other Mozilla users who maintain the default. It's just one more thing to remember when designing if a significant part of your demographic uses Mozilla. Kinda makes me glad that I only design for one client--picky though she is. :)

[phppete]

But I don't think Erica is as much concerned about the aesthetics of her own experience as that of all the other Mozilla users who maintain the default. It's just one more thing to remember when designing if a significant part of your demographic uses Mozilla. Kinda makes me glad that I only design for one client--picky though she is. :)

If you write valid CSS then you specify a background color for body, so if the site shows gray then the web designer hasn't done that. When I first started I found some IE users also experienced a gray background when a Windows 98 theme was selected.

[Andilinks]

Yes, it is best to pay attention to backgrounds because you never know when they may peek through in some unexpected situation or browser version...

[Randall]

Yes, it is best to pay attention to backgrounds because you never know when they may peek through in some unexpected situation or browser version... I'm surprised that would be happening in an up-to-date version of Mozilla, because browsers have defaulted to white for a long time now. Are you sure you didn't change the default color at some point, Erica?

I used to set my background default to Good Ol' Gray just to catch problems like that. Guess I should get back in the habit -- but this time I'm picking a more interesting color, like yellow-orange. :winky:

What's really weird is when you find a site that uses the old-school gray background deliberately...

Randall

[Erica C.]

I'm surprised that would be happening in an up-to-date version of Mozilla, because browsers have defaulted to white for a long time now. Are you sure you didn't change the default color at some point, Erica?

I used to set my background default to Good Ol' Gray just to catch problems like that. Guess I should get back in the habit -- but this time I'm picking a more interesting color, like yellow-orange. :winky:

No, I didn't change the defaults. But I just checked and it says it's white but I see gray. Hm.

What a good idea to set it to a strange color to check for problems.:yeah: I hadn't come across that suggestion before. When I've taken online classes in web design I've seen lots of examples of people not setting a background color for body in their class assignments.

Erica

[Randall]

What a good idea to set it to a strange color to check for problems. Yep, I'm seeing all sorts of interesting things now. My bank's web site is a veritable sea of gold, and even Microsoft's site is full of gaping holes.

Randall

[Erica C.]

Yep, I'm seeing all sorts of interesting things now.
Isn't it weird? I came across one of those sites the other day and pointed out the problem to someone else who was nearby. He wasn't quite sure I was right. I told him I'd bet money that if we looked at the site in another browser all the gray we were seeing would be white.

I was right. :smile:

Erica