iCab ß227/235 on Mac OS X 10.3.7 appears to have a rendering bug when :hover is applied to text with small point sizes. After hovering, the entire line "condenses" (like the old "Condensed" font style in the classic Mac OS). The font size at which this begins to appear is related to the font size set in the system "font smoothing" preferences. (This bug seems not to exist in Mac OS 9.)
N.B. Alexander Clauss replied that this was likely an OS bug and he would check to see if there was a work-around.
Update: The underlying rendering or ATSUI bug can be illustrated without the :hover pseudo-selector. Observe the behavior of http://www.georgetown.edu/departments/history/ in the following screenshots and corresponding test conditions.
The photographs on the page are inside of a p whose text-size is defined in CSS as 10px. Setting system font smoothing to be turned off at a size less than 10 produces the correct, side-by-side layout (as does iCab 2.9.8, shown here) of the photographs in iCab; at a size of 10 or greater, iCab ß235 stacks the photographs. Update: The GU image placement sub-bug was fixed in ß252.
N.B. iCab ß235 also displays the left-hand border line on http://www.georgetown.edu/departments/history/ approximately 2px wide instead of 1px wide; this is a separate bug which is unaffected by the system's "font smoothing" threshold. Update: The border-line sub-bug was fixed in ß251.
Before/after hovering screenshot from http://www.aetherial.net using ß227:
The size at which the :hover issue begins depends on what size "Turn off text smoothing for font sizes X and smaller" is set at in the Appearance system prefpane. The "condensing" issue should appear at the size specified in the preference).
The font-size property value begins with 14pt and decreases by one point in each successive paragraph.
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (14)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (13)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (12)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (11)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (10)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (9)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (8)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (7)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (6)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (5)
Hovering over this link will cause this entire line to "condense." (4)
N.B. The smallest font size displayed may be affected by your iCab preferences (Fonts & Language: "Min size").
Setting the system "font smoothing" threshold to disable smooting for font sizes 12 and below and setting iCab's minimum font size to 8 allows one to see the full range of this bug. For some reason, font sizes 12 and 8 are not affected by the "condensating movement" (as Sander has named the behavior), but text with font sizes of 11, 10, or 9 will still exhibit the behavior.
If you change either the system threshold or the iCab minimum after having once hovered over the links (even if they do not exhibit "condensating movement" at your original settings), you will need to reload the page to "reset" the hovering in order to observe the new behavior at the new settings.
You must also have CSS enabled in iCab and "Page sets font size" and "Use colors defined by page" (Page Display: General) for this testcase to work.
Last updated: 2005-04-03, 15:09 GMT -0400