I consider this to be a very WTF moment, with regards to web browsers and compatibility. Yes, I am still using the god-forbidden Internet Explorer 8 (beta, supposedly), but there is one thing I’ve noticed recently, and it’s regarding fonts. Yes, I am that sad.

So reading Keiron’s latest post, as his feed shows that there are new items. (Wonder if he’ll like the traffic?) I open it up and read, fine and dandy everything’s grand. So I go to Windows Live Mail and open it up there to mark it as read, and it suprises me how much different it looks. Now this is where is confuses me – I thought Windows Live Mail parses web pages using IE – heck, if I tell Mail to display pages in the normal “Internet” zone rather than “Restricted sites” on WordPress.com blogs, I even get the bar at the top of the screen since I’m logged into WP.com in IE. But it just looks so different. So I went to compare it with my other browsers and modes, and the results are… well, I don’t know how to put it.

Windows Live Mail, in restricted sites (so no Google ads)

Firefox 3.0.1, in Firefox mode

Google Chrome

Those three I consider “normal”, but here’s where things change and look “silly”.

Internet Explorer 8, normal

Internet Explorer 8, in Compatibility view (browser mode: IE8 Compatiblity, IE7 standards)

Firefox 3, using IE Tab

In Summary

How the heck do I change it so that IE displays it (and every other site for that matter), in the same way as Firefox, Chrome and even Windows Live Mail? Anyone?

Update (16th October, 14:19)

OK, a little searching around today eventually led me to see that Internet Explorer has this setting in Internet Options enabled: “Always use ClearType for HTML”. Turning that off, and restarting IE now has pages looking “right” again. Firefox is now officially thrown out the window.