What are common CSS browser inconsistencies?
Jul 26, 2025 am 07:04 AMDifferent browsers have differences in CSS parsing, resulting in inconsistent display effects, mainly including the default style difference, box model calculation method, Flexbox and Grid layout support level, and inconsistent behavior of certain CSS attributes. 1. The default style processing is inconsistent. The solution is to use CSS Reset or Normalize.css to unify the initial style; 2. The box model calculation method of the old version of IE is different. It is recommended to use box-sizing: border-box in a unified manner; 3. Flexbox and Grid have different performances in edge cases or in old versions. More tests and use Autoprefixer; 4. Some CSS attributes behave inconsistently, and you need to consult Can I use and provide a downgrade plan or polyfill.
There are indeed some differences in the way CSS is parsed by different browsers, which will cause web pages to display inconsistently in different browsers. Common problems include default style differences, how the box model is calculated, how support is Flexbox and Grid layouts, and inconsistent behavior of certain CSS properties.

Default style processing is inconsistent
Each browser has its own default stylesheet, such as <h1></h1>
's font size, <ul></ul>
's margin and padding, etc. These default values may differ slightly in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.
- Common phenomena : The same page looks "different spacing" or "different font size" in different browsers.
- Solution :
- Use CSS Reset or Normalize.css to unify the initial style.
- Write a simple reset style yourself, for example, set
* { margin: 0; padding: 0; box-sizing: border-box; }
Differences in how box model is calculated (especially old version)
Although most modern browsers support standard box models ( box-sizing: content-box
or border-box
), earlier versions of IE used different box model calculation methods, resulting in errors in width calculation.

- Suggested practices :
- Use
box-sizing: border-box
uniformly to control element size more intuitively. - Global settings can be added:
* { box-sizing: border-box; }
- Use
Support and behavioral differences in Flexbox and Grid layouts
While mainstream browsers now support Flexbox and Grid, layout performance may vary in some edge cases or older versions.
- FAQ :
-
flex-wrap
sometimes causes the child to be inconsistent in Safari. - The behavior of
auto-fit
andauto-fill
in Grid differs slightly across browsers.
-
- Countermeasures :
- Don't just look at Chrome when testing, but also see how it performs on Firefox and Safari.
- Use Autoprefixer to automatically generate compatibility prefixes.
- Avoid over-reliance on automatically calculated sizes and set key sizes manually appropriately.
Some CSS attributes behave inconsistently
Some CSS properties do not behave exactly the same in different browsers:

-
position: fixed
in mobile browsers was once inconsistent. -
text-overflow: ellipsis
requires additionalwhite-space: nowrap
in some older browsers to take effect. -
rem
unit is not supported well enough in some old browsers.
suggestion :
- Check Can I use to confirm whether the target browser supports a certain feature.
- For key functions, a downgrade solution or polyfill is provided.
- Try to avoid using too new CSS features unless you don't need to be compatible with older browsers.
Basically these common problems. Although the compatibility of modern browsers has improved a lot, if you don’t pay attention to these details, you will still easily have the embarrassing situation of “normal on my computer”.
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Different browsers have differences in CSS parsing, resulting in inconsistent display effects, mainly including the default style difference, box model calculation method, Flexbox and Grid layout support level, and inconsistent behavior of certain CSS attributes. 1. The default style processing is inconsistent. The solution is to use CSSReset or Normalize.css to unify the initial style; 2. The box model calculation method of the old version of IE is different. It is recommended to use box-sizing:border-box in a unified manner; 3. Flexbox and Grid perform differently in edge cases or in old versions. More tests and use Autoprefixer; 4. Some CSS attribute behaviors are inconsistent. CanIuse must be consulted and downgraded.

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