CSS1 Test Suite: Understanding the Test Pages

Each page has a number of test statements, each of which describes a given effect which should be seen. If the effects you see do not match the description given, then there is a problem with your browser's CSS support. The test statements on each page are duplicated inside a one-cell table. This was done to provide at least rudimentary testing of conformance within tables, which are know to be a weak point in many CSS implementations.

Above the test statements, the style declarations for that specific page are displayed. There are also navigation links at the top and bottom of the page. The top of the page will look something like this:

The first line is not only the page's title, but also includes the name of the property being tested on that page, and its section number in the CSS1 specification. The six links under the title are, respectively:

• [Next] and [Previous] will take you to the next or previous test page, respectively. These allow you to move through the entire test suite a page at a time, going directly from test to test.
• [Section] will take you to the main page for the current section. In the above example, selecting this link will take you to contents page for section 5.2 (Font Properties), where you will find a list of all of the pages testing font properties. This link does not appear on main section pages.
• [Contents] will take you to the CSS1 Test Suite's main page.
• [Reference Image], when it appears, will call up a screenshot of an "ideal" rendering of the page. Note that there may be differences in font family and size, and possibly other aspects of the page, between your browser and the reference image, so you will have to use your judgment in determining whether or not your browser passes the test. Also, this link will only appear on pages for which a reference image exists.
• [Specification] will take you to the relevant section of the CSS1 specification. This allows you to compare the test statements made on the page to the assertions made in the specification, and also to take advantage of the more detailed explanations found there.

Finally, it is assumed that visual user agents are being tested against this test suite, and the test statements are written with this assumption in mind. There are currently no provisions given for text-only agents, although these should still be testable, or for speaking browsers, which are beyond the scope of CSS1 in any case.