See how other people see your website - Screen Capture Services
July 23rd, 2007 by admin
Do you care how other people see your website? You should!
As a web developer you really should make sure that your websites are rendered correctly in all browser.
A Website that is not rendered correctly may discourage a user to visit your site, or buy something from your site.
Also it will look very nonprofessional to other developers and also your users.
From a psychological point of view the user may feel that you don’t care for him if you don’t care for his browser, that he choose to use. The User will feel bad about your site right when entering it, and probably leave it pretty soon.
Writing valid HTML/XHTML and css is not enough!
I put together a list of Screen Capture Services that will help you to check and optimize your website for many browsers.
Browsercam - http://www.browsercam.com/
This is probably the best site on the net when it comes to screen capturing, you can choose between many browsers, resolutions, plug-ins, and even operating systems!
Sadly this site is not free, a day of access costs you $19.95, a full year cost $399.95. At work we use this service for every project we do, there simply is no other site offering equal service.
You can register for a free trial, giving you 24h of full access to the Screen Capturing Service… 
Browsershots - http://browsershots.org
Free and easy to use, no registration required!
Simply enter your url, choose a browser, resolution and some other options.
Supported Browsers:
- Iceweasel 2.0
- Konqueror 3.5
Resolutions:
- 640×480
- 800×600
- 1024×768
- 1280×1024
- 1600×1200
Additional options:
- Javascript: disabled / enabled versions 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 or 1.6
- Flash: not installed / installed versions 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8
- Color depth: 4 bit, 8 bit, 16 bit or 24 bit
- Java: not installed / installed versions Blackdown, Kaffe, Sun
- Media Plug-ins: Quicktime, Media Player, SVG, PDF
ieCapture - http://www.danvine.com/iecapture/
See how your website is rendered in Internet Explorer 7!
No need to install IE 7 on your system - installing IE 7 makes absolutely no sense if you’re a web developer, because 90% of the Internet Explorer users still use IE 6.
iCapture - http://www.danvine.com/icapture/
Safari - the “Mac Browser” - is known to have problems with font sizes, check it with iCapture.
Bonus
Lynx View - http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
Are geeks able to browser your website? Find out with Lynx View.
Lynx is a text-mode browser that can be used from a unix/linux shell.
I’m pretty sure no one seriously uses this browser for surfing, but it sure is a great feeling if your website can be browsed from a shell.
If you liked this article, check out my article about Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers as well:
8 Firefox Add-ons every Web Developer should know about!
You know another Screen Capturing Service? Post it in the comments and i will add it to the list!
