CSS3 has changed the way of representing websites, with lots of advanced properties like border-radius, box-shadow, border-image, transform etc. CSS3 gives web designers complete independence to achieve the desired results. CSS3 has opened up many exciting options to refresh the creativity levels of a designer. Despite being futuristic web styling technology, CSS3 has not yet been accepted completely, or in other words we can say CSS3 still has a long way to go to prove itself to the entire community of web designers.
The main problem with CSS3 is its compatibility issues with web browsers, most of the modern web browsers have full or partial support for CSS3 and other related web technologies. If you are an Internet Explorer user or you want your site to be IE compatible then you have to think twice before using CSS3, because IE has major compatibility issues regarding some CSS3 properties.
Now you have two options to solve the problem – first change your choice of Internet Explorer and adopt other browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Safari or second, use the following tools and resources for Internet Explorer to beat the compatibility issue.
CSS3 Compatibility Tools, Resources and References for Internet Explorer
Transformie
Transformie renders CSS Transforms by mapping the native IE Filter API to the CSS transitions as proposed by Webkit.
CSS3 PIE: CSS3 decorations for IE
Use CSS3 Pie to add rendering support to Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 for the more popular CSS3 rendering features: border-radius; box-shadow; border-image; multiple background images; linear-gradient as background image.
CSS3 Support for Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8
This script rebuilds some of the elements in Vector Markup Language (VML), an IE-specific vector drawing language.
Sizzle JavaScript Selector Library
Supports virtually all CSS3 Selectors – this even includes some parts that are infrequently implemented such as escaped selectors (“.foo\\+bar”), Unicode selectors, and results are returned in document order.
cssSandpaper
This script is not only useful for developers who want to support CSS3, it is also useful in other browsers which implement their own vendor-specific variants of these properties.
CSS Compatibility and Internet Explorer
If your website targets browsers that include earlier versions of Internet Explorer, you want to know the level of CSS compliance for those versions.
Modernizr
Modernizr uses feature detection to test the current browser against upcoming features like rgba(), border-radius, CSS Transitions and many more.
YUI 2: Selector Utility
The YUI Selector Utility brings CSS3 Selector syntax to JavaScript, providing compact shorthand for collecting, filtering, and testing HTML elements.
eCSStender
eCSStender enables developers to patch CSS support in browsers and experiment with new features. It also enables designers to keep browser-specific hacks out of their CSS files.
52Framework
The 52Framework provides an easy way to get started using HTML5 and CSS3 while still supporting all modern browsers (including IE6).
Curved Corner (border-radius) Cross Browser
This is a behavior .htc file for Internet Explorer to make the CSS3 property “border-radius” work on all browsers.
CSS3 Please! The Cross-Browser CSS3 Rule Generator
CSS3 Please! is a small utility that allows you to edit the document in real-time and create your own personalized cross browser CSS3 rule.
When can I use…
When can I use… is a compatibility table for features in HTML5, CSS3, SVG and other up and coming web technologies.
Internet Explorer 10 Test Drive
You can try the Internet Explorer Platform Preview, it includes HTML5 & CSS3 demos and speed demos.
More Useful Resources
Conclusion
Despite being among the preliminary browser category, Internet Explorer has taken downfall against tough competition from Google Chrome and Firefox which have more robust browser engines and are more supportive to latest web technologies like CSS3 and HTML5. Internet Explorer still has a long way to go to prove itself against these advanced technologies and needs to build something extraordinary.
Meanwhile you can use the above mentioned resources and tools to make your Internet Explorer more energetic and responsive to CSS3.