Oslo, Norway – November 23, 2004
Opera Software today announced that they have solved the problem of rendering Web pages effectively regardless of screen size. Opera’s new Extensible Rendering Architecture (ERA) means no more horizontal scrolling and improved ability to print entire Web pages. In combination with Opera’s Zoom function, ERA also presents a compelling accessibility feature with which users can magnify Web pages dramatically and still view them without having to scroll sideways.
Opera’s rendering technologies have previously included Small- and Medium-Screen Rendering (SSR/MSR) to render Web pages on mobile devices, as well as TV-rendering (TVR) for effectively displaying Web pages on regular television sets. ERA is the architecture that incorporates all of Opera’s rendering technologies in one dynamic framework, and thus concludes Opera’s effort to solve the rendering problem regardless of screen size.
The rendering challenge has been that most Web pages are designed with desktop or laptop users in mind, and are usually set to a fixed width of 800 pixels or more. Consequently, if your screen or window size is smaller than the minimum width of the Web page, you have to resort to horizontal scrolling. Opera’s ERA technology enables dynamic resizing to adapt Web page content to fit any width – from projectors to mobile phones, and everything in between. Furthermore, printing Web pages will often leave out parts because the Web page is wider than the paper, and ERA can make the Web page fit the width of the paper for complete printouts.
“Opera’s vision is to enable people to access their favorite Web sites on any device, and ERA means that users can have a great Internet experience on any screen regardless of a Web page’s width, tables, or frames,” says Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. “With its unlimited applicability, ERA technology is truly a milestone in Web page rendering.”
An integrated feature of the next version of the Opera desktop browser, Opera 7.60, a preview of ERA is available by downloading the Opera 7.60 Technical Preview 3 the Opera forums under “Beta Testing.”