Safari - 150 Features - Learn about the features available in the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser. Apple Canada

Accessibility

VoiceOver Screen Reader

Safari features built-in support for Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader in Mac OS X. VoiceOver describes aloud what appears on your screen and reads the text and links of websites. Using VoiceOver, you can completely control the computer with the keyboard instead of the mouse.

ARIA Support

The Safari 4 supports Accessible Rich Interactive Applications (ARIA). An emerging standard, ARIA helps web developers make dynamic web content more accessible for people with disabilities. With ARIA, sites taking advantage of advanced technologies like AJAX and JavaScript can now easily interoperate with assistive technologies.

Custom Style Sheets

Apply standard stylesheets — that you download or create yourself — that set default font sizes, typefaces, colors, and contrast, making your favourite websites more readable.

Enhanced Keyboard Navigation

Thanks to the enhanced keyboard navigation options in Safari, you can navigate the web without a mouse. Press the Tab key, and Safari automatically jumps to the next password field, drop-down menu, or input field. For increased keyboard control, you can hold down the Option key while tabbing to have Safari skip through every link on the page. And if you press the return key, Safari opens the highlighted link, letting you “point and click” with just a few keystrokes.

Full-Page Zoom

Zoom in or out on web content using Multi-Touch or the Text Size Toolbar buttons for more comfortable reading. Images and graphics scale up while your text remains razor sharp, keeping your web page layout consistent as you zoom. To add the Text Size buttons to your toolbar, simply choose Customize Toolbar from the View menu and drag the buttons onto your toolbar.

Minimum Font Size

If you find that fonts on some websites are too small to read — such as photo captions or fine print — Safari can automatically increase your font size to make them easier to view. Just set the minimum font size in Advanced Preferences.

Advanced pane of the Safari preference window

VoiceOver Screen Reader (MAC)

Safari features built-in support for Apple’s VoiceOver screen reader in Mac OS X. VoiceOver describes aloud what appears on your monitor and reads the text and links of your websites. Using VoiceOver, you can completely control the computer with the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Advanced Web Technologies

Acid 2 Compliance

Designed by the Web Standards Project, Acid tests determine whether a web browser complies with emerging Internet standards. Acid 2 tests for compatibility with new features in the HTML, CSS, and PNG standards. Pioneering the standardization effort, Safari passed Acid 2 on October 27, 2005 – two and a half years before any other popular browser.

Acid 3 Compliance

With its introduction, Safari 4 became the first — and only — web browser to pass Acid 3. Acid 3 tests a browser’s ability to fully render pages using the web standards used to build dynamic, next-generation websites, including CSS, JavaScript, XML, and SVG.

Canvas

Originally invented by Apple for Mac OS X Dashboard, Canvas technology allows web designers to specify an area in HTML that can be dynamically stylized by a JavaScript program. Safari was the first web browser to support Canvas, and the technology is now supported by other popular browsers, as well.

CSS Animation

CSS animation — an open standard that brings a new level of interactivity to the web — lets web designers scale, rotate, fade, and skew web elements to create cutting edge websites. Safari was the first web browser to support CSS animation.

CSS Effects

Pioneered by Safari, CSS Effects help developers add polish to websites by stylizing images and photos with eye-catching gradients, precise masks, and stunning reflections that require only a few lines of code.

CSS 3 Web Fonts

CSS 3 Web Fonts allow web designers to create stunning websites using the fonts they prefer rather than restricting themselves to “web-safe fonts.” Safari is the first web browser to automatically recognize websites using custom fonts, downloading them as they’re needed.

HTML 4.01 Support

HTML 4.0.1 is the authoring language that defines the structure and layout of web documents.

HTML 5 Media Support

Websites can now deliver rich, interactive media as easily as they deliver images. With its support for HTML 5 audio and video tags, Safari helps developers create media-rich sites that don’t require additional plug-ins. The media tags also offer a rich scripting API, allowing developers to create both powerful new controls that match the style of the page.

HTML 5 Offline Support

Web developers can now create applications that you can use even when you don’t have access to the Internet. Thanks to HTML 5 Offline support, designers can build web applications that store information on your systems, where you have immediate access to it, instead of storing it on the website, where you’d have to download it. The data can be stored in a traditional SQL-like database serving as an application cache or as a “super cookie,” which stores data in the familiar cookie format.

ICC Color Profile Support

Safari uses advanced color management technology to deliver web images with rich, accurate color. In fact, it’s the only browser to support International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles and has done so from day one, so the photos and images you see in your browser stay true to the original.

Java Support

Enjoy running Java applets on the web thanks to Safari’s Java support.

JavaScript Support

Safari supports ECMA 262 version 3, the latest edition of the JavaScript standard. JavaScript powers many dynamic features on the web and has served as a key component in the rise of highly interactive AJAX applications.

LiveConnect Support

Safari supports LiveConnect to ensure compatibility with popular enterprise web applications. LiveConnect allows Java and Javascript to work together to deliver a more seamless browsing experience.

Modern JavaScript Engine

Safari 4 introduces the Nitro JavaScript engine, an advanced bytecode JavaScript engine that makes web browsing even faster. In fact, Safari 4 reads JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 8 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1.

Next Generation Standards Support

Safari continues to lead the way, implementing the latest innovative web standards and enabling next-generation Internet experiences. With support for HTML 5 media tags, CSS animation, and CSS effects, web designers can create rich, interactive web applications using natively supported web standards. A standards-compliant browser, Safari renders current and future web applications as they were meant to be seen.

Plug-in Support

Plug-ins are add-ons that expand a browser’s capabilities. Because it supports the standard Netscape plug-in architecture, Safari works with the full range of popular Internet plug-ins, including Flash, Shockwave, and QuickTime.

Scriptable Plug-ins

Thanks to its support for scriptable plug-ins, developers can create plug-ins that interact with standard elements on a page. For example, a developer could build a plug-in allowing you to customize the appearance of a car. As you add or remove options, the scriptable plug-in would interact with other page elements, such as updating the sticker price of the car.

SVG 1.1 Support

By taking advantage of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) support in Safari, web developers can dynamically create fonts, graphic elements, and animations, on the fly, that look great no matter how large or small they’re sized. For example, when you visit a mapping site, the site often use SVG to dynamically draw driving directions based on your location and destination.

WebKit

Webkit, the open-source rendering engine introduced by Apple, powers Safari on iPhone and iPod touch and Safari 4 on Mac and Windows systems. Webkit features blazing performance and extensive standards supports, and because it’s open source, developers can examine WebKit code and contribute back to the community.

XML 1.0 Support

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a popular open industry standard for creating, managing, and sharing structured data. Because native XML support is built into Safari, JavaScript programs can efficiently read XML data feeds.

Bookmarks

Address Book Bookmarks

In Mac OS X Leopard, when you add a link to a favourite restaurant or the URL of a friend’s blog in your Address Book, Safari automatically lists it in the Address collection of your Bookmarks Library.

Bonjour Bookmarks

Safari is the first browser to automatically discover network devices that use Bonjour. That means you can access and manage the printers and computers on your network from the Bonjour section of your Bookmarks collection — without having to manually find and enter a complicated web address.

Bookmark Auto-Click

Safari offers a great way to automatically open the bookmarks inside a Bookmark folder, each in a separate tab. In fact, it’s the only browser to offer Auto-Click bookmarks. A great way to catch up with your favourite news sites in the morning, Auto-click offers a simple way to open multiple pages in individual tabs with a single click.

Bookmark Folders

Organize your bookmarks into custom folders — such as News, Resources, Networking, Photo, or Blogs. Add, name, and arrange them under any Bookmark library collection. Drag and drop bookmarks directly into a folder to organize your library.

Bookmarks Library

Safari provides an iTunes-style interface you can use to view, create, and organize your bookmarks. The Bookmarks Library is organized into collections of custom Bookmarks, History, Address Book links, Bonjour connections, and RSS feeds. To access the library, click the book icon on the left side of the Bookmarks bar.

Bookmark Search

Find bookmarks quickly in Safari 4. You don’t even have to remember the name of the site — Safari will search your bookmark collection for matching URLs, website names, and even website content to find a bookmark you’re looking for.

Bookmark Tabs

Here’s a quick way to simultaneously create bookmarks for sites you have open in separate tabs in a single Safari window. Simply select “Add Bookmark for these Tabs” from the Bookmarks menu. Safari creates a new Bookmarks folder for the sites, and because it enables them for auto-click, you can instantly re-open each of the sites in a separate tab with a single click.

Bookmark menu. Add bookmark for these 4 tabs highlighted

Cover Flow

Using Cover Flow, you can flip through websites as easily as you flip through album art in iTunes. Cover Flow displays your bookmarks and history as large graphical previews, so you can pick out a website instantly.

Custom Bookmark Naming

Simplify your bookmarks with custom names. Instead of using the default site names, which are often long and unwieldy, give them names you’ll remember when Safari conveniently prompts you to choose a name and location as it adds each bookmark.

Drag and Drop Bookmark Creation and Deletion

Safari lets you create and delete bookmarks with a simple drag and drop. When you find a site you like, create a new bookmark by dragging the site’s icon into the Bookmarks Bar. If you no longer use a bookmark, drag it out of the Bookmarks Bar and it will disappear in a cloud of smoke.

Drag and Drop Bookmark Organization

Easily rearrange your bookmarks in the Bookmarks Bar by simply dragging them to the right or left. As you drag over other bookmarks, they dynamically slide away to make room for the one that you are dragging.

Export Bookmarks

Easily transfer and backup your bookmarks. Choose Export Bookmarks from Safari’s File menu, and Safari saves your bookmarks in an HTML file that can easily be archived or opened with another computer or browser.

History View

Take a closer look at your browsing history in Safari’s History View. Search for previously visited sites, drag web pages to your Bookmarks, and clear individual items. Since Safari displays your history using Cover Flow, you can quickly flip through your search results as easily as you flip through iTunes album art.

Import Bookmarks

Choose Import Bookmarks from the File menu to import your Firefox and Internet Explorer bookmarks into Safari.

Integrated Bookmarks Bar

Safari’s elegant Bookmarks Bar is built right into the browser window, so your most frequently used bookmarks are always visible without cluttering your screen.

Synchronize Bookmarks Using MobileMe

Keep the bookmarks on your computers and devices in sync using MobileMe. Log into your MobileMe account from System Preferences or the Control Panel, choose the Sync tab, then select the checkbox next to Bookmarks. When you press Sync Now, your bookmarks are automatically updated in the cloud and synced across your MobileMe devices.

Browsing and Navigation

Auto-Complete Web Addresses

Let Safari auto-complete your web addresses. As you begin typing a web address in the address field, Safari uses your bookmarks and browsing history to anticipate your destination and automatically fill in the full web address for you.

AutoFill: Forms

Safari can automatically fill in forms, such as search fields, you repeatedly use on the web. Just start entering text into a form or search field, and Safari automatically fills in the form or offers suggestions based on what you’ve entered in the past.

AutoFill: Personal Info

Wish you didn’t have to repeatedly enter your name, telephone number, address, or other personal information when you fill out web forms? Then let Safari do it for you. AutoFill — which you can configure in Safari Preferences — can automatically fill out web forms for you using information found in your Mac OS X Address Book, Outlook, or Windows Address Book.

AutoFill: User Names and Passwords

If you frequently visit secure sites — such as a Facebook account — that require you to enter a username and password, you can have Safari remember your login information for later use. Click the checkbox that appears the first time you log into the secure site, and Safari automatically fills in the login information when you return to the site. Safari encrypts your usernames and passwords to keep your personal information secure.

Auto-Remove Download List Items

Safari makes it easy to minimize the number of items appearing in your downloads list. In Safari’s General Preferences, choose to delete listings upon successful download or as soon as Safari quits.

Auto-Remove History Items

To keep your browsing history manageable, Safari automatically purges history items older than one month. However, you can increase or decrease the amount of time between purges by clicking General in Safari Preferences and choosing another option in the Remove History Items pull-down menu.

Customize Number of Top Sites

To control the number of sites Safari displays on your Top Sites page, click the Edit button in Top Sites and choose Small, Medium, or Large in the lower, right-hand corner to display six, twelve, or twenty-four site thumbnails, respectively.

Downloads Window

Safari was the first popular browser with a download management window. Use it to view the progress of your downloads, pause, resume, or cancel a transfer, or choose a location where Safari should save downloaded files.

Full History Search

Instantly find pages you visited in the past with Full History Search. To find a page, enter your search into the History Search field in Top Sites. With Safari 4, there's no need to remember page titles or complex URLs. Instead, find pages by searching for text that appeared anywhere on the page. Safari displays search results using Cover Flow, so you can easily flip through large graphical previews to quickly pick out the site you're looking for.

Grammar Checking

Safari is the first and only web browser to offer built-in grammar checking. On the Mac, if you compose web-based email, update a blog, or type text into any web form, Safari can check and suggest corrections for your sentence structure.

Help

Learn how to get the most out of Safari with Safari’s comprehensive Help system. Help is fully searchable and search results are sorted by relevance and divided into lists of related commands and Help topics.

Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

Browse faster more productively by using Safari’s keyboard and mouse shortcuts. Click on the Help menu and type “Safari Shortcuts” in the search field for a complete listing.

Merge All Windows

Consolidate all of the open browser windows into a single window with multiple tabs by choosing Merge All Windows from the Window Menu.

Middle Click Pan and Scroll

On Windows, scroll vertically and horizontally through a web page by moving your mouse. Click the middle mouse button to enable the feature, then mouse in any direction to pan through the web content. Middle-click a second time to return to the normal mouse mode.

Movable Tabs

Safari was the first browser to let you organize tabs with a simple drag and drop. Movable Tabs give you the power to organize your sites exactly the way you want. Rearrange tabs by dragging their tab handle left and right. You can also drag a tab out of a window to create a new window. Or you can drag a tab from one window to another existing browser window to merge their tabs.

New Window Preference

Choose what’s displayed when you first open Safari: Top Sites, a specific web page, an empty page, your current web page, or your Bookmarks Collection.

Pin Top Sites

To organize your Top Sites the way you want, click the edit button and drag site thumbnails to any position on your Top Sites grid. You can also pin sites to specific locations by clicking the pushpin that appears over the desired site.

Reopen All Windows from Last Session

Want to start browsing exactly where you left off the last time you Quit Safari. Simply choose “Open All Windows From Last Session” from the History menu, and Safari 4 will open the windows and tabs that were open when it previously quit.

Reopen Last Closed Window

If you inadvertently close a browser window, you can easily recover it by choosing Reopen Last Closed Window from the History menu.

Report Bugs to Apple

If you encounter a problem with a website, choose Report Bugs to Apple from the Safari menu. Note the URL and problem type, and provide a brief description. Reports can help Apple work with website developers to correct the problem and improve your browsing experience.

Save as Web Archive

Store important or private web documents — like receipts and invoices — on your local hard drive as web archive files. While viewing a web document you want to keep, select Save As from Safari’s File menu and choose Web Archive. The page is stored on your computer in a single file with its text, graphics, and layout permanently intact.

Smart Address Field

Enter web addresses quickly and easily. As you begin to type an address in the address field, Safari automatically completes the address with the most likely match — called the Top Hit — and automatically highlights it. Simply press the Enter key to connect to the site. If the Top Hit is not the site you intended to visit, check the easy-to-read list of relevant suggestions, drawn from your bookmarks and browsing history, that Safari also displays. Just click to select the site you want to visit.

Spell Checking

Safari offers built-in spell checking. Like the spell checker on many word processing applications, it both highlights errors as you type and reviews your text word-by-word with new spelling suggestions. Safari can spellcheck in 14 different languages.

Tabbed Browsing

A great way to check several websites at once without cluttering your desktop, tabbed browsing lets you see and switch between multiple websites in a single window. To open a new tab, just click the new Tab button in the toolbar.

Top Sites

Safari automatically identifies your favourite sites and displays them as a wall of stunning graphical previews. To visit one of your Top Sites, just click any of the previews. As you browse, Safari identifies the websites you’re most interested in based on how often and how recently you visit a site. So as you explore the web and discover new websites, your Top Sites will evolve to match your evolving taste.

Top Sites: Fresh News

In Safari 4, you can see at a glance when one of your Top Sites has been updated. Just look for the star in the upper right-hand corner to see which sites have fresh content you might want to review first thing.

View Installed Plug-ins

Each time you download and activate a plug-in, Safari automatically logs and displays it in the Installed Plug-ins view under the Help menu. Safari groups the plug-ins by category, listing the name, version number, description, and any associated extensions for each plug-in.

Built-in RSS

Bookmark RSS Feeds

Safari lets you bookmark an RSS feed the same way you bookmark traditional websites, allowing you to open it at any time with a single click. In the RSS window, click the Add Bookmark button or drag and drop the icon from the address field right into your Bookmarks Bar. Your new RSS bookmark will even tell you how many new articles have been posted since your last visit.

Personal RSS Clipping Service

In Safari 4, you can easily create a personal clipping service to notify you when certain topics are mentioned on your favourite sites. To do so, search an RSS feed for a keyword, such as “baseball.” After Safari’s RSS tool pulls up related articles from your RSS feeds, press the New Bookmark button to create your clipping service. As soon as new articles including that keyword appear on your favourite sites, your new bookmark will update to indicate that new articles referencing baseball are available.

RSS Actions

Update your RSS pages, mark articles as read, or email a link to an RSS feed by selecting the appropriate link from the Actions menu on the right of your RSS feeds.

RSS Adjust Length of Article

To adjust the length of your RSS article summaries and obtain the right amount of detail at a glance, move the Article Length slider to make posts larger (for more headline information) or smaller (to fit more items on the page).

RSS Aggregation

By taking advantage of RSS aggregation in Safari 4, you can view multiple feeds in one unified list, making it easier to compare articles from different sources or search across feeds to find articles about a topic of particular interest. To aggregate RSS feeds, simply create a folder of feeds and either control-click on the folder or go to the folder’s drop-down menu and select View All RSS Articles.

RSS Auto-Discovery

Safari automatically identifies websites that offer an RSS feed by displaying an RSS icon in the address field. Simply click the RSS icon to have Safari automatically display the feed right in the browser.

RSS Reader

Thanks to the built-in RSS Reader in Safari 4, you can scan the latest news, information, and articles from thousands of websites in one simple-to-read, searchable article list that Safari assembles for you. The first browser to feature a built-in RSS reader, Safari is the ideal way to browse the entire web without using a second application.

RSS Search

To search your RSS feeds for topics of interest, simply enter your search into the Search Articles field and Safari will display any RSS article that includes your keywords.

RSS Sorting

While reviewing an RSS feed, you can change the sort order in which Safari lists the articles by clicking Date, Title, Source, or New in the panel to the right of the RSS article listing.

RSS Unread Indicator

Choose Highlight Unread Articles in Safari Preferences, and Safari will distinguish between read and unread articles, highlighting new items you haven’t read.

RSS Update Notification

In the Bookmarks Bar, Safari maintains a running count of the number of new articles appearing in your RSS feeds since you last checked them. This allows you to learn about breaking news without having to regularly refresh sites or sort through older posts.

Developer Tools

Change User Agent

To determine if a website is customizing content for different browsers, change the User Agent to have Safari identify itself as a different browser.

Databases

Safari is the only browser to include tools for managing the offline databases that will be part of the next generation of websites. The Databases Panel available in Safari 4 allows you to view tables and databases and even execute SQL queries.

Develop Menu

Access all of the developer tools in Safari 4 from your menu bar by turning on the Develop Menu in the Advanced section of Safari’s Preferences. With the Develop menu, you gain one-click access to the Web Inspector, Error Console, Disabling functions, and other developer features.

Disable Caches

Choose Disable Caches from the Develop menu to force the browser to grab live graphics, pages, and other resources from the network instead of using cached resources.

Disable Images

Many Internet users use browsers that don’t support images or configure their browsers to prevent images from loading. As a developer, you can learn how such users experience content on your site by disabling your site’s images in the Develop menu.

Disable JavaScript

Disabling JavaScript lets you experience how your website will behave for users who have disabled JavaScript. Simply choose Disable JavaScript from the Develop menu.

Disable Runaway JavaScript Timer

Safari has a built-in runaway timer that alerts users when they land on a site that uses slow JavaScript code. If, however, you want to examine long-running scripts without interruption, you can disable the time by choosing Disable Runaway JavaScript Timer from the Develop Menu.

Disable Styles

If you disable styles, Safari will load pages without applying any CSS rules, allowing you to evaluate how text browsers, search engines, and screen readers will interpret your pages.

Powerful Tools

Apple has brought its expertise in Mac OS X and iPhone development tools to the web. Safari 4 includes a powerful set of tools that make it easy to debug, tweak, and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility. To access them, turn on the Develop Menu in Safari Preferences.

Elements

Take a closer look at your page’s structure with the Elements Panel. The Elements Panel makes it easy to examine your Document Object Model (DOM) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rules. And you can even make quick changes to your DOM or CSS and immediately preview how those changes affect your page.

Error Console

The Error Console highlights warnings, syntax mistakes, or JavaScript errors affecting your site. You can even type JavaScript expressions right into the Error Console, and Safari will evaluate them as if they appeared in the source page.

JavaScript Debugger

The Scripts Panel features the powerful JavaScript Debugger in Safari 4. To use it, choose the Scripts Panel in the Web Inspector and click Start Debugging. The debugger cycles through your page’s JavaScript, stopping when it encounters exceptions or erroneous syntax. The Scripts panel also lets you pause the JavaScript, set breakpoints, and evaluate local variables.

JavaScript Profiler

Optimize your JavaScript code using the state-of-the-art JavaScript Profiler in Safari 4. The Profiler lists the performance characteristics of each of your script's functions, making it easy to pinpoint problem areas and drill down to the offending lines of code.

Open With

To preview how different browsers render your web page, choose an alternate browser using the Open With feature in the Develop menu.

Resources

The Resources Panel cleanly graphs the order in which and speed at which website components load over the network. It’s also the first tool to let you sort data based on loading parameters such as latency, response time, and duration. Graph page resources by either size or load time. Clicking on a resource in the left column brings up detailed data on the right. For text resources, such as documents and scripts, you see the text source of the file. For image and font resources, you view a graphical preview of the file.

Save As Page Source

To save your website’s HTML source code, choose Save As from the File menu and select Page Source.

Snippet Editor

The Snippet Editor makes it easy to test experimental pieces of HTML markup. Enter the code into the editor, and Safari renders the results immediately.

View Activity

To see a complete list of the documents, images, and other web assets that load as part of a page, choose Activity from the Window menu. Click on an individual element to open it in its own window. Visiting a new web page will refresh the Activity View with a new list of elements.

View Source

To examine the original HTML of a web pag, choosing View Source from the View menu. The Source view updates automatically if you reload an adjusted page. To search the source code, choose Find from the Edit menu.

Web Inspector

The Web Inspector gives you quick and easy access to the richest set of development tools ever included in a browser. From viewing the structure of a page to debugging JavaScript to optimizing performance, the Web Inspector presents its tools in a clean window designed to make developing web applications more efficient. To activate the it, choose Show Web Inspector from the Develop menu.

Graphics and Fonts

High-Fidelity Graphics and Fonts

Safari brings the web to life by delivering the beautiful graphics, fonts, and effects you expect from Apple. Your favourite websites have never looked better.

Anti-Aliased Fonts

Thanks to the anti-aliasing algorithm in Safari, you enjoy crisp, gorgeous fonts. The algorithm preserves the subtleties of each font while rendering each character with a crispness that makes your favourite sites a pleasure to read. In Windows, you can also choose to use Windows standard fonts.

Color Profile Support

The only browser that color-corrects web images, Safari delivers vibrant, accurate color. Safari has supported International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles from day one, so the photos and images you see in your browser are as true to the originals as possible.

Printing Auto-Format

Because Safari intelligently prints websites, your printout matches your expectations. When you choose Print from the File menu, there’s no need to select a specific frame or section of the site to make certain that your printout contains all of the site’s content. Safari formats the site based on the content and displays a preview for your approval.

Shrink-to-Fit Printing

Working in conjunction with Mac OS X, Safari avoids printing pages with one or two lines of text by calculating the web page layout and adjusting the print size by up to 10 percent if doing so will reduce the number of printed pages.

Contextual Letters

In many fonts, letters may change their shape and spacing depending on their position in a word. For example, in languages like Arabic, a letter used in the middle of a word may be shaped differently from the same letter used at the end of a word. Safari recognizes many of these contextual letterforms when rendering different fonts and languages.

CSS Animation

An open standard, CSS animation brings a new level of interactivity to the web, allowing designers to scale, rotate, fade, and skew web elements to create sites with cutting-edge graphics animation. Safari was the first web browser to support the new standard.

CSS Effects

Using CSS effects, a new technology pioneered by Safari, developers can stylize images and photos with eye-catching gradients, precise masks, and stunning reflections, providing an extra layer of polish to their websites by adding just a few lines of code.

CSS 3 Web Fonts

Thanks to CSS 3 web fonts, web designers no longer have to settle for web-safe fonts. Instead, they can choose from a broader set of fonts to design stunning websites. Safari was the first browser to automatically recognize websites that use custom fonts and download them as needed.

International

Default Regional Bookmarks

After using your operating system’s regional settings to determine your location, Safari automatically customizes your bookmarks based on region. As a result, you’ll have the most popular websites pre-loaded in your Bookmarks Bar no matter where you are.

IDN Support

Access sites with non-English web addresses. Safari offers Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) support, which allows web developers to use a URL that contains non-English letters and characters.

International Localizations

Safari is available in 16 different languages and can spellcheck 14 different languages.

International Web Content

Safari was designed to handle web content from all regions of the world, including a broad range of alphabets, number systems, writing directions, currencies, weights and measurements, date/time formats, and time zones.

Right-to-Left Text

Safari supports multidirectional text rendering, allowing websites drafted in other languages to display characters right-to-left.

Unicode Support

Because Safari supports Unicode, the accepted international encoding standard, you can enjoy web content in any number of languages, including Arabic, English, and Japanese.

Mac Integration

AppleScript Enabled

Safari allows AppleScript developers to access the content and properties of websites — such as HTML, DOM, and JavaScript, elements — directly in scripts and custom applications.

Automator Enabled

Access web images, downloads, and text directly from your custom workflows with the Safari actions built into Automator.

Download Stack

When you download files or programs to your computer, Safari automatically saves them in the Downloads stack in your dock so you can get to them with just a few clicks. If you prefer, you can select an alternate default location in the General section of Safari Preferences.

Inline PDF Viewing

Safari 4 comes with its own built-in PDF engine, allowing you to quickly review PDF documents in Safari without having to install slow and cumbersome third-party plug-ins. The Safari PDF engine also lets you zoom in and out and allows you to open PDFs in Preview or save them in your Downloads folder.

Mail Contents of this Page

Safari integrates seamlessly with Mac OS X Mail, allowing you to easily email full web pages to friends, family, or colleagues. Choose Mail Contents of this Page from the File menu to create a new message that includes the contents of a website.

Mail Link to this Page

In Safari 4, you can easily email web page links to a friend, colleague, or yourself. Choose Mail Link to This Page from the File menu, and Safari instantly opens your mail application, creates a new outgoing message, and inserts a link to the website you’re viewing in the body or the email message.

Save Images to iPhoto

Safari is the only browser that lets you save web images directly into iPhoto. Simply control-click the picture and choose Add Image to iPhoto Library.

Search

Bookmark Search

Find your bookmarks instantly with Bookmark Search in Safari. You don’t have to remember the name of the site. Safari will search your bookmark collection for matching URLs, website names, and even website content to find the bookmark you’re looking for. Safari displays the results using Cover Flow, so you can quickly flip through your search results as easily as you flip through album art in iTunes.

Built-in Google Search

Search the Internet directly from your browser’s toolbar using Safari’s built-in Google search. Safari was the first popular browser to build a search field right into its user interface.

Find

When you use choose Find from the Edit menu and enter the text you want to find, Safari instantly locates all occurrences of the text on the current web page, alerts you to how many occurrences it’s found, and highlights every instance.

Full-History Search

Use Full History Search to instantly find pages you've visited in the past. To find a page, simply begin typing in the History Search field in Top Sites. No need to remember page titles or complex URLs. Safari 4 stores all the text from every page you visit, so you can base your search on any word or phrase that appeared on the site you want to find. And since Safari displays the results using Cover Flow, you can easily flip through large graphical previews until you recognize the site you want.

Search Suggestions

Safari uses Google Suggest to auto-complete search queries as you type, based on popular search terms.

SnapBack

As you search, one page inevitably leads to another page. Before you know it, you’ve wandered far from your original search results. But, thanks to SnapBack, a single click on the SnapBack icon takes you right back to your original search results or to the website where you started browsing.

Smart Search Field

Find what you're looking for instantly. As you enter text in its search field, Safari returns relevant matches courtesy of Google Suggest as well as listing matches from your most recent search history, presenting them in a clean, easy-to-read list.

Safari smart search menu with suggestions and recent searches

Security and Privacy

Anti-Malware

Safari recognizes websites that harbor malware before you visit them. If Safari identifies a dangerous page, it will warn you about the suspicious nature of the site.

Anti-Phishing

Safari protect you from fraudulent Internet sites. When you visit a suspicious site, Safari automatically warns you about its suspect nature and prevents the page from loading.

Anti-Virus Integration

As a result of its support for Windows Attachment Monitor, Safari automatically notifies your anti-virus software whenever you download a file, image, application, or other item to your computer, allowing the anti-virus software to scan each download for viruses and malware.

Automatic Updates

Get quick, easy access to the latest security upgrades. Safari takes advantage of Apple Software Update, which automatically checks for the latest versions of Safari when you’re on the Internet.

Clear History

Simply choose the Clear History command from Safari’s History menu to erase your browsing history and start with a clean slate.

Cookie Blocking

Some companies track the cookies generated by the websites you visit, so they can gather and sell information about your website activity. Safari is the first browser to blocks these tracking cookies by default, better protecting your privacy. Safari automatically erases cookie trails and only accepts cookies from your current domain.

Customize Offline Database Storage Size

Control the amount of storage available for your offline applications with the Default Space for Database Storage preference in the Security section of Safari Preferences. Safari prompts you if a website subsequently requires additional space. You can also view or remove offline databases with the Show Databases button.

Empty Cache

When you surf the Internet, Safari automatically caches web pages and images in temporary storage for easy repeat access and faster page loads. Safari clears your stored files when you choose Empty Cache from the Safari menu.

EV Certificates

Safari now supports Extended Validation (EV) Certificates, allowing you to easily identify legitimate websites and businesses. For sites that have an EV Certificate, Safari displays the site’s name in green in the upper-right corner of your browser. Just click on the name to learn more about the website’s security credentials.

Parental Controls: Approved List

As a parent, you can create an approved list of websites that your children can visit by using Parental Controls in System Preferences. To do so, select an account, click the Content tab, and select Allow Access to Only These Websites. A child logging into the Mac using that account will be able to access the sites listed. If a child wants to access a site that’s not on the list, Safari will ask for the administrator (rather than the account) password.

Parental Controls: Custom Filter

Safari can work with the Parental Controls in Mac OS X to quickly review websites before they load to determine if they’re suitable for kids. If deemed unsuitable, Mac OS X blocks them from view. As a parent, you can further protect children from potentially inappropriate web content by adding sites to the Never Allow list in Parental Controls in System Preference.

Parental Controls: Logs

See exactly which web pages your children have visited. Open Parental Controls in Mac OS X System Preferences, and click the Logs tab to view a list of the sites that were visited and blocked by a specific user account. You can sort your findings by name or date.

Pop-Up Blocking

By default, Safari intelligently blocks all unprompted pop-up and pop-under windows, so you can avoid distracting advertisements while you browse.

Private Browsing

When you surf the Web on a shared or public Mac, Safari protects your personal information, so you can check your bank account and email at the library or shop for birthday presents on the family Mac. Thanks to Private Browsing, Safari doesn’t save or cache any personal information you enter or pages you visit. It’s as if you were never there.

Proxy Support

Safari supports the most popular proxy services and auto-detects a variety of proxy protocols, including Automatic Proxy configuration, FTP Proxy, Web Proxy (HTTP), Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS), Streaming Proxy (RTSP), SOCKS Proxy, and Gopher Proxy.

Reset Safari

Erase every trace of your browsing in one simple step. Simply choose Reset Safari from the Safari menu, and you can choose to erase your history, cache, download history, cookies, website icons, names and passwords, AutoFill information, and Google search terms from the computer.

Safe Downloads

Safari works with Mac OS X to tag every download with information about when and where it was downloaded. When you attempt to open a downloaded application, Mac OS X reminds you where it came from launching it for the first time, so you can be sure it’s legitimate.

Secure Encryption

To prevent eavesdropping, forgery, and digital tampering, Safari uses encryption technology to secure your web communications. Safari supports the very latest security standards, including SSL versions 2 and 3, Transport Layer Security (TLS), 40- and 128-bit SSL encryption, and signed Java applications.

Standards-Based Authentication

Authentication technology lets you identify yourself when visiting secure websites. Safari supports both standards-based authentication technologies — such as Kerberos single sign-on and X.509 personal certificates — as well as proprietary authentication protocols, such as NTLMv2.

User Interface and Appearance

Customizable Toolbars

Personalize your Safari toolbars, so you see only the buttons and toolbars you use. To customize your toolbar buttons, choose Customize Toolbar from the View menu and drag buttons from the panel into your toolbar. You can also elect to show or hide your Bookmarks Bar, Status Bar, Tab Bar, or Toolbar.

Default Font Preference

Change the default font Safari uses to display text on your web pages. In Safari Preferences, click Appearance and select the fonts you like. Safari automatically renders text with your chosen fonts unless you visit a site written with specific CSS rules.

Elegant User Interface

Safari delivers a clean, sleek interface that put the focus on the web instead of the browser. You see a scroll bar only when you need one. The progress indicator is conveniently located within the web address field. When you visit a secure site, the easily visible lock icon appears in the top right of the Safari window. And, by default, you see no status bar, giving you more room to browse and view the web. All of these design elements were first introduced by Apple in 2003.

Full-Page Zoom

With Full-Page Zoom, it’s easy to take a closer look at small print on your favourite sites. Shrink or magnify the contents of web pages by using the Multi-Touch pinch gesture on your trackpad. Images, videos, and other page elements adjust while your text remains razor sharp, keeping your page layout consistent as you zoom.

Inline Progress Indicator

Safari was the first browser to move the progress indicator into the address field, making it more visible and freeing up additional space for web content. At a glance, you can see exactly when a site is finished loading.

Multi-Touch

Use Multi-Touch on Mac OS X to browse using only your fingers. Move back and forward between pages by swiping the trackpad with three fingers. Scroll up and down by swiping with two fingers. And zoom in and out of pages by pinching your fingers together.

Resizable Text Fields

Whether you’re adding a comment to a friend’s photo or updating your status message, make more room for everything you want to say by changing the size of a website’s text fields. Just drag the bottom right corner of a text-entry field to expand it on the page.

Windows Integration

Download Folder Preference

When you download files or programs to your computer, Safari automatically saves them to your My Documents folder (Windows XP) or Downloads folder (Windows Vista). You may select an alternate default location or folder under the General tab of Safari Preferences.

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Plug-in Download Assistance

When you visit a site requiring a specific plug-in, Safari not only tells you what you need but also explains you how to get it. Safari’s download page links you directly to the most popular plug-ins and walks you through the necessary installation steps.

Windows Font Rendering

Thanks to the anti-aliasing algorithm in Safari, you enjoy crisp, gorgeous fonts. The algorithm preserves the subtleties of each typeface while rendering each character with a crispness that makes your favourite sites a pleasure to read. On Windows, you can also choose to use Windows Standard Fonts.

Safari on Windows XP showing Top Sites feature