space/gaps between divs on website when viewed on iPhone/iPad

Question

I'm having some difficulty getting my website to display properly when viewed on the iPhone and iPad. The webiste (not even close to being finished) is www.lzkconcepts.com.

The website displays properly when viewed on every desktop browser I've tried (safari, chrome, firefox, IE), however, on the iPhone/iPad there is a tiny gap/space between the "content" div and header and footer. I'm using a background image in the header, content, and footer divs to create the outline of the page. In addition to the gaps between the divs, the content background image is sometimes "shrunk" a little, so that it doesn't line up with the header and footer on the right side of the screen. If I zoom in though, everything lines up perfectly. Here's a screenshot taken from the iPhone...

http://s1139.photobucket.com/albums/n545/lhkimbrough/?action=view&current=7198e49b.jpg&evt=user_media_share

Look closely at the right side below the blue navigation bar.

Here's the CSS (I know it's very rough, I'm just learning)

@charset "UTF-8";
body {
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0;
 color: #000;
 font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
 font-size: 100%;
 line-height: 1.4;
 background-color: #CCC;
}
.TableAppName {
 color: #007EB4;
}

/* ~~ Element/tag selectors ~~ */
ul, ol, dl { /* Due to variations between browsers, it's best practices to zero padding and margin on lists. For consistency, you can either specify the amounts you want here, or on the list items (LI, DT, DD) they contain. Remember that what you do here will cascade to the .nav list unless you write a more specific selector. */
 padding: 0;
 margin: 0;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p {
 margin-top: 0;  /* removing the top margin gets around an issue where margins can escape from their containing div. The remaining bottom margin will hold it away from any elements that follow. */
 padding-right: 15px;
 padding-left: 15px; /* adding the padding to the sides of the elements within the divs, instead of the divs themselves, gets rid of any box model math. A nested div with side padding can also be used as an alternate method. */
}
a img { /* this selector removes the default blue border displayed in some browsers around an image when it is surrounded by a link */
 border: none;
}
/* ~~ Styling for your site's links must remain in this order - including the group of selectors that create the hover effect. ~~ */
a:link {
 color: #42413C;
 text-decoration: underline; /* unless you style your links to look extremely unique, it's best to provide underlines for quick visual identification */
}
a:visited {
 color: #6E6C64;
 text-decoration: underline;
}
#h-navbar {
 font-size: 95%;
 background-color: #CCC;
 background-image: url(images/navBarBlue.png);
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 text-align: right;
 padding-right: 20px;
 color: #FFF;
 height: 39px;
 padding-top: 6px;
}
a:hover, a:active, a:focus { /* this group of selectors will give a keyboard navigator the same hover experience as the person using a mouse. */
 text-decoration: none;
}

/* ~~ this fixed width container surrounds the other divs ~~ */
.container {
 width: 874px; /* the auto value on the sides, coupled with the width, centers the layout */
 margin-top: 0;
 margin-right: auto;
 margin-bottom: 0;
 margin-left: auto;
 background-color: #CCC;
}

/* ~~ the header is not given a width. It will extend the full width of your layout. It contains an image placeholder that should be replaced with your own linked logo ~~ */
.header {
 background-color: #CCC;
 background-image: url(images/BannerFadedBlueAndOrangeText.png);
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 height: 165px;
}

/* ~~ This is the layout information. ~~ 

1) Padding is only placed on the top and/or bottom of the div. The elements within this div have padding on their sides. This saves you from any "box model math". Keep in mind, if you add any side padding or border to the div itself, it will be added to the width you define to create the *total* width. You may also choose to remove the padding on the element in the div and place a second div within it with no width and the padding necessary for your design.

*/

.content {
 background-color: #CCC;
 background-image: url(images/contentFadedDark4.png);
 background-repeat: repeat-y;
 padding-left: 15px;
}
.contentBottom {
 padding: 0px;
 margin: 0px;
}

/* ~~ The footer ~~ */
.footer {
 background-color: #CCC;
 background-image: url(images/FooterFadedDark.png);
 background-repeat: no-repeat;
 text-align: right;
 font-size: 80%;
}

/* ~~ miscellaneous float/clear classes ~~ */
.fltrt {  /* this class can be used to float an element right in your page. The floated element must precede the element it should be next to on the page. */
 float: right;
 margin-left: 8px;
}
.fltlft { /* this class can be used to float an element left in your page. The floated element must precede the element it should be next to on the page. */
 float: left;
 margin-right: 8px;
}
.clearfloat { /* this class can be placed on a <br /> or empty div as the final element following the last floated div (within the #container) if the #footer is removed or taken out of the #container */
 clear:both;
 height:0;
 font-size: 1px;
 line-height: 0px;
}
#h-navbar a, #h-navbar a:visited {
 text-decoration: none;
 color: #FFF;
}
#h-navbar a:hover {
 color: #ea6828;
}
.footer p {
 color: #0075A7;
}
.content h1 {
 color: #0074A9;
 font-weight: normal;
 font-size: 200%;
 font-style: normal;
 padding-top: 15px;
 padding-left: 23px;
}
.graytext {
 color: #333;
}

And here's the HTML

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><!-- InstanceBegin template="/Templates/LZKConcepts_Template.dwt" codeOutsideHTMLIsLocked="false" -->
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="doctitle" -->
<title>LZK Concepts</title>
<!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
<link href="LZKConcepts_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="head" -->
<!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
</head>

<body>

<div class="container">
  <div class="header"><!-- end .header --></div>
  <div id="h-navbar"><a href="index.html"> Home </a> | <a href="#"> QuickGrader </a> | <a href="#"> Wish On A Star </a> | <a href="AboutUs.html"> About Us </a> | <a href="#"> Contact Us </a></div>
  <!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="MainContent" -->
  <div class="content">
    <h1>
      <!-- end .content -->
    iPhone Apps</h1>
    <table width="844" border="0">
      <tr>
        <td width="160" rowspan="2" valign="top"><a href="#"><img src="images/QuickGraderIconReflected140.png" alt="QuickGrader" width="120" height="154" hspace="20" /></a></td>
        <td width="482" class="TableAppName">QuickGrader</td>
        <td width="188">&nbsp;</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td height="127" valign="top" class="graytext">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris neque quam, facilisis sed iaculis tempor, iaculis vitae purus. Mauris eros lacus, commodo ut feugiat vel, sollicitudin et elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur urna diam, iaculis ut commodo molestie, congue non lacus. </td>
        <td align="right" valign="top"><br />
        <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/quickgrader/id392532471?mt=8" target="_new"><img src="images/App_Store_Badge.png" alt="AppStore" width="155" height="54" hspace="18" vspace="0" align="right" /></a></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <table width="844" border="0">
      <tr>
        <td width="160" rowspan="2" valign="top"><a href="#"><img src="images/Wish On A Star Reflected.png" alt="QuickGrader" width="120" height="154" hspace="20" /></a></td>
        <td width="482" class="TableAppName">Wish On A Star</td>
        <td width="188">&nbsp;</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td height="130" valign="top">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris neque quam, facilisis sed iaculis tempor, iaculis vitae purus. Mauris eros lacus, commodo ut feugiat vel, sollicitudin et elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur urna diam, iaculis ut commodo molestie, congue non lacus. </td>
        <td align="right" valign="top"><br />
          <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/wish-on-a-star/id366753945?mt=8" target="_blank"><img src="images/App_Store_Badge.png" alt="AppStore" width="155" height="54" hspace="18" align="right" /></a></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <table width="844" border="0">
      <tr>
        <td width="160" rowspan="2" valign="top"><a href="#"><img src="images/Wish On A Star Free Reflected.png" alt="QuickGrader" width="120" height="154" hspace="20" /></a></td>
        <td width="482" class="TableAppName">Wish On A Star Free</td>
        <td width="188">&nbsp;</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td height="130" valign="top">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Mauris neque quam, facilisis sed iaculis tempor, iaculis vitae purus. Mauris eros lacus, commodo ut feugiat vel, sollicitudin et elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur urna diam, iaculis ut commodo molestie, congue non lacus. </td>
        <td align="right" valign="top"><br />
          <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/app/wish-on-a-star-free/id388860624?mt=8"><img src="images/App_Store_Badge.png" alt="AppStore" width="155" height="54" hspace="18" align="right" /></a></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </div>
  <!-- InstanceEndEditable -->
  <div class="footer">
    <p><br />
<br />
      <br />
    Copyright © 2010, LZK Concepts. All rights reserved.</p>
</div>
  <!-- end .container --></div>
</body>
<!-- InstanceEnd --></html>

Does anyone have an idea why the iPhone and iPad are rendering the page like this?

Answer 1

On an iPad, when a website is viewed at a scale under 100%, some artefacts appear sometimes. One is particularly visible: a 1 pixel lines between divs, just like on your site, under the menu.

The solution I found is to add a "margin: -1px" between divs. Divs backgrounds overlap with 1 pixel, and if slicing is done accordingly, its invisible for a classic browser, and corrects the problem on the iPad.

Answer 2

Use:

meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"

for when a website is being displayed on a tablet or other device. That should get rid of the pixel difference you see. Sites should be designed semantically scalable these days for maximum cross device access.

As for me, I normally build a php device detecter if there absolutely needs to be a work around.