Smith’s art is a stunning achievement, featuring layers and layers of intricate code that must have taken untold hours to lay out and piece together by hand. But there’s a catch to this kind of art creation — and because we live in a word full of choice when it comes to computers, it’s a big one. //

Browser variance turns Francine into modern art — and nightmare fuel. //

As Smith was quick to note in her GitHub repository for the piece, this illustration was designed specifically with Chrome tools, meaning it was made to be viewed in the Chrome browser. As Vox engineer David Zhou soon learned, trying to view it with other browsers — in this case, an older iteration of Opera — produced, er, a slightly different image.
Fortunately for Francine, most internet users are currently viewing her on newer versions of Chrome, as she was intended to be seen. But if you’re one of the roughly 42 percent of users out there who are still clinging to an outdated version of your browser of choice, let this be a lesson to you: software updates don’t just keep you safe from viruses, malware, and the ridicule of your peers. They can, quite literally, change your perspective.