Discrepancies in viewing the Power BI reports in Power BI Service and Power BI Desktop usually occur because of rendering, scaling, and feature support issues in the two environments.
Rendering and Scaling: It is observed that certain differences can arise in the visuals created in the Power BI Desktop and those created in the Power BI Service when it comes to scaling. This is because Power BI Service is on the web and enables scaling based on the screen resolutions, type of browsers, and display settings, which has the implications of adjusting the layout or the spacing of the visuals. In contrast, Power BI Desktop is tailored to fit the specific window of the application. As a result, all the visuals are tailored only for that application window, thereby resulting in some minor size or alignment issues once the files are uploaded to the web service.
Browser and Display Settings: Different web browsers can render different fonts, wrap text in an expected way, and place elements in various scenarios. Power BI Service displays visuals in a web browser, and therefore, users must be aware of such things as zoom levels and screen dpi in Windows, which affect the layout. For instance, if a user has browser settings for zoom adjusted to more than or less than a hundred percent, visuals, and even text will be different than displayed at a one hundred percent zoom setting. To avoid this, it is recommended that all users view the reports at the initial zoom level and similar display settings.
Compatibility of features and updates: Some features or visualizations behave differently in Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service, primarily when the feature has just been added or changed. Some custom visuals and advanced DAX calculations may appear differently in the Power BI Service because of differences in the way they are processed in the background. Therefore, it is advisable to use new functionality in both environments and refer to Power BI release notes concerning issues in the product because Microsoft permanently improves functionality and resolves bugs in both Desktop and Service.
In this regard, do not forget to strive for uniformity in the display settings and any testing reports developed on either platform. Viewing your visuals at 100% and checking the visuals in Power BI using the "Fit to Page" function also contributes to creating cohesiveness in the view when using a Desktop or Service.
