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------------------------------------------------------------------------
REC-CSS2-19980512
Cascading Style Sheets, level 2
CSS2 Specification
W3C Recommendation 12-May-1998
This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2
Previous version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/PR-CSS2-19980324
Editors:
Bert Bos <bbos@w3.org>
HÂkon Wium Lie <howcome@w3.org>
Chris Lilley <chris@w3.org>
Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
Abstract
This specification defines Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 (CSS2). CSS2 is a
style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g.,
fonts, spacing, and aural cues) to structured documents (e.g., HTML
documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of
documents from the content of documents, CSS2 simplifies Web authoring and
site maintenance.
CSS2 builds on CSS1 (see [CSS1]) and, with very few exceptions, all valid
CSS1 style sheets are valid CSS2 style sheets. CSS2 supports media-specific
style sheets so that authors may tailor the presentation of their documents
to visual browsers, aural devices, printers, braille devices, handheld
devices, etc. This specification also supports content positioning,
downloadable fonts, table layout, features for internationalization,
automatic counters and numbering, and some properties related to user
interface.
Status of this document
This document has been reviewed by W3C Members and other interested parties
and has been endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. It is a
stable document and may be used as reference material or cited as a
normative reference from another document. W3C's role in making the
Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its
widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability
of the Web.
A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be
found at http://www.w3.org/TR.
Public discussion of CSS features takes place on www-style@w3.org.
Available formats
The CSS2 specification is available in the following formats:
HTML:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512
a plain text file:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/css2.txt,
HTML as a gzip'ed tar file:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/css2.tgz,
HTML as a zip file (this is a '.zip' file not an '.exe'):
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/css2.zip,
as well as a gzip'ed PostScript file:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/css2.ps.gz,
and a PDF file:
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512/css2.pdf.
In case of a discrepancy between the various forms of the specification,
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512 is considered the definitive
version.
Available languages
The English version of this specification is the only normative version.
However, for translations in other languages see
http://www.w3.org/Style/css2-updates/translations.html.
Errata
The list of known errors in this specification is available at
http://www.w3.org/Style/css2-updates/REC-CSS2-19980512-errata.html. Please
report errors in this document to css2-editors@w3.org.
Quick Table of Contents
* 1 About the CSS2 Specification
* 2 Introduction to CSS2
* 3 Conformance: Requirements and Recommendations
* 4 CSS2 syntax and basic data types
* 5 Selectors
* 6 Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance
* 7 Media types
* 8 Box model
* 9 Visual formatting model
* 10 Visual formatting model details
* 11 Visual effects
* 12 Generated content, automatic numbering, and lists
* 13 Paged media
* 14 Colors and Backgrounds
* 15 Fonts
* 16 Text
* 17 Tables
* 18 User interface
* 19 Aural style sheets
* Appendix A. A sample style sheet for HTML 4.0
* Appendix B. Changes from CSS1
* Appendix C. Implementation and performance notes for fonts
* Appendix D. The grammar of CSS2
* Appendix E. References
* Appendix F. Property index
* Appendix G. Descriptor index
* Appendix H. Index
Full Table of Contents
* 1 About the CSS2 Specification
o 1.1 Reading the specification
o 1.2 How the specification is organized
o 1.3 Conventions
+ 1.3.1 Document language elements and attributes
+ 1.3.2 CSS property definitions
+ Value
+ Initial
+ Applies to
+ Inherited
+ Percentage values
+ Media groups
+ 1.3.3 Shorthand properties
+ 1.3.4 Notes and examples
+ 1.3.5 Images and long descriptions
o 1.4 Acknowledgments
o 1.5 Copyright Notice
* 2 Introduction to CSS2
o 2.1 A brief CSS2 tutorial for HTML
o 2.2 A brief CSS2 tutorial for XML
o 2.3 The CSS2 processing model
+ 2.3.1 The canvas
+ 2.3.2 CSS2 addressing model
o 2.4 CSS design principles
* 3 Conformance: Requirements and Recommendations
o 3.1 Definitions
o 3.2 Conformance
o 3.3 Error conditions
o 3.4 The text/css content type
* 4 CSS2 syntax and basic data types
o 4.1 Syntax
+ 4.1.1 Tokenization
+ 4.1.2 Keywords
+ 4.1.3 Characters and case
+ 4.1.4 Statements
+ 4.1.5 At-rules
+ 4.1.6 Blocks
+ 4.1.7 Rule sets, declaration blocks, and selectors
+ 4.1.8 Declarations and properties
+ 4.1.9 Comments
o 4.2 Rules for handling parsing errors
o 4.3 Values
+ 4.3.1 Integers and real numbers
+ 4.3.2 Lengths
+ 4.3.3 Percentages
+ 4.3.4 URL + URN = URI
+ 4.3.5 Counters
+ 4.3.6 Colors
+ 4.3.7 Angles
+ 4.3.8 Times
+ 4.3.9 Frequencies
+ 4.3.10 Strings
o 4.4 CSS document representation
+ 4.4.1 Referring to characters not represented in a character
encoding
* 5 Selectors
o 5.1 Pattern matching
o 5.2 Selector syntax
+ 5.2.1 Grouping
o 5.3 Universal selector
o 5.4 Type selectors
o 5.5 Descendant selectors
o 5.6 Child selectors
o 5.7 Adjacent sibling selectors
o 5.8 Attribute selectors
+ 5.8.1 Matching attributes and attribute values
+ 5.8.2 Default attribute values in DTDs
+ 5.8.3 Class selectors
o 5.9 ID selectors
o 5.10 Pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes
o 5.11 Pseudo-classes
+ 5.11.1 :first-child pseudo-class
+ 5.11.2 The link pseudo-classes: :link and :visited
+ 5.11.3 The dynamic pseudo-classes: :hover, :active, and
:focus
+ 5.11.4 The language pseudo-class: :lang
o 5.12 Pseudo-elements
+ 5.12.1 The :first-line pseudo-element
+ 5.12.2 The :first-letter pseudo-element
+ 5.12.3 The :before and :after pseudo-elements
* 6 Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance
o 6.1 Specified, computed, and actual values
+ 6.1.1 Specified values
+ 6.1.2 Computed values
+ 6.1.3 Actual values
o 6.2 Inheritance
+ 6.2.1 The 'inherit' value
o 6.3 The @import rule
o 6.4 The cascade
+ 6.4.1 Cascading order
+ 6.4.2 !important rules
+ 6.4.3 Calculating a selector's specificity
+ 6.4.4 Precedence of non-CSS presentational hints
* 7 Media types
o 7.1 Introduction to media types
o 7.2 Specifying media-dependent style sheets
+ 7.2.1 The @media rule
o 7.3 Recognized media types
+ 7.3.1 Media groups
* 8 Box model
o 8.1 Box dimensions
o 8.2 Example of margins, padding, and borders
o 8.3 Margin properties: 'margin-top', 'margin-right',
'margin-bottom', 'margin-left', and 'margin'
+ 8.3.1 Collapsing margins
o 8.4 Padding properties: 'padding-top', 'padding-right',
'padding-bottom', 'padding-left', and 'padding'
o 8.5 Border properties
+ 8.5.1 Border width: 'border-top-width', 'border-right-width',
'border-bottom-width', 'border-left-width', and
'border-width'
+ 8.5.2 Border color: 'border-top-color', 'border-right-color',
'border-bottom-color', 'border-left-color', and
'border-color'
+ 8.5.3 Border style: 'border-top-style', 'border-right-style',
'border-bottom-style', 'border-left-style', and
'border-style'
+ 8.5.4 Border shorthand properties: 'border-top',
'border-bottom', 'border-right', 'border-left', and 'border'
* 9 Visual formatting model
o 9.1 Introduction to the visual formatting model
+ 9.1.1 The viewport
+ 9.1.2 Containing blocks
o 9.2 Controlling box generation
+ 9.2.1 Block-level elements and block boxes
+ Anonymous block boxes
+ 9.2.2 Inline-level elements and inline boxes
+ Anonymous inline boxes
+ 9.2.3 Compact boxes
+ 9.2.4 Run-in boxes
+ 9.2.5 The 'display' property
o 9.3 Positioning schemes
+ 9.3.1 Choosing a positioning scheme: 'position' property
+ 9.3.2 Box offsets: 'top', 'right', 'bottom', 'left'
o 9.4 Normal flow
+ 9.4.1 Block formatting context
+ 9.4.2 Inline formatting context
+ 9.4.3 Relative positioning
o 9.5 Floats
+ 9.5.1 Positioning the float: the 'float' property
+ 9.5.2 Controlling flow next to floats: the 'clear' property
o 9.6 Absolute positioning
+ 9.6.1 Fixed positioning
o 9.7 Relationships between 'display', 'position', and 'float'
o 9.8 Comparison of normal flow, floats, and absolute positioning
+ 9.8.1 Normal flow
+ 9.8.2 Relative positioning
+ 9.8.3 Floating a box
+ 9.8.4 Absolute positioning
o 9.9 Layered presentation
+ 9.9.1 Specifying the stack level: the 'z-index' property
o 9.10 Text direction: the 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties
* 10 Visual formatting model details
o 10.1 Definition of "containing block"
o 10.2 Content width: the 'width' property
o 10.3 Computing widths and margins
+ 10.3.1 Inline, non-replaced elements
+ 10.3.2 Inline, replaced elements
+ 10.3.3 Block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow
+ 10.3.4 Block-level, replaced elements in normal flow
+ 10.3.5 Floating, non-replaced elements
+ 10.3.6 Floating, replaced elements
+ 10.3.7 Absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
+ 10.3.8 Absolutely positioned, replaced elements
o 10.4 Minimum and maximum widths: 'min-width' and 'max-width'
o 10.5 Content height: the 'height' property
o 10.6 Computing heights and margins
+ 10.6.1 Inline, non-replaced elements
+ 10.6.2 Inline, replaced elements block-level, replaced
elements in normal flow, and floating, replaced elements
+ 10.6.3 Block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow, and
floating, non-replaced elements
+ 10.6.4 Absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
+ 10.6.5 Absolutely positioned, replaced elements
o 10.7 Minimum and maximum heights: 'min-height' and 'max-height'
o 10.8 Line height calculations: the 'line-height' and
'vertical-align' properties
+ 10.8.1 Leading and half-leading
* 11 Visual effects
o 11.1 Overflow and clipping
+ 11.1.1 Overflow: the 'overflow' property
+ 11.1.2 Clipping: the 'clip' property
o 11.2 Visibility: the 'visibility' property
* 12 Generated content, automatic numbering, and lists
o 12.1 The :before and :after pseudo-elements
o 12.2 The 'content' property
o 12.3 Interaction of :before and :after with 'compact' and 'run-in'
elements
o 12.4 Quotation marks
+ 12.4.1 Specifying quotes with the 'quotes' property
+ 12.4.2 Inserting quotes with the 'content' property
o 12.5 Automatic counters and numbering
+ 12.5.1 Nested counters and scope
+ 12.5.2 Counter styles
+ 12.5.3 Counters in elements with 'display: none'
o 12.6 Markers and lists
+ 12.6.1 Markers: the 'marker-offset' property
+ 12.6.2 Lists: the 'list-style-type', 'list-style-image',
'list-style-position', and 'list-style' properties
* 13 Paged media
o 13.1 Introduction to paged media
o 13.2 Page boxes: the @page rule
+ 13.2.1 Page margins
+ 13.2.2 Page size: the 'size' property
+ Rendering page boxes that do not fit a target sheet
+ Positioning the page box on the sheet
+ 13.2.3 Crop marks: the 'marks' property
+ 13.2.4 Left, right, and first pages
+ 13.2.5 Content outside the page box
o 13.3 Page breaks
+ 13.3.1 Break before/after elements: 'page-break-before',
'page-break-after', 'page-break-inside'
+ 13.3.2 Using named pages: 'page'
+ 13.3.3 Breaks inside elements: 'orphans', 'widows'
+ 13.3.4 Allowed page breaks
+ 13.3.5 Forced page breaks
+ 13.3.6 "Best" page breaks
o 13.4 Cascading in the page context
* 14 Colors and Backgrounds
o 14.1 Foreground color: the 'color' property
o 14.2 The background
+ 14.2.1 Background properties: 'background-color',
'background-image', 'background-repeat',
'background-attachment', 'background-position', and
'background'
o 14.3 Gamma correction
* 15 Fonts
o 15.1 Introduction
o 15.2 Font specification
+ 15.2.1 Font specification properties
+ 15.2.2 Font family: the 'font-family' property
+ 15.2.3 Font styling: the 'font-style', 'font-variant',
'font-weight' and 'font-stretch' properties
+ 15.2.4 Font size: the 'font-size' and 'font-size-adjust'
properties
+ 15.2.5 Shorthand font property: the 'font' property
+ 15.2.6 Generic font families
+ serif
+ sans-serif
+ cursive
+ fantasy
+ monospace
o 15.3 Font selection
+ 15.3.1 Font Descriptions and @font-face
+ 15.3.2 Descriptors for Selecting a Font: 'font-family',
'font-style', 'font-variant', 'font-weight', 'font-stretch'
and 'font-size'
+ 15.3.3 Descriptors for Font Data Qualification:
'unicode-range'
+ 15.3.4 Descriptor for Numeric Values: 'units-per-em'
+ 15.3.5 Descriptor for Referencing: 'src'
+ 15.3.6 Descriptors for Matching: 'panose-1', 'stemv',
'stemh', 'slope', 'cap-height', 'x-height', 'ascent', and
'descent'
+ 15.3.7 Descriptors for Synthesis: 'widths', 'bbox' and
'definition-src'
+ 15.3.8 Descriptors for Alignment: 'baseline', 'centerline',
'mathline', and 'topline'
+ 15.3.9 Examples
o 15.4 Font Characteristics
+ 15.4.1 Introducing Font Characteristics
+ 15.4.2 Full font name
+ 15.4.3 Coordinate units on the em square
+ 15.4.4 Central Baseline
+ 15.4.5 Font Encoding
+ 15.4.6 Font family name
+ 15.4.7 Glyph widths
+ 15.4.8 Horizontal stem width
+ 15.4.9 Height of uppercase glyphs
+ 15.4.10 Height of lowercase glyphs
+ 15.4.11 Lower Baseline
+ 15.4.12 Mathematical Baseline
+ 15.4.13 Maximal bounding box
+ 15.4.14 Maximum unaccented height
+ 15.4.15 Maximum unaccented depth
+ 15.4.16 Panose-1 number
+ 15.4.17 Range of ISO 10646 characters
+ 15.4.18 Top Baseline
+ 15.4.19 Vertical stem width
+ 15.4.20 Vertical stroke angle
o 15.5 Font matching algorithm
+ 15.5.1 Mapping font weight values to font names
+ 15.5.2 Examples of font matching
* 16 Text
o 16.1 Indentation: the 'text-indent' property
o 16.2 Alignment: the 'text-align' property
o 16.3 Decoration
+ 16.3.1 Underlining, overlining, striking, and blinking: the
'text-decoration' property
+ 16.3.2 Text shadows: the 'text-shadow' property
o 16.4 Letter and word spacing: the 'letter-spacing' and
'word-spacing' properties
o 16.5 Capitalization: the 'text-transform' property
o 16.6 Whitespace: the 'white-space' property
* 17 Tables
o 17.1 Introduction to tables
o 17.2 The CSS table model
+ 17.2.1 Anonymous table objects
o 17.3 Column selectors
o 17.4 Tables in the visual formatting model
+ 17.4.1 Caption position and alignment
o 17.5 Visual layout of table contents
+ 17.5.1 Table layers and transparency
+ 17.5.2 Table width algorithms: the 'table-layout' property
+ Fixed table layout
+ Automatic table layout
+ 17.5.3 Table height algorithms
+ 17.5.4 Horizontal alignment in a column
+ 17.5.5 Dynamic row and column effects
o 17.6 Borders
+ 17.6.1 The separated borders model
+ Borders around empty cells: the 'empty-cells' property
+ 17.6.2 The collapsing border model
+ Border conflict resolution
+ 17.6.3 Border styles
o 17.7 Audio rendering of tables
+ 17.7.1 Speaking headers: the 'speak-header' property
* 18 User interface
o 18.1 Cursors: the 'cursor' property
o 18.2 User preferences for colors
o 18.3 User preferences for fonts
o 18.4 Dynamic outlines: the 'outline' property
+ 18.4.1 Outlines and the focus
o 18.5 Magnification
* 19 Aural style sheets
o 19.1 Introduction to aural style sheets
o 19.2 Volume properties: 'volume'
o 19.3 Speaking properties: 'speak'
o 19.4 Pause properties: 'pause-before', 'pause-after', and 'pause'
o 19.5 Cue properties: 'cue-before', 'cue-after', and 'cue'
o 19.6 Mixing properties: 'play-during'
o 19.7 Spatial properties: 'azimuth' and 'elevation'
o 19.8 Voice characteristic properties: 'speech-rate',
'voice-family', 'pitch', 'pitch-range', 'stress', and 'richness'
o 19.9 Speech properties: 'speak-punctuation' and 'speak-numeral'
* Appendix A. A sample style sheet for HTML 4.0
* Appendix B. Changes from CSS1
o B.1 New functionality
o B.2 Updated descriptions
o B.3 Semantic changes from CSS1
* Appendix C. Implementation and performance notes for fonts
o C.1 Glossary of font terms
o C.2 Font retrieval
o C.3 Meaning of the Panose Digits
o C.4 Deducing Unicode Ranges for TrueType
o C.5 Automatic descriptor generation
* Appendix D. The grammar of CSS2
o D.1 Grammar
o D.2 Lexical scanner
o D.3 Comparison of tokenization in CSS2 and CSS1
* Appendix E. References
o E.1 Normative references
o E.2 Informative references
* Appendix F. Property index
* Appendix G. Descriptor index
* Appendix H. Index
Copyright © 1998 W3C (MIT, INRIA, Keio ), All Rights Reserved.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 About the CSS2 Specification
Contents
* 1.1 Reading the specification
* 1.2 How the specification is organized
* 1.3 Conventions
o 1.3.1 Document language elements and attributes
o 1.3.2 CSS property definitions
+ Value
+ Initial
+ Applies to
+ Inherited
+ Percentage values
+ Media groups
o 1.3.3 Shorthand properties
o 1.3.4 Notes and examples
o 1.3.5 Images and long descriptions
* 1.4 Acknowledgments
* 1.5 Copyright Notice
1.1 Reading the specification
This specification has been written with two types of readers in mind: CSS
authors and CSS implementors. We hope the specification will provide authors
with the tools they need to write efficient, attractive, and accessible
documents, without overexposing them to CSS's implementation details.
Implementors, however, should find all they need to build conforming user
agents. The specification begins with a general presentation of CSS and
becomes more and more technical and specific towards the end. For quick
access to information, a general table of contents, specific tables of
contents at the beginning of each section, and an index provide easy
navigation, in both the electronic and printed versions.
The specification has been written with two modes of presentation in mind:
electronic and printed. Although the two presentations will no doubt be
similar, readers will find some differences. For example, links will not
work in the printed version (obviously), and page numbers will not appear in
the electronic version. In case of a discrepancy, the electronic version is
considered the authoritative version of the document.
1.2 How the specification is organized
The specification is organized into the following sections:
Section 2: An introduction to CSS2
The introduction includes a brief tutorial on CSS2 and a discussion of
design principles behind CSS2.
Sections 3 - 20: CSS2 reference manual.
The bulk of the reference manual consists of the CSS2 language
reference. This reference defines what may go into a CSS2 style sheet
(syntax, properties, property values) and how user agents must
interpret these style sheets in order to claim conformance.
Appendixes:
Appendixes contain information about a sample style sheet for HTML 4.0,
changes from CSS1 , implementation and performance notes, the grammar
of CSS2, a list of normative and informative references, and three
indexes: one for properties, one for descriptors, and one general
index.
1.3 Conventions
1.3.1 Document language elements and attributes
* CSS property, descriptor, and pseudo-class names are delimited by
single quotes.
* CSS values are delimited by single quotes.
* Document language element names are in uppercase letters.
* Document language attribute names are in lowercase letters and
delimited by double quotes.
1.3.2 CSS property definitions
Each CSS property definition begins with a summary of key information that
resembles the following:
'property-name'
Value: legal values & syntax
Initial: initial value
Applies to: elements this property applies to
Inherited: whether the property is inherited
Percentages: how percentage values are interpreted
Media: which media groups the property applies to
Value
This part specifies the set of valid values for the property. Value types
may be designated in several ways:
1. keyword values (e.g., auto, disc, etc.)
2. basic data types, which appear between "<" and ">" (e.g., <length>,
<percentage>, etc.). In the electronic version of the document, each
instance of a basic data type links to its definition.
3. types that have the same range of values as a property bearing the same
name (e.g., <'border-width'> <'background-attachment'>, etc.). In this
case, the type name is the property name (complete with quotes) between
"<" and ">" (e.g., <'border-width'>). In the electronic version of the
document, each instance of this type of non-terminal links to the
corresponding property definition.
4. non-terminals that do not share the same name as a property. In this
case, the non-terminal name appears between "<" and ">", as in
<border-width>. Notice the distinction between <border-width> and
<'border-width'>; the latter is defined in terms of the former. The
definition of a non-terminal is located near its first appearance in
the specification. In the electronic version of the document, each
instance of this type of value links to the corresponding value
definition.
Other words in these definitions are keywords that must appear literally,
without quotes (e.g., red). The slash (/) and the comma (,) must also appear
literally.
Values may be arranged as follows:
* Several juxtaposed words mean that all of them must occur, in the given
order.
* A bar (|) separates two or more alternatives: exactly one of them must
occur.
* A double bar (||) separates two or more options: one or more of them
must occur, in any order.
* Brackets ([ ]) are for grouping.
Juxtaposition is stronger than the double bar, and the double bar is
stronger than the bar. Thus, the following lines are equivalent:
a b | c || d e
[ a b ] | [ c || [ d e ]]
Every type, keyword, or bracketed group may be followed by one of the
following modifiers:
* An asterisk (*) indicates that the preceding type, word, or group
occurs zero or more times.
* A plus (+) indicates that the preceding type, word, or group occurs one
or more times.
* A question mark (?) indicates that the preceding type, word, or group
is optional.
* A pair of numbers in curly braces ({A,B}) indicates that the preceding
type, word, or group occurs at least A and at most B times.
The following examples illustrate different value types:
Value: N | NW | NE
Value: [ <length> | thick | thin ]{1,4}
Value: [<family-name> , ]* <family-name>
Value: <uri>? <color> [ / <color> ]?
Value: <uri> || <color>
Initial
This part specifies the property's initial value. If the property is
inherited, this is the value that is given to the root element of the
document tree. Please consult the section on the cascade for information
about the interaction between style sheet-specified, inherited, and initial
values.
Applies to
This part lists the elements to which the property applies. All elements are
considered to have all properties, but some properties have no rendering
effect on some types of elements. For example, 'white-space' only affects
block-level elements.
Inherited
This part indicates whether the value of the property is inherited from an
ancestor element. Please consult the section on the cascade for information
about the interaction between style sheet-specified, inherited, and initial
values.
Percentage values
This part indicates how percentages should be interpreted, if they occur in
the value of the property. If "N/A" appears here, it means that the property
does not accept percentages as values.
Media groups
This part indicates the media groups to which the property applies. The
conformance conditions state that user agents must support this property if
they support rendering to the media types included in these media groups.
1.3.3 Shorthand properties
Some properties are shorthand properties, meaning they allow authors to
specify the values of several properties with a single property.
For instance, the 'font' property is a shorthand property for setting
'font-style', 'font-variant', 'font-weight', 'font-size', 'line-height', and
'font-family' all at once.
When values are omitted from a shorthand form, each "missing" property is
assigned its initial value (see the section on the cascade).
Example(s):
The multiple style rules of this example:
H1 {
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 12pt;
line-height: 14pt;
font-family: Helvetica;
font-variant: normal;
font-style: normal;
font-stretch: normal;
font-size-adjust: none
}
may be rewritten with a single shorthand property:
H1 { font: bold 12pt/14pt Helvetica }
In this example, 'font-variant', 'font-stretch', 'font-size-adjust', and
'font-style' take their initial values.
1.3.4 Notes and examples
All examples that illustrate illegal usage are clearly marked as "ILLEGAL
EXAMPLE".
All HTML examples conform to the HTML 4.0 strict DTD (defined in [HTML40])
unless otherwise indicated by a document type declaration.
All notes are informative only.
Examples and notes are marked within the source HTML for the specification
and CSS1 user agents will render them specially.
1.3.5 Images and long descriptions
Most images in the electronic version of this specification are accompanied
by "long descriptions" of what they represent. A link to the long
description is denoted by a "[D]" to the right of the image.
Images and long descriptions are informative only.
1.4 Acknowledgments
This specification is the product of the W3C Working Group on Cascading
Style Sheets and Formatting Properties. In addition to the editors of this
specification, the members of the Working Group are: Brad Chase (Bitstream),
Chris Wilson (Microsoft), Daniel Glazman (ElectricitÈ de France), Dave
Raggett (W3C/HP), Ed Tecot (Microsoft), Jared Sorensen (Novell), Lauren Wood
(SoftQuad), Laurie Anna Kaplan (Microsoft), Mike Wexler (Adobe), Murray
Maloney (Grif), Powell Smith (IBM), Robert Stevahn (HP), Steve Byrne
(JavaSoft), Steven Pemberton (CWI), Thom Phillabaum (Netscape), Douglas Rand
(Silicon Graphics), Robert Pernett (Lotus), Dwayne Dicks (SoftQuad), and Sho
Kuwamoto (Macromedia). We thank them for their continued efforts.
A number of invited experts to the Working Group have contributed: George
Kersher, Glenn Rippel (Bitstream), Jeff Veen (HotWired), Markku T. Hakkinen
(The Productivity Works), Martin D¸rst (W3C, formerly Universit‰t Z¸rich),
Roy Platon (RAL), Todd Fahrner (Verso), Tim Boland (NIST), Eric Meyer (Case
Western Reserve University), and Vincent Quint (W3C).
The section on Web Fonts was strongly shaped by Brad Chase (Bitstream) David
Meltzer (Microsoft Typography) and Steve Zilles (Adobe). The following
people have also contributed in various ways to the section pertaining to
fonts: Alex Beamon (Apple), Ashok Saxena (Adobe), Ben Bauermeister (HP),
Dave Raggett (W3C/HP), David Opstad (Apple), David Goldsmith (Apple), Ed
Tecot (Microsoft), Erik van Blokland (LettError), FranÁois Yergeau (Alis),
Gavin Nicol (Inso), Herbert van Zijl (Elsevier), Liam Quin, Misha Wolf
(Reuters), Paul Haeberli (SGI), and the late Phil Karlton (Netscape).
The section on Paged Media was in large parts authored by Robert Stevahn
(HP) and Stephen Waters (Microsoft).
Robert Stevahn (HP), Scott Furman (Netscape), and Scott Isaacs (Microsoft)
were key contributors to CSS Positioning.
Mike Wexler (Adobe) was the editor of the interim working draft, which
described many of the new features of CSS2.
T.V. Raman (Adobe) made pivotal contributions towards Aural Cascading Style
Sheets (ACSS) and the concepts of aural presentation based on his work on
AsTeR (Audio System For Technical Readings). He contributed an initial draft
of the ACSS specification that shaped the current specification. Values for
aural properties in the HTML 4.0 sample style sheet are of his devising; he
currently uses them on a daily basis on his audio desktop in conjunction
with Emacspeak and the Emacs W3 browser (authored by William Perry, who also
implemented the aural extensions on the W3 side of the fence).
Todd Fahrner (Verso) researched contemporary and historical browsers to
develop the sample style sheet in the appendix.
Thanks to Jan K‰rrman, author of html2ps for helping so much in creating the
PostScript version of the specification.
Through electronic and physical encounters, the following people have
contributed to the development of CSS2: Alan Borning, Robert Cailliau, Liz
Castro, James Clark, Dan Connolly, Donna Converse, Daniel Dardailler, Al
Gilman, Daniel Greene, Scott Isaacs, Geir Ivars¯y, Vincent Mallet, Kim
Marriott, Brian Michalowski, Lou Montulli, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, Jacob
Nielsen, Eva von Pepel, William Perry, David Siegel, Peter Stuckey, and
Jason White.
The discussions on www-style@w3.org have been influential in many key issues
for CSS. Especially, we would like to thank Bjorn Backlund, Todd Fahrner,
Lars Marius Garshol, Sue Jordan, Ian Hickson, Susan Lesch, Andrew Marshall,
MegaZone, Eric Meyer, Russell O'Connor, David Perrell, Liam Quinn, Jon
Seymour, Neil St. Laurent, Taylor, Brian Wilson, and Chris Wilson for their
participation.
Many thanks to the Web Accessibility Initiative Protocols and Formats
Technical Review Working Group (WAI PF) for helping to improve the
accessibility of CSS2.
Many thanks to Philippe Le HÈgaret, whose CSS validator helped ensure
correct examples and a sensible grammar.
Special thanks to Arnaud Le Hors, whose engineering contributions made this
document work.
Adam Costello improved this specification by performing a detailed review.
Lastly, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee without whom none of this would have been
possible.
1.5 Copyright Notice
Copyright © 1997 World Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en
Automatique, Keio University). All Rights Reserved.
Documents on the W3C site are provided by the copyright holders under the
following license. By obtaining, using and/or copying this document, or the
W3C document from which this statement is linked, you agree that you have
read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions:
Permission to use, copy, and distribute the contents of this document, or
the W3C document from which this statement is linked, in any medium for any
purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you
include the following on ALL copies of the document, or portions thereof,
that you use:
1. A link or URI to the original W3C document.
2. The pre-existing copyright notice of the original author, if it doesn't
exist, a notice of the form: "Copyright © World Wide Web Consortium,
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut National de Recherche
en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio University). All Rights
Reserved."
3. If it exists, the STATUS of the W3C document.
When space permits, inclusion of the full text of this NOTICE should be
provided. In addition, credit shall be attributed to the copyright holders
for any software, documents, or other items or products that you create
pursuant to the implementation of the contents of this document, or any
portion thereof.
No right to create modifications or derivatives is granted pursuant to this
license.
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS MAKE NO
REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE,
NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR TITLE; THAT THE CONTENTS OF THE DOCUMENT ARE SUITABLE
FOR ANY PURPOSE; NOR THAT THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SUCH CONTENTS WILL NOT
INFRINGE ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE DOCUMENT OR THE
PERFORMANCE OR IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONTENTS THEREOF.
The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in advertising
or publicity pertaining to this document or its contents without specific,
written prior permission. Title to copyright in this document will at all
times remain with copyright holders.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Introduction to CSS2
Contents
* 2.1 A brief CSS2 tutorial for HTML
* 2.2 A brief CSS2 tutorial for XML
* 2.3 The CSS2 processing model
o 2.3.1 The canvas
o 2.3.2 CSS2 addressing model
* 2.4 CSS design principles
2.1 A brief CSS2 tutorial for HTML
In this tutorial, we show how easy it can be to design simple style sheets.
For this tutorial, you will need to know a little HTML (see [HTML40]) and
some basic desktop publishing terminology.
We begin with a small HTML document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Bach's home page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Bach's home page</H1>
<P>Johann Sebastian Bach was a prolific composer.
</BODY>
</HTML>
To set the text color of the H1 elements to blue, you can write the
following CSS rule:
H1 { color: blue }
A CSS rule consists of two main parts: selector ('H1') and declaration
('color: blue'). The declaration has two parts: property ('color') and value
('blue'). While the example above tries to influence only one of the
properties needed for rendering an HTML document, it qualifies as a style
sheet on its own. Combined with other style sheets (one fundamental feature
of CSS is that style sheets are combined) it will determine the final
presentation of the document.
The HTML 4.0 specification defines how style sheet rules may be specified
for HTML documents: either within the HTML document, or via an external
style sheet. To put the style sheet into the document, use the STYLE
element:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Bach's home page</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
H1 { color: blue }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Bach's home page</H1>
<P>Johann Sebastian Bach was a prolific composer.
</BODY>
</HTML>
For maximum flexibility, we recommend that authors specify external style
sheets; they may be changed without modifying the source HTML document, and
they may be shared among several documents. To link to an external style
sheet, you can use the LINK element:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Bach's home page</TITLE>
<LINK rel="stylesheet" href="bach.css" type="text/css">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Bach's home page</H1>
<P>Johann Sebastian Bach was a prolific composer.
</BODY>
</HTML>
The LINK element specifies:
* the type of link: to a "stylesheet".
* the location of the style sheet via the "ref" attribute.
* the type of style sheet being linked: "text/css".
To show the close relationship between a style sheet and the structured
markup, we continue to use the STYLE element in this tutorial. Let's add
more colors:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Bach's home page</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
BODY { color: red }
H1 { color: blue }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Bach's home page</H1>
<P>Johann Sebastian Bach was a prolific composer.
</BODY>
</HTML>
The style sheet now contains two rules: the first one sets the color of the
BODY element to 'red', while the second one sets the color of the H1 element
to 'blue'. Since no color value has been specified for the P element, it
will inherit the color from its parent element, namely BODY. The H1 element
is also a child element of BODY but the second rule overrides the inherited
value. In CSS there are often such conflicts between different values, and
this specification describes how to resolve them.
CSS2 has more than 100 different properties, including 'color'. Let's look
at some of the others:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Bach's home page</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
BODY {
font-family: "Gill Sans", sans-serif;
font-size: 12pt;
margin: 3em;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Bach's home page</H1>
<P>Johann Sebastian Bach was a prolific composer.
</BODY>
</HTML>
The first thing to notice is that several declarations are grouped within a
block enclosed by curly braces ({...}), and separated by semicolons, though
the last declaration may also be followed by a semicolon.
The first declaration on the BODY element sets the font family to "Gill
Sans". If that font isn't available, the user agent (often referred to as a
"browser") will use the 'sans-serif' font family which is one of five
generic font families which all users agents know. Child elements of BODY
will inherit the value of the 'font-family' property.
The second declaration sets the font size of the BODY element to 12 points.
The "point" unit is commonly used in print-based typography to indicate font
sizes and other length values. It's an example of an absolute unit which
does not scale relative to the environment.
The third declaration uses a relative unit which scales with regard to its
surroundings. The "em" unit refers to the font size of the element. In this
case the result is that the margins around the BODY element are three times
wider than the font size.
2.2 A brief CSS2 tutorial for XML
CSS can be used with any structured document format, for example with
applications of the eXtensible Markup Language [XML10]. In fact, XML depends
more on style sheets than HTML, since authors can make up their own elements
that user agents don't know how to display.
Here is a simple XML fragment:
<ARTICLE>
<HEADLINE>Fredrick the Great meets Bach</HEADLINE>
<AUTHOR>Johann Nikolaus Forkel</AUTHOR>
<PARA>
One evening, just as he was getting his
<INSTRUMENT>flute</INSTRUMENT> ready and his
musicians were assembled, an officer brought him a list of
the strangers who had arrived.
</PARA>
</ARTICLE>
To display this fragment in a document-like fashion, we must first declare
which elements are inline-level (i.e., do not cause line breaks) and which
are block-level (i.e., cause line breaks).
INSTRUMENT { display: inline }
ARTICLE, HEADLINE, AUTHOR, PARA { display: block }
The first rule declares INSTRUMENT to be inline and the second rule, with
its comma-separated list of selectors, declares all the other elements to be
block-level.
One proposal for linking a style sheet to an XML document is to use a
processing instruction:
<?XML:stylesheet type="text/css" href="bach.css"?>
<ARTICLE>
<HEADLINE>Fredrick the Great meets Bach</HEADLINE>
<AUTHOR>Johann Nikolaus Forkel</AUTHOR>
<PARA>
One evening, just as he was getting his
<INSTRUMENT>flute</INSTRUMENT> ready and his
musicians were assembled, an officer brought him a list of
the strangers who had arrived.
</PARA>
</ARTICLE>
A visual user agent could format the above example as:
[Example rendering] [D]
Notice that the word "flute" remains within the paragraph since it is the
content of the inline element INSTRUMENT.
Still, the text isn't formatted the way you would expect. For example, the
headline font size should be larger than then rest of the text, and you may
want to display the author's name in italic:
INSTRUMENT { display: inline }
ARTICLE, HEADLINE, AUTHOR, PARA { display: block }
HEADLINE { font-size: 1.3em }
AUTHOR { font-style: italic }
ARTICLE, HEADLINE, AUTHOR, PARA { margin: 0.5em }
A visual user agent could format the above example as:
[Example rendering] [D]
Adding more rules to the style sheet will allow you to further improve the
presentation of the document.
2.3 The CSS2 processing model
This section presents one possible model of how user agents that support CSS
work. This is only a conceptual model; real implementations may vary.
In this model, a user agent processes a source by going through the
following steps:
1. Parse the source document and create a document tree.
2. Identify the target media type.
3. Retrieve all style sheets associated with the document that are
specified for the target media type.
4. Annotate every element of the document tree by assigning a single value
to every property that is applicable to the target media type.
Properties are assigned values according to the mechanisms described in
the section on cascading and inheritance.
Part of the calculation of values depends on the formatting algorithm
appropriate for the target media type. For example, if the target
medium is the screen, user agents apply the visual formatting model. If
the destination medium is the printed page, user agents apply the page
model. If the destination medium is an aural rendering device (e.g.,
speech synthesizer), user agents apply the aural rendering model.
5. From the annotated document tree, generate a formatting structure.
Often, the formatting structure closely resembles the document tree,
but it may also differ significantly, notably when authors make use of
pseudo-elements and generated content. First, the formatting structure
need not be "tree-shaped" at all -- the nature of the structure depends
on the implementation. Second, the formatting structure may contain
more or less information than the document tree. For instance, if an
element in the document tree has a value of 'none' for the 'display'
property, that element will generate nothing in the formatting
structure. A list element, on the other hand, may generate more
information in the formatting structure: the list element's content and
list style information (e.g., a bullet image).
Note that the CSS user agent does not alter the document tree during
this phase. In particular, content generated due to style sheets is not
fed back to the document language processor (e.g., for reparsing).
6. Transfer the formatting structure to the target medium (e.g., print the
results, display them on the screen, render them as speech, etc.).
Step 1 lies outside the scope of this specification (see, for example,
[DOM]).
Steps 2-5 are addressed by the bulk of this specification.
Step 6 lies outside the scope of this specification.
2.3.1 The canvas
For all media, the term canvas describes "the space where the formatting
structure is rendered." The canvas is infinite for each dimension of the
space, but rendering generally occurs within a finite region of the canvas,
established by the user agent according to the target medium. For instance,
user agents rendering to a screen generally impose a minimum width and
choose an initial width based on the dimensions of the viewport. User agents
rendering to a page generally impose width and height constraints. Aural
user agents may impose limits in audio space, but not in time.
2.3.2 CSS2 addressing model
CSS2 selectors and properties allow style sheets to refer to the following
parts of a document or user agent:
* Elements in the document tree and certain relationships between them
(see the section on selectors).
* Attributes of elements in the document tree, and values of those
attributes (see the section on attribute selectors).
* Some parts of element content (see the :first-line and :first-letter
pseudo-elements.
* Elements of the document tree when they are in a certain state (see the
section on pseudo-classes).
* Some aspects of the canvas where the document will be rendered.
* Some system information (see the section on user interface).
2.4 CSS design principles
CSS2, as CSS1 before it, is based on a set of design principles:
* Forward and backward compatibility. CSS2 user agents will be able to
understand CSS1 style sheets. CSS1 user agents will be able to read
CSS2 style sheets and discard parts they don't understand. Also, user
agents with no CSS support will be able to display style-enhanced
documents. Of course, the stylistic enhancements made possible by CSS
will not be rendered, but all content will be presented.
* Complementary to structured documents. Style sheets complement
structured documents (e.g., HTML and XML applications), providing
stylistic information for the marked-up text. It should be easy to
change the style sheet with little or no impact on the markup.
* Vendor, platform, and device independence. Style sheets enable
documents to remain vendor, platform, and device independent. Style
sheets themselves are also vendor and platform independent, but CSS2
allows you to target a style sheet for a group of devices (e.g.,
printers).
* Maintainability. By pointing to style sheets from documents, webmasters
can simplify site maintenance and retain consistent look and feel
throughout the site. For example, if the organization's background
color changes, only one file needs to be changed.
* Simplicity. CSS2 is more complex than CSS1, but it remains a simple
style language which is human readable and writable. The CSS properties
are kept independent of each other to the largest extent possible and
there is generally only one way to achieve a certain effect.
* Network performance. CSS provides for compact encodings of how to
present content. Compared to images or audio files, which are often
used by authors to achieve certain rendering effects, style sheets most
often decrease the content size. Also, fewer network connections have
to be opened which further increases network performance.
* Flexibility. CSS can be applied to content in several ways. The key
feature is the ability to cascade style information specified in the
default (user agent) style sheet, user style sheets, linked style
sheets, the document head, and in attributes for the elements forming
the document body.
* Richness. Providing authors with a rich set of rendering effects
increases the richness of the Web as a medium of expression. Designers
have been longing for functionality commonly found in desktop
publishing and slide-show applications. Some of the requested rendering
effects conflict with device independence, but CSS2 goes a long way
toward granting designers their requests.
* Alternative language bindings. The set of CSS properties described in
this specification form a consistent formatting model for visual and
aural presentations. This formatting model can be accessed through the
CSS language, but bindings to other languages are also possible. For
example, a JavaScript program may dynamically change the value of a
certain element's 'color' property.
* Accessibility. Several CSS features will make the Web more accessible
to users with disabilities:
o Properties to control font appearance allow authors to eliminate
inaccessible bit-mapped text images.
o Positioning properties allow authors to eliminate mark-up tricks
(e.g., invisible images) to force layout.
o The semantics of !important rules mean that users with particular
presentation requirements can override the author's style sheets.
o The new 'inherit' value for all properties improves cascading
generality and allows for easier and more consistent style tuning.
o Improved media support, including media groups and the braille,
embossed, and tty media types, will allow users and authors to
tailor pages to those devices.
o Aural properties give control over voice and audio output.
o The attribute selectors, 'attr()' function, and 'content' property
give access to alternate content.
o Counters and section/paragraph numbering can improve document
navigability and save on indenting spacing (important for braille
devices). The 'word-spacing' and 'text-indent' properties also
eliminate the need for extra whitespace in the document.
Note. For more information about designing accessible documents using
CSS and HTML, please consult [WAI-PAGEAUTH].
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Conformance: Requirements and Recommendations
Contents
* 3.1 Definitions
* 3.2 Conformance
* 3.3 Error conditions
* 3.4 The text/css content type
3.1 Definitions
In this section, we begin the formal specification of CSS2, starting with
the contract between authors, users, and implementers.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 (see [RFC2119]).
However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters
in this specification.
At times, this specification recommends good practice for authors and user
agents. These recommendations are not normative and conformance with this
specification does not depend on their realization. These recommendations
contain the expression "We recommend ...", "This specification recommends
...", or some similar wording.
Style sheet
A set of statements that specify presentation of a document.
Style sheets may have three different origins: author, user, and user
agent. The interaction of these sources is described in the section on
cascading and inheritance.
Valid style sheet
The validity of a style sheet depends on the level of CSS used for the
style sheet. All valid CSS1 style sheets are valid CSS2 style sheets.
However, some changes from CSS1 mean that a few CSS1 style sheets will
have slightly different semantics in CSS2.
A valid CSS2 style sheet must be written according to the grammar of
CSS2. Furthermore, it must contain only at-rules, property names, and
property values defined in this specification. An illegal (invalid)
at-rule, property name, or property value is one that is not valid.
Source document
The document to which one or more style sheets refer. This is encoded
in some language that represents the document as a tree of elements.
Each element consists of a name that identifies the type of element,
optionally a number of attributes, and a (possibly empty) content.
Document language
The encoding language of the source document (e.g., HTML or an XML
application).
Element
(An SGML term, see [ISO8879].) The primary syntactic constructs of the
document language. Most CSS style sheet rules use the names of these
elements (such as "P", "TABLE", and "OL" for HTML) to specify rendering
information for them.
Replaced element
An element for which the CSS formatter knows only the intrinsic
dimensions. In HTML, IMG, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT, and OBJECT elements
can be examples of replaced elements. For example, the content of the
IMG element is often replaced by the image that the "src" attribute
designates. CSS does not define how the intrinsic dimensions are found.
Intrinsic dimensions
The width and height as defined by the element itself, not imposed by
the surroundings. In CSS2 it is assumed that all replaced elements --
and only replaced elements -- come with intrinsic dimensions.
Attribute
A value associated with an element, consisting of a name, and an
associated (textual) value.
Content
The content associated with an element in the source document; not all
elements have content in which case they are called empty. The content
of an element may include text, and it may include a number of
sub-elements, in which case the element is called the parent of those
sub-elements.
Rendered content
The content of an element after the rendering that applies to it
according to the relevant style sheets has been applied. The rendered
content of a replaced element comes from outside the source document.
Rendered content may also be alternate text for an element (e.g., the
value of the HTML "alt" attribute), and may include items inserted
implicitly or explicitly by the style sheet, such as bullets,
numbering, etc.
Document tree
The tree of elements encoded in the source document. Each element in
this tree has exactly one parent, with the exception of the root
element, which has none.
Child
An element A is called the child of element B if an only if B is the
parent of A.
Descendant
An element A is called a descendant of an element B, if either (1) A is
a child of B, or (2) A is the child of some element C that is a
descendant of B.
Ancestor
An element A is called an ancestor of an element B, if and only if B is
a descendant of A.
Sibling
An element A is called a sibling of an element B, if and only if B and
A share the same parent element. Element A is a preceding sibling if it
comes before B in the document tree. Element B is a following sibling
if it comes after B in the document tree.
Preceding element
An element A is called a preceding element of an element B, if and only
if (1) A is an ancestor of B or (2) A is a preceding sibling of B.
Following element
An element A is called a following element of an element B, if and only
if B is a preceding element of A.
Author
An author is a person who writes documents and associated style sheets.
An authoring tool generates documents and associated style sheets.
User
A user is a person who interacts with a user agent to view, hear, or
otherwise use a document and its associated style sheet. The user may
provide a personal style sheet that encodes personal preferences.
User agent (UA)
A user agent is any program that interprets a document written in the
document language and applies associated style sheets according to the
terms of this specification. A user agent may display a document, read
it aloud, cause it to be printed, convert it to another format, etc.
Here is an example of a source document encoded in HTML:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<TITLE>My home page</TITLE>
<BODY>
<H1>My home page</H1>
<P>Welcome to my home page! Let me tell you about my favorite
composers:
<UL>
<LI> Elvis Costello
<LI> Johannes Brahms
<LI> Georges Brassens
</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This results in the following tree:
[Sample document tree] [D]
According to the definition of HTML, HEAD elements will be inferred during
parsing and become part of the document tree even if the HEAD tags are not
in the document source. Similarly, the parser knows where the P and LIs end,
even though there are no </P> and </LI> tags in the source.
3.2 Conformance
This section defines conformance with the CSS2 specification only. There may
be other levels of CSS in the future that may require a user agent to
implement a different set of features in order to conform.
In general, the following points must be observed by a user agent claiming
conformance to this specification:
1. It must support one or more of the CSS2 media types.
2. For each source document, it must attempt to retrieve all associated
style sheets that are appropriate for the supported media types. If it
cannot retrieve all associated style sheets (for instance, because of
network errors), it must display the document using those it can
retrieve.
3. It must parse the style sheets according to this specification. In
particular, it must recognize all at-rules, blocks, declarations, and
selectors (see the grammar of CSS2). If a user agent encounters a
property that applies for a supported media type, the user agent must
parse the value according to the property definition. This means that
the user agent must accept all valid values and must ignore
declarations with invalid values. User agents must ignore rules that
apply to unsupported media types.
4. For each element in a document tree, it must assign a value for every
applicable property according to the property's definition and the
rules of cascading and inheritance.
5. If the source document comes with alternate style sheets (such as with
the "alternate" keyword in HTML 4.0 [HTML40]), the UA must allow the
user to select one from among these style sheets and apply the selected
one.
Not every user agent must observe every point, however:
* A user agent that inputs style sheets must respect points 1 - 3.
* An authoring tool is only required to output valid style sheets
* A user agent that renders a document with associated style sheets must
respect points 1 - 5 and render the document according to the
media-specific requirements set forth in this specification. Values may
be approximated when required by the user agent.
The inability of a user agent to implement part of this specification due to
the limitations of a particular device (e.g., a user agent cannot render
colors on a monochrome monitor or page) does not imply non-conformance.
This specification recommends that a user agent allow the user to specify
user style sheets.
3.3 Error conditions
In general, this document does not specify error handling behavior for user
agents (e.g., how they behave when they cannot find a resource designated by
a URI).
However, user agents must observe the rules for handling parsing errors.
Since user agents may vary in how they handle error conditions, authors and
users must not rely on specific error recovery behavior.
3.4 The text/css content type
CSS style sheets that exist in separate files are sent over the Internet as
a sequence of bytes accompanied by encoding information (see [HTML40],
chapter 5). The structure of the transmission, termed a message entity, is
defined by RFC 2045 and RFC 2068 (see [RFC2045] and [RFC2068]). A message
entity with a content type of "text/css" represents an independent CSS
document. The "text/css" content type has been registered by RFC 2138
([RFC2318]).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 CSS2 syntax and basic data types
Contents
* 4.1 Syntax
o 4.1.1 Tokenization
o 4.1.2 Keywords
o 4.1.3 Characters and case
o 4.1.4 Statements
o 4.1.5 At-rules
o 4.1.6 Blocks
o 4.1.7 Rule sets, declaration blocks, and selectors
o 4.1.8 Declarations and properties
o 4.1.9 Comments
* 4.2 Rules for handling parsing errors
* 4.3 Values
o 4.3.1 Integers and real numbers
o 4.3.2 Lengths
o 4.3.3 Percentages
o 4.3.4 URL + URN = URI
o 4.3.5 Counters
o 4.3.6 Colors
o 4.3.7 Angles
o 4.3.8 Times
o 4.3.9 Frequencies
o 4.3.10 Strings
* 4.4 CSS document representation
o 4.4.1 Referring to characters not represented in a character
encoding
4.1 Syntax
This section describes a grammar (and forward-compatible parsing rules)
common to any version of CSS (including CSS2). Future versions of CSS will
adhere to this core syntax, although they may add additional syntactic
constraints.
These descriptions are normative. They are also complemented by the
normative grammar rules presented in Appendix D.
4.1.1 Tokenization
All levels of CSS -- level 1, level 2, and any future levels -- use the same
core syntax. This allows UAs to parse (though not completely understand)
style sheets written in levels of CSS that didn't exist at the time the UAs
were created. Designers can use this feature to create style sheets that
work with older user agents, while also exercising the possibilities of the
latest levels of CSS.
At the lexical level, CSS style sheets consist of a sequence of tokens. The
list of tokens for CSS2 is as follows. The definitions use Lex-style regular
expressions. Octal codes refer to ISO 10646 ([ISO10646]). As in Lex, in case
of multiple matches, the longest match determines the token.
Token Definition
------------------------------------------------------------------
IDENT {ident}
ATKEYWORD @{ident}
STRING {string}
HASH #{name}
NUMBER {num}
PERCENTAGE {num}%
DIMENSION {num}{ident}
URI url\({w}{string}{w}\)
|url\({w}([!#$%&*-~]|{nonascii}|{escape})*{w}\)
UNICODE-RANGE U\+[0-9A-F?]{1,6}(-[0-9A-F]{1,6})?
CDO <!--
CDC -->
; ;
{ \{
} \}
( \(
) \)
[ \[
] \]
S [ \t\r\n\f]+
COMMENT \/\*[^*]*\*+([^/][^*]*\*+)*\/
FUNCTION {ident}\(
INCLUDES ~=
DASHMATCH |=
DELIM any other character not matched by the above rules
The macros in curly braces ({}) above are defined as follows:
Macro Definition
------------------------------------------------------------
ident {nmstart}{nmchar}*
name {nmchar}+
nmstart [a-zA-Z]|{nonascii}|{escape}
nonascii[^\0-\177]
unicode \\[0-9a-f]{1,6}[ \n\r\t\f]?
escape {unicode}|\\[ -~\200-\4177777]
nmchar [a-z0-9-]|{nonascii}|{escape}
num [0-9]+|[0-9]*\.[0-9]+
string {string1}|{string2}
string1 \"([\t !#$%&(-~]|\\{nl}|\'|{nonascii}|{escape})*\"
string2 \'([\t !#$%&(-~]|\\{nl}|\"|{nonascii}|{escape})*\'
nl \n|\r\n|\r|\f
w [ \t\r\n\f]*
Below is the core syntax for CSS. The sections that follow describe how to
use it. Appendix D describes a more restrictive grammar that is closer to
the CSS level 2 language.
stylesheet : [ CDO | CDC | S | statement ]*;
statement : ruleset | at-rule;
at-rule : ATKEYWORD S* any* [ block | ';' S* ];
block : '{' S* [ any | block | ATKEYWORD S* | ';' ]* '}' S*;
ruleset : selector? '{' S* declaration? [ ';' S* declaration? ]* '}' S*;
selector : any+;
declaration : property ':' S* value;
property : IDENT S*;
value : [ any | block | ATKEYWORD S* ]+;
any : [ IDENT | NUMBER | PERCENTAGE | DIMENSION | STRING
| DELIM | URI | HASH | UNICODE-RANGE | INCLUDES
| FUNCTION | DASHMATCH | '(' any* ')' | '[' any* ']' ] S*;
COMMENT tokens do not occur in the grammar (to keep it readable), but any
number of these tokens may appear anywhere between other tokens.
The token S in the grammar above stands for whitespace. Only the characters
"space" (Unicode code 32), "tab" (9), "line feed" (10), "carriage return"
(13), and "form feed" (12) can occur in whitespace. Other space-like
characters, such as "em-space" (8195) and "ideographic space" (12288), are
never part of whitespace.
4.1.2 Keywords
Keywords have the form of identifiers. Keywords must not be placed between
quotes ("..." or '...'). Thus,
red
is a keyword, but
"red"
is not. (It is a string.) Other illegal examples:
Illegal example(s):
width: "auto";
border: "none";
font-family: "serif";
background: "red";
4.1.3 Characters and case
The following rules always hold:
* All CSS style sheets are case-insensitive, except for parts that are
not under the control of CSS. For example, the case-sensitivity of
values of the HTML attributes "id" and "class", of font names, and of
URIs lies outside the scope of this specification. Note in particular
that element names are case-insensitive in HTML, but case-sensitive in
XML.
* In CSS2, identifiers (including element names, classes, and IDs in
selectors) can contain only the characters [A-Za-z0-9] and ISO 10646
characters 161 and higher, plus the hyphen (-); they cannot start with
a hyphen or a digit. They can also contain escaped characters and any
ISO 10646 character as a numeric code (see next item). For instance,
the identifier "B&W?" may be written as "B\&W\?" or "B\26 W\3F".
Note that Unicode is code-by-code equivalent to ISO 10646 (see
[UNICODE] and [ISO10646]).
* In CSS2, a backslash (\) character indicates three types of character
escapes.
First, inside a string, a backslash followed by a newline is ignored
(i.e., the string is deemed not to contain either the backslash or the
newline).
Second, it cancels the meaning of special CSS characters. Any character
(except a hexadecimal digit) can be escaped with a backslash to remove
its special meaning. For example, "\"" is a string consisting of one
double quote. Style sheet preprocessors must not remove these
backslashes from a style sheet since that would change the style
sheet's meaning.
Third, backslash escapes allow authors to refer to characters they
can't easily put in a document. In this case, the backslash is followed
by at most six hexadecimal digits (0..9A..F), which stand for the ISO
10646 ([ISO10646]) character with that number. If a digit or letter
follows the hexadecimal number, the end of the number needs to be made
clear. There are two ways to do that:
1. with a space (or other whitespace character): "\26 B" ("&B")
2. by providing exactly 6 hexadecimal digits: "\000026B" ("&B")
In fact, these two methods may be combined. Only one whitespace
character is ignored after a hexadecimal escape. Note that this means
that a "real" space after the escape sequence must itself either be
escaped or doubled.
* Backslash escapes are always considered to be part of an identifier or
a string (i.e., "\7B" is not punctuation, even though "{" is, and "\32"
is allowed at the start of a class name, even though "2" is not).
4.1.4 Statements
A CSS style sheet, for any version of CSS, consists of a list of statements
(see the grammar above). There are two kinds of statements: at-rules and
rule sets. There may be whitespace around the statements.
In this specification, the expressions "immediately before" or "immediately
after" mean with no intervening whitespace or comments.
4.1.5 At-rules
At-rules start with an at-keyword, an '@' character followed immediately by
an identifier (for example, '@import', '@page').
An at-rule consists of everything up to and including the next semicolon (;)
or the next block, whichever comes first. A CSS user agent that encounters
an unrecognized at-rule must ignore the whole of the at-rule and continue
parsing after it.
CSS2 user agents must ignore any '@import' rule that occurs inside a block
or that doesn't precede all rule sets.
Illegal example(s):
Assume, for example, that a CSS2 parser encounters this style sheet:
@import "subs.css";
H1 { color: blue }
@import "list.css";
The second '@import' is illegal according to CSS2. The CSS2 parser ignores
the whole at-rule, effectively reducing the style sheet to:
@import "subs.css";
H1 { color: blue }
Illegal example(s):
In the following example, the second '@import' rule is invalid, since it
occurs inside a '@media' block.
@import "subs.css";
@media print {
@import "print-main.css";
BODY { font-size: 10pt }
}
H1 {color: blue }
4.1.6 Blocks
A block starts with a left curly brace ({) and ends with the matching right
curly brace (}). In between there may be any characters, except that
parentheses (( )), brackets ([ ]) and braces ({ }) must always occur in
matching pairs and may be nested. Single (') and double quotes (") must also
occur in matching pairs, and characters between them are parsed as a string.
See Tokenization above for the definition of a string.
Illegal example(s):
Here is an example of a block. Note that the right brace between the double
quotes does not match the opening brace of the block, and that the second
single quote is an escaped character, and thus doesn't match the first
single quote:
{ causta: "}" + ({7} * '\'') }
Note that the above rule is not valid CSS2, but it is still a block as
defined above.
4.1.7 Rule sets, declaration blocks, and selectors
A rule set (also called "rule") consists of a selector followed by a
declaration block.
A declaration-block (also called a {}-block in the following text) starts
with a left curly brace ({) and ends with the matching right curly brace
(}). In between there must be a list of zero or more semicolon-separated (;)
declarations.
The selector (see also the section on selectors) consists of everything up
to (but not including) the first left curly brace ({). A selector always
goes together with a {}-block. When a user agent can't parse the selector
(i.e., it is not valid CSS2), it must ignore the {}-block as well.
CSS2 gives a special meaning to the comma (,) in selectors. However, since
it is not known if the comma may acquire other meanings in future versions
of CSS, the whole statement should be ignored if there is an error anywhere
in the selector, even though the rest of the selector may look reasonable in
CSS2.
Illegal example(s):
For example, since the "&" is not a valid token in a CSS2 selector, a CSS2
user agent must ignore the whole second line, and not set the color of H3 to
red:
H1, H2 {color: green }
H3, H4 & H5 {color: red }
H6 {color: black }
Example(s):
Here is a more complex example. The first two pairs of curly braces are
inside a string, and do not mark the end of the selector. This is a valid
CSS2 statement.
P[example="public class foo\
{\
private int x;\
\
foo(int x) {\
this.x = x;\
}\
\
}"] { color: red }
4.1.8 Declarations and properties
A declaration is either empty or consists of a property, followed by a colon
(:), followed by a value. Around each of these there may be whitespace.
Because of the way selectors work, multiple declarations for the same
selector may be organized into semicolon (;) separated groups.
Example(s):
Thus, the following rules:
H1 { font-weight: bold }
H1 { font-size: 12pt }
H1 { line-height: 14pt }
H1 { font-family: Helvetica }
H1 { font-variant: normal }
H1 { font-style: normal }
are equivalent to:
H1 {
font-weight: bold;
font-size: 12pt;
line-height: 14pt;
font-family: Helvetica;
font-variant: normal;
font-style: normal
}
A property is an identifier. Any character may occur in the value, but
parentheses ("( )"), brackets ("[ ]"), braces ("{ }"), single quotes (') and
double quotes (") must come in matching pairs, and semicolons not in strings
must be escaped. Parentheses, brackets, and braces may be nested. Inside the
quotes, characters are parsed as a string.
The syntax of values is specified separately for each property, but in any
case, values are built from identifiers, strings, numbers, lengths,
percentages, URIs, colors, angles, times, and frequencies.
A user agent must ignore a declaration with an invalid property name or an
invalid value. Every CSS2 property has its own syntactic and semantic
restrictions on the values it accepts.
Illegal example(s):
For example, assume a CSS2 parser encounters this style sheet:
H1 { color: red; font-style: 12pt } /* Invalid value: 12pt */
P { color: blue; font-vendor: any; /* Invalid prop.: font-vendor */
font-variant: small-caps }
EM EM { font-style: normal }
The second declaration on the first line has an invalid value '12pt'. The
second declaration on the second line contains an undefined property
'font-vendor'. The CSS2 parser will ignore these declarations, effectively
reducing the style sheet to:
H1 { color: red; }
P { color: blue; font-variant: small-caps }
EM EM { font-style: normal }
4.1.9 Comments
Comments begin with the characters "/*" and end with the characters "*/".
They may occur anywhere between tokens, and their contents have no influence
on the rendering. Comments may not be nested.
CSS also allows the SGML comment delimiters ("<!--" and "-->") in certain
places, but they do not delimit CSS comments. They are permitted so that
style rules appearing in an HTML source document (in the STYLE element) may
be hidden from pre-HTML 3.2 user agents. See the HTML 4.0 specification
([HTML40]) for more information.
4.2 Rules for handling parsing errors
In some cases, user agents must ignore part of an illegal style sheet. This
specification defines ignore to mean that the user agent parses the illegal
part (in order to find its beginning and end), but otherwise acts as if it
had not been there.
To ensure that new properties and new values for existing properties can be
added in the future, user agents are required to obey the following rules
when they encounter the following scenarios:
* Unknown properties. User agents must ignore a declaration with an
unknown property. For example, if the style sheet is:
H1 { color: red; rotation: 70minutes }
the user agent will treat this as if the style sheet had been
H1 { color: red }
* Illegal values. User agents must ignore a declaration with an illegal
value. For example:
IMG { float: left } /* correct CSS2 */
IMG { float: left here } /* "here" is not a value of 'float' */
IMG { background: "red" } /* keywords cannot be quoted in CSS2 */
IMG { border-width: 3 } /* a unit must be specified for length values */
A CSS2 parser would honor the first rule and ignore the rest, as if the
style sheet had been:
IMG { float: left }
IMG { }
IMG { }
IMG { }
A user agent conforming to a future CSS specification may accept one or
more of the other rules as well.
* Invalid at-keywords. User agents must ignore an invalid at-keyword
together with everything following it, up to and including the next
semicolon (;) or block ({...}), whichever comes first. For example,
consider the following:
@three-dee {
@background-lighting {
azimuth: 30deg;
elevation: 190deg;
}
H1 { color: red }
}
H1 { color: blue }
The '@three-dee' at-rule is not part of CSS2. Therefore, the whole
at-rule (up to, and including, the third right curly brace) is ignored.
A CSS2 user agent ignores it, effectively reducing the style sheet to:
H1 { color: blue }
4.3 Values
4.3.1 Integers and real numbers
Some value types may have integer values (denoted by <integer>) or real
number values (denoted by <number>). Real numbers and integers are specified
in decimal notation only. An <integer> consists of one or more digits "0" to
"9". A <number> can either be an <integer>, or it can be zero or more digits
followed by a dot (.) followed by one or more digits. Both integers and real
numbers may be preceded by a "-" or "+" to indicate the sign.
Note that many properties that allow an integer or real number as a value
actually restrict the value to some range, often to a non-negative value.
4.3.2 Lengths
Lengths refer to horizontal or vertical measurements.
The format of a length value (denoted by <length> in this specification) is
an optional sign character ('+' or '-', with '+' being the default)
immediately followed by a <number> (with or without a decimal point)
immediately followed by a unit identifier (e.g., px, deg, etc.). After the
'0' length, the unit identifier is optional.
Some properties allow negative length values, but this may complicate the
formatting model and there may be implementation-specific limits. If a
negative length value cannot be supported, it should be converted to the
nearest value that can be supported.
There are two types of length units: relative and absolute. Relative length
units specify a length relative to another length property. Style sheets
that use relative units will more easily scale from one medium to another
(e.g., from a computer display to a laser printer).
Relative units are:
* em: the 'font-size' of the relevant font
* ex: the 'x-height' of the relevant font
* px: pixels, relative to the viewing device
Example(s):
H1 { margin: 0.5em } /* em */
H1 { margin: 1ex } /* ex */
P { font-size: 12px } /* px */
The 'em' unit is equal to the computed value of the 'font-size' property of
the element on which it is used. The exception is when 'em' occurs in the
value of the 'font-size' property itself, in which case it refers to the
font size of the parent element. It may be used for vertical or horizontal
measurement. (This unit is also sometimes called the quad-width in
typographic texts.)
The 'ex' unit is defined by the font's 'x-height'. The x-height is so called
because it is often equal to the height of the lowercase "x". However, an
'ex' is defined even for fonts that don't contain an "x".
Example(s):
The rule:
H1 { line-height: 1.2em }
means that the line height of H1 elements will be 20% greater than the font
size of the H1 elements. On the other hand:
H1 { font-size: 1.2em }
means that the font-size of H1 elements will be 20% greater than the font
size inherited by H1 elements.
When specified for the root of the document tree (e.g., "HTML" in HTML),
'em' and 'ex' refer to the property's initial value.
Pixel units are relative to the resolution of the viewing device, i.e., most
often a computer display. If the pixel density of the output device is very
different from that of a typical computer display, the user agent should
rescale pixel values. It is recommended that the reference pixel be the
visual angle of one pixel on a device with a pixel density of 90dpi and a
distance from the reader of an arm's length. For a nominal arm's length of
28 inches, the visual angle is therefore about 0.0227 degrees.
For reading at arm's length, 1px thus corresponds to about 0.28 mm
(1/90 inch). When printed on a laser printer, meant for reading at a little
less than arm's length (55 cm, 21 inches), 1px is about 0.21 mm. On a 300
dots-per-inch (dpi) printer, that may be rounded up to 3 dots (0.25 mm); on
a 600 dpi printer, it can be rounded to 5 dots.
The two images below illustrate the effect of viewing distance on the size
of a pixel and the effect of a device's resolution. In the first image, a
reading distance of 71 cm (28 inch) results in a px of 0.28 mm, while a
reading distance of 3.5 m (12 feet) requires a px of 1.4 mm.
[Showing that pixels must becomelarger if the viewing distance increases] [D]
In the second image, an area of 1px by 1px is covered by a single dot in a
low-resolution device (a computer screen), while the same area is covered by
16 dots in a higher resolution device (such as a 400 dpi laser printer).
[Showing that more device pixels (dots)are needed to cover a 1px by 1px area on a high-resolution device thanon a low-res one] [D]
Child elements do not inherit the relative values specified for their
parent; they (generally) inherit the computed values.
Example(s):
In the following rules, the computed 'text-indent' value of H1 elements will
be 36pt, not 45pt, if H1 is a child of the BODY element.
BODY {
font-size: 12pt;
text-indent: 3em; /* i.e., 36pt */
}
H1 { font-size: 15pt }
Absolute length units are only useful when the physical properties of the
output medium are known. The absolute units are:
* in: inches -- 1 inch is equal to 2.54 centimeters.
* cm: centimeters
* mm: millimeters
* pt: points -- the points used by CSS2 are equal to 1/72th of an inch.
* pc: picas -- 1 pica is equal to 12 points.
Example(s):
H1 { margin: 0.5in } /* inches */
H2 { line-height: 3cm } /* centimeters */
H3 { word-spacing: 4mm } /* millimeters */
H4 { font-size: 12pt } /* points */
H4 { font-size: 1pc } /* picas */
In cases where the specified length cannot be supported, user agents must
approximate it in the actual value.
4.3.3 Percentages
The format of a percentage value (denoted by <percentage> in this
specification) is an optional sign character ('+' or '-', with '+' being the
default) immediately followed by a <number> immediately followed by '%'.
Percentage values are always relative to another value, for example a
length. Each property that allows percentages also defines the value to
which the percentage refers. The value may be that of another property for
the same element, a property for an ancestor element, or a value of the
formatting context (e.g., the width of a containing block). When a
percentage value is set for a property of the root element and the
percentage is defined as referring to the inherited value of some property,
the resultant value is the percentage times the initial value of that
property.
Example(s):
Since child elements (generally) inherit the computed values of their
parent, in the following example, the children of the P element will inherit
a value of 12pt for 'line-height', not the percentage value (120%):
P { font-size: 10pt }
P { line-height: 120% } /* 120% of 'font-size' */
4.3.4 URL + URN = URI
URLs (Uniform Resource Locators, see [RFC1738] and [RFC1808]) provide the
address of a resource on the Web. An expected new way of identifying
resources is called URN (Uniform Resource Name). Together they are called
URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers, see [URI]). This specification uses the
term URI.
URI values in this specification are denoted by <uri>. The functional
notation used to designate URIs in property values is "url()", as in:
Example(s):
BODY { background: url("http://www.bg.com/pinkish.gif") }
The format of a URI value is 'url(' followed by optional whitespace followed
by an optional single quote (') or double quote (") character followed by
the URI itself, followed by an optional single quote (') or double quote (")
character followed by optional whitespace followed by ')'. The two quote
characters must be the same.
Example(s):
An example without quotes:
LI { list-style: url(http://www.redballs.com/redball.png) disc }
Parentheses, commas, whitespace characters, single quotes (') and double
quotes (") appearing in a URI must be escaped with a backslash: '\(', '\)',
'\,'.
Depending on the type of URI, it might also be possible to write the above
characters as URI-escapes (where "(" = %28, ")" = %29, etc.) as described in
[URI].
In order to create modular style sheets that are not dependent on the
absolute location of a resource, authors may use relative URIs. Relative
URIs (as defined in [RFC1808]) are resolved to full URIs using a base URI.
RFC 1808, section 3, defines the normative algorithm for this process. For
CSS style sheets, the base URI is that of the style sheet, not that of the
source document.
Example(s):
For example, suppose the following rule:
BODY { background: url("yellow") }
is located in a style sheet designated by the URI:
http://www.myorg.org/style/basic.css
The background of the source document's BODY will be tiled with whatever
image is described by the resource designated by the URI
http://www.myorg.org/style/yellow
User agents may vary in how they handle URIs that designate unavailable or
inapplicable resources.
4.3.5 Counters
Counters are denoted by identifiers (see the 'counter-increment' and
'counter-reset' properties). To refer to the value of a counter, the
notation 'counter(<identifier>)' or 'counter(<identifier>,
<list-style-type>)' is used. The default style is 'decimal'.
To refer to a sequence of nested counters of the same name, the notation is
'counters(<identifier>, <string>)' or 'counters(<identifier>, <string>,
<list-style-type>)'. See "Nested counters and scope" in the chapter on
generated content.
In CSS2, the values of counters can only be referred to from the 'content'
property. Note that 'none' is a possible <list-style-type>: 'counter(x,
none)' yields an empty string.
Example(s):
Here is a style sheet that numbers paragraphs (P) for each chapter (H1). The
paragraphs are numbered with roman numerals, followed by a period and a
space:
P {counter-increment: par-num}
H1 {counter-reset: par-num}
P:before {content: counter(par-num, upper-roman) ". "}
Counters that are not in the scope of any 'counter-reset', are assumed to
have been reset to 0 by a 'counter-reset' on the root element.
4.3.6 Colors
A <color> is either a keyword or a numerical RGB specification.
The list of keyword color names is: aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green,
lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.
These 16 colors are defined in HTML 4.0 ([HTML40]). In addition to these
color keywords, users may specify keywords that correspond to the colors
used by certain objects in the user's environment. Please consult the
section on system colors for more information.
Example(s):
BODY {color: black; background: white }
H1 { color: maroon }
H2 { color: olive }
The RGB color model is used in numerical color specifications. These
examples all specify the same color:
Example(s):
EM { color: #f00 } /* #rgb */
EM { color: #ff0000 } /* #rrggbb */
EM { color: rgb(255,0,0) } /* integer range 0 - 255 */
EM { color: rgb(100%, 0%, 0%) } /* float range 0.0% - 100.0% */
The format of an RGB value in hexadecimal notation is a '#' immediately
followed by either three or six hexadecimal characters. The three-digit RGB
notation (#rgb) is converted into six-digit form (#rrggbb) by replicating
digits, not by adding zeros. For example, #fb0 expands to #ffbb00. This
ensures that white (#ffffff) can be specified with the short notation (#fff)
and removes any dependencies on the color depth of the display.
The format of an RGB value in the functional notation is 'rgb(' followed by
a comma-separated list of three numerical values (either three integer
values or three percentage values) followed by ')'. The integer value 255
corresponds to 100%, and to F or FF in the hexadecimal notation:
rgb(255,255,255) = rgb(100%,100%,100%) = #FFF. Whitespace characters are
allowed around the numerical values.
All RGB colors are specified in the sRGB color space (see [SRGB]). User
agents may vary in the fidelity with which they represent these colors, but
using sRGB provides an unambiguous and objectively measurable definition of
what the color should be, which can be related to international standards
(see [COLORIMETRY]).
Conforming user agents may limit their color-displaying efforts to
performing a gamma-correction on them. sRGB specifies a display gamma of 2.2
under specified viewing conditions. User agents should adjust the colors
given in CSS such that, in combination with an output device's "natural"
display gamma, an effective display gamma of 2.2 is produced. See the
section on gamma correction for further details. Note that only colors
specified in CSS are affected; e.g., images are expected to carry their own
color information.
Values outside the device gamut should be clipped: the red, green, and blue
values must be changed to fall within the range supported by the device. For
a typical CRT monitor, whose device gamut is the same as sRGB, the three
rules below are equivalent:
Example(s):
EM { color: rgb(255,0,0) } /* integer range 0 - 255 */
EM { color: rgb(300,0,0) } /* clipped to rgb(255,0,0) */
EM { color: rgb(255,-10,0) } /* clipped to rgb(255,0,0) */
EM { color: rgb(110%, 0%, 0%) } /* clipped to rgb(100%,0%,0%) */
Other devices, such as printers, have different gamuts to sRGB; some colors
outside the 0..255 sRGB range will be representable (inside the device
gamut), while other colors inside the 0..255 sRGB range will be outside the
device gamut and will thus be clipped.
Note. Although colors can add significant amounts of information to document
and make them more readable, please consider that certain color combinations
may cause problems for users with color blindness. If you use a background
image or set the background color, please adjust foreground colors
accordingly.
4.3.7 Angles
Angle values (denoted by <angle> in the text) are used with aural style
sheets.
Their format is an optional sign character ('+' or '-', with '+' being the
default) immediately followed by a <number> immediately followed by an angle
unit identifier.
Angle unit identifiers are:
* deg: degrees
* grad: grads
* rad: radians
Angle values may be negative. They should be normalized to the range
0-360deg by the user agent. For example, -10deg and 350deg are equivalent.
For example, a right angle is '90deg' or '100grad' or
'1.570796326794897rad'.
4.3.8 Times
Time values (denoted by <time> in the text) are used with aural style
sheets.
Their format is a <number> immediately followed by a time unit identifier.
Time unit identifiers are:
* ms: milliseconds
* s: seconds
Time values may not be negative.
4.3.9 Frequencies
Frequency values (denoted by <frequency> in the text) are used with aural
cascading style sheets.
Their format is a <number> immediately followed by a frequency unit
identifier.
Frequency unit identifiers are:
* Hz: Hertz
* kHz: kilo Hertz
Frequency values may not be negative.
For example, 200Hz (or 200hz) is a bass sound, and 6kHz (or 6khz) is a
treble sound.
4.3.10 Strings
Strings can either be written with double quotes or with single quotes.
Double quotes cannot occur inside double quotes, unless escaped (as '\"' or
as '\22'). Analogously for single quotes ("\'" or "\27").
Example(s):
"this is a 'string'"
"this is a \"string\""
'this is a "string"'
'this is a \'string\''
A string cannot directly contain a newline. To include a newline in a
string, use the escape "\A" (hexadecimal A is the line feed character in
Unicode, but represents the generic notion of "newline" in CSS). See the
'content' property for an example.
It is possible to break strings over several lines, for aesthetic or other
reasons, but in such a case the newline itself has to be escaped with a
backslash (\). For instance, the following two selectors are exactly the
same:
Example(s):
A[TITLE="a not s\
o very long title"] {/*...*/}
A[TITLE="a not so very long title"] {/*...*/}
4.4 CSS document representation
A CSS style sheet is a sequence of characters from the Universal Character
Set (see [ISO10646]). For transmission and storage, these characters must be
encoded by a character encoding that supports the set of characters
available in US-ASCII (e.g., ISO 8859-x, SHIFT JIS, etc.). For a good
introduction to character sets and character encodings, please consult the
HTML 4.0 specification ([HTML40], chapter 5), See also the XML 1.0
specification ([XML10], sections 2.2 and 4.3.3, and Appendix F.
When a style sheet is embedded in another document, such as in the STYLE
element or "style" attribute of HTML, the style sheet shares the character
encoding of the whole document.
When a style sheet resides in a separate file, user agents must observe the
following priorities when determining a document's character encoding (from
highest priority to lowest):
1. An HTTP "charset" parameter in a "Content-Type" field.
2. The @charset at-rule.
3. Mechanisms of the language of the referencing document (e.g., in HTML,
the "charset" attribute of the LINK element).
At most one @charset rule may appear in an external style sheet -- it must
not appear in an embedded style sheet -- and it must appear at the very
start of the document, not preceded by any characters. After "@charset",
authors specify the name of a character encoding. The name must be a charset
name as described in the IANA registry (See [IANA]. Also, see [CHARSETS] for
a complete list of charsets). For example:
Example(s):
@charset "ISO-8859-1";
This specification does not mandate which character encodings a user agent
must support.
Note that reliance on the @charset construct theoretically poses a problem
since there is no a priori information on how it is encoded. In practice,
however, the encodings in wide use on the Internet are either based on
ASCII, UTF-16, UCS-4, or (rarely) on EBCDIC. This means that in general, the
initial byte values of a document enable a user agent to detect the encoding
family reliably, which provides enough information to decode the @charset
rule, which in turn determines the exact character encoding.
4.4.1 Referring to characters not represented in a character encoding
A style sheet may have to refer to characters that cannot be represented in
the current character encoding. These characters must be written as escaped
references to ISO 10646 characters. These escapes serve the same purpose as
numeric character references in HTML or XML documents (see [HTML40],
chapters 5 and 25).
The character escape mechanism should be used when only a few characters
must be represented this way. If most of a document requires escaping,
authors should encode it with a more appropriate encoding (e.g., if the
document contains a lot of Greek characters, authors might use "ISO-8859-7"
or "UTF-8").
Intermediate processors using a different character encoding may translate
these escaped sequences into byte sequences of that encoding. Intermediate
processors must not, on the other hand, alter escape sequences that cancel
the special meaning of an ASCII character.
Conforming user agents must correctly map to Unicode all characters in any
character encodings that they recognize (or they must behave as if they
did).
For example, a document transmitted as ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) cannot contain
Greek letters directly: "??????" (Greek: "kouros") has to be written as
"\3BA\3BF\3C5\3C1\3BF\3C2".
Note. In HTML 4.0, numeric character references are interpreted in "style"
attribute values but not in the content of the STYLE element. Because of
this asymmetry, we recommend that authors use the CSS character escape
mechanism rather than numeric character references for both the "style"
attribute and the STYLE element. For example, we recommend:
<SPAN style="voice-family: D\FC rst">...</SPAN>
rather than:
<SPAN style="voice-family: Dürst">...</SPAN>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Selectors
Contents
* 5.1 Pattern matching
* 5.2 Selector syntax
o 5.2.1 Grouping
* 5.3 Universal selector
* 5.4 Type selectors
* 5.5 Descendant selectors
* 5.6 Child selectors
* 5.7 Adjacent sibling selectors
* 5.8 Attribute selectors
o 5.8.1 Matching attributes and attribute values
o 5.8.2 Default attribute values in DTDs
o 5.8.3 Class selectors
* 5.9 ID selectors
* 5.10 Pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes
* 5.11 Pseudo-classes
o 5.11.1 :first-child pseudo-class
o 5.11.2 The link pseudo-classes: :link and :visited
o 5.11.3 The dynamic pseudo-classes: :hover, :active, and :focus
o 5.11.4 The language pseudo-class: :lang
* 5.12 Pseudo-elements
o 5.12.1 The :first-line pseudo-element
o 5.12.2 The :first-letter pseudo-element
o 5.12.3 The :before and :after pseudo-elements
5.1 Pattern matching
In CSS, pattern matching rules determine which style rules apply to elements
in the document tree. These patterns, called selectors, may range from
simple element names to rich contextual patterns. If all conditions in the
pattern are true for a certain element, the selector matches the element.
The case-sensitivity of document language element names in selectors depends
on the document language. For example, in HTML, element names are
case-insensitive, but in XML they are case-sensitive.
The following table summarizes CSS2 selector syntax:
Pattern Meaning Described in section
* Matches any element. Universal selector
E Matches any E element (i.e., an Type selectors
element of type E).
E F Matches any F element that is a Descendant selectors
descendant of an E element.
E > F Matches any F element that is a Child selectors
child of an element E.
E:first-child Matches element E when E is the The :first-child
first child of its parent. pseudo-class
Matches element E if E is the source
E:link anchor of a hyperlink of which the The link
E:visited target is not yet visited (:link) or pseudo-classes
already visited (:visited).
E:active
E:hover Matches E during certain user The dynamic
E:focus actions. pseudo-classes
Matches element of type E if it is
E:lang(c) in (human) language c (the document The :lang()
language specifies how language is pseudo-class
determined).
E + F Matches any F element immediately Adjacent selectors
preceded by an element E.
E[foo] Matches any E element with the "foo" Attribute selectors
attribute set (whatever the value).
Matches any E element whose "foo"
E[foo="warning"] attribute value is exactly equal to Attribute selectors
"warning".
Matches any E element whose "foo"
E[foo~="warning"]attribute value is a list of Attribute selectors
space-separated values, one of which
is exactly equal to "warning".
Matches any E element whose "lang"
E[lang|="en"] attribute has a hyphen-separated Attribute selectors
list of values beginning (from the
left) with "en".
DIV.warning HTML only. The same as Class selectors
DIV[class~="warning"].
E#myid Matches any E element ID equal to ID selectors
"myid".
5.2 Selector syntax
A simple selector is either a type selector or universal selector followed
immediately by zero or more attribute selectors, ID selectors, or
pseudo-classes, in any order. The simple selector matches if all of its
components match.
A selector is a chain of one or more simple selectors separated by
combinators. Combinators are: whitespace, ">", and "+". Whitespace may
appear between a combinator and the simple selectors around it.
The elements of the document tree that match a selector are called subjects
of the selector. A selector consisting of a single simple selector matches
any element satisfying its requirements. Prepending a simple selector and
combinator to a chain imposes additional matching constraints, so the
subjects of a selector are always a subset of the elements matching the
rightmost simple selector.
One pseudo-element may be appended to the last simple selector in a chain,
in which case the style information applies to a subpart of each subject.
5.2.1 Grouping
When several selectors share the same declarations, they may be grouped into
a comma-separated list.
Example(s):
In this example, we condense three rules with identical declarations into
one. Thus,
H1 { font-family: sans-serif }
H2 { font-family: sans-serif }
H3 { font-family: sans-serif }
is equivalent to:
H1, H2, H3 { font-family: sans-serif }
CSS offers other "shorthand" mechanisms as well, including multiple
declarations and shorthand properties.
5.3 Universal selector
The universal selector, written "*", matches the name of any element type.
It matches any single element in the document tree.
If the universal selector is not the only component of a simple selector,
the "*" may be omitted. For example:
* *[LANG=fr] and [LANG=fr] are equivalent.
* *.warning and .warning are equivalent.
* *#myid and #myid are equivalent.
5.4 Type selectors
A type selector matches the name of a document language element type. A type
selector matches every instance of the element type in the document tree.
Example(s):
The following rule matches all H1 elements in the document tree:
H1 { font-family: sans-serif }
5.5 Descendant selectors
At times, authors may want selectors to match an element that is the
descendant of another element in the document tree (e.g., "Match those EM
elements that are contained by an H1 element"). Descendant selectors express
such a relationship in a pattern. A descendant selector is made up of two or
more selectors separated by whitespace. A descendant selector of the form "A
B" matches when an element B is an arbitrary descendant of some ancestor
element A.
Example(s):
For example, consider the following rules:
H1 { color: red }
EM { color: red }
Although the intention of these rules is to add emphasis to text by changing
its color, the effect will be lost in a case such as:
<H1>This headline is <EM>very</EM> important</H1>
We address this case by supplementing the previous rules with a rule that
sets the text color to blue whenever an EM occurs anywhere within an H1:
H1 { color: red }
EM { color: red }
H1 EM { color: blue }
The third rule will match the EM in the following fragment:
<H1>This <SPAN class="myclass">headline
is <EM>very</EM> important</SPAN></H1>
Example(s):
The following selector:
DIV * P
matches a P element that is a grandchild or later descendant of a DIV
element. Note the whitespace on either side of the "*".
Example(s):
The selector in the following rule, which combines descendant and attribute
selectors, matches any element that (1) has the "href" attribute set and (2)
is inside a P that is itself inside a DIV:
DIV P *[href]
5.6 Child selectors
A child selector matches when an element is the child of some element. A
child selector is made up of two or more selectors separated by ">".
Example(s):
The following rule sets the style of all P elements that are children of
BODY:
BODY > P { line-height: 1.3 }
Example(s):
The following example combines descendant selectors and child selectors:
DIV OL>LI P
It matches a P element that is a descendant of an LI; the LI element must be
the child of an OL element; the OL element must be a descendant of a DIV.
Notice that the optional whitespace around the ">" combinator has been left
out.
For information on selecting the first child of an element, please see the
section on the :first-child pseudo-class below.
5.7 Adjacent sibling selectors
Adjacent sibling selectors have the following syntax: E1 + E2, where E2 is
the subject of the selector. The selector matches if E1 and E2 share the
same parent in the document tree and E1 immediately precedes E2.
In some contexts, adjacent elements generate formatting objects whose
presentation is handled automatically (e.g., collapsing vertical margins
between adjacent boxes). The "+" selector allows authors to specify
additional style to adjacent elements.
Example(s):
Thus, the following rule states that when a P element immediately follows a
MATH element, it should not be indented:
MATH + P { text-indent: 0 }
The next example reduces the vertical space separating an H1 and an H2 that
immediately follows it:
H1 + H2 { margin-top: -5mm }
Example(s):
The following rule is similar to the one in the previous example, except
that it adds an attribute selector. Thus, special formatting only occurs
when H1 has class="opener":
H1.opener + H2 { margin-top: -5mm }
5.8 Attribute selectors
CSS2 allows authors to specify rules that match attributes defined in the
source document.
5.8.1 Matching attributes and attribute values
Attribute selectors may match in four ways:
[att]
Match when the element sets the "att" attribute, whatever the value of
the attribute.
[att=val]
Match when the element's "att" attribute value is exactly "val".
[att~=val]
Match when the element's "att" attribute value is a space-separated
list of "words", one of which is exactly "val". If this selector is
used, the words in the value must not contain spaces (since they are
separated by spaces).
[att|=val]
Match when the element's "att" attribute value is a hyphen-separated
list of "words", beginning with "val". The match always starts at the
beginning of the attribute value. This is primarily intended to allow
language subcode matches (e.g., the "lang" attribute in HTML) as
described in RFC 1766 ([RFC1766]).
Attribute values must be identifiers or strings. The case-sensitivity of
attribute names and values in selectors depends on the document language.
Example(s):
For example, the following attribute selector matches all H1 elements that
specify the "title" attribute, whatever its value:
H1[title] { color: blue; }
Example(s):
In the following example, the selector matches all SPAN elements whose
"class" attribute has exactly the value "example":
SPAN[class=example] { color: blue; }
Multiple attribute selectors can be used to refer to several attributes of
an element, or even several times the same attribute.
Example(s):
Here, the selector matches all SPAN elements whose "hello" attribute has
exactly the value "Cleveland" and whose "goodbye" attribute has exactly the
value "Columbus":
SPAN[hello="Cleveland"][goodbye="Columbus"] { color: blue; }
Example(s):
The following selectors illustrate the differences between "=" and "~=". The
first selector will match, for example, the value "copyright copyleft
copyeditor" for the "rel" attribute. The second selector will only match
when the "href" attribute has the value "http://www.w3.org/".
A[rel~="copyright"]
A[href="http://www.w3.org/"]
Example(s):
The following rule hides all elements for which the value of the "lang"
attribute is "fr" (i.e., the language is French).
*[LANG=fr] { display : none }
Example(s):
The following rule will match for values of the "lang" attribute that begin
with "en", including "en", "en-US", and "en-cockney":
*[LANG|="en"] { color : red }
Example(s):
Similarly, the following aural style sheet rules allow a script to be read
aloud in different voices for each role:
DIALOGUE[character=romeo]
{ voice-family: "Lawrence Olivier", charles, male }
DIALOGUE[character=juliet]
{ voice-family: "Vivien Leigh", victoria, female }
5.8.2 Default attribute values in DTDs
Matching takes place on attribute values in the document tree. For document
languages other than HTML, default attribute values may be defined in a DTD
or elsewhere. Style sheets should be designed so that they work even if the
default values are not included in the document tree.
Example(s):
For example, consider an element EXAMPLE with an attribute "notation" that
has a default value of "decimal". The DTD fragment might be
<!ATTLIST EXAMPLE notation (decimal,octal) "decimal">
If the style sheet contains the rules
EXAMPLE[notation=decimal] { /*... default property settings ...*/ }
EXAMPLE[notation=octal] { /*... other settings...*/ }
then to catch the cases where this attribute is set by default, and not
explicitly, the following rule might be added:
EXAMPLE { /*... default property settings ...*/ }
Because this selector is less specific than an attribute selector, it will
only be used for the default case. Care has to be taken that all other
attribute values that don't get the same style as the default are explicitly
covered.
5.8.3 Class selectors
For style sheets used with HTML, authors may use the dot (.) notation as an
alternative to the "~=" notation when matching on the "class" attribute.
Thus, for HTML, "DIV.value" and "DIV[class~=value]" have the same meaning.
The attribute value must immediately follow the ".".
Example(s):
For example, we can assign style information to all elements with
class~="pastoral" as follows:
*.pastoral { color: green } /* all elements with class~=pastoral */
or just
.pastoral { color: green } /* all elements with class~=pastoral */
The following assigns style only to H1 elements with class~="pastoral":
H1.pastoral { color: green } /* H1 elements with class~=pastoral */
Given these rules, the first H1 instance below would not have green text,
while the second would:
<H1>Not green</H1>
<H1 class="pastoral">Very green</H1>
To match a subset of "class" values, each value must be preceded by a ".",
in any order.
Example(s):
For example, the following rule matches any P element whose "class"
attribute has been assigned a list of space-separated values that includes
"pastoral" and "marine":
P.pastoral.marine { color: green }
This rule matches when class="pastoral blue aqua marine" but does not match
for class="pastoral blue".
Note. CSS gives so much power to the "class" attribute, that authors could
conceivably design their own "document language" based on elements with
almost no associated presentation (such as DIV and SPAN in HTML) and
assigning style information through the "class" attribute. Authors should
avoid this practice since the structural elements of a document language
often have recognized and accepted meanings and author-defined classes may
not.
5.9 ID selectors
Document languages may contain attributes that are declared to be of type
ID. What makes attributes of type ID special is that no two such attributes
can have the same value; whatever the document language, an ID attribute can
be used to uniquely identify its element. In HTML all ID attributes are
named "id"; XML applications may name ID attributes differently, but the
same restriction applies.
The ID attribute of a document language allows authors to assign an
identifier to one element instance in the document tree. CSS ID selectors
match an element instance based on its identifier. A CSS ID selector
contains a "#" immediately followed by the ID value.
Example(s):
The following ID selector matches the H1 element whose ID attribute has the
value "chapter1":
H1#chapter1 { text-align: center }
In the following example, the style rule matches the element that has the ID
value "z98y". The rule will thus match for the P element:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Match P</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
*#z98y { letter-spacing: 0.3em }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P id=z98y>Wide text</P>
</BODY>
In the next example, however, the style rule will only match an H1 element
that has an ID value of "z98y". The rule will not match the P element in
this example:
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Match H1 only</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
H1#z98y { letter-spacing: 0.5em }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P id=z98y>Wide text</P>
</BODY>
ID selectors have a higher precedence than attribute selectors. For example,
in HTML, the selector #p123 is more specific than [ID=p123] in terms of the
cascade.
Note. In XML 1.0 [XML10], the information about which attribute contains an
element's IDs is contained in a DTD. When parsing XML, UAs do not always
read the DTD, and thus may not know what the ID of an element is. If a style
sheet designer knows or suspects that this will be the case, he should use
normal attribute selectors instead: [name=p371] instead of #p371. However,
the cascading order of normal attribute selectors is different from ID
selectors. It may be necessary to add an "!important" priority to the
declarations: [name=p371] {color: red ! important}. Of course, elements in
XML 1.0 documents without a DTD do not have IDs at all.
5.10 Pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes
In CSS2, style is normally attached to an element based on its position in
the document tree. This simple model is sufficient for many cases, but some
common publishing scenarios may not be possible due to the structure of the
document tree. For instance, in HTML 4.0 (see [HTML40]), no element refers
to the first line of a paragraph, and therefore no simple CSS selector may
refer to it.
CSS introduces the concepts of pseudo-elements and pseudo-classes to permit
formatting based on information that lies outside the document tree.
* Pseudo-elements create abstractions about the document tree beyond
those specified by the document language. For instance, document
languages do not offer mechanisms to access the first letter or first
line of an element's content. CSS pseudo-elements allow style sheet
designers to refer to this otherwise inaccessible information.
Pseudo-elements may also provide style sheet designers a way to assign
style to content that does not exist in the source document (e.g., the
:before and :after pseudo-elements give access to generated content).
* Pseudo-classes classify elements on characteristics other than their
name, attributes or content; in principle characteristics that cannot
be deduced from the document tree. Pseudo-classes may be dynamic, in
the sense that an element may acquire or lose a pseudo-class while a
user interacts with the document. The exception is ':first-child',
which can be deduced from the document tree.
Neither pseudo-elements nor pseudo-classes appear in the document source or
document tree.
Pseudo-classes are allowed anywhere in selectors while pseudo-elements may
only appear after the subject of the selector.
Pseudo-elements and pseudo-class names are case-insensitive.
Some pseudo-classes are mutually exclusive, while others can be applied
simultaneously to the same element. In case of conflicting rules, the normal
cascading order determines the outcome.
Conforming HTML user agents may ignore all rules with :first-line or
:first-letter in the selector, or, alternatively, may only support a subset
of the properties on these pseudo-elements.
5.11 Pseudo-classes
5.11.1 :first-child pseudo-class
The :first-child pseudo-class matches an element that is the first child of
some other element.
Example(s):
In the following example, the selector matches any P element that is the
first child of a DIV element. The rule suppresses indentation for the first
paragraph of a DIV:
DIV > P:first-child { text-indent: 0 }
This selector would match the P inside the DIV of the following fragment:
<P> The last P before the note.
<DIV class="note">
<P> The first P inside the note.
</DIV>
but would not match the second P in the following fragment:
<P> The last P before the note.
<DIV class="note">
<H2>Note</H2>
<P> The first P inside the note.
</DIV>
Example(s):
The following rule sets the font weight to 'bold' for any EM element that is
some descendant of a P element that is a first child:
P:first-child EM { font-weight : bold }
Note that since anonymous boxes are not part of the document tree, they are
not counted when calculating the first child.
For example, the EM in:
<P>abc <EM>default</EM>
is the first child of the P.
The following two selectors are equivalent:
* > A:first-child /* A is first child of any element */
A:first-child /* Same */
5.11.2 The link pseudo-classes: :link and :visited
User agents commonly display unvisited links differently from previously
visited ones. CSS provides the pseudo-classes ':link' and ':visited' to
distinguish them:
* The :link pseudo-class applies for links that have not yet been
visited.
* The :visited pseudo-class applies once the link has been visited by the
user.
Note. After a certain amount of time, user agents may choose to return a
visited link to the (unvisited) ':link' state.
The two states are mutually exclusive.
The document language determines which elements are hyperlink source
anchors. For example, in HTML 4.0, the link pseudo-classes apply to A
elements with an "href" attribute. Thus, the following two CSS2 declarations
have similar effect:
A:link { color: red }
:link { color: red }
Example(s):
If the following link:
<A class="external" href="http://out.side/">external link</A>
has been visited, this rule:
A.external:visited { color: blue }
will cause it to be blue.
5.11.3 The dynamic pseudo-classes: :hover, :active, and :focus
Interactive user agents sometimes change the rendering in response to user
actions. CSS provides three pseudo-classes for common cases:
* The :hover pseudo-class applies while the user designates an element
(with some pointing device), but does not activate it. For example, a
visual user agent could apply this pseudo-class when the cursor (mouse
pointer) hovers over a box generated by the element. User agents not
supporting interactive media do not have to support this pseudo-class.
Some conforming user agents supporting interactive media may not be
able to support this pseudo-class (e.g., a pen device).
* The :active pseudo-class applies while an element is being activated by
the user. For example, between the times the user presses the mouse
button and releases it.
* The :focus pseudo-class applies while an element has the focus (accepts
keyboard events or other forms of text input).
These pseudo-classes are not mutually exclusive. An element may match
several of them at the same time.
CSS doesn't define which elements may be in the above states, or how the
states are entered and left. Scripting may change whether elements react to
user events or not, and different devices and UAs may have different ways of
pointing to, or activating elements.
User agents are not required to reflow a currently displayed document due to
pseudo-class transitions. For instance, a style sheet may specify that the
'font-size' of an :active link should be larger than that of an inactive
link, but since this may cause letters to change position when the reader
selects the link, a UA may ignore the corresponding style rule.
Example(s):
A:link { color: red } /* unvisited links */
A:visited { color: blue } /* visited links */
A:hover { color: yellow } /* user hovers */
A:active { color: lime } /* active links */
Note that the A:hover must be placed after the A:link and A:visited rules,
since otherwise the cascading rules will hide the 'color' property of the
A:hover rule. Similarly, because A:active is placed after A:hover, the
active color (lime) will apply when the user both activates and hovers over
the A element.
Example(s):
An example of combining dynamic pseudo-classes:
A:focus { background: yellow }
A:focus:hover { background: white }
The last selector matches A elements that are in pseudo-class :focus and in
pseudo-class :hover.
For information about the presentation of focus outlines, please consult the
section on dynamic focus outlines.
Note. In CSS1, the ':active' pseudo-class was mutually exclusive with
':link' and ':visited'. That is no longer the case. An element can be both
':visited' and ':active' (or ':link' and ':active') and the normal cascading
rules determine which properties apply.
5.11.4 The language pseudo-class: :lang
If the document language specifies how the human language of an element is
determined, it is possible to write selectors in CSS that match an element
based on its language. For example, in HTML [HTML40], the language is
determined by a combination of the "lang" attribute, the META element, and
possibly by information from the protocol (such as HTTP headers). XML uses
an attribute called XML:LANG, and there may be other document
language-specific methods for determining the language.
The pseudo-class ':lang(C)' matches if the element is in language C. Here C
is a language code as specified in HTML 4.0 [HTML40] and RFC 1766 [RFC1766].
It is matched the same way as for the '|=' operator.
Example(s):
The following rules set the quotation marks for an HTML document that is
either in French or German:
HTML:lang(fr) { quotes: '´ ' ' ª' }
HTML:lang(de) { quotes: 'ª' '´' '\2039' '\203A' }
:lang(fr) > Q { quotes: '´ ' ' ª' }
:lang(de) > Q { quotes: 'ª' '´' '\2039' '\203A' }
The second pair of rules actually set the 'quotes' property on Q elements
according to the language of its parent. This is done because the choice of
quote marks is typically based on the language of the element around the
quote, not the quote itself: like this piece of French "‡ l'improviste" in
the middle of an English text uses the English quotation marks.
5.12 Pseudo-elements
5.12.1 The :first-line pseudo-element
The :first-line pseudo-element applies special styles to the first formatted
line of a paragraph. For instance:
P:first-line { text-transform: uppercase }
The above rule means "change the letters of the first line of every
paragraph to uppercase". However, the selector "P:first-line" does not match
any real HTML element. It does match a pseudo-element that conforming user
agents will insert at the beginning of every paragraph.
Note that the length of the first line depends on a number of factors,
including the width of the page, the font size, etc. Thus, an ordinary HTML
paragraph such as:
<P>This is a somewhat long HTML
paragraph that will be broken into several
lines. The first line will be identified
by a fictional tag sequence. The other lines
will be treated as ordinary lines in the
paragraph.</P>
the lines of which happen to be broken as follows:
THIS IS A SOMEWHAT LONG HTML PARAGRAPH THAT
will be broken into several lines. The first
line will be identified by a fictional tag
sequence. The other lines will be treated as
ordinary lines in the paragraph.
might be "rewritten" by user agents to include the fictional tag sequence
for :first-line. This fictional tag sequence helps to show how properties
are inherited.
<P><P:first-line> This is a somewhat long HTML
paragraph that will </P:first-line> be broken into several
lines. The first line will be identified
by a fictional tag sequence. The other lines
will be treated as ordinary lines in the
paragraph.</P>
If a pseudo-element breaks up a real element, the desired effect can often
be described by a fictional tag sequence that closes and then re-opens the
element. Thus, if we mark up the previous paragraph with a SPAN element:
<P><SPAN class="test"> This is a somewhat long HTML
paragraph that will be broken into several
lines.</SPAN> The first line will be identified
by a fictional tag sequence. The other lines
will be treated as ordinary lines in the
paragraph.</P>
the user agent could generate the appropriate start and end tags for SPAN
when inserting the fictional tag sequence for :first-line.
<P><P:first-line><SPAN class="test"> This is a
somewhat long HTML
paragraph that will </SPAN></P:first-line><SPAN class="test"> be
broken into several
lines.</SPAN> The first line will be identified
by a fictional tag sequence. The other lines
will be treated as ordinary lines in the
paragraph.</P>
The :first-line pseudo-element can only be attached to a block-level
element.
The :first-line pseudo-element is similar to an inline-level element, but
with certain restrictions. Only the following properties apply to a
:first-line pseudo-element: font properties, color properties, background
properties, 'word-spacing', 'letter-spacing', 'text-decoration',
'vertical-align', 'text-transform', 'line-height', 'text-shadow', and
'clear'.
5.12.2 The :first-letter pseudo-element
The :first-letter pseudo-element may be used for "initial caps" and "drop
caps", which are common typographical effects. This type of initial letter
is similar to an inline-level element if its 'float' property is 'none',
otherwise it is similar to a floated element.
These are the properties that apply to :first-letter pseudo-elements: font
properties, color properties, background properties, 'text-decoration',
'vertical-align' (only if 'float' is 'none'), 'text-transform',
'line-height', margin properties, padding properties, border properties,
'float', 'text-shadow', and 'clear'.
The following CSS2 will make a drop cap initial letter span two lines:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Drop cap initial letter</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
P { font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt }
P:first-letter { font-size: 200%; font-style: italic;
font-weight: bold; float: left }
SPAN { text-transform: uppercase }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><SPAN>The first</SPAN> few words of an article
in The Economist.</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This example might be formatted as follows:
[Image illustrating the combined effect of the :first-letter and :first-line pseudo-elements] [D]
The fictional tag sequence is:
<P>
<SPAN>
<P:first-letter>
T
</P:first-letter>he first
</SPAN>
few words of an article in the Economist.
</P>
Note that the :first-letter pseudo-element tags abut the content (i.e., the
initial character), while the :first-line pseudo-element start tag is
inserted right after the start tag of the element to which it is attached.
In order to achieve traditional drop caps formatting, user agents may
approximate font sizes, for example to align baselines. Also, the glyph
outline may be taken into account when formatting.
Punctuation (i.e, characters defined in Unicode [UNICODE] in the "open"
(Ps), "close" (Pe), and "other" (Po) punctuation classes), that precedes the
first letter should be included, as in:
[Quotes that precede thefirst letter should be included.] [D]
The :first-letter pseudo-element matches parts of block-level elements only.
Some languages may have specific rules about how to treat certain letter
combinations. In Dutch, for example, if the letter combination "ij" appears
at the beginning of a word, both letters should be considered within the
:first-letter pseudo-element.
Example(s):
The following example illustrates how overlapping pseudo-elements may
interact. The first letter of each P element will be green with a font size
of '24pt'. The rest of the first formatted line will be 'blue' while the
rest of the paragraph will be 'red'.
P { color: red; font-size: 12pt }
P:first-letter { color: green; font-size: 200% }
P:first-line { color: blue }
<P>Some text that ends up on two lines</P>
Assuming that a line break will occur before the word "ends", the fictional
tag sequence for this fragment might be:
<P>
<P:first-line>
<P:first-letter>
S
</P:first-letter>ome text that
</P:first-line>
ends up on two lines
</P>
Note that the :first-letter element is inside the :first-line element.
Properties set on :first-line are inherited by :first-letter, but are
overridden if the same property is set on :first-letter.
5.12.3 The :before and :after pseudo-elements
The ':before' and ':after' pseudo-elements can be used to insert generated
content before or after an element's content. They are explained in the
section on generated text.
Example(s):
H1:before {content: counter(chapno, upper-roman) ". "}
When the :first-letter and :first-line pseudo-elements are combined with
:before and :after, they apply to the first letter or line of the element
including the inserted text.
Example(s):
P.special:before {content: "Special! "}
P.special:first-letter {color: #ffd800}
This will render the "S" of "Special!" in gold.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 Assigning property values, Cascading, and Inheritance
Contents
* 6.1 Specified, computed, and actual values
o 6.1.1 Specified values
o 6.1.2 Computed values
o 6.1.3 Actual values
* 6.2 Inheritance
o 6.2.1 The 'inherit' value
* 6.3 The @import rule
* 6.4 The cascade
o 6.4.1 Cascading order
o 6.4.2 !important rules
o 6.4.3 Calculating a selector's specificity
o 6.4.4 Precedence of non-CSS presentational hints
6.1 Specified, computed, and actual values
Once a user agent has parsed a document and constructed a document tree, it
must assign, for every element in the tree, a value to every property that
applies to the target media type.
The final value of a property is the result of a three-step calculation: the
value is determined through specification (the "specified value"), then
resolved into an absolute value if necessary (the "computed value"), and
finally transformed according to the limitations of the local environment
(the "actual value").
6.1.1 Specified values
User agents must first assign a specified value to a property based on the
following mechanisms (in order of precedence):
1. If the cascade results in a value, use it.
2. Otherwise, if the property is inherited, use the value of the parent
element, generally the computed value.
3. Otherwise use the property's initial value. The initial value of each
property is indicated in the property's definition.
Since it has no parent, the root of the document tree cannot use values from
the parent element; in this case, the initial value is used if necessary.
6.1.2 Computed values
Specified values may be absolute (i.e., they are not specified relative to
another value, as in 'red' or '2mm') or relative (i.e., they are specified
relative to another value, as in 'auto', '2em', and '12%'). For absolute
values, no computation is needed to find the computed value.
Relative values, on the other hand, must be transformed into computed
values: percentages must be multiplied by a reference value (each property
defines which value that is), values with relative units (em, ex, px) must
be made absolute by multiplying with the appropriate font or pixel size,
'auto' values must be computed by the formulas given with each property,
certain keywords ('smaller', 'bolder', 'inherit') must be replaced according
to their definitions.
In most cases, elements inherit computed values. However, there are some
properties whose specified value may be inherited (e.g., the number value
for the 'line-height' property). In the cases where child elements do not
inherit the computed value, this is described in the property definition.
6.1.3 Actual values
A computed value is in principle ready to be used, but a user agent may not
be able to make use of the value in a given environment. For example, a user
agent may only be able to render borders with integer pixel widths and may
therefore have to approximate the computed width. The actual value is the
computed value after any approximations have been applied.
6.2 Inheritance
Some values are inherited by the children of an element in the document
tree. Each property defines whether it is inherited or not.
Suppose there is an H1 element with an emphasizing element (EM) inside:
<H1>The headline <EM>is</EM> important!</H1>
If no color has been assigned to the EM element, the emphasized "is" will
inherit the color of the parent element, so if H1 has the color blue, the EM
element will likewise be in blue.
To set a "default" style property for a document, authors may set the
property on the root of the document tree. In HTML, for example, the HTML or
BODY elements can serve this function. Note that this will work even if the
author omits the BODY tag in the HTML source since the HTML parser will
infer the missing tag.
Example(s):
For example, since the 'color' property is inherited, all descendants of the
BODY element will inherit the color 'black':
BODY { color: black; }
Specified percentage values are not inherited; computed values are.
Example(s):
For example, given the following style sheet:
BODY { font-size: 10pt }
H1 { font-size: 120% }
and this document fragment:
<BODY>
<H1>A <EM>large</EM> heading</H1>
</BODY>
the 'font-size' property for the H1 element will have the computed value
'12pt' (120% times 10pt, the parent's value). Since the computed value of
'font-size' is inherited, the EM element will have the computed value '12pt'
as well. If the user agent does not have the 12pt font available, the actual
value of 'font-size' for both H1 and EM might be, for example, '11pt'.
6.2.1 The 'inherit' value
Each property may also have a specified value of 'inherit', which means
that, for a given element, the property takes the same computed value as the
property for the element's parent. The inherited value, which is normally
only used as a fallback value, can be strengthened by setting 'inherit'
explicitly.
Example(s):
In the example below, the 'color' and 'background' properties are set on the
BODY element. On all other elements, the 'color' value will be inherited and
the background will be transparent. If these rules are part of the user's
style sheet, black text on a white background will be enforced throughout
the document.
BODY {
color: black !important;
background: white !important;
}
* {
color: inherit !important;
background: transparent;
}
6.3 The @import rule
The '@import' rule allows users to import style rules from other style
sheets. Any @import rules must precede all rule sets in a style sheet. The
'@import' keyword must be followed by the URI of the style sheet to include.
A string is also allowed; it will be interpreted as if it had url(...)
around it.
Example(s):
The following lines are equivalent in meaning and illustrate both '@import'
syntaxes (one with "url()" and one with a bare string):
@import "mystyle.css";
@import url("mystyle.css");
So that user agents can avoid retrieving resources for unsupported media
types, authors may specify media-dependent @import rules. These conditional
imports specify comma-separated media types after the URI.
Example(s):
The following rules have the same effect as if the imported style sheet were
wrapped in an @media rule for the same media, but it may save the UA a
fruitless download.
@import url("fineprint.css") print;
@import url("bluish.css") projection, tv;
In the absence of any media types, the import is unconditional. Specifying
'all' for the medium has the same effect.
6.4 The cascade
Style sheets may have three different origins: author, user, and user agent.
* Author. The author specifies style sheets for a source document
according to the conventions of the document language. For instance, in
HTML, style sheets may be included in the document or linked
externally.
* User: The user may be able to specify style information for a
particular document. For example, the user may specify a file that
contains a style sheet or the user agent may provide an interface that
generates a user style sheet (or behave as if it did).
* User agent: Conforming user agents must apply a default style sheet (or
behave as if they did) prior to all other style sheets for a document.
A user agent's default style sheet should present the elements of the
document language in ways that satisfy general presentation
expectations for the document language (e.g., for visual browsers, the
EM element in HTML is presented using an italic font). See "A sample
style sheet for HTML 4.0" for a recommended default style sheet for
HTML 4.0 documents.
Note that the default style sheet may change if system settings are
modified by the user (e.g., system colors). However, due to limitations
in a user agent's internal implementation, it may be impossible to
change the values in the default style sheet.
Style sheets from these three origins will overlap in scope, and they
interact according to the cascade.
The CSS cascade assigns a weight to each style rule. When several rules
apply, the one with the greatest weight takes precedence.
By default, rules in author style sheets have more weight than rules in user
style sheets. Precedence is reversed, however, for "!important" rules. All
rules user and author rules have more weight than rules in the UA's default
style sheet.
Imported style sheets also cascade and their weight depends on their import
order. Rules specified in a given style sheet override rules imported from
other style sheets. Imported style sheets can themselves import and override
other style sheets, recursively, and the same precedence rules apply.
6.4.1 Cascading order
To find the value for an element/property combination, user agents must
apply the following sorting order:
1. Find all declarations that apply to the element and property in
question, for the target media type. Declarations apply if the
associated selector matches the element in question.
2. The primary sort of the declarations is by weight and origin: for
normal declarations, author style sheets override user style sheets
which override the default style sheet. For "!important" declarations,
user style sheets override author style sheets which override the
default style sheet. "!important" declaration override normal
declarations. An imported style sheet has the same origin as the style
sheet that imported it.
3. The secondary sort is by specificity of selector: more specific
selectors will override more general ones. Pseudo-elements and
pseudo-classes are counted as normal elements and classes,
respectively.
4. Finally, sort by order specified: if two rules have the same weight,
origin and specificity, the latter specified wins. Rules in imported
style sheets are considered to be before any rules in the style sheet
itself.
Apart from the "!important" setting on individual declarations, this
strategy gives author's style sheets higher weight than those of the reader.
It is therefore important that the user agent give the user the ability to
turn off the influence of a certain style sheet, e.g., through a pull-down
menu.
6.4.2 !important rules
CSS attempts to create a balance of power between author and user style
sheets. By default, rules in an author's style sheet override those in a
user's style sheet (see cascade rule 3).
However, for balance, an "!important" declaration (the keywords "!" and
"important" follow the declaration) takes precedence over a normal
declaration. Both author and user style sheets may contain "!important"
declarations, and user "!important" rules override author "!important"
rules. This CSS feature improves accessibility of documents by giving users
with special requirements (large fonts, color combinations, etc.) control
over presentation.
Note. This is a semantic change since CSS1. In CSS1, author "!important"
rules took precedence over user "!important" rules.
Declaring a shorthand property (e.g., 'background') to be "!important" is
equivalent to declaring all of its sub-properties to be "!important".
Example(s):
The first rule in the user's style sheet in the following example contains
an "!important" declaration, which overrides the corresponding declaration
in the author's styles sheet. The second declaration will also win due to
being marked "!important". However, the third rule in the user's style sheet
is not "!important" and will therefore lose to the second rule in the
author's style sheet (which happens to set style on a shorthand property).
Also, the third author rule will lose to the second author rule since the
second rule is "!important". This shows that "!important" declarations have
a function also within author style sheets.
/* From the user's style sheet */
P { text-indent: 1em ! important }
P { font-style: italic ! important }
P { font-size: 18pt }
/* From the author's style sheet */
P { text-indent: 1.5em !important }
P { font: 12pt sans-serif !important }
P { font-size: 24pt }
6.4.3 Calculating a selector's specificity
A selector's specificity is calculated as follows:
* count the number of ID attributes in the selector (= a)
* count the number of other attributes and pseudo-classes in the selector
(= b)
* count the number of element names in the selector (= c)
* ignore pseudo-elements.
Concatenating the three numbers a-b-c (in a number system with a large base)
gives the specificity.
Example(s):
Some examples:
* {} /* a=0 b=0 c=0 -> specificity = 0 */
LI {} /* a=0 b=0 c=1 -> specificity = 1 */
UL LI {} /* a=0 b=0 c=2 -> specificity = 2 */
UL OL+LI {} /* a=0 b=0 c=3 -> specificity = 3 */
H1 + *[REL=up]{} /* a=0 b=1 c=1 -> specificity = 11 */
UL OL LI.red {} /* a=0 b=1 c=3 -> specificity = 13 */
LI.red.level {} /* a=0 b=2 c=1 -> specificity = 21 */
#x34y {} /* a=1 b=0 c=0 -> specificity = 100 */
In HTML, values of an element's "style" attribute are style sheet rules.
These rules have no selectors, but for the purpose of step 3 of the cascade
algorithm, they are considered to have an ID selector (specificity: a=1,
b=0, c=0). For the purpose of step 4, they are considered to be after all
other rules.
<HEAD>
<STYLE type="text/css">
#x97z { color: blue }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P ID=x97z style="color: red">
</BODY>
In the above example, the color of the P element would be red. Although the
specificity is the same for both declarations, the declaration in the
"style" attribute will override the one in the STYLE element because of
cascading rule 4.
6.4.4 Precedence of non-CSS presentational hints
The UA may choose to honor presentational hints from other sources than
style sheets, for example the FONT element or the "align" attribute in HTML.
If so, the non-CSS presentational hints must be translated to the
corresponding CSS rules with specificity equal to zero. The rules are
assumed to be at the start of the author style sheet and may be overridden
by subsequent style sheet rules.
Note. In a transition phase, this policy will make it easier for stylistic
attributes to coexist with style sheets.
Note. In CSS1, the non-CSS presentational hints were given a specificity
equal to 1, not 0. The change is due to the introduction of the universal
selector, which has a specificity of 0.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
7 Media types
Contents
* 7.1 Introduction to media types
* 7.2 Specifying media-dependent style sheets
o 7.2.1 The @media rule
* 7.3 Recognized media types
o 7.3.1 Media groups
7.1 Introduction to media types
One of the most important features of style sheets is that they specify how
a document is to be presented on different media: on the screen, on paper,
with a speech synthesizer, with a braille device, etc.
Certain CSS properties are only designed for certain media (e.g., the
'cue-before' property for aural user agents). On occasion, however, style
sheets for different media types may share a property, but require different
values for that property. For example, the 'font-size' property is useful
both for screen and print media. However, the two media are different enough
to require different values for the common property; a document will
typically need a larger font on a computer screen than on paper. Experience
also shows that sans-serif fonts are easier to read on screen, while fonts
with serifs are easier to read on paper. For these reasons, it is necessary
to express that a style sheet -- or a section of a style sheet -- applies to
certain media types.
7.2 Specifying media-dependent style sheets
There are currently two ways to specify media dependencies for style sheets:
* Specify the target medium from a style sheet with the @media or @import
at-rules.
Example(s):
@import url("loudvoice.css") aural;
@media print {
/* style sheet for print goes here */
}
* Specify the target medium within the document language. For example, in
HTML 4.0 ([HTML40]), the "media" attribute on the LINK element
specifies the target media of an external style sheet:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Link to a target medium</TITLE>
<LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
media="print, handheld" href="foo.css">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>The body...
</BODY>
</HTML>
The @import rule is defined in the chapter on the cascade.
7.2.1 The @media rule
An @media rule specifies the target media types (separated by commas) of a
set of rules (delimited by curly braces). The @media construct allows style
sheet rules for various media in the same style sheet:
@media print {
BODY { font-size: 10pt }
}
@media screen {
BODY { font-size: 12pt }
}
@media screen, print {
BODY { line-height: 1.2 }
}
7.3 Recognized media types
A CSS media type names a set of CSS properties. A user agent that claims to
support a media type by name must implement all of the properties that apply
to that media type.
The names chosen for CSS media types reflect target devices for which the
relevant properties make sense. In the following list of CSS media types,
the parenthetical descriptions are not normative. They only give a sense of
what device the media type is meant to refer to.
all
Suitable for all devices.
aural
Intended for speech synthesizers. See the section on aural style sheets
for details.
braille
Intended for braille tactile feedback devices.
embossed
Intended for paged braille printers.
handheld
Intended for handheld devices (typically small screen, monochrome,
limited bandwidth).
print
Intended for paged, opaque material and for documents viewed on screen
in print preview mode. Please consult the section on paged media for
information about formatting issues that are specific to paged media.
projection
Intended for projected presentations, for example projectors or print
to transparencies. Please consult the section on paged media for
information about formatting issues that are specific to paged media.
screen
Intended primarily for color computer screens.
tty
Intended for media using a fixed-pitch character grid, such as
teletypes, terminals, or portable devices with limited display
capabilities. Authors should not use pixel units with the "tty" media
type.
tv
Intended for television-type devices (low resolution, color,
limited-scrollability screens, sound available).
Media type names are case-insensitive.
Due to rapidly changing technologies, CSS2 does not specify a definitive
list of media types that may be values for @media.
Note. Future versions of CSS may extend this list. Authors should not rely
on media type names that are not yet defined by a CSS specification.
7.3.1 Media groups
Each CSS property definition specifies the media types for which the
property must be implemented by a conforming user agent. Since properties
generally apply to several media, the "Applies to media" section of each
property definition lists media groups rather than individual media types.
Each property applies to all media types in the media groups listed in its
definition.
CSS2 defines the following media groups:
* continuous or paged. "Both" means that the property in question applies
to both media groups.
* visual, aural, or tactile.
* grid (for character grid devices), or bitmap. "Both" means that the
property in question applies to both media groups.
* interactive (for devices that allow user interaction), or static (for
those that don't). "Both" means that the property in question applies
to both media groups.
* all (includes all media types)
The following table shows the relationships between media groups and media
types:
Relationship between media groups and media types
Media
Types Media Groups
continuous/paged visual/aural/tactile grid/bitmap interactive/static
aural continuous aural N/A both
braille continuous tactile grid both
emboss paged tactile grid both
handheld both visual both both
print paged visual bitmap static
projection paged visual bitmap static
screen continuous visual bitmap both
tty continuous visual grid both
tv both visual, aural bitmap both
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
8 Box model
Contents
* 8.1 Box dimensions
* 8.2 Example of margins, padding, and borders
* 8.3 Margin properties: 'margin-top', 'margin-right', 'margin-bottom',
'margin-left', and 'margin'
o 8.3.1 Collapsing margins
* 8.4 Padding properties: 'padding-top', 'padding-right',
'padding-bottom', 'padding-left', and 'padding'
* 8.5 Border properties
o 8.5.1 Border width: 'border-top-width', 'border-right-width',
'border-bottom-width', 'border-left-width', and 'border-width'
o 8.5.2 Border color: 'border-top-color', 'border-right-color',
'border-bottom-color', 'border-left-color', and 'border-color'
o 8.5.3 Border style: 'border-top-style', 'border-right-style',
'border-bottom-style', 'border-left-style', and 'border-style'
o 8.5.4 Border shorthand properties: 'border-top', 'border-bottom',
'border-right', 'border-left', and 'border'
The CSS box model describes the rectangular boxes that are generated for
elements in the document tree and laid out according to the visual
formatting model. The page box is a special kind of box that is described in
detail in the section on paged media.
8.1 Box dimensions
Each box has a content area (e.g., text, an image, etc.) and optional
surrounding padding, border, and margin areas; the size of each area is
specified by properties defined below. The following diagram shows how these
areas relate and the terminology used to refer to pieces of margin, border,
and padding:
[Image illustrating the relationship between content, padding, borders, and margins.] [D]
The margin, border, and padding can be broken down into left, right, top,
and bottom segments (e.g., in the diagram, "LM" for left margin, "RP" for
right padding, "TB" for top border, etc.).
The perimeter of each of the four areas (content, padding, border, and
margin) is called an "edge", so each box has four edges:
content edge or inner edge
The content edge surrounds the element's rendered content.
padding edge
The padding edge surrounds the box padding. If the padding has 0 width,
the padding edge is the same as the content edge. The padding edge of a
box defines the edges of the containing block established by the box.
border edge
The border edge surrounds the box's border. If the border has 0 width,
the border edge is the same as the padding edge.
margin edge or outer edge
The margin edge surrounds the box margin. If the margin has 0 width,
the margin edge is the same as the border edge.
Each edge may be broken down into a left, right, top, and bottom edge.
The dimensions of the content area of a box -- the content width and content
height -- depend on several factors: whether the element generating the box
has the 'width' or 'height' property set, whether the box contains text or
other boxes, whether the box is a table, etc. Box widths and heights are
discussed in the chapter on visual formatting model details.
The box width is given by the sum of the left and right margins, border, and
padding, and the content width. The height is given by the sum of the top
and bottom margins, border, and padding, and the content height.
The background style of the various areas of a box are determined as
follows:
* Content area: The 'background' property of the generating element.
* Padding area: The 'background' property of the generating element.
* Border area: The border properties of the generating element.
* Margin area: Margins are always transparent.
8.2 Example of margins, padding, and borders
This example illustrates how margins, padding, and borders interact. The
example HTML document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Examples of margins, padding, and borders</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
UL {
background: green;
margin: 12px 12px 12px 12px;
padding: 3px 3px 3px 3px;
/* No borders set */
}
LI {
color: black; /* text color is black */
background: gray; /* Content, padding will be gray */
margin: 12px 12px 12px 12px;
padding: 12px 0px 12px 12px; /* Note 0px padding right */
list-style: none /* no glyphs before a list item */
/* No borders set */
}
LI.withborder {
border-style: dashed;
border-width: medium; /* sets border width on all sides */
border-color: black;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<UL>
<LI>First element of list
<LI class="withborder">Second element of list is longer
to illustrate wrapping.
</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
results in a document tree with (among other relationships) a UL element
that has two LI children.
The first of the following diagrams illustrates what this example would
produce. The second illustrates the relationship between the margins,
padding, and borders of the UL elements and those of its children LI
elements.
[Image illustrating how parent and child margins, borders,and padding relate.] [D]
Note that:
* The content width for each LI box is calculated top-down; the
containing block for each LI box is established by the UL element.
* The height of each LI box is given by its content height, plus top and
bottom padding, borders, and margins. Note that vertical margins
between the LI boxes collapse.
* The right padding of the LI boxes has been set to zero width (the
'padding' property). The effect is apparent in the second illustration.
* The margins of the LI boxes are transparent -- margins are always
transparent -- so the background color (green) of the UL padding and
content areas shines through them.
* The second LI element specifies a dashed border (the 'border-style'
property).
8.3 Margin properties: 'margin-top', 'margin-right', 'margin-bottom',
'margin-left', and 'margin'
Margin properties specify the width of the margin area of a box. The
'margin' shorthand property sets the margin for all four sides while the
other margin properties only set their respective side.
The properties defined in this section refer to the <margin-width> value
type, which may take one of the following values:
<length>
Specifies a fixed width.
<percentage>
The percentage is calculated with respect to the width of the generated
box's containing block. This is true for 'margin-top' and
'margin-bottom', except in the page context, where percentages refer to
page box height.
auto
See the section on computing widths and margins for behavior.
Negative values for margin properties are allowed, but there may be
implementation-specific limits.
'margin-top', 'margin-right', 'margin-bottom', 'margin-left'
Value: <margin-width> | inherit
Initial: 0
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
These properties set the top, right, bottom, and left margin of a box.
Example(s):
H1 { margin-top: 2em }
'margin'
Value: <margin-width>{1,4} | inherit
Initial: not defined for shorthand properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
The 'margin' property is a shorthand property for setting 'margin-top',
'margin-right', 'margin-bottom', and 'margin-left' at the same place in the
style sheet.
If there is only one value, it applies to all sides. If there are two
values, the top and bottom margins are set to the first value and the right
and left margins are set to the second. If there are three values, the top
is set to the first value, the left and right are set to the second, and the
bottom is set to the third. If there are four values, they apply to the top,
right, bottom, and left, respectively.
Example(s):
BODY { margin: 2em } /* all margins set to 2em */
BODY { margin: 1em 2em } /* top & bottom = 1em, right & left = 2em */
BODY { margin: 1em 2em 3em } /* top=1em, right=2em, bottom=3em, left=2em */
The last rule of the example above is equivalent to the example below:
BODY {
margin-top: 1em;
margin-right: 2em;
margin-bottom: 3em;
margin-left: 2em; /* copied from opposite side (right) */
}
8.3.1 Collapsing margins
In this specification, the expression collapsing margins means that
adjoining margins (no padding or border areas separate them) of two or more
boxes (which may be next to one another or nested) combine to form a single
margin.
In CSS2, horizontal margins never collapse.
Vertical margins may collapse between certain boxes:
* Two or more adjoining vertical margins of block boxes in the normal
flow collapse. The resulting margin width is the maximum of the
adjoining margin widths. In the case of negative margins, the absolute
maximum of the negative adjoining margins is deducted from the maximum
of the positive adjoining margins. If there are no positive margins,
the absolute maximum of the negative adjoining margins is deducted from
zero.
* Vertical margins between a floated box and any other box do not
collapse.
* Margins of absolutely and relatively positioned boxes do not collapse.
Please consult the examples of margin, padding, and borders for an
illustration of collapsed margins.
8.4 Padding properties: 'padding-top', 'padding-right', 'padding-bottom',
'padding-left', and 'padding'
The padding properties specify the width of the padding area of a box. The
'padding' shorthand property sets the padding for all four sides while the
other padding properties only set their respective side.
The properties defined in this section refer to the <padding-width> value
type, which may take one of the following values:
<length>
Specifies a fixed width.
<percentage>
The percentage is calculated with respect to the width of the generated
box's containing block, even for 'padding-top' and 'padding-bottom'.
Unlike margin properties, values for padding values cannot be negative. Like
margin properties, percentage values for padding properties refer to the
width of the generated box's containing block.
'padding-top', 'padding-right', 'padding-bottom', 'padding-left'
Value: <padding-width> | inherit
Initial: 0
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
These properties set the top, right, bottom, and left padding of a box.
Example(s):
BLOCKQUOTE { padding-top: 0.3em }
'padding'
Value: <padding-width>{1,4} | inherit
Initial: not defined for shorthand properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
The 'padding' property is a shorthand property for setting 'padding-top',
'padding-right', 'padding-bottom', and 'padding-left' at the same place in
the style sheet.
If there is only one value, it applies to all sides. If there are two
values, the top and bottom paddings are set to the first value and the right
and left paddings are set to the second. If there are three values, the top
is set to the first value, the left and right are set to the second, and the
bottom is set to the third. If there are four values, they apply to the top,
right, bottom, and left, respectively.
The surface color or image of the padding area is specified via the
'background' property:
Example(s):
H1 {
background: white;
padding: 1em 2em;
}
The example above specifies a '1em' vertical padding ('padding-top' and
'padding-bottom') and a '2em' horizontal padding ('padding-right' and
'padding-left'). The 'em' unit is relative to the element's font size: '1em'
is equal to the size of the font in use.
8.5 Border properties
The border properties specify the width, color, and style of the border area
of a box. These properties apply to all elements.
Note. Notably for HTML, user agents may render borders for certain elements
(e.g., buttons, menus, etc.) differently than for "ordinary" elements.
8.5.1 Border width: 'border-top-width', 'border-right-width',
'border-bottom-width', 'border-left-width', and 'border-width'
The border width properties specify the width of the border area. The
properties defined in this section refer to the <border-width> value type,
which may take one of the following values:
thin
A thin border.
medium
A medium border.
thick
A thick border.
<length>
The border's thickness has an explicit value. Explicit border widths
cannot be negative.
The interpretation of the first three values depends on the user agent. The
following relationships must hold, however:
'thin' <='medium' <= 'thick'.
Furthermore, these widths must be constant throughout a document.
'border-top-width', 'border-right-width', 'border-bottom-width',
'border-left-width'
Value: <border-width> | inherit
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
These properties set the width of the top, right, bottom, and left border of
a box.
'border-width'
Value: <border-width>{1,4} | inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property is a shorthand property for setting 'border-top-width',
'border-right-width', 'border-bottom-width', and 'border-left-width' at the
same place in the style sheet.
If there is only one value, it applies to all sides. If there are two
values, the top and bottom borders are set to the first value and the right
and left are set to the second. If there are three values, the top is set to
the first value, the left and right are set to the second, and the bottom is
set to the third. If there are four values, they apply to the top, right,
bottom, and left, respectively.
Example(s):
In the examples below, the comments indicate the resulting widths of the
top, right, bottom, and left borders:
H1 { border-width: thin } /* thin thin thin thin */
H1 { border-width: thin thick } /* thin thick thin thick */
H1 { border-width: thin thick medium } /* thin thick medium thick */
8.5.2 Border color: 'border-top-color', 'border-right-color',
'border-bottom-color', 'border-left-color', and 'border-color'
The border color properties specify the color of a box's border.
'border-top-color', 'border-right-color', 'border-bottom-color',
'border-left-color'
Value: <color> | inherit
Initial: the value of the 'color' property
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
'border-color'
Value: <color>{1,4} | transparent | inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'border-color' property sets the color of the four borders. Values have
the following meanings:
<color>
Specifies a color value.
transparent
The border is transparent (though it may have width).
The 'border-color' property can have from one to four values, and the values
are set on the different sides as for 'border-width'.
If an element's border color is not specified with a border property, user
agents must use the value of the element's 'color' property as the computed
value for the border color.
Example(s):
In this example, the border will be a solid black line.
P {
color: black;
background: white;
border: solid;
}
8.5.3 Border style: 'border-top-style', 'border-right-style',
'border-bottom-style', 'border-left-style', and 'border-style'
The border style properties specify the line style of a box's border (solid,
double, dashed, etc.). The properties defined in this section refer to the
<border-style> value type, which make take one of the following:
none
No border. This value forces the computed value of 'border-width' to be
'0'.
hidden
Same as 'none', except in terms of border conflict resolution for table
elements.
dotted
The border is a series of dots.
dashed
The border is a series of short line segments.
solid
The border is a single line segment.
double
The border is two solid lines. The sum of the two lines and the space
between them equals the value of 'border-width'.
groove
The border looks as though it were carved into the canvas.
ridge
The opposite of 'grove': the border looks as though it were coming out
of the canvas.
inset
The border makes the entire box look as though it were embedded in the
canvas.
outset
The opposite of 'inset': the border makes the entire box look as though
it were coming out of the canvas.
All borders are drawn on top of the box's background. The color of borders
drawn for values of 'groove', 'ridge', 'inset', and 'outset' depends on the
element's 'color' property.
Conforming HTML user agents may interpret 'dotted', 'dashed', 'double',
'groove', 'ridge', 'inset', and 'outset' to be 'solid'.
'border-top-style', 'border-right-style', 'border-bottom-style',
'border-left-style'
Value: <border-style> | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
'border-style'
Value: <border-style>{1,4} | inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'border-style' property sets the style of the four borders. It can have
from one to four values, and the values are set on the different sides as
for 'border-width' above.
Example(s):
#xy34 { border-style: solid dotted }
In the above example, the horizontal borders will be 'solid' and the
vertical borders will be 'dotted'.
Since the initial value of the border styles is 'none', no borders will be
visible unless the border style is set.
8.5.4 Border shorthand properties: 'border-top', 'border-bottom',
'border-right', 'border-left', and 'border'
'border-top', 'border-right', 'border-bottom', 'border-left'
Value: [ <'border-top-width'> || <'border-style'> || <color> ]
| inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This is a shorthand property for setting the width, style, and color of the
top, right, bottom, and left border of a box.
Example(s):
H1 { border-bottom: thick solid red }
The above rule will set the width, style, and color of the border below the
H1 element. Omitted values are set to their initial values. Since the
following rule does not specify a border color, the border will have the
color specified by the 'color' property:
H1 { border-bottom: thick solid }
'border'
Value: [ <'border-width'> || <'border-style'> || <color> ] |
inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'border' property is a shorthand property for setting the same width,
color, and style for all four borders of a box. Unlike the shorthand
'margin' and 'padding' properties, the 'border' property cannot set
different values on the four borders. To do so, one or more of the other
border properties must be used.
Example(s):
For example, the first rule below is equivalent to the set of four rules
shown after it:
P { border: solid red }
P {
border-top: solid red;
border-right: solid red;
border-bottom: solid red;
border-left: solid red
}
Since, to some extent, the properties have overlapping functionality, the
order in which the rules are specified is important.
Example(s):
Consider this example:
BLOCKQUOTE {
border-color: red;
border-left: double;
color: black
}
In the above example, the color of the left border is black, while the other
borders are red. This is due to 'border-left' setting the width, style, and
color. Since the color value is not given by the 'border-left' property, it
will be taken from the 'color' property. The fact that the 'color' property
is set after the 'border-left' property is not relevant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 Visual formatting model
Contents
* 9.1 Introduction to the visual formatting model
o 9.1.1 The viewport
o 9.1.2 Containing blocks
* 9.2 Controlling box generation
o 9.2.1 Block-level elements and block boxes
+ Anonymous block boxes
o 9.2.2 Inline-level elements and inline boxes
+ Anonymous inline boxes
o 9.2.3 Compact boxes
o 9.2.4 Run-in boxes
o 9.2.5 The 'display' property
* 9.3 Positioning schemes
o 9.3.1 Choosing a positioning scheme: 'position' property
o 9.3.2 Box offsets: 'top', 'right', 'bottom', 'left'
* 9.4 Normal flow
o 9.4.1 Block formatting context
o 9.4.2 Inline formatting context
o 9.4.3 Relative positioning
* 9.5 Floats
o 9.5.1 Positioning the float: the 'float' property
o 9.5.2 Controlling flow next to floats: the 'clear' property
* 9.6 Absolute positioning
o 9.6.1 Fixed positioning
* 9.7 Relationships between 'display', 'position', and 'float'
* 9.8 Comparison of normal flow, floats, and absolute positioning
o 9.8.1 Normal flow
o 9.8.2 Relative positioning
o 9.8.3 Floating a box
o 9.8.4 Absolute positioning
* 9.9 Layered presentation
o 9.9.1 Specifying the stack level: the 'z-index' property
* 9.10 Text direction: the 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties
9.1 Introduction to the visual formatting model
This chapter and the next describe the visual formatting model: how user
agents process the document tree for visual media.
In the visual formatting model, each element in the document tree generates
zero or more boxes according to the box model. The layout of these boxes is
governed by:
* box dimensions and type.
* positioning scheme (normal flow, float, and absolute).
* relationships between elements in the document tree.
* external information (e.g., viewport size, intrinsic dimensions of
images, etc.).
The properties defined in this chapter and the next apply to both continuous
media and paged media. However, the meanings of the margin properties vary
when applied to paged media (see the page model for details).
The visual formatting model does not specify all aspects of formatting
(e.g., it does not specify a letter-spacing algorithm). Conforming user
agents may behave differently for those formatting issues not covered by
this specification.
9.1.1 The viewport
User agents for continuous media generally offer users a viewport (a window
or other viewing area on the screen) through which users consult a document.
User agents may change the document's layout when the viewport is resized
(see the initial containing block). When the viewport is smaller than the
document's initial containing block, the user agent should offer a scrolling
mechanism. There is at most one viewport per canvas, but user agents may
render to more than one canvas (i.e., provide different views of the same
document).
9.1.2 Containing blocks
In CSS2, many box positions and sizes are calculated with respect to the
edges of a rectangular box called a containing block. In general, generated
boxes act as containing blocks for descendant boxes; we say that a box
"establishes" the containing block for its descendants. The phrase "a box's
containing block" means "the containing block in which the box lives," not
the one it generates.
Each box is given a position with respect to its containing block, but it is
not confined by this containing block; it may overflow.
The root of the document tree generates a box that serves as the initial
containing block for subsequent layout.
The width of the initial containing block may be specified with the 'width'
property for the root element. If this property has the value 'auto', the
user agent supplies the initial width (e.g., the user agent uses the current
width of the viewport).
The height of the initial containing block may be specified with the
'height' property for the root element. If this property has the value
'auto', the containing block height will grow to accommodate the document's
content.
The initial containing block cannot be positioned or floated (i.e., user
agents ignore the 'position' and 'float' properties for the root element).
The details of how a containing block's dimensions are calculated are
described in the next chapter.
9.2 Controlling box generation
The following sections describe the types of boxes that may be generated in
CSS2. A box's type affects, in part, its behavior in the visual formatting
model. The 'display' property, described below, specifies a box's type.
9.2.1 Block-level elements and block boxes
Block-level elements are those elements of the source document that are
formatted visually as blocks (e.g., paragraphs). Several values of the
'display' property make an element block-level: 'block', 'list-item',
'compact' and 'run-in' (part of the time; see compact and run-in boxes), and
'table'.
Block-level elements generate a principal block box that only contains block
boxes. The principal block box establishes the containing block for
descendant boxes and generated content and is also the box involved in any
positioning scheme. Principal block boxes participate in a block formatting
context.
Some block-level elements generate additional boxes outside of the principal
box: 'list-item' elements and those with markers. These additional boxes are
placed with respect to the principal box.
Anonymous block boxes
In a document like this:
<DIV>
Some text
<P>More text
</DIV>
(and assuming the DIV and the P both have 'display: block'), the DIV appears
to have both inline content and block content. To make it easier to define
the formatting, we assume that there is an anonymous block box around "Some
text".
[diagram showing the threeboxes for the example above] [D]
Diagram showing the three boxes, of which one is anonymous, for the example
above.
In other words: if a block box (such as that generated for the DIV above)
has another block box inside it (such as the P above), then we force it to
have only block boxes inside it, by wrapping any inline boxes in an
anonymous block box.
Example(s):
This model would apply in the following example if the following rules:
/* Note: HTML UAs may not respect these rules */
BODY { display: inline }
P { display: block }
were used with this HTML document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Anonymous text interrupted by a block</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
This is anonymous text before the P.
<P>This is the content of P.</>
This is anonymous text after the P.
</BODY>
The BODY element contains a chunk (C1) of anonymous text followed by a
block-level element followed by another chunk (C2) of anonymous text. The
resulting boxes would be an anonymous block box for BODY, containing an
anonymous block box around C1, the P block box, and another anonymous block
box around C2.
The properties of anonymous boxes are inherited from the enclosing
non-anonymous box (in the example: the one for DIV). Non-inherited
properties have their initial value. For example, the font of the anonymous
box is inherited from the DIV, but the margins will be 0.
9.2.2 Inline-level elements and inline boxes
Inline-level elements are those elements of the source document that do not
form new blocks of content; the content is distributed in lines (e.g.,
emphasized pieces of text within a paragraph, inline images, etc.). Several
values of the 'display' property make an element inline: 'inline',
'inline-table', 'compact' and 'run-in' (part of the time; see compact and
run-in boxes). Inline-level elements generate inline boxes.
Inline boxes may participate in several formatting contexts:
* Within a block box, an inline boxes participate in an inline formatting
context.
* A compact inline box is given a position in the margin of a block box.
* Marker boxes are also given positions outside of a block box.
Anonymous inline boxes
In a document like this:
<P>Some <EM>emphasized</em> text</P>
The P generates a block box, with several inline boxes inside it. The box
for "emphasized" is an inline box generated by an inline element (EM), but
the other boxes ("Some" and "text") are inline boxes generated by a
block-level element (P). The latter are called anonymous inline boxes,
because they don't have an associated inline-level element.
Such anonymous inline boxes inherit inheritable properties from their block
parent box. Non-inherited properties have their initial value. In the
example, the color of the anonymous initial boxes is inherited from the P,
but the background is transparent.
If it is clear from the context which type of anonymous box is meant, both
anonymous inline boxes and anonymous block boxes are simply called anonymous
boxes in this specification.
There are more types of anonymous boxes that arise when formatting tables.
9.2.3 Compact boxes
A compact box behaves as follows:
* If a block box (that does not float and is not absolutely positioned)
follows the compact box, the compact box is formatted like a one-line
inline box. The resulting box width is compared to one of the side
margins of the block box. The choice of left or right margin is
determined by the 'direction' specified for the element producing the
containing block for the compact box and following box. If the inline
box width is less than or equal to the margin, the inline box is given
a position in the margin as described immediately below.
* Otherwise, the compact box becomes a block box.
The compact box is given a position in the margin as follows: it is outside
(to the left or right) of the first line box of the block, but it affects
the calculation of that line box's height. The 'vertical-align' property of
the compact box determines the vertical position of the compact box relative
to that line box. The horizontal position of the compact box is always in
the margin of the block box.
An element that cannot be formatted on one line cannot be placed in the
margin of the following block. For example, a 'compact' element in HTML that
contains a BR element will always be formatted as a block box (assuming the
default style for BR, which inserts a newline). For placing multi-line texts
in the margin, the 'float' property is often more appropriate.
The following example illustrates a compact box.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A compact box example</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
DT { display: compact }
DD { margin-left: 4em }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DL>
<DT>Short
<DD><P>Description goes here.
<DT>too long for the margin
<DD><P>Description goes here.
</DL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This example might be formatted as:
short Description goes here
too long for the margin
Description goes here
The 'text-align' property can be used to align the compact element inside
the margin: against the left edge of the margin ('left'), against the right
edge ('right'), or centered in the margin ('center'). The value 'justify'
doesn't apply, and is handled as either 'left' or 'right', depending on the
'direction' of the block-level element in whose margin the compact element
is formatted. ('left' if the direction is 'ltr', 'right' if it is 'rtl'.)
Please consult the section on generated content for information about how
compact boxes interact with generated content.
9.2.4 Run-in boxes
A run-in box behaves as follows:
* If a block box (that does not float and is not absolutely positioned)
follows the run-in box, the run-in box becomes the first inline box of
the block box.
* Otherwise, the run-in box becomes a block box.
A 'run-in' box is useful for run-in headers, as in this example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A run-in box example</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
H3 { display: run-in }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H3>A run-in heading.</H3>
<P>And a paragraph of text that
follows it.
</BODY>
</HTML>
This example might be formatted as:
A run-in heading. And a
paragraph of text that
follows it.
The properties of the run-in element are inherited from its parent in the
source tree, not from the block box it visually becomes part of.
Please consult the section on generated content for information about how
run-in boxes interact with generated content.
9.2.5 The 'display' property
'display'
Value: inline | block | list-item | run-in | compact | marker |
table | inline-table | table-row-group |
table-header-group | table-footer-group | table-row |
table-column-group | table-column | table-cell |
table-caption | none | inherit
Initial: inline
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: all
The values of this property have the following meanings:
block
This value causes an element to generate a principal block box.
inline
This value causes an element to generate one or more inline boxes.
list-item
This value causes an element (e.g., LI in HTML) to generate a principal
block box and a list-item inline box. For information about lists and
examples of list formatting, please consult the section on lists.
marker
This value declares generated content before or after a box to be a
marker. This value should only be used with :before and :after
pseudo-elements attached to block-level elements. In other cases, this
value is interpreted as 'inline'. Please consult the section on markers
for more information.
none
This value causes an element to generate no boxes in the formatting
structure (i.e., the element has no effect on layout). Descendant
elements do not generate any boxes either; this behavior cannot be
overridden by setting the 'display' property on the descendants.
Please note that a display of 'none' does not create an invisible box;
it creates no box at all. CSS includes mechanisms that enable an
element to generate boxes in the formatting structure that affect
formatting but are not visible themselves. Please consult the section
on visibility for details.
run-in and compact
These values create either block or inline boxes, depending on context.
Properties apply to run-in and compact boxes based on their final
status (inline-level or block-level). For example, the 'white-space'
property only applies if the box becomes a block box.
table, inline-table, table-row-group, table-column, table-column-group,
table-header-group, table-footer-group, table-row, table-cell, and
table-caption
These values cause an element to behave like a table element (subject
to restrictions described in the chapter on tables).
Note that although the initial value of 'display' is 'inline', rules in the
user agent's default style sheet may override this value. See the sample
style sheet for HTML 4.0 in the appendix.
Example(s):
Here are some examples of the 'display' property:
P { display: block }
EM { display: inline }
LI { display: list-item }
IMG { display: none } /* Don't display images */
Conforming HTML user agents may ignore the 'display' property.
9.3 Positioning schemes
In CSS2, a box may be laid out according to three positioning schemes:
1. Normal flow. In CSS2, normal flow includes block formatting of block
boxes, inline formatting of inline boxes, relative positioning of block
or inline boxes, and positioning of compact and run-in boxes.
2. Floats. In the float model, a box is first laid out according to the
normal flow, then taken out of the flow and shifted to the left or
right as far as possible. Content may flow along the side of a float.
3. Absolute positioning. In the absolute positioning model, a box is
removed from the normal flow entirely (it has no impact on later
siblings) and assigned a position with respect to a containing block.
Note. CSS2's positioning schemes help authors make their documents more
accessible by allowing them to avoid mark-up tricks (e.g., invisible images)
used for layout effects.
9.3.1 Choosing a positioning scheme: 'position' property
The 'position' and 'float' properties determine which of the CSS2
positioning algorithms is used to calculate the position of a box.
'position'
Value: static | relative | absolute | fixed | inherit
Initial: static
Applies to: all elements, but not to generated content
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The values of this property have the following meanings:
static
The box is a normal box, laid out according to the normal flow. The
'left' and 'top' properties do not apply.
relative
The box's position is calculated according to the normal flow (this is
called the position in normal flow). Then the box is offset relative to
its normal position. When a box B is relatively positioned, the
position of the following box is calculated as though B were not
offset.
absolute
The box's position (and possibly size) is specified with the 'left',
'right', 'top', and 'bottom' properties. These properties specify
offsets with respect to the box's containing block. Absolutely
positioned boxes are taken out of the normal flow. This means they have
no impact on the layout of later siblings. Also, though absolutely
positioned boxes have margins, they do not collapse with any other
margins.
fixed
The box's position is calculated according to the 'absolute' model, but
in addition, the box is fixed with respect to some reference. In the
case of continuous media, the box is fixed with respect to the viewport
(and doesn't move when scrolled). In the case of paged media, the box
is fixed with respect to the page, even if that page is seen through a
viewport (in the case of a print-preview, for example). Authors may
wish to specify 'fixed' in a media-dependent way. For instance, an
author may want a box to remain at the top of the viewport on the
screen, but not at the top of each printed page. The two specifications
may be separated by using an @media rule, as in:
Example(s):
@media screen {
H1#first { position: fixed }
}
@media print {
H1#first { position: static }
}
9.3.2 Box offsets: 'top', 'right', 'bottom', 'left'
An element is said to be positioned if its 'position' property has a value
other than 'static'. Positioned elements generate positioned boxes, laid out
according to four properties:
'top'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: positioned elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to height of containing block
Media: visual
This property specifies how far a box's top content edge is offset below the
top edge of the box's containing block.
'right'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: positioned elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
This property specifies how far a box's right content edge is offset to the
left of the right edge of the box's containing block.
'bottom'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: positioned elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to height of containing block
Media: visual
This property specifies how far a box's bottom content edge is offset above
the bottom of the box's containing block.
'left'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: positioned elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
This property specifies how far a box's left content edge is offset to the
right of the left edge of the box's containing block.
The values for the four properties have the following meanings:
<length>
The offset is a fixed distance from the reference edge.
<percentage>
The offset is a percentage of the containing block's width (for 'left'
or 'right') or height (for 'top' and 'bottom'). For 'top' and 'bottom',
if the height of the containing block is not specified explicitly
(i.e., it depends on content height), the percentage value is
interpreted like 'auto'.
auto
The effect of this value depends on which of related properties have
the value 'auto' as well. See the sections on the width and height of
absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements for details.
For absolutely positioned boxes, the offsets are with respect to the box's
containing block. For relatively positioned boxes, the offsets are with
respect to the outer edges of the box itself (i.e., the box is given a
position in the normal flow, then offset from that position according to
these properties).
9.4 Normal flow
Boxes in the normal flow belong to a formatting context, which may be block
or inline, but not both simultaneously. Block boxes participate in a block
formatting context. Inline boxes participate in an inline formatting
context.
9.4.1 Block formatting context
In a block formatting context, boxes are laid out one after the other,
vertically, beginning at the top of a containing block. The vertical
distance between two sibling boxes is determined by the 'margin' properties.
Vertical margins between adjacent block boxes in a block formatting context
collapse.
In a block formatting context, each box's left outer edge touches the left
edge of the containing block (for right-to-left formatting, right edges
touch). This is true even in the presence of floats (although a box's
content area may shrink due to the floats).
For information about page breaks in paged media, please consult the section
on allowed page breaks.
9.4.2 Inline formatting context
In an inline formatting context, boxes are laid out horizontally, one after
the other, beginning at the top of a containing block. Horizontal margins,
borders, and padding are respected between these boxes. The boxes may be
aligned vertically in different ways: their bottoms or tops may be aligned,
or the baselines of text within them may be aligned. The rectangular area
that contains the boxes that form a line is called a line box.
The width of a line box is determined by a containing block. The height of a
line box is determined by the rules given in the section on line height
calculations. A line box is always tall enough for all of the boxes it
contains. However, it may be taller than the tallest box it contains (if,
for example, boxes are aligned so that baselines line up). When the height
of a box B is less than the height of the line box containing it, the
vertical alignment of B within the line box is determined by the
'vertical-align' property.
When several inline boxes cannot fit horizontally within a single line box,
they are distributed among two or more vertically-stacked line boxes. Thus,
a paragraph is a vertical stack of line boxes. Line boxes are stacked with
no vertical separation and they never overlap.
In general, the left edge of a line box touches the left edge of its
containing block and the right edge touches the right edge of its containing
block. However, floating boxes may come between the containing block edge
and the line box edge. Thus, although line boxes in the same inline
formatting context generally have the same width (that of the containing
block), they may vary in width if available horizontal space is reduced due
to floats. Line boxes in the same inline formatting context generally vary
in height (e.g., one line might contain a tall image while the others
contain only text).
When the total width of the inline boxes on a line is less than the width of
the line box containing them, their horizontal distribution within the line
box is determined by the 'text-align' property. If that property has the
value 'justify', the user agent may stretch the inline boxes as well.
Since an inline box may not exceed the width of a line box, long inline
boxes are split into several boxes and these boxes distributed across
several line boxes. When an inline box is split, margins, borders, and
padding have no visual effect where the split occurs. Formatting of margins,
borders, and padding may not be fully defined if the split occurs within a
bidirectional embedding.
Inline boxes may also be split into several boxes within the same line box
due to bidirectional text processing.
Here is an example of inline box construction. The following paragraph
(created by the HTML block-level element P) contains anonymous text
interspersed with the elements EM and STRONG:
<P>Several <EM>emphasized words</EM> appear
<STRONG>in this</STRONG> sentence, dear.</P>
The P element generates a block box that contains five inline boxes, three
of which are anonymous:
* Anonymous: "Several"
* EM: "emphasized words"
* Anonymous: "appear"
* STRONG: "in this"
* Anonymous: "sentence, dear."
To format the paragraph, the user agent flows the five boxes into line
boxes. In this example, the box generated for the P element establishes the
containing block for the line boxes. If the containing block is sufficiently
wide, all the inline boxes will fit into a single line box:
Several emphasized words appear in this sentence, dear.
If not, the inline boxes will be split up and distributed across several
line boxes. The previous paragraph might be split as follows:
Several emphasized words appear
in this sentence, dear.
or like this:
Several emphasized
words appear in this
sentence, dear.
In the previous example, the EM box was split into two EM boxes (call them
"split1" and "split2"). Margins, borders, padding, or text decorations have
no visible effect after split1 or before split2.
Consider the following example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Example of inline flow on several lines</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
EM {
padding: 2px;
margin: 1em;
border-width: medium;
border-style: dashed;
line-height: 2.4em;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>Several <EM>emphasized words</EM> appear here.</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Depending on the width of the P, the boxes may be distributed as follows:
[Image illustrating the effect of line breaking on thedisplay of margins, borders, and padding.] [D]
* The margin is inserted before "emphasized" and after "words".
* The padding is inserted before, above, and below "emphasized" and
after, above, and below "words". A dashed border is rendered on three
sides in each case.
9.4.3 Relative positioning
Once a box has been laid out according to the normal flow, it may be shifted
relative to this position. This is called relative positioning. Offsetting a
box (B1) in this way has no effect on the box (B2) that follows: B2 is given
a position as if B1 were not offset and B2 is not re-positioned after B1's
offset is applied. This implies that relative positioning may cause boxes to
overlap.
Relatively positioned boxes keep their normal flow size, including line
breaks and the space originally reserved for them. A relatively positioned
box establishes a new a new containing block for normal flow children and
positioned descendants.
A relatively positioned box is generated when the 'position' property for an
element has the value 'relative'. The offset is specified by the 'top',
'bottom', 'left', and 'right' properties.
Dynamic movement of relatively positioned boxes can produce animation
effects in scripting environments (see also the 'visibility' property).
Relative positioning may also be used as a general form of superscripting
and subscripting except that line height is not automatically adjusted to
take the positioning into consideration. See the description of line height
calculations for more information.
Examples of relative positioning are provided in the section comparing
normal flow, floats, and absolute positioning.
9.5 Floats
A float is a box that is shifted to the left or right on the current line.
The most interesting characteristic of a float (or "floated" or "floating"
box) is that content may flow along its side (or be prohibited from doing so
by the 'clear' property). Content flows down the right side of a
left-floated box and down the left side of a right-floated box. The
following is an introduction to float positioning and content flow; the
exact rules governing float behavior are given in the description of the
'float' property.
A floated box must have an explicit width (assigned via the 'width'
property, or its intrinsic width in the case of replaced elements). Any
floated box becomes a block box that is shifted to the left or right until
its outer edge touches the containing block edge or the outer edge of
another float. The top of the floated box is aligned with the top of the
current line box (or bottom of the preceding block box if no line box
exists). If there isn't enough horizontal room on the current line for the
float, it is shifted downward, line by line, until a line has room for it.
Since a float is not in the flow, non-positioned block boxes created before
and after the float box flow vertically as if the float didn't exist.
However, line boxes created next to the float are shortened to make room for
the floated box. Any content in the current line before a floated box is
reflowed in the first available line on the other side of the float.
Several floats may be adjacent, and this model also applies to adjacent
floats in the same line.
Example(s):
The following rule floats all IMG boxes with class="icon" to the left (and
sets the left margin to '0'):
IMG.icon {
float: left;
margin-left: 0;
}
Consider the following HTML source and style sheet:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Float example</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
IMG { float: left }
BODY, P, IMG { margin: 2em }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><IMG src=img.gif alt="This image will illustrate floats">
Some sample text that has no other...
</BODY>
</HTML>
The IMG box is floated to the left. The content that follows is formatted to
the right of the float, starting on the same line as the float. The line
boxes to the right of the float are shortened due to the float's presence,
but resume their "normal" width (that of the containing block established by
the P element) after the float. This document might be formatted as:
[Image illustrating how floating boxes interact withmargins.] [D]
Formatting would have been exactly the same if the document had been:
<BODY>
<P>Some sample text
<IMG src=img.gif alt="This image will illustrate floats">
that has no other...
</BODY>
because the content to the left of the float is displaced by the float and
reflowed down its right side.
The margins of floating boxes never collapse with margins of adjacent boxes.
Thus, in the previous example, vertical margins do not collapse between the
P box and the floated IMG box.
A float can overlap other boxes in the normal flow (e.g., when a normal flow
box next to a float has negative margins). When an inline box overlaps with
a float, the content, background, and borders of the inline box are rendered
in front of the float. When a block box overlaps, the background and borders
of the block box are rendered behind the float and are only be visible where
the box is transparent. The content of the block box is rendered in front of
the float.
Example(s):
Here is another illustration, showing what happens when a float overlaps
borders of elements in the normal flow.
[Image showing a floating imagethat overlaps the borders of two paragraphs: the borders areinterrupted by the image.] [D]
A floating image obscures borders of block boxes it overlaps.
The following example illustrates the use of the 'clear' property to prevent
content from flowing next to a float.
Example(s):
Assuming a rule such as this:
P { clear: left }
formatting might look like this:
[Image showing a floatingimage and the effect of 'clear: left' on the two paragraphs.] [D]
Both paragraphs have set 'clear: left', which causes the second paragraph to
be "pushed down" to a position below the float -- its top margin expands to
accomplish this (see the 'clear' property).
9.5.1 Positioning the float: the 'float' property
'float'
Value: left | right | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all but positioned elements and generated content
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies whether a box should float to the left, right, or
not at all. It may be set for elements that generate boxes that are not
absolutely positioned. The values of this property have the following
meanings:
left
The element generates a block box that is floated to the left. Content
flows on the right side of the box, starting at the top (subject to the
'clear' property). The 'display' is ignored, unless it has the value
'none'.
right
Same as 'left', but content flows on the left side of the box, starting
at the top.
none
The box is not floated.
Here are the precise rules that govern the behavior of floats:
1. The left outer edge of a left-floating box may not be to the left of
the left edge of its containing block. An analogous rule holds for
right-floating elements.
2. If the current box is left-floating, and there are any left floating
boxes generated by elements earlier in the source document, then for
each such earlier box, either the left outer edge of the current box
must be to the right of the right outer edge of the earlier box, or its
top must be lower than the bottom of the earlier box. Analogous rules
hold for right-floating boxes.
3. The right outer edge of a left-floating box may not be to the right of
the left outer edge of any right-floating box that is to the right of
it. Analogous rules hold for right-floating elements.
4. A floating box's outer top may not be higher than the top of its
containing block.
5. The outer top of a floating box may not be higher than the outer top of
any block or floated box generated by an element earlier in the source
document.
6. The outer top of an element's floating box may not be higher than the
top of any line-box containing a box generated by an element earlier in
the source document.
7. A left-floating box that has another left-floating box to its left may
not have its right outer edge to the right of its containing block's
right edge. (Loosely: a left float may not stick out at the right edge,
unless it is already as far to the left as possible.) An analogous rule
holds for right-floating elements.
8. A floating box must be placed as high as possible.
9. A left-floating box must be put as far to the left as possible, a
right-floating box as far to the right as possible. A higher position
is preferred over one that is further to the left/right.
9.5.2 Controlling flow next to floats: the 'clear' property
'clear'
Value: none | left | right | both | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property indicates which sides of an element's box(es) may not be
adjacent to an earlier floating box. (It may be that the element itself has
floating descendants; the 'clear' property has no effect on those.)
This property may only be specified for block-level elements (including
floats). For compact and run-in boxes, this property applies to the final
block box to which the compact or run-in box belongs.
Values have the following meanings when applied to non-floating block boxes:
left
The top margin of the generated box is increased enough that the top
border edge is below the bottom outer edge of any left-floating boxes
that resulted from elements earlier in the source document.
right
The top margin of the generated box is increased enough that the top
border edge is below the bottom outer edge of any right-floating boxes
that resulted from elements earlier in the source document.
both
The generated box is moved below all floating boxes of earlier elements
in the source document..
none
No constraint on the box's position with respect to floats.
When the property is set on floating elements, it results in a modification
of the rules for positioning the float. An extra constraint (#10) is added:
* The top outer edge of the float must be below the bottom outer edge of
all earlier left-floating boxes (in the case of 'clear: left'), or all
earlier right-floating boxes (in the case of 'clear: right'), or both
('clear: both').
9.6 Absolute positioning
In the absolute positioning model, a box is explicitly offset with respect
to its containing block. It is removed from the normal flow entirely (it has
no impact on later siblings). An absolutely positioned box establishes a new
containing block for normal flow children and positioned descendants.
However, the contents of an absolutely positioned element do not flow around
any other boxes. They may or may not obscure the contents of another box,
depending on the stack levels of the overlapping boxes.
References in this specification to an absolutely positioned element (or its
box) imply that the element's 'position' property has the value 'absolute'
or 'fixed'.
9.6.1 Fixed positioning
Fixed positioning is a subcategory of absolute positioning. The only
difference is that for a fixed positioned box, the containing block is
established by the viewport. For continuous media, fixed boxes do not move
when the document is scrolled. In this respect, they are similar to fixed
background images. For paged media, boxes with fixed positions are repeated
on every page. This is useful for placing, for instance, a signature at the
bottom of each page.
Authors may use fixed positioning to create frame-like presentations.
Consider the following frame layout:
[Image illustrating a frame-like layout with position='fixed'.] [D]
This might be achieved with the following HTML document and style rules:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>A frame document with CSS2</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
BODY { height: 8.5in } /* Required for percentage heights below */
#header {
position: fixed;
width: 100%;
height: 15%;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: auto;
left: 0;
}
#sidebar {
position: fixed;
width: 10em;
height: auto;
top: 15%;
right: auto;
bottom: 100px;
left: 0;
}
#main {
position: fixed;
width: auto;
height: auto;
top: 15%;
right: 0;
bottom: 100px;
left: 10em;
}
#footer {
position: fixed;
width: 100%;
height: 100px;
top: auto;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV id="header"> ... </DIV>
<DIV id="sidebar"> ... </DIV>
<DIV id="main"> ... </DIV>
<DIV id="footer"> ... </DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
9.7 Relationships between 'display', 'position', and 'float'
The three properties that affect box generation and layout -- 'display',
'position', and 'float' -- interact as follows:
1. If 'display' has the value 'none', user agents must ignore 'position'
and 'float'. In this case, the element generates no box.
2. Otherwise, 'position' has the value 'absolute' or 'fixed', 'display' is
set to 'block' and 'float' is set to 'none'. The position of the box
will be determined by the 'top', 'right', 'bottom' and 'left'
properties and the box's containing block.
3. Otherwise, if 'float' has a value other than 'none', 'display' is set
to 'block' and the box is floated.
4. Otherwise, the remaining 'display' properties apply as specified.
Note. CSS2 does not specify layout behavior when values for these properties
are changed by scripts. For example, what happens when an element having
'width: auto' is repositioned? Do the contents reflow, or do they maintain
their original formatting? The answer is outside the scope of this document,
and such behavior is likely to differ in initial implementations of CSS2.
9.8 Comparison of normal flow, floats, and absolute positioning
To illustrate the differences between normal flow, relative positioning,
floats, and absolute positioning, we provide a series of examples based on
the following HTML fragment:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Comparison of positioning schemes</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>Beginning of body contents.
<SPAN id="outer"> Start of outer contents.
<SPAN id="inner"> Inner contents.</SPAN>
End of outer contents.</SPAN>
End of body contents.
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
In this document, we assume the following rules:
BODY { display: block; line-height: 200%;
width: 400px; height: 400px }
P { display: block }
SPAN { display: inline }
The final positions of boxes generated by the outer and inner elements vary
in each example. In each illustration, the numbers to the left of the
illustration indicate the normal flow position of the double-spaced (for
clarity) lines. (Note: the illustrations use different horizontal and
vertical scales.)
9.8.1 Normal flow
Consider the following CSS declarations for outer and inner that don't alter
the normal flow of boxes:
#outer { color: red }
#inner { color: blue }
The P element contains all inline content: anonymous inline text and two
SPAN element. Therefore, all of the content will be laid out in an inline
formatting context, within a containing block established by the P element,
producing something like:
[Image illustrating the normal flow of text between parent and sibling boxes.] [D]
9.8.2 Relative positioning
To see the effect of relative positioning, we specify:
#outer { position: relative; top: -12px; color: red }
#inner { position: relative; top: 12px; color: blue }
Text flows normally up to the outer element. The outer text is then flowed
into its normal flow position and dimensions at the end of line 1. Then, the
inline boxes containing the text (distributed over three lines) are shifted
as a unit by '-12px' (upwards).
The contents of inner, as a child of outer, would normally flow immediately
after the words "of outer contents" (on line 1.5). However, the inner
contents are themselves offset relative to the outer contents by '12px'
(downwards), back to their original position on line 2.
Note that the content following outer is not affected by the relative
positioning of outer.
[Image illustrating the effects of relative positioning on abox's content.] [D]
Note also that had the offset of outer been '-24px', the text of outer and
the body text would have overlapped.
9.8.3 Floating a box
Now consider the effect of floating the inner element's text to the right by
means of the following rules:
#outer { color: red }
#inner { float: right; width: 130px; color: blue }
Text flows normally up to the inner box, which is pulled out of the flow and
floated to the right margin (its 'width' has been assigned explicitly). Line
boxes to the left of the float are shortened, and the document's remaining
text flows into them.
[Image illustrating the effects of floating a box.] [D]
To show the effect of the 'clear' property, we add a sibling element to the
example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Comparison of positioning schemes II</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>Beginning of body contents.
<SPAN id=outer> Start of outer contents.
<SPAN id=inner> Inner contents.</SPAN>
<SPAN id=sibling> Sibling contents.</SPAN>
End of outer contents.</SPAN>
End of body contents.
</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The following rules:
#inner { float: right; width: 130px; color: blue }
#sibling { color: red }
cause the inner box to float to the right as before and the document's
remaining text to flow into the vacated space:
[Image illustrating the effects of floating a box withoutsetting the clear property to control the flow of text around thebox.] [D]
However, if the 'clear' property on the sibling element is set to 'right'
(i.e., the generated sibling box will not accept a position next to floating
boxes to its right), the sibling content begins to flow below the float:
#inner { float: right; width: 130px; color: blue }
#sibling { clear: right; color: red }
[Image illustrating the effects of floating an element with setting the clear property to control the flow of text around the element.] [D]
9.8.4 Absolute positioning
Finally, we consider the effect of absolute positioning. Consider the
following CSS declarations for outer and inner:
#outer {
position: absolute;
top: 200px; left: 200px;
width: 200px;
color: red;
}
#inner { color: blue }
which cause the top of the outer box to be positioned with respect to its
containing block. The containing block for a positioned box is established
by the nearest positioned ancestor (or, if none exists, the initial
containing block, as in our example). The top side of the outer box is
'200px' below the top of the containing block and the left side is '200px'
from the left side. The child box of outer is flowed normally with respect
to its parent.
[Image illustrating the effects of absolutely positioning a box.] [D]
The following example shows an absolutely positioned box that is a child of
a relatively positioned box. Although the parent outer box is not actually
offset, setting its 'position' property to 'relative' means that its box may
serve as the containing block for positioned descendants. Since the outer
box is an inline box that is split across several lines, the first inline
box's top and left edges (depicted by thick dashed lines in the illustration
below) serve as references for 'top' and 'left' offsets.
#outer {
position: relative;
color: red
}
#inner {
position: absolute;
top: 200px; left: -100px;
height: 130px; width: 130px;
color: blue;
}
This results in something like the following:
[Image illustrating the effects of absolutely positioning abox with respect to a containing block.] [D]
If we do not position the outer box:
#outer { color: red }
#inner {
position: absolute;
top: 200px; left: -100px;
height: 130px; width: 130px;
color: blue;
}
the containing block for inner becomes the initial containing block (in our
example). The following illustration shows where the inner box would end up
in this case.
[Image illustrating the effects of absolutely positioning a box with respect to a containing block established by a normally positioned parent.] [D]
Relative and absolute positioning may be used to implement change bars, as
shown in the following example. The following document:
<P style="position: relative; margin-right: 10px; left: 10px;">
I used two red hyphens to serve as a change bar. They
will "float" to the left of the line containing THIS
<SPAN style="position: absolute; top: auto; left: -1em; color: red;">--</SPAN>
word.</P>
might result in something like:
[Image illustrating the use of floats to create a changebar effect.] [D]
First, the paragraph (whose containing block sides are shown in the
illustration) is flowed normally. Then it is offset '10px' from the left
edge of the containing block (thus, a right margin of '10px' has been
reserved in anticipation of the offset). The two hyphens acting as change
bars are taken out of the flow and positioned at the current line (due to
'top: auto'), '-1em' from the left edge of its containing block (established
by the P in its final position). The result is that the change bars seem to
"float" to the left of the current line.
9.9 Layered presentation
In the following sections, the expression "in front of" means closer to the
user as the user faces the screen.
In CSS2, each box has a position in three dimensions. In addition to their
horizontal and vertical positions, boxes lie along a "z-axis" and are
formatted one on top of the other. Z-axis positions are particularly
relevant when boxes overlap visually. This section discusses how boxes may
be positioned along the z-axis.
Each box belongs to one stacking context. Each box in a given stacking
context has an integer stack level, which is its position on the z-axis
relative to other boxes in the same stacking context. Boxes with greater
stack levels are always formatted in front of boxes with lower stack levels.
Boxes may have negative stack levels. Boxes with the same stack level in a
stacking context are stacked bottom-to-top according to document tree order.
The root element creates a root stacking context, but other elements may
establish local stacking contexts. Stacking contexts are inherited. A local
stacking context is atomic; boxes in other stacking contexts may not come
between any of its boxes.
An element that establishes a local stacking context generates a box that
has two stack levels: one for the stacking context it creates (always '0')
and one for the stacking context to which it belongs (given by the 'z-index'
property).
An element's box has the same stack level as its parent's box unless given a
different stack level with the 'z-index' property.
9.9.1 Specifying the stack level: the 'z-index' property
'z-index'
Value: auto | <integer> | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: positioned elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
For a positioned box, the 'z-index' property specifies:
1. The stack level of the box in the current stacking context.
2. Whether the box establishes a local stacking context.
Values have the following meanings:
<integer>
This integer is the stack level of the generated box in the current
stacking context. The box also establishes a local stacking context in
which its stack level is '0'.
auto
The stack level of the generated box in the current stacking context is
the same as its parent's box. The box does not establish a new local
stacking context.
In the following example, the stack levels of the boxes (named with their
"id" attributes) are: "text2"=0, "image"=1, "text3"=2, and "text1"=3. The
"text2" stack level is inherited from the root box. The others are specified
with the 'z-index' property.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Z-order positioning</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
.pile {
position: absolute;
left: 2in;
top: 2in;
width: 3in;
height: 3in;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>
<IMG id="image" class="pile"
src="butterfly.gif" alt="A butterfly image"
style="z-index: 1">
<DIV id="text1" class="pile"
style="z-index: 3">
This text will overlay the butterfly image.
</DIV>
<DIV id="text2">
This text will be beneath everything.
</DIV>
<DIV id="text3" class="pile"
style="z-index: 2">
This text will underlay text1, but overlay the butterfly image
</DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
This example demonstrates the notion of transparency. The default behavior
of a box is to allow boxes behind it to be visible through transparent areas
in its content. In the example, each box transparently overlays the boxes
below it. This behavior can be overridden by using one of the existing
background properties.
9.10 Text direction: the 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties
The characters in certain scripts are written from right to left. In some
documents, in particular those written with the Arabic or Hebrew script, and
in some mixed-language contexts, text in a single (visually displayed) block
may appear with mixed directionality. This phenomenon is called
bidirectionality, or "bidi" for short.
The Unicode standard ([UNICODE], section 3.11) defines a complex algorithm
for determining the proper directionality of text. The algorithm consists of
an implicit part based on character properties, as well as explicit controls
for embeddings and overrides. CSS2 relies on this algorithm to achieve
proper bidirectional rendering. The 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi'
properties allow authors to specify how the elements and attributes of a
document language map to this algorithm.
If a document contains right-to-left characters, and if the user agent
displays these characters (with appropriate glyphs, not arbitrary
substitutes such as a question mark, a hex code, a black box, etc.), the
user agent must apply the bidirectional algorithm. This seemingly one-sided
requirement reflects the fact that, although not every Hebrew or Arabic
document contains mixed-directionality text, such documents are much more
likely to contain left-to-right text (e.g., numbers, text from other
languages) than are documents written in left-to-right languages.
Because the directionality of a text depends on the structure and semantics
of the document language, these properties should in most cases be used only
by designers of document type descriptions (DTDs), or authors of special
documents. If a default style sheet specifies these properties, authors and
users should not specify rules to override them. A typical exception would
be to override bidi behavior in a user agent if that user agent
transliterates Yiddish (usually written with Hebrew letters) to Latin
letters at the user's request.
The HTML 4.0 specification ([HTML40], section 8.2) defines bidirectionality
behavior for HTML elements. Conforming HTML user agents may therefore ignore
the 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties in author and user style
sheets. The style sheet rules that would achieve the bidi behavior specified
in [HTML40] are given in the sample style sheet. The HTML 4.0 specification
also contains more information on bidirectionality issues.
'direction'
Value: ltr | rtl | inherit
Initial: ltr
Applies to: all elements, but see prose
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies the base writing direction of blocks and the
direction of embeddings and overrides (see 'unicode-bidi') for the Unicode
bidirectional algorithm. In addition, it specifies the direction of table
column layout, the direction of horizontal overflow, and the position of an
incomplete last line in a block in case of 'text-align: justify'.
Values for this property have the following meanings:
ltr
Left-to-right direction.
rtl
Right-to-left direction.
For the 'direction' property to have any effect on inline-level elements,
the 'unicode-bidi' property's value must be 'embed' or 'override'.
Note. The 'direction' property, when specified for table column elements, is
not inherited by cells in the column since columns don't exist in the
document tree. Thus, CSS cannot easily capture the "dir" attribute
inheritance rules described in [HTML40], section 11.3.2.1.
'unicode-bidi'
Value: normal | embed | bidi-override | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements, but see prose
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
Values for this property have the following meanings:
normal
The element does not open an additional level of embedding with respect
to the bidirectional algorithm. For inline-level elements, implicit
reordering works across element boundaries.
embed
If the element is inline-level, this value opens an additional level of
embedding with respect to the bidirectional algorithm. The direction of
this embedding level is given by the 'direction' property. Inside the
element, reordering is done implicitly. This corresponds to adding a
LRE (U+202A; for 'direction: ltr') or RLE (U+202B; for 'direction:
rtl') at the start of the element and a PDF (U+202C) at the end of the
element.
bidi-override
If the element is inline-level or a block-level element that contains
only inline-level elements, this creates an override. This means that
inside the element, reordering is strictly in sequence according to the
'direction' property; the implicit part of the bidirectional algorithm
is ignored. This corresponds to adding a LRO (U+202D; for 'direction:
ltr') or RLO (U+202E; for 'direction: rtl') at the start of the element
and a PDF (U+202C) at the end of the element.
The final order of characters in each block-level element is the same as if
the bidi control codes had been added as described above, markup had been
stripped, and the resulting character sequence had been passed to an
implementation of the Unicode bidirectional algorithm for plain text that
produced the same line-breaks as the styled text. In this process,
non-textual entities such as images are treated as neutral characters,
unless their 'unicode-bidi' property has a value other than 'normal', in
which case they are treated as strong characters in the 'direction'
specified for the element.
Please note that in order to be able to flow inline boxes in a uniform
direction (either entirely left-to-right or entirely right-to-left), more
inline boxes (including anonymous inline boxes) may have to be created, and
some inline boxes may have to be split up and reordered before flowing.
Because the Unicode algorithm has a limit of 15 levels of embedding, care
should be taken not to use 'unicode-bidi' with a value other than 'normal'
unless appropriate. In particular, a value of 'inherit' should be used with
extreme caution. However, for elements that are, in general, intended to be
displayed as blocks, a setting of 'unicode-bidi: embed' is preferred to keep
the element together in case display is changed to inline (see example
below).
The following example shows an XML document with bidirectional text. It
illustrates an important design principle: DTD designers should take bidi
into account both in the language proper (elements and attributes) and in
any accompanying style sheets. The style sheets should be designed so that
bidi rules are separate from other style rules. The bidi rules should not be
overridden by other style sheets so that the document language's or DTD's
bidi behavior is preserved.
Example(s):
In this example, lowercase letters stand for inherently left-to-right
characters and uppercase letters represent inherently right-to-left
characters:
<HEBREW>
<PAR>HEBREW1 HEBREW2 english3 HEBREW4 HEBREW5</PAR>
<PAR>HEBREW6 <EMPH>HEBREW7</EMPH> HEBREW8</PAR>
</HEBREW>
<ENGLISH>
<PAR>english9 english10 english11 HEBREW12 HEBREW13</PAR>
<PAR>english14 english15 english16</PAR>
<PAR>english17 <HE-QUO>HEBREW18 english19 HEBREW20</HE-QUO></PAR>
</ENGLISH>
Since this is XML, the style sheet is responsible for setting the writing
direction. This is the style sheet:
/* Rules for bidi */
HEBREW, HE-QUO {direction: rtl; unicode-bidi: embed}
ENGLISH {direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed}
/* Rules for presentation */
HEBREW, ENGLISH, PAR {display: block}
EMPH {font-weight: bold}
The HEBREW element is a block with a right-to-left base direction, the
ENGLISH element is a block with a left-to-right base direction. The PARs are
blocks that inherit the base direction from their parents. Thus, the first
two PARs are read starting at the top right, the final three are read
starting at the top left. Please note that HEBREW and ENGLISH are chosen as
element names for explicitness only; in general, element names should convey
structure without reference to language.
The EMPH element is inline-level, and since its value for 'unicode-bidi' is
'normal' (the initial value), it has no effect on the ordering of the text.
The HE-QUO element, on the other hand, creates an embedding.
The formatting of this text might look like this if the line length is long:
5WERBEH 4WERBEH english3 2WERBEH 1WERBEH
8WERBEH 7WERBEH 6WERBEH
english9 english10 english11 13WERBEH 12WERBEH
english14 english15 english16
english17 20WERBEH english19 18WERBEH
Note that the HE-QUO embedding causes HEBREW18 to be to the right of
english19.
If lines have to be broken, it might be more like this:
2WERBEH 1WERBEH
-EH 4WERBEH english3
5WERB
-EH 7WERBEH 6WERBEH
8WERB
english9 english10 en-
glish11 12WERBEH
13WERBEH
english14 english15
english16
english17 18WERBEH
20WERBEH english19
Because HEBREW18 must be read before english19, it is on the line above
english19. Just breaking the long line from the earlier formatting would not
have worked. Note also that the first syllable from english19 might have fit
on the previous line, but hyphenation of left-to-right words in a
right-to-left context, and vice versa, is usually suppressed to avoid having
to display a hyphen in the middle of a line.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Visual formatting model details
Contents
* 10.1 Definition of "containing block"
* 10.2 Content width: the 'width' property
* 10.3 Computing widths and margins
o 10.3.1 Inline, non-replaced elements
o 10.3.2 Inline, replaced elements
o 10.3.3 Block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow
o 10.3.4 Block-level, replaced elements in normal flow
o 10.3.5 Floating, non-replaced elements
o 10.3.6 Floating, replaced elements
o 10.3.7 Absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
o 10.3.8 Absolutely positioned, replaced elements
* 10.4 Minimum and maximum widths: 'min-width' and 'max-width'
* 10.5 Content height: the 'height' property
* 10.6 Computing heights and margins
o 10.6.1 Inline, non-replaced elements
o 10.6.2 Inline, replaced elements block-level, replaced elements in
normal flow, and floating, replaced elements
o 10.6.3 Block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow, and
floating, non-replaced elements
o 10.6.4 Absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
o 10.6.5 Absolutely positioned, replaced elements
* 10.7 Minimum and maximum heights: 'min-height' and 'max-height'
* 10.8 Line height calculations: the 'line-height' and 'vertical-align'
properties
o 10.8.1 Leading and half-leading
10.1 Definition of "containing block"
The position and size of an element's box(es) are sometimes computed
relative to a certain rectangle, called the containing block of the element.
The containing block of an element is defined as follows:
1. The containing block (called the initial containing block) in which the
root element lives is chosen by the user agent.
2. For other elements, unless the element is absolutely positioned, the
containing block is formed by the content edge of the nearest
block-level ancestor box.
3. If the element has 'position: fixed', the containing block is
established by the viewport.
4. If the element has 'position: absolute', the containing block is
established by the nearest ancestor with a 'position' other than
'static', in the following way:
1. In the case that the ancestor is block-level, the containing block
is formed by the padding edge of the ancestor.
2. In the case that the ancestor is inline-level, the containing
block depends on the 'direction' property of the ancestor:
1. If the 'direction' is 'ltr', the top and left of the
containing block are the top and left content edges of the
first box generated by the ancestor, and the bottom and right
are the bottom and right content edges of the last box of the
ancestor.
2. If the 'direction' is 'rtl', the top and right are the top
and right edges of the first box generated by the ancestor,
and the bottom and left are the bottom and left content edges
of the last box of the ancestor.
If there is no such ancestor, the content edge of the root element's
box establishes the containing block.
Example(s):
With no positioning, the containing blocks (C.B.) in the following document:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Illustration of containing blocks</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY id="body">
<DIV id="div1">
<P id="p1">This is text in the first paragraph...</P>
<P id="p2">This is text <EM id="em1"> in the
<STRONG id="strong1">second</STRONG> paragraph.</EM></P>
</DIV>
</BODY>
</HTML>
are established as follows:
For box generated by C.B. is established by
body initial C.B. (UA-dependent)
div1 body
p1 div1
p2 div1
em1 p2
strong1 p2
If we position "div1":
#div1 { position: absolute; left: 50px; top: 50px }
its containing block is no longer "body"; it becomes the initial containing
block (since there are no other positioned ancestor boxes).
If we position "em1" as well:
#div1 { position: absolute; left: 50px; top: 50px }
#em1 { position: absolute; left: 100px; top: 100px }
the table of containing blocks becomes:
For box generated by C.B. is established by
body initial C.B.
div1 initial C.B.
p1 div1
p2 div1
em1 div1
strong1 em1
By positioning "em1", its containing block becomes the nearest positioned
ancestor box (i.e., that generated by "div1").
10.2 Content width: the 'width' property
'width'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table
rows, and row groups
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
This property specifies the content width of boxes generated by block-level
and replaced elements.
This property does not apply to non-replaced inline-level elements. The
width of a non-replaced inline element's boxes is that of the rendered
content within them (before any relative offset of children). Recall that
inline boxes flow into line boxes. The width of line boxes is given by the
their containing block, but may be shorted by the presence of floats.
The width of a replaced element's box is intrinsic and may be scaled by the
user agent if the value of this property is different than 'auto'.
Values have the following meanings:
<length>
Specifies a fixed width.
<percentage>
Specifies a percentage width. The percentage is calculated with respect
to the width of the generated box's containing block.
auto
The width depends on the values of other properties. See the sections
below.
Negative values for 'width' are illegal.
Example(s):
For example, the following rule fixes the content width of paragraphs at 100
pixels:
P { width: 100px }
10.3 Computing widths and margins
The computed values of an element's 'width', 'margin-left', 'margin-right',
'left' and 'right' properties depend on the type of box generated and on
each other. In principle, the computed values are the same as the specified
values, with 'auto' replaced by some suitable value, but there are
exceptions. The following situations need to be distinguished:
1. inline, non-replaced elements
2. inline, replaced elements
3. block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow
4. block-level, replaced elements in normal flow
5. floating, non-replaced elements
6. floating, replaced elements
7. absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
8. absolutely positioned, replaced elements
Points 1-6 include relative positioning.
10.3.1 Inline, non-replaced elements
The 'width' property does not apply. A specified value of 'auto' for 'left',
'right', 'margin-left' or 'margin-right' becomes a computed value of '0'.
10.3.2 Inline, replaced elements
A specified value of 'auto' for 'left', 'right', 'margin-left' or
'margin-right' becomes a computed value of '0'. A specified value of 'auto'
for 'width' gives the element's intrinsic width as the computed value.
10.3.3 Block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow
If 'left' or 'right' are given as 'auto', their computed value is 0. The
following constraints must hold between the other properties:
'margin-left' + 'border-left-width' + 'padding-left' + 'width' +
'padding-right' + 'border-right-width' + 'margin-right' = width of
containing block
(If the border style is 'none', use '0' as the border width.) If all of the
above have a specified value other than 'auto', the values are said to be
"over-constrained" and one of the computed values will have to be different
from its specified value. If the 'direction' property has the value 'ltr',
the specified value of 'margin-right' is ignored and the value is computed
so as to make the equality true. If the value of 'direction' is 'ltr', this
happens to 'margin-left' instead.
If there is exactly one value specified as 'auto', its computed value
follows from the equality.
If 'width' is set to 'auto', any other 'auto' values become '0' and 'width'
follows from the resulting equality.
If both 'margin-left' and 'margin-right' are 'auto', their computed values
are equal.
10.3.4 Block-level, replaced elements in normal flow
If 'left' or 'right' are 'auto', their computed value is 0. If 'width' is
specified as 'auto', its value is the element's intrinsic width. If one of
the margins is 'auto', its computed value is given by the constraints above.
Furthermore, if both margins are 'auto', their computed values are equal.
10.3.5 Floating, non-replaced elements
If 'left', 'right', 'width', 'margin-left', or 'margin-right' are specified
as 'auto', their computed value is '0'.
10.3.6 Floating, replaced elements
If 'left', 'right', 'margin-left' or 'margin-right' are specified as 'auto',
their computed value is '0'. If 'width' is 'auto', its value is the
element's intrinsic width.
10.3.7 Absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
The constraint that determines the computed values for these elements is:
'left' + 'margin-left' + 'border-left-width' + 'padding-left' +
'width' + 'padding-right' + 'border-right-width' + 'margin-right'
+ 'right' = width of containing block
(If the border style is 'none', use '0' as the border width.) The solution
to this constraint is reached through a number of substitutions in the
following order:
1. If 'left' has the value 'auto' while 'direction' is 'ltr', replace
'auto' with the distance from the left edge of the containing block to
the left margin edge of a hypothetical box that would have been the
first box of the element if its 'position' property had been 'static'.
(But rather than actually computing that box, user agents are free to
make a guess at its probable position.) The value is negative if the
hypothetical box is to the left of the containing block.
2. If 'right' has the value 'auto' while 'direction' is 'rtl', replace
'auto' with the distance from the right edge of the containing block to
the right margin edge of the same hypothetical box as above. The value
is positive if the hypothetical box is to the left of the containing
block's edge.
3. If 'width' is 'auto', replace any remaining 'auto' for 'left' or
'right' with '0'.
4. If 'left', 'right' or 'width' are (still) 'auto', replace any 'auto' on
'margin-left' or 'margin-right' with '0'.
5. If at this point both 'margin-left' and 'margin-right' are still
'auto', solve the equation under the extra constraint that the two
margins must get equal values.
6. If at this point there is only one 'auto' left, solve the equation for
that value.
7. If at this point the values are over-constrained, ignore the value for
either 'left' (in case 'direction' is 'rtl') or 'right' (in case
'direction' is 'ltr') and solve for that value.
10.3.8 Absolutely positioned, replaced elements
This situation is similar to the previous one, except that the element has
an intrinsic width. The sequence of substitutions is now:
1. If 'width' is 'auto', substitute the element's intrinsic width.
2. If 'left' has the value 'auto' while 'direction' is 'ltr', replace
'auto' with the distance from the left edge of the containing block to
the left margin edge of a hypothetical box that would have been the
first box of the element if its 'position' property had been 'static'.
(But rather than actually computing that box, user agents are free to
make a guess at its probable position.) The value is negative if the
hypothetical box is to the left of the containing block.
3. If 'right' has the value 'auto' while 'direction' is 'rtl', replace
'auto' with the distance from the right edge of the containing block to
the right margin edge of the same hypothetical box as above. The value
is positive if the hypothetical box is to the left of the containing
block's edge.
4. If 'left' or 'right' are 'auto', replace any 'auto' on 'margin-left' or
'margin-right' with '0'.
5. If at this point both 'margin-left' and 'margin-right' are still
'auto', solve the equation under the extra constraint that the two
margins must get equal values.
6. If at this point there is only one 'auto' left, solve the equation for
that value.
7. If at this point the values are over-constrained, ignore the value for
either 'left' (in case 'direction' is 'rtl') or 'right' (in case
'direction' is 'ltr') and solve for that value.
10.4 Minimum and maximum widths: 'min-width' and 'max-width'
'min-width'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial: UA dependent
Applies to: all elements except non-replaced inline elements and
table elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
'max-width'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements except non-replaced inline elements and
table elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
These two properties allow authors to constrain box widths to a certain
range. Values have the following meanings:
<length>
Specifies a fixed minimum or maximum computed width.
<percentage>
Specifies a percentage for determining the computed value. The
percentage is calculated with respect to the width of the generated
box's containing block.
none
(Only on 'max-width') No limit on the width of the box.
The following algorithm describes how the two properties influence the
computed value of the 'width' property:
1. The width is computed (without 'min-width' and 'max-width') following
the rules under "Computing widths and margins" above.
2. If the computed value of 'min-width' is greater than the value of
'max-width', 'max-width' is set to the value of 'min-width'.
3. If the computed width is greater than 'max-width', the rules above are
applied again, but this time using the value of 'max-width' as the
specified value for 'width'.
4. If the computed width is smaller than 'min-width', the rules above are
applied again, but this time using the value of 'min-width' as the
specified value for 'width'.
The user agent may define a non-negative minimum value for the 'min-width'
property, which may vary from element to element and even depend on other
properties. If 'min-width' goes below this limit, either because it was set
explicitly, or because it was 'auto' and the rules below would make it too
small, the user agent may use the minimum value as the computed value.
10.5 Content height: the 'height' property
'height'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table
columns, and column groups
Inherited: no
Percentages: see prose
Media: visual
This property specifies the content height of boxes generated by block-level
and replaced elements.
This property does not apply to non-replaced inline-level elements. The
height of a non-replaced inline element's boxes is given by the element's
(possibly inherited) 'line-height' value.
Values have the following meanings:
<length>
Specifies a fixed height.
<percentage>
Specifies a percentage height. The percentage is calculated with
respect to the height of the generated box's containing block. If the
height of the containing block is not specified explicitly (i.e., it
depends on content height), the value is interpreted like 'auto'.
auto
The height depends on the values of other properties. See the prose
below.
Negative values for 'height' are illegal.
Example(s):
For example, the following rule fixes the height of paragraphs to 100
pixels:
P { height: 100px }
Paragraphs that require more than 100 pixels of height will overflow
according to the 'overflow' property.
10.6 Computing heights and margins
For computing the values of 'top', 'margin-top', 'height', 'margin-bottom',
and 'bottom' a distinction must be made between various kinds of boxes:
1. inline, non-replaced elements
2. inline, replaced elements
3. block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow
4. block-level, replaced elements in normal flow
5. floating, non-replaced elements
6. floating, replaced elements
7. absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
8. absolutely positioned, replaced elements
Points 1-6 include relative positioning.
10.6.1 Inline, non-replaced elements
If 'top', 'bottom', 'margin-top', or 'margin-bottom' are 'auto', their
computed value is 0. The 'height' property doesn't apply, but the height of
the box is given by the 'line-height' property.
10.6.2 Inline, replaced elements block-level, replaced elements in normal
flow, and floating, replaced elements
If 'top', 'bottom', 'margin-top', or 'margin-bottom' are 'auto', their
computed value is 0. If 'height' is 'auto', the computed value is the
intrinsic height.
10.6.3 Block-level, non-replaced elements in normal flow, and floating,
non-replaced elements
If 'top', 'bottom', 'margin-top', or 'margin-bottom' are 'auto', their
computed value is 0. If 'height' is 'auto', the height depends on whether
the element has any block-level children. If it only has inline-level
children, the height is from the top of the topmost line box to the bottom
of the bottommost line box. If it has block-level children, it is the
distance from the top border-edge of the topmost block-level child box, to
the bottom border-edge of the bottommost block-level child box. Only
children in the normal flow are taken into account (i.e., floating boxes and
absolutely positioned boxes are ignored, and relatively positioned boxes are
considered without their offset). Note that the child box may be an
anonymous box.
10.6.4 Absolutely positioned, non-replaced elements
For absolutely positioned elements, the vertical dimensions must satisfy
this constraint:
'top' + 'margin-top' + 'border-top-width' + 'padding-top' +
'height' + 'padding-bottom' + 'border-bottom-width' +
'margin-bottom' + 'bottom' = height of containing block
(If the border style is 'none', use '0' as the border width.) The solution
to this constraint is reached through a number of substitutions in the
following order:
1. If 'top' has the value 'auto' replace it with the distance from the top
edge of the containing block to the top margin edge of a hypothetical
box that would have been the first box of the element if its 'position'
property had been 'static'. (But rather than actually computing that
box, user agents are free to make a guess at its probable position.)
The value is negative if the hypothetical box is above the containing
block.
2. If both 'height' and 'bottom' are 'auto', replace 'bottom' with 0.
3. If 'bottom' or 'height' are (still) 'auto', replace any 'auto' on
'margin-top' or 'margin-bottom' with '0'.
4. If at this point both 'margin-top' and 'margin-bottom' are still
'auto', solve the equation under the extra constraint that the two
margins must get equal values.
5. If at this point there is only one 'auto' left, solve the equation for
that value.
6. If at this point the values are over-constrained, ignore the value for
'bottom' and solve for that value.
10.6.5 Absolutely positioned, replaced elements
This situation is similar to the previous one, except that the element has
an intrinsic height. The sequence of substitutions is now:
1. If 'height' is 'auto', substitute the element's intrinsic height.
2. If 'top' has the value 'auto', replace it with the distance from the
top edge of the containing block to the top margin edge of a
hypothetical box that would have been the first box of the element if
its 'position' property had been 'static'. (But rather than actually
computing that box, user agents are free to make a guess at its
probable position.) The value is negative if the hypothetical box is
above the containing block.
3. If 'bottom' is 'auto', replace any 'auto' on 'margin-top' or
'margin-bottom' with '0'.
4. If at this point both 'margin-top' and 'margin-bottom' are still
'auto', solve the equation under the extra constraint that the two
margins must get equal values.
5. If at this point there is only one 'auto' left, solve the equation for
that value.
6. If at this point the values are over-constrained, ignore the value for
'bottom' and solve for that value.
10.7 Minimum and maximum heights: 'min-height' and 'max-height'
It is sometimes useful to constrain the height of elements to a certain
range. Two properties offer this functionality:
'min-height'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial: 0
Applies to: all elements except non-replaced inline elements and
table elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to height of containing block
Media: visual
'max-height'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements except non-replaced inline elements and
table elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to height of containing block
Media: visual
These two properties allow authors to constrain box heights to a certain
range. Values have the following meanings:
<length>
Specifies a fixed minimum or maximum computed height.
<percentage>
Specifies a percentage for determining the computed value. The
percentage is calculated with respect to the height of the generated
box's containing block. If the height of the containing block is not
specified explicitly (i.e., it depends on content height), the
percentage value is interpreted like 'auto'.
none
(Only on 'max-height') No limit on the height of the box.
The following algorithm describes how the two properties influence the
computed value of the 'height' property:
1. The height is computed (without 'min-height' and 'max-height')
following the rules under "Computing heights and margins" above.
2. If the computed value of 'min-height' is greater than the value of
'max-height', 'max-height' is set to the value of 'min-height'.
3. If the computed height is greater than 'max-height', the rules above
are applied again, but this time using the value of 'max-height' as the
specified value for 'height'.
4. If the computed height is smaller than 'min-height', the rules above
are applied again, but this time using the value of 'min-height' as the
specified value for 'height'.
10.8 Line height calculations: the 'line-height' and 'vertical-align'
properties
As described in the section on inline formatting contexts, user agents flow
inline boxes into a vertical stack of line boxes. The height of a line box
is determined as follows:
1. The height of each inline box in the line box is calculated (see
"Computing heights and margins" and the 'line-height' property).
2. The inline boxes are aligned vertically according to their
'vertical-align' property.
3. The line box height is the distance between the uppermost box top and
the lowermost box bottom.
Empty inline elements generate empty inline boxes, but these boxes still
have margins, padding, borders and a line height, and thus influence these
calculations just like elements with content.
Note that if all the boxes in the line box are aligned along their bottoms,
the line box will be exactly the height of the tallest box. If, however, the
boxes are aligned along a common baseline, the line box top and bottom may
not touch the top and bottom of the tallest box.
10.8.1 Leading and half-leading
Since the height of an inline box may be different from the font size of
text in the box (e.g., 'line-height' > 1em), there may be space above and
below rendered glyphs. The difference between the font size and the computed
value of 'line-height' is called the leading. Half the leading is called the
half-leading.
User agents center glyphs vertically in an inline box, adding half-leading
on the top and bottom. For example, if a piece of text is '12pt' high and
the 'line-height' value is '14pt', 2pts of extra space should be added: 1pt
above and 1pt below the letters. (This applies to empty boxes as well, as if
the empty box contained an infinitely narrow letter.)
When the 'line-height' value is less than the font size, the final inline
box height will be less than the font size and the rendered glyphs will
"bleed" outside the box. If such a box touches the edge of a line box, the
rendered glyphs will also "bleed" into the adjacent line box.
Although margins, borders, and padding of non-replaced elements do not enter
into inline box height calculation (and thus the line box calculation), they
are still rendered around inline boxes. This means that if the height of a
line box is shorter than the outer edges of the boxes it contains,
backgrounds and colors of padding and borders may "bleed" into adjacent line
boxes. However, in this case, some user agents may use the line box to
"clip" the border and padding areas (i.e., not render them).
'line-height'
Value: normal | <number> | <length> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: refer to the font size of the element itself
Media: visual
If the property is set on a block-level element whose content is composed of
inline-level elements, it specifies the minimal height of each generated
inline box.
If the property is set on an inline-level element, it specifies the exact
height of each box generated by the element. (Except for inline replaced
elements, where the height of the box is given by the 'height' property.)
Values for this property have the following meanings:
normal
Tells user agents to set the computed value to a "reasonable" value
based on the font size of the element. The value has the same meaning
as <number>. We recommend a computed value for 'normal' between 1.0 to
1.2.
<length>
The box height is set to this length. Negative values are illegal.
<number>
The computed value of the property is this number multiplied by the
element's font size. Negative values are illegal. However, the number,
not the computed value, is inherited.
<percentage>
The computed value of the property is this percentage multiplied by the
element's computed font size. Negative values are illegal.
Example(s):
The three rules in the example below have the same resultant line height:
DIV { line-height: 1.2; font-size: 10pt } /* number */
DIV { line-height: 1.2em; font-size: 10pt } /* length */
DIV { line-height: 120%; font-size: 10pt } /* percentage */
When an element contains text that is rendered in more than one font, user
agents should determine the 'line-height' value according to the largest
font size.
Generally, when there is only one value of 'line-height' for all inline
boxes in a paragraph (and no tall images), the above will ensure that
baselines of successive lines are exactly 'line-height' apart. This is
important when columns of text in different fonts have to be aligned, for
example in a table.
Note that replaced elements have a 'font-size' and a 'line-height' property,
even if they are not used directly to determine the height of the box. The
'font-size' is, however, used to define the 'em' and 'ex' units, and the
'line-height' has a role in the 'vertical-align' property.
'vertical-align'
Value: baseline | sub | super | top | text-top | middle |
bottom | text-bottom | <percentage> | <length> | inherit
Initial: baseline
Applies to: inline-level and 'table-cell' elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to the 'line-height' of the element itself
Media: visual
This property affects the vertical positioning inside a line box of the
boxes generated by an inline-level element. The following values only have
meaning with respect to a parent inline-level element, or to a parent
block-level element, if that element generates anonymous inline boxes; they
have no effect if no such parent exists.
Note. Values of this property have slightly different meanings in the
context of tables. Please consult the section on table height algorithms for
details.
baseline
Align the baseline of the box with the baseline of the parent box. If
the box doesn't have a baseline, align the bottom of the box with the
parent's baseline.
middle
Align the vertical midpoint of the box with the baseline of the parent
box plus half the x-height of the parent.
sub
Lower the baseline of the box to the proper position for subscripts of
the parent's box. (This value has no effect on the font size of the
element's text.)
super
Raise the baseline of the box to the proper position for superscripts
of the parent's box. (This value has no effect on the font size of the
element's text.)
text-top
Align the top of the box with the top of the parent element's font.
text-bottom
Align the bottom of the box with the bottom of the parent element's
font.
<percentage>
Raise (positive value) or lower (negative value) the box by this
distance (a percentage of the 'line-height' value). The value '0%'
means the same as 'baseline'.
<length>
Raise (positive value) or lower (negative value) the box by this
distance. The value '0cm' means the same as 'baseline'.
The remaining values refer to the line box in which the generated box
appears:
top
Align the top of the box with the top of the line box.
bottom
Align the bottom of the box with the bottom of the line box.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
11 Visual effects
Contents
* 11.1 Overflow and clipping
o 11.1.1 Overflow: the 'overflow' property
o 11.1.2 Clipping: the 'clip' property
* 11.2 Visibility: the 'visibility' property
11.1 Overflow and clipping
Generally, the content of a block box is confined to the content edges of
the box. In certain cases, a box may overflow, meaning its content lies
partly or entirely outside of the box, e.g.:
* A line cannot be broken, causing the line box to be wider than the
block box.
* A block-level box is too wide for the containing block. This may happen
when an element's 'width' property has a value that causes the
generated block box to spill over sides of the containing block.
* An element's height exceeds an explicit height assigned to the
containing block (i.e., the containing block's height is determined by
the 'height' property, not by content height).
* A box is positioned absolutely.
* It has negative margins.
Whenever overflow occurs, the 'overflow' property specifies how (and
whether) a box is clipped. The 'clip' property specifies the size and shape
of the clipping region. Specifying a small clipping region may cause
clipping of otherwise visible contents.
11.1.1 Overflow: the 'overflow' property
'overflow'
Value: visible | hidden | scroll | auto | inherit
Initial: visible
Applies to: block-level and replaced elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies whether the content of a block-level element is
clipped when it overflows the element's box (which is acting as a containing
block for the content). Values have the following meanings:
visible
This value indicates that content is not clipped, i.e., it may be
rendered outside the block box.
hidden
This value indicates that the content is clipped and that no scrolling
mechanism should be provided to view the content outside the clipping
region; users will not have access to clipped content. The size and
shape of the clipping region is specified by the 'clip' property.
scroll
This value indicates that the content is clipped and that if the user
agent uses scrolling mechanism that is visible on the screen (such as a
scroll bar or a panner), that mechanism should be displayed for a box
whether or not any of its content is clipped. This avoids any problem
with scrollbars appearing and disappearing in a dynamic environment.
When this value is specified and the target medium is 'print' or
'projection', overflowing content should be printed.
auto
The behavior of the 'auto' value is user agent-dependent, but should
cause a scrolling mechanism to be provided for overflowing boxes.
Even if 'overflow' is set to 'visible', content may be clipped to a UA's
document window by the native operating environment.
Example(s):
Consider the following example of a block quotation (BLOCKQUOTE) that is too
big for its containing block (established by a DIV). Here is the source
document:
<DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>I didn't like the play, but then I saw
it under adverse conditions - the curtain was up.
<DIV class="attributed-to">- Groucho Marx</DIV>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</DIV>
Here is the style sheet controlling the sizes and style of the generated
boxes:
DIV { width : 100px; height: 100px;
border: thin solid red;
}
BLOCKQUOTE { width : 125px; height : 100px;
margin-top: 50px; margin-left: 50px;
border: thin dashed black
}
DIV.attributed-to { text-align : right; }
The initial value of 'overflow' is 'visible', so the BLOCKQUOTE would be
formatted without clipping, something like this:
[Rendered overflow] [D]
Setting 'overflow' to 'hidden' for the DIV element, on the other hand,
causes the BLOCKQUOTE to be clipped by the containing block:
[Clipped overflow] [D]
A value of 'scroll' would tell UAs that support a visible scrolling
mechanism to display one so that users could access the clipped content.
11.1.2 Clipping: the 'clip' property
A clipping region defines what portion of an element's rendered content is
visible. By default, the clipping region has the same size and shape as the
element's box(es). However, the clipping region may be modified by the
'clip' property.
'clip'
Value: <shape> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: block-level and replaced elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'clip' property applies to elements that have a 'overflow' property with
a value other than 'visible'. Values have the following meanings:
auto
The clipping region has the same size and location as the element's
box(es).
<shape>
In CSS2, the only valid <shape> value is: rect (<top> <right> <bottom>
<left>) where <top>, <bottom> <right>, and <left> specify offsets from
the respective sides of the box.
<top>, <right>, <bottom>, and <left> may either have a <length> value
or 'auto'. Negative lengths are permitted. The value 'auto' means that
a given edge of the clipping region will be the same as the edge of the
element's generated box (i.e., 'auto' means the same as '0'.)
When coordinates are rounded to pixel coordinates, care should be taken
that no pixels remain visible when <left> + <right> is equal to the
element's width (or <top> + <bottom> equals the element's height), and
conversely that no pixels remain hidden when these values are 0.
The element's ancestors may also have clipping regions (in case their
'overflow' property is not 'visible'); what is rendered is the intersection
of the various clipping regions.
If the clipping region exceeds the bounds of the UA's document window,
content may be clipped to that window by the native operating environment.
Example(s):
The following two rules:
P { clip: rect(5px, 10px, 10px, 5px); }
P { clip: rect(5px, -5px, 10px, 5px); }
will create the rectangular clipping regions delimited by the dashed lines
in the following illustrations:
[Two clipping regions] [D]
Note. In CSS2, all clipping regions are rectangular. We anticipate future
extensions to permit non-rectangular clipping.
11.2 Visibility: the 'visibility' property
'visibility'
Value: visible | hidden | collapse | inherit
Initial: inherit
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'visibility' property specifies whether the boxes generated by an
element are rendered. Invisible boxes still affect layout (set the 'display'
property to 'none' to suppress box generation altogether). Values have the
following meanings:
visible
The generated box is visible.
hidden
The generated box is invisible (fully transparent), but still affects
layout.
collapse
Please consult the section on dynamic row and column effects in tables.
If used on elements other than rows or columns, 'collapse' has the same
meaning as 'hidden'.
This property may be used in conjunction with scripts to create dynamic
effects.
In the following example, pressing either form button invokes a user-defined
script function that causes the corresponding box to become visible and the
other to be hidden. Since these boxes have the same size and position, the
effect is that one replaces the other. (The script code is in a hypothetical
script language. It may or may not have any effect in a CSS-capable UA.)
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<STYLE type="text/css">
<!--
#container1 { position: absolute;
top: 2in; left: 2in; width: 2in }
#container2 { position: absolute;
top: 2in; left: 2in; width: 2in;
visibility: hidden; }
-->
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>Choose a suspect:</P>
<DIV id="container1">
<IMG alt="Al Capone"
width="100" height="100"
src="suspect1.jpg">
<P>Name: Al Capone</P>
<P>Residence: Chicago</P>
</DIV>
<DIV id="container2">
<IMG alt="Lucky Luciano"
width="100" height="100"
src="suspect2.jpg">
<P>Name: Lucky Luciano</P>
<P>Residence: New York</P>
</DIV>
<FORM method="post"
action="http://www.suspect.org/process-bums">
<P>
<INPUT name="Capone" type="button"
value="Capone"
onclick='show("container1");hide("container2")'>
<INPUT name="Luciano" type="button"
value="Luciano"
onclick='show("container2");hide("container1")'>
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 Generated content, automatic numbering, and lists
Contents
* 12.1 The :before and :after pseudo-elements
* 12.2 The 'content' property
* 12.3 Interaction of :before and :after with 'compact' and 'run-in'
elements
* 12.4 Quotation marks
o 12.4.1 Specifying quotes with the 'quotes' property
o 12.4.2 Inserting quotes with the 'content' property
* 12.5 Automatic counters and numbering
o 12.5.1 Nested counters and scope
o 12.5.2 Counter styles
o 12.5.3 Counters in elements with 'display: none'
* 12.6 Markers and lists
o 12.6.1 Markers: the 'marker-offset' property
o 12.6.2 Lists: the 'list-style-type', 'list-style-image',
'list-style-position', and 'list-style' properties
In some cases, authors may want user agents to render content that does not
come from the document tree. One familiar example of this is a numbered
list; the author does not want to list the numbers explicitly, he or she
wants the user agent to generate them automatically. Similarly, authors may
want the user agent to insert the word "Figure" before the caption of a
figure, or "Chapter 7" before the seventh chapter title. For audio or
braille in particular, user agents should be able to insert these strings.
In CSS2, content may be generated by several mechanisms:
* The 'content' property, in conjunction with the :before and :after
pseudo-elements.
* The 'cue-before', 'cue-after' aural properties (see the chapter on
aural style sheets). When the 'content' property is combined with the
aural properties they are rendered in the following order: :before,
'cue-before', ('pause-before'), the element's content, ('pause-after'),
'cue-after', and :after.
* Elements with a value of 'list-item' for the 'display' property.
Below we describe the mechanisms associated with the 'content' property.
12.1 The :before and :after pseudo-elements
Authors specify the style and location of generated content with the :before
and :after pseudo-elements. As their names indicate, the :before and :after
pseudo-elements specify the location of content before and after an
element's document tree content. The 'content' property, in conjunction with
these pseudo-elements, specifies what is inserted.
Example(s):
For example, the following rule inserts the string "Note: " before the
content of every P element whose "class" attribute has the value "note":
P.note:before { content: "Note: " }
The formatting objects (e.g., boxes) generated by an element include
generated content. So, for example, changing the above style sheet to:
P.note:before { content: "Note: " }
P.note { border: solid green }
would cause a solid green border to be rendered around the entire paragraph,
including the initial string.
The :before and :after pseudo-elements inherit any inheritable properties
from the element in the document tree to which they are attached.
Example(s):
For example, the following rules insert an open quote mark before every Q
element. The color of the quote mark will be red, but the font will be the
same as the font of the rest of the Q element:
Q:before {
content: open-quote;
color: red
}
In a :before or :after pseudo-element declaration, non-inherited properties
take their initial values.
Example(s):
So, for example, because the initial value of the 'display' property is
'inline', the quote in the previous example is inserted as an inline box
(i.e., on the same line as the element's initial text content). The next
example explicitly sets the 'display' property to 'block', so that the
inserted text becomes a block:
BODY:after {
content: "The End";
display: block;
margin-top: 2em;
text-align: center;
}
Note that an audio user agent would speak the words "The End" after
rendering the rest of the BODY content.
User agents must ignore the following properties with :before and :after
pseudo-elements: 'position', 'float', list properties, and table properties.
The :before and :after pseudo-elements elements allow values of the
'display' property as follows:
* If the subject of the selector is a block-level element, allowed values
are 'none', 'inline', 'block', and 'marker'. If the value of the
'display' has any other value, the pseudo-element will behave as if the
value were 'block'.
* If the subject of the selector is an inline-level element, allowed
values are 'none' and 'inline'. If the value of the 'display' has any
other value, the pseudo-element will behave as if the value were
'inline'.
Note. Other values may be permitted in future levels of CSS.
12.2 The 'content' property
'content'
Value: [ <string> | <uri> | <counter> | attr(X) | open-quote |
close-quote | no-open-quote | no-close-quote ]+ |
inherit
Initial: empty string
Applies to: :before and :after pseudo-elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: all
This property is used with the :before and :after pseudo-elements to
generate content in a document. Values have the following meanings:
<string>
Text content (see the section on strings).
<uri>
The value is a URI that designates an external resource. If a user
agent cannot support the resource because of the media types it
supports, it must ignore the resource. Note. CSS2 offers no mechanism
to change the size of the embedded object, or to provide a textual
description, like the "alt" or "longdesc" attributes do for images in
HTML. This may change in future levels of CSS.
<counter>
Counters may be specified with two different functions: 'counter()' or
'counters()'. The former has two forms: 'counter(name)' or
'counter(name, style)'. The generated text is the value of the named
counter at this point in the formatting structure; it is formatted in
the indicated style ('decimal' by default). The latter function also
has two forms: 'counter(name, string)' or 'counter(name, string,
style)'. The generated text is the value of all counters with the given
name at this point in the formatting structure, separated by the
specified string. The counters are rendered in the indicated style
('decimal' by default). See the section on automatic counters and
numbering for more information.
open-quote and close-quote
These values are replaced by the appropriate string from the 'quotes'
property.
no-open-quote and no-close-quote
Inserts nothing (the empty string), but increments (decrements) the
level of nesting for quotes.
attr(X)
This function returns as a string the value of attribute X for the
subject of the selector. The string is not parsed by the CSS processor.
If the subject of the selector doesn't have an attribute X, an empty
string is returned. The case-sensitivity of attribute names depends on
the document language. Note. In CSS2, it is not possible to refer to
attribute values for other elements of the selector.
The 'display' property controls whether the content is placed in a block,
inline, or marker box.
Authors should put 'content' declarations in @media rules when the content
is media-sensitive. For instance, literal text may be used for any media
group, but images only apply to the visual + bitmap media groups, and sound
files only apply to the aural media group.
Example(s):
The following rule causes a sound file to be played at the end of a
quotation (see the section on aural style sheets for additional mechanisms):
@media aural {
BLOCKQUOTE:after { content: url("beautiful-music.wav") }
}
Example(s):
The next rule inserts the text of the HTML "alt" attribute before the image.
If the image is not displayed, the reader will still see the "alt" text.
IMG:before { content: attr(alt) }
Authors may include newlines in the generated content by writing the "\A"
escape sequence in one of the strings after the 'content' property. This
inserts a forced line break, similar to the BR element in HTML. See
"Strings" and "Characters and case" for more information on the "\A" escape
sequence.
Example(s):
H1:before {
display: block;
text-align: center;
content: "chapter\A hoofdstuk\A chapitre"
}
Generated content does not alter the document tree. In particular, it is not
fed back to the document language processor (e.g., for reparsing).
Note. In future levels of CSS, the 'content' property may accept additional
values, allowing it to vary the style of pieces of the generated content,
but in CSS2, all the content of the :before or :after pseudo-element has the
same style.
12.3 Interaction of :before and :after with 'compact' and 'run-in' elements
The following cases can occur:
1. A 'run-in' or 'compact' element has a :before pseudo-element of type
'inline': the pseudo-element is taken into account when the size of the
element's box is computed (for 'compact') and is rendered inside the
same block box as the element.
2. A 'run-in' or 'compact' element has an :after pseudo-element of type
'inline': The rules of the previous point apply.
3. A 'run-in' or 'compact' element has a :before pseudo-element of type
'block': the pseudo-element is formatted as a block above the element,
and does not take part in the computation of the element's size (for
'compact').
4. A 'run-in' or 'compact' element has an :after pseudo-element of type
'block': both the element and its :after pseudo-element are formatted
as block boxes. The element is not formatted as an inline box in its
own :after pseudo-element.
5. The element following a 'run-in' or 'compact' element has a :before of
type 'block': the decision how to format the 'run-in'/'compact' element
is made with respect to the block box resulting from the :before
pseudo-element.
6. The element following a 'run-in' or 'compact' element has an :before of
type 'inline': the decision how to format the 'run-in'/'compact'
element depends on the 'display' value of the element to which the
:before is attached.
Example(s):
Here is an example of a 'run-in' header with an :after pseudo-element,
followed by a paragraph with a :before pseudo-element. All pseudo-elements
are inline (the default) in this example. When the style sheet:
H3 { display: run-in }
H3:after { content: ": " }
P:before { content: "... " }
is applied to this source document:
<H3>Centaurs</H3>
<P>have hoofs
<P>have a tail
The visual formatting will resemble:
Centaurs: ... have hoofs
... have a tail
12.4 Quotation marks
In CSS2, authors may specify, in a style-sensitive and context-dependent
manner, how user agents should render quotation marks. The 'quotes' property
specifies pairs of quotation marks for each level of embedded quotation. The
'content' property gives access to those quotation marks and causes them to
be inserted before and after a quotation.
12.4.1 Specifying quotes with the 'quotes' property
'quotes'
Value: [<string> <string>]+ | none | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies quotation marks for any number of embedded
quotations. Values have the following meanings:
none
The 'open-quote' and 'close-quote' values of the 'content' property
produce no quotations marks.
[<string> <string>]+
Values for the 'open-quote' and 'close-quote' values of the 'content'
property are taken from this list of pairs of quotation marks (opening
and closing). The first (leftmost) pair represents the outermost level
of quotation, the second pair the first level of embedding, etc. The
user agent must apply the appropriate pair of quotation marks according
to the level of embedding.
Example(s):
For example, applying the following style sheet:
/* Specify pairs of quotes for two levels in two languages */
Q:lang(en) { quotes: '"' '"' "'" "'" }
Q:lang(no) { quotes: "´" "ª" "<" ">" }
/* Insert quotes before and after Q element content */
Q:before { content: open-quote }
Q:after { content: close-quote }
to the following HTML fragment:
<HTML lang="en">
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Quotes</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><Q>Quote me!</Q>
</BODY>
</HTML>
would allow a user agent to produce:
"Quote me!"
while this HTML fragment:
<HTML lang="no">
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Quotes</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P><Q>Tr¯ndere grÂter nÂr <Q>Vinsjan p kaia</Q> blir deklamert.</Q>
</BODY>
</HTML>
would produce:
´Tr¯ndere grÂter nÂr <Vinsjan p kaia> blir deklamert.ª
Note. While the quotation marks specified by 'quotes' in the previous
examples are conveniently located on computer keyboards, high quality
typesetting would require different ISO 10646 characters. The following
informative table lists some of the ISO 10646 quotation mark characters:
Approximate ISO 10646 code
rendering (hex) Description
" 0022 QUOTATION MARK [the ASCII double
quotation mark]
' 0027 APOSTROPHE [the ASCII single
quotation mark]
< 2039 SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION
MARK
> 203A SINGLE RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION
MARK
´ 00AB LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION
MARK
ª 00BB RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION
MARK
` 2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK [single
high-6]
' 2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK [single
high-9]
`` 201C LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK [double
high-6]
'' 201D RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK [double
high-9]
,, 201E DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK [double
low-9]
12.4.2 Inserting quotes with the 'content' property
Quotation marks are inserted in appropriate places in a document with the
'open-quote' and 'close-quote' values of the 'content' property. Each
occurrence of 'open-quote' or 'close-quote' is replaced by one of the
strings from the value of 'quotes', based on the depth of nesting.
'Open-quote' refers to the first of a pair of quotes, 'close-quote' refers
to the second. Which pair of quotes is used depends on the nesting level of
quotes: the number of occurrences of 'open-quote' in all generated text
before the current occurrence, minus the number of occurrences of
'close-quote'. If the depth is 0, the first pair is used, if the depth is 1,
the second pair is used, etc. If the depth is greater than the number of
pairs, the last pair is repeated.
Note that this quoting depth is independent of the nesting of the source
document or the formatting structure.
Some typographic styles require open quotation marks to be repeated before
every paragraph of a quote spanning several paragraphs, but only the last
paragraph ends with a closing quotation mark. In CSS, this can be achieved
by inserting "phantom" closing quotes. The keyword 'no-close-quote'
decrements the quoting level, but does not insert a quotation mark.
Example(s):
The following style sheet puts opening quotation marks on every paragraph in
a BLOCKQUOTE, and inserts a single closing quote at the end:
BLOCKQUOTE P:before { content: open-quote }
BLOCKQUOTE P:after { content: no-close-quote }
BLOCKQUOTE P.last:after { content: close-quote }
This relies on the last paragraph being marked with a class "last", since
there are no selectors that can match the last child of an element.
For symmetry, there is also a 'no-open-quote' keyword, which inserts
nothing, but increments the quotation depth by one.
Note. If a quotation is in a different language than the surrounding text,
it is customary to quote the text with the quote marks of the language of
the surrounding text, not the language of the quotation itself.
Example(s):
For example, French inside English:
The device of the order of the garter is "Honi soit qui mal y
pense."
English inside French:
Il disait: ´ Il faut mettre l'action en < fast forward >.ª
A style sheet like the following will set the 'quotes' property so that
'open-quote' and 'close-quote' will work correctly on all elements. These
rules are for documents that contain only English, French, or both. One rule
is needed for every additional language. Note the use of the child
combinator (">") to set quotes on elements based on the language of the
surrounding text:
[LANG|=fr] > * { quotes: "´" "ª" "\2039" "\203A" }
[LANG|=en] > * { quotes: "\201C" "\201D" "\2018" "\2019" }
The quotation marks for English are shown here in a form that most people
will be able to type. If you can type them directly, they will look like
this:
[LANG|=fr] > * { quotes: "´" "ª" "<" ">" }
[LANG|=en] > * { quotes: """ """ "`" "'" }
12.5 Automatic counters and numbering
Automatic numbering in CSS2 is controlled with two properties,
'counter-increment' and 'counter-reset'. The counters defined by these
properties are used with the counter() and counters() functions of the the
'content' property.
'counter-reset'
Value: [ <identifier> <integer>? ]+ | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: all
'counter-increment'
Value: [ <identifier> <integer>? ]+ | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: all
The 'counter-increment' property accepts one or more names of counters
(identifiers), each one optionally followed by an integer. The integer
indicates by how much the counter is incremented for every occurrence of the
element. The default increment is 1. Zero and negative integers are allowed.
The 'counter-reset' property also contains a list of one or more names of
counters, each one optionally followed by an integer. The integer gives the
value that the counter is set to on each occurrence of the element. The
default is 0.
If 'counter-increment' refers to a counter that is not in the scope (see
below) of any 'counter-reset', the counter is assumed to have been reset to
0 by the root element.
Example(s):
This example shows a way to number chapters and sections with "Chapter 1",
"1.1", "1.2", etc.
H1:before {
content: "Chapter " counter(chapter) ". ";
counter-increment: chapter; /* Add 1 to chapter */
counter-reset: section; /* Set section to 0 */
}
H2:before {
content: counter(chapter) "." counter(section) " ";
counter-increment: section;
}
If an element increments/resets a counter and also uses it (in the 'content'
property of its :before or :after pseudo-element), the counter is used after
being incremented/reset.
If an element both resets and increments a counter, the counter is reset
first and then incremented.
The 'counter-reset' property follows the cascading rules. Thus, due to
cascading, the following style sheet:
H1 { counter-reset: section -1 }
H1 { counter-reset: imagenum 99 }
will only reset 'imagenum'. To reset both counters, they have to be
specified together:
H1 { counter-reset: section -1 imagenum 99 }
12.5.1 Nested counters and scope
Counters are "self-nesting", in the sense that re-using a counter in a child
element automatically creates a new instance of the counter. This is
important for situations like lists in HTML, where elements can be nested
inside themselves to arbitrary depth. It would be impossible to define
uniquely named counters for each level.
Example(s):
Thus, the following suffices to number nested list items. The result is very
similar to that of setting 'display:list-item' and 'list-style: inside' on
the LI element:
OL { counter-reset: item }
LI { display: block }
LI:before { content: counter(item) ". "; counter-increment: item }
The self-nesting is based on the principle that every element that has a
'counter-reset' for a counter X, creates a fresh counter X, the scope of
which is the element, its preceding siblings, and all the descendants of the
element and its preceding siblings.
In the example above, an OL will create a counter, and all children of the
OL will refer to that counter.
If we denote by item[n] the nth instance of the "item" counter, and by "("
and ")" the beginning and end of a scope, then the following HTML fragment
will use the indicated counters. (We assume the style sheet as given in the
example above).
<OL> <!-- (set item[0] to 0 -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[0] (= 1) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[0] (= 2) -->
<OL> <!-- (set item[1] to 0 -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[1] (= 1) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[1] (= 2) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[1] (= 3) -->
<OL> <!-- (set item[2] to 0 -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[2] (= 1) -->
</OL> <!-- ) -->
<OL> <!-- (set item[3] to 0 -->
<LI> <!-- increment item[3] (= 1) -->
</OL> <!-- ) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[1] (= 4) -->
</OL> <!-- ) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[0] (= 3) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[0] (= 4) -->
</OL> <!-- ) -->
<OL> <!-- (reset item[4] to 0 -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[4] (= 1) -->
<LI>item <!-- increment item[4] (= 2) -->
</OL> <!-- ) -->
The 'counters()' function generates a string composed of the values of all
counters with the same name, separated by a given string.
Example(s):
The following style sheet numbers nested list items as "1", "1.1", "1.1.1",
etc.
OL { counter-reset: item }
LI { display: block }
LI:before { content: counters(item, "."); counter-increment: item }
12.5.2 Counter styles
By default, counters are formatted with decimal numbers, but all the styles
available for the 'list-style-type' property are also available for
counters. The notation is:
counter(name)
for the default style, or:
counter(name, 'list-style-type')
All the styles are allowed, including 'disc', 'circle', 'square', and
'none'.
Example(s):
H1:before { content: counter(chno, upper-latin) ". " }
H2:before { content: counter(section, upper-roman) " - " }
BLOCKQUOTE:after { content: " [" counter(bq, hebrew) "]" }
DIV.note:before { content: counter(notecntr, disc) " " }
P:before { content: counter(p, none) }
12.5.3 Counters in elements with 'display: none'
An element that is not displayed ('display' set to 'none') cannot increment
or reset a counter.
Example(s):
For example, with the following style sheet, H2s with class "secret" do not
increment 'count2'.
H2.secret {counter-increment: count2; display: none}
Elements with 'visibility' set to 'hidden', on the other hand, do increment
counters.
12.6 Markers and lists
Most block-level elements in CSS generate one principal block box. In this
section, we discuss two CSS mechanisms that cause an element to generate two
boxes: one principal block box (for the element's content) and one separate
marker box (for decoration such as a bullet, image, or number). The marker
box may be positioned inside or outside the principal box. Unlike :before
and :after content, the marker box does not affect the position of the
principal box, whatever the positioning scheme.
The more general of the two mechanisms is new in CSS2 and is called markers.
The more limited mechanism involves the list properties of CSS1. The list
properties give authors quick results for many common ordered and unordered
list scenarios. However, markers give authors precise control over marker
content and position. Markers may be used with counters to create new list
styles, to number margin notes, and much more.
For instance, the following example illustrates how markers may be used to
add periods after each numbered list item. This HTML program and style
sheet:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Creating a list with markers</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
LI:before {
display: marker;
content: counter(mycounter, lower-roman) ".";
counter-increment: mycounter;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<OL>
<LI> This is the first item.
<LI> This is the second item.
<LI> This is the third item.
</OL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
should produce something like this:
i. This is the first item.
ii. This is the second item.
iii. This is the third item.
With descendant selectors and child selectors, it's possible to specify
different marker types depending on the depth of embedded lists.
12.6.1 Markers: the 'marker-offset' property
Markers are created by setting the 'display' property to 'marker' inside a
:before or :after pseudo-element. While 'block' and 'inline' :before and
:after content is part of the principal box generated by the element,
'marker' content is formatted in an independent marker box, outside the
principal box. Marker boxes are formatted as a single line (i.e., one line
box), so they are not as flexible as floats. The marker box is only created
if the 'content' property for the pseudo-element actually generates content.
Marker boxes have padding and borders, but no margins.
For the :before pseudo-element, the baseline of text in the marker box will
be vertically aligned with the baseline of text in the first line of content
in the principal box. If the principal box contains no text, the top outer
edge of the marker box will be aligned with the top outer edge of the
principal box. For the :after pseudo-element, the baseline of text in the
marker box will be vertically aligned with the baseline of text in the last
line of content in the principal box. If the principal box contains no text,
the bottom outer edge of the marker box will be aligned with the bottom
outer edge of the principal box.
The height of a marker box is given by the 'line-height' property. The
:before (:after) marker box participates in the height calculation of the
principal box's first (last) line box. Thus, markers are aligned with the
first and last line of an element's content, even though the marker boxes
live in distinct line boxes. If no first or last line box exists in a
principal box, the marker box establishes its line box alone.
The vertical alignment of a marker box within its line box is specified with
the 'vertical-align' property.
If the value of the 'width' property is 'auto', the marker box content width
is that of the content, otherwise it is the value of 'width'. For values of
'width' less than the content width, the 'overflow' property specifies
overflow behavior. Marker boxes may overlap principal boxes. For values of
'width' greater than the content width, the 'text-align' property determines
the horizontal alignment of the content in the marker box.
The 'marker-offset' property specifies the horizontal offset between a
marker box and the associated principal box. The distance is measured
between their nearest border edges. Note. If a marker flows to the right of
a float in a left-to-right formatting context, the principal box will flow
down the float's right side, but the marker boxes will appear to the left of
the float. Since the principal box left border edge lies to the left of the
float (see the description of floats), and marker boxes lie outside the
border edge of the principal box, the marker will also lie to the left of
the float. Analogous behavior applies for right-to-left formatting when a
marker flows to the left of a float.
When the 'display' property has the value 'marker' for content generated by
an element with 'display: list-item', a marker box generated for ':before'
replaces the normal list item marker.
In the following example, the content is centered within a marker box of a
fixed width. This document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Content alignment in the marker box</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
LI:before {
display: marker;
content: "(" counter(counter) ")";
counter-increment: counter;
width: 6em;
text-align: center;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<OL>
<LI> This is the first item.
<LI> This is the second item.
<LI> This is the third item.
</OL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
should produce something like this:
(1) This is the
first item.
(2) This is the
second item.
(3) This is the
third item.
The next example creates markers before and after list items.
This document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Markers before and after list items</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
@media screen, print {
LI:before {
display: marker;
content: url("smiley.gif");
LI:after {
display: marker;
content: url("sad.gif");
}
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<UL>
<LI>first list item comes first
<LI>second list item comes second
</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
should produce something like this (ascii art is used instead of smiley gif
images here):
:-) first list item
comes first :-(
:-) second list item
comes second :-(
The next example uses markers to number notes (paragraphs).
The following document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Markers to create numbered notes4>/TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
P { margin-left: 12 em; }
@media screen, print {
P.Note:before {
display: marker;
content: url("note.gif")
"Note " counter(note-counter) ":";
counter-increment: note-counter;
text-align: left;
width: 10em;
}
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>This is the first paragraph in this document.</P>
<P CLASS="Note">This is a very short document.</P>
<P>This is the end.</P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
should produce something like:
This is the first paragraph
in this document.
Note 1: This is a very short
document.
This is the end.
'marker-offset'
Value: <length> | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: elements with 'display: marker'
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies the distance between the nearest border edges of a
marker box and its associated principal box. The offset may either be a
user-specified (<length>) or chosen by the UA ('auto'). Lengths may be
negative, but there may be implementation-specific limits.
The following example illustrates how markers may be used to add periods
after each numbered list item. This HTML program and style sheet:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Marker example 5</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
P { margin-left: 8em } /* Make space for counters */
LI:before {
display: marker;
marker-offset: 3em;
content: counter(mycounter, lower-roman) ".";
counter-increment: mycounter;
}
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P> This is a long preceding paragraph ...
<OL>
<LI> This is the first item.
<LI> This is the second item.
<LI> This is the third item.
</OL>
<P> This is a long following paragraph ...
</BODY>
</HTML>
should produce something like this:
This is a long preceding
paragraph ...
i. This is the first item.
ii. This is the second item.
iii. This is the third item.
This is a long following
paragraph ...
12.6.2 Lists: the 'list-style-type', 'list-style-image',
'list-style-position', and 'list-style' properties
The list properties allow basic visual formatting of lists. As with more
general markers, a element with 'display: list-item' generates a principal
box for the element's content and an optional marker box. The other list
properties allow authors to specify the marker type (image, glyph, or
number) and its position with respect to the principal box (outside it or
within it before content). They do not allow authors to specify distinct
style (colors, fonts, alignment, etc.) for the list marker or adjust its
position with respect to the principal box.
Furthermore, when a marker M (created with 'display: marker') is used with a
list item created by the list properties, M replaces the standard list item
marker.
With the list properties, the background properties apply to the principal
box only; an 'outside' marker box is transparent. Markers offer more control
over marker box style.
'list-style-type'
Value: disc | circle | square | decimal | decimal-leading-zero
| lower-roman | upper-roman | lower-greek | lower-alpha
| lower-latin | upper-alpha | upper-latin | hebrew |
armenian | georgian | cjk-ideographic | hiragana |
katakana | hiragana-iroha | katakana-iroha | none |
inherit
Initial: disc
Applies to: elements with 'display: list-item'
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies appearance of the list item marker if
'list-style-image' has the value 'none' or if the image pointed to by the
URI cannot be displayed. The value 'none' specifies no marker, otherwise
there are three types of marker: glyphs, numbering systems, and alphabetic
systems. Note. Numbered lists improve document accessibility by making lists
easier to navigate.
Glyphs are specified with disc, circle, and square. Their exact rendering
depends on the user agent.
Numbering systems are specified with:
decimal
Decimal numbers, beginning with 1.
decimal-leading-zero
Decimal numbers padded by initial zeros (e.g., 01, 02, 03, ..., 98,
99).
lower-roman
Lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.).
upper-roman
Uppercase roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, V, etc.).
hebrew
Traditional Hebrew numbering.
georgian
Traditional Georgian numbering (an, ban, gan, ..., he, tan, in, in-an,
...).
armenian
Traditional Armenian numbering.
cjk-ideographic
Plain ideographic numbers
hiragana
a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ...
katakana
A, I, U, E, O, KA, KI, ...
hiragana-iroha
i, ro, ha, ni, ho, he, to, ...
katakana-iroha
I, RO, HA, NI, HO, HE, TO, ...
A user agent that does not recognize a numbering system should use
'decimal'.
Note. This document does not specify the exact mechanism of each numbering
system (e.g., how roman numerals are calculated). A future W3C Note may
provide further clarifications.
Alphabetic systems are specified with:
lower-latin or lower-alpha
Lowercase ascii letters (a, b, c, ... z).
upper-latin or upper-alpha
Uppercase ascii letters (A, B, C, ... Z).
lower-greek
Lowercase classical Greek alpha, beta, gamma, ... (?, ?, ?, ...)
This specification does not define how alphabetic systems wrap at the end of
the alphabet. For instance, after 26 list items, 'lower-latin' rendering is
undefined. Therefore, for long lists, we recommend that authors specify true
numbers.
For example, the following HTML document:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Lowercase latin numbering</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
OL { list-style-type: lower-roman }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<OL>
<LI> This is the first item.
<LI> This is the second item.
<LI> This is the third item.
</OL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
might produce something like this:
i This is the first item.
ii This is the second item.
iii This is the third item.
Note that the list marker alignment (here, right justified) depends on the
user agent.
Note. Future versions of CSS may provide more complete mechanisms for
international numbering styles.
'list-style-image'
Value: <uri> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: elements with 'display: list-item'
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property sets the image that will be used as the list item marker. When
the image is available, it will replace the marker set with the
'list-style-type' marker.
Example(s):
The following example sets the marker at the beginning of each list item to
be the image "ellipse.png".
UL { list-style-image: url("http://png.com/ellipse.png") }
'list-style-position'
Value: inside | outside | inherit
Initial: outside
Applies to: elements with 'display: list-item'
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies the position of the marker box in the principal
block box. Values have the following meanings:
outside
The marker box is outside the principal block box. Note. CSS1 did not
specify the precise location of the marker box and for reasons of
compatibility, CSS2 remains equally ambiguous. For more precise control
of marker boxes, please use markers.
inside
The marker box is the first inline box in the principal block box,
after which the element's content flows.
For example:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Comparison of inside/outside position</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
UL { list-style: outside }
UL.compact { list-style: inside }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<UL>
<LI>first list item comes first
<LI>second list item comes second
</UL>
<UL class="compact">
<LI>first list item comes first
<LI>second list item comes second
</UL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The above example may be formatted as:
[Difference between insideand outside list style position] [D]
In right-to-left text, the markers would have been on the right side of the
box.
'list-style'
Value: [ <'list-style-type'> || <'list-style-position'> ||
<'list-style-image'> ] | inherit
Initial: not defined for shorthand properties
Applies to: elements with 'display: list-item'
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'list-style' property is a shorthand notation for setting the three
properties 'list-style-type', 'list-style-image', and 'list-style-position'
at the same place in the style sheet.
Example(s):
UL { list-style: upper-roman inside } /* Any UL */
UL > UL { list-style: circle outside } /* Any UL child of a UL */
Although authors may specify 'list-style' information directly on list item
elements (e.g., LI in HTML), they should do so with care. The following
rules look similar, but the first declares a descendant selector and the
second a (more specific) child selector.
OL.alpha LI { list-style: lower-alpha } /* Any LI descendant of an OL */
OL.alpha > LI { list-style: lower-alpha } /* Any LI child of an OL */
Authors who use only the descendant selector may not achieve the results
they expect. Consider the following rules:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>WARNING: Unexpected results due to cascade</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
OL.alpha LI { list-style: lower-alpha }
UL LI { list-style: disc }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<OL class="alpha">
<LI>level 1
<UL>
<LI>level 2
</UL>
</OL>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The desired rendering would have level 1 list items with 'lower-alpha'
labels and level 2 items with 'disc' labels. However, the cascading order
will cause the first style rule (which includes specific class information)
to mask the second. The following rules solve the problem by employing a
child selector instead:
OL.alpha > LI { list-style: lower-alpha }
UL LI { list-style: disc }
Another solution would be to specify 'list-style' information only on the
list type elements:
OL.alpha { list-style: lower-alpha }
UL { list-style: disc }
Inheritance will transfer the 'list-style' values from OL and UL elements to
LI elements. This is the recommended way to specify list style information.
Example(s):
A URI value may be combined with any other value, as in:
UL { list-style: url("http://png.com/ellipse.png") disc }
In the example above, the 'disc' will be used when the image is unavailable.
A value of 'none' for the 'list-style' property sets both 'list-style-type'
and 'list-style-image' to 'none':
UL { list-style: none }
The result is that no list-item marker is displayed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 Paged media
Contents
* 13.1 Introduction to paged media
* 13.2 Page boxes: the @page rule
o 13.2.1 Page margins
o 13.2.2 Page size: the 'size' property
+ Rendering page boxes that do not fit a target sheet
+ Positioning the page box on the sheet
o 13.2.3 Crop marks: the 'marks' property
o 13.2.4 Left, right, and first pages
o 13.2.5 Content outside the page box
* 13.3 Page breaks
o 13.3.1 Break before/after elements: 'page-break-before',
'page-break-after', 'page-break-inside'
o 13.3.2 Using named pages: 'page'
o 13.3.3 Breaks inside elements: 'orphans', 'widows'
o 13.3.4 Allowed page breaks
o 13.3.5 Forced page breaks
o 13.3.6 "Best" page breaks
* 13.4 Cascading in the page context
13.1 Introduction to paged media
Paged media (e.g., paper, transparencies, pages that are displayed on
computer screens, etc.) differ from continuous media in that the content of
the document is split into one or more discrete pages. To handle page
breaks, CSS2 extends the visual formatting model as follows:
1. The page box extends the box model to allow authors to specify the size
of a page, its margins, etc.
2. The page model extends the visual formatting model to account for page
breaks.
The CSS2 page model specifies how a document is formatted within a
rectangular area -- the page box -- that has a finite width and height. The
page box does not necessarily correspond to the real sheet where the
document will ultimately be rendered (paper, transparency, screen, etc.).
The CSS page model specifies formatting in the page box, but it is the user
agent's responsibility to transfer the page box to the sheet. Some transfer
possibilities include:
* Transferring one page box to one sheet (e.g., single-sided printing).
* Transferring two page boxes to both sides of the same sheet (e.g.,
double-sided printing).
* Transferring N (small) page boxes to one sheet (called "n-up").
* Transferring one (large) page box to N x M sheets (called "tiling").
* Creating signatures. A signature is a group of pages printed on a
sheet, which, when folded and trimmed like a book, appear in their
proper sequence.
* Printing one document to several output trays.
* Outputting to a file.
Although CSS2 does not specify how user agents transfer page boxes to
sheets, it does include certain mechanisms for telling user agents about the
target sheet size and orientation.
13.2 Page boxes: the @page rule
The page box is a rectangular region that contains two areas:
* The page area. The page area includes the boxes laid out on that page.
The edges of the page area act as the initial containing block for
layout that occurs between page breaks.
* The margin area, which surrounds the page area.
Note. In CSS2, the border properties and padding properties do not apply to
pages; they may in the future.
Authors specify the dimensions, orientation, margins, etc. of a page box
within an @page rule. An @page rule consists of the keyword "@page", a page
selector (followed with no intervening space by an optional page
pseudo-class), and a block of declarations (said to be in the page context).
The page selector specifies for which pages the declarations apply. In CSS2,
page selectors may designate the first page, all left pages, all right
pages, or a page with a specific name.
The dimensions of the page box are set with the 'size' property. The
dimensions of the page area are the dimensions of the page box minus the
margin area.
Example(s):
For example, the following @page rule sets the page box size to 8.5 x 11
inches and creates '2cm' margin on all sides between the page box edge and
the page area:
@page { size 8.5in 11in; margin: 2cm }
The 'marks' property in an @page rule specifies crop and cross marks for the
page box.
13.2.1 Page margins
The margin properties ('margin-top', 'margin-right', 'margin-bottom',
'margin-left', and 'margin') apply within the page context. The following
diagram shows the relationships between the sheet, page box, and page
margins:
[Illustration of sheet, pagebox, margin, and page area.] [D]
The computed value of box margins at the top or bottom of the page area is
'0'.
The page context has no notion of fonts, so 'em' and 'ex' units are not
allowed. Percentage values on the margin properties are relative to the
dimensions of the page box; for left and right margins, they refer to page
box width while for top and bottom margins, they refer to page box height.
All other units associated with the respective CSS2 properties are allowed.
Due to negative margin values (either on the page box or on elements) or
absolute positioning content may end up outside the page box, but this
content may be "cut" -- by the user agent, the printer, or ultimately, the
paper cutter.
13.2.2 Page size: the 'size' property
'size'
Value: <length>{1,2} | auto | portrait | landscape | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: the page context
Inherited: N/A
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
This property specifies the size and orientation of a page box.
The size of a page box may either be "absolute" (fixed size) or "relative"
(scalable, i.e., fitting available sheet sizes). Relative page boxes allow
user agents to scale a document and make optimal use of the target size.
Three values for the 'size' property create a relative page box:
auto
The page box will be set to the size and orientation of the target
sheet.
landscape
Overrides the target's orientation. The page box is the same size as
the target, and the longer sides are horizontal.
portrait
Overrides the target's orientation. The page box is the same size as
the target, and the shorter sides are horizontal.
Example(s):
In the following example, the outer edges of the page box will align with
the target. The percentage value on the 'margin' property is relative to the
target size so if the target sheet dimensions are 21.0cm x 29.7cm (i.e.,
A4), the margins are 2.10cm and 2.97cm.
@page {
size: auto; /* auto is the initial value */
margin: 10%;
}
Length values for the 'size' property create an absolute page box. If only
one length value is specified, it sets both the width and height of the page
box (i.e., the box is a square). Since the page box is the initial
containing block, percentage values are not allowed for the 'size' property.
Example(s):
For example:
@page {
size: 8.5in 11in; /* width height */
}
The above example set the width of the page box to be 8.5in and the height
to be 11in. The page box in this example requires a target sheet size of
8.5"x11" or larger.
User agents may allow users to control the transfer of the page box to the
sheet (e.g., rotating an absolute page box that's being printed).
Rendering page boxes that do not fit a target sheet
If a page box does not fit the target sheet dimensions, the user agent may
choose to:
* Rotate the page box 90∞ if this will make the page box fit.
* Scale the page to fit the target.
The user agent should consult the user before performing these operations.
Positioning the page box on the sheet
When the page box is smaller than the target size, the user agent is free to
place the page box anywhere on the sheet. However, it is recommended that
the page box be centered on the sheet since this will align double-sided
pages and avoid accidental loss of information that is printed near the edge
of the sheet.
13.2.3 Crop marks: the 'marks' property
'marks'
Value: [ crop || cross ] | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: page context
Inherited: N/A
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
In high-quality printing, marks are often added outside the page box. This
property specifies whether cross marks or crop marks or both should be
rendered just outside the page box edge.
Crop marks indicate where the page should be cut. Cross marks (also known as
register marks or registration marks) are used to align sheets.
Marks are visible only on absolute page boxes (see the 'size' property). In
relative page boxes, the page box will be aligned with the target and the
marks will be outside the printable area.
The size, style, and position of cross marks depend on the user agent.
13.2.4 Left, right, and first pages
When printing double-sided documents, the page boxes on left and right pages
should be different. This can be expressed through two CSS pseudo-classes
that may be defined in the page context.
All pages are automatically classified by user agents into either the :left
or :right pseudo-class.
Example(s):
@page :left {
margin-left: 4cm;
margin-right: 3cm;
}
@page :right {
margin-left: 3cm;
margin-right: 4cm;
}
If different declarations have been given for left and right pages, the user
agent must honor these declarations even if the user agent does not transfer
the page boxes to left and right sheets (e.g., a printer that only prints
single-sided).
Authors may also specify style for the first page of a document with the
:first pseudo-class:
Example(s):
@page { margin: 2cm } /* All margins set to 2cm */
@page :first {
margin-top: 10cm /* Top margin on first page 10cm */
}
Whether the first page of a document is :left or :right depends on the major
writing direction of the document and is outside the scope of this document.
However, to force a :left or :right first page, authors may insert a page
break before the first generated box (e.g., in HTML, specify this for the
BODY element).
Properties specified in a :left (or :right) @page rule override those
specified in an @page rule that has no pseudo-class specified. Properties
specified in a :first @page rule override those specified in :left (or
:right) @page rules.
Note. Adding declarations to the :left or :right pseudo-class does not
influence whether the document comes out of the printer double- or
single-sided (which is outside the scope of this specification).
Note. Future versions of CSS may include other page pseudo-classes.
13.2.5 Content outside the page box
When formatting content in the page model, some content may end up outside
the page box. For example, an element whose 'white-space' property has the
value 'pre' may generate a box that is wider than the page box. Also, when
boxes are positioned absolutely, they may end up in "inconvenient"
locations. For example, images may be placed on the edge of the page box or
100,000 inches below the page box.
A specification for the exact formatting of such elements lies outside the
scope of this document. However, we recommend that authors and user agents
observe the following general principles concerning content outside the page
box:
* Content should be allowed slightly beyond the page box to allow pages
to "bleed".
* User agents should avoid generating a large number of empty page boxes
to honor the positioning of elements (e.g., you don't want to print 100
blank pages). Note, however, that generating a small number of empty
page boxes may be necessary to honor the 'left' and 'right' values for
'page-break-before' and 'page-break-after'.
* Authors should not position elements in inconvenient locations just to
avoid rendering them. Instead:
o To suppress box generation entirely, set the 'display' property to
'none'.
o To make a box invisible, use the 'visibility' property.
* User agents may handle boxes positioned outside the page box in several
ways, including discarding them or creating page boxes for them at the
end of the document.
13.3 Page breaks
The following sections explain page formatting in CSS2. Five properties
indicate where the user agent may or should break pages, and on what page
(left or right) the subsequent content should resume. Each page break ends
layout in the current page box and causes remaining pieces of the document
tree to be laid out in a new page box.
13.3.1 Break before/after elements: 'page-break-before', 'page-break-after',
'page-break-inside'
'page-break-before'
Value: auto | always | avoid | left | right | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
'page-break-after'
Value: auto | always | avoid | left | right | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
'page-break-inside'
Value: avoid | auto | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
Values for these properties have the following meanings:
auto
Neither force nor forbid a page break before (after, inside) the
generated box.
always
Always force a page break before (after) the generated box.
avoid
Avoid a page break before (after, inside) the generated box.
left
Force one or two page breaks before (after) the generated box so that
the next page is formatted as a left page.
right
Force one or two page breaks before (after) the generated box so that
the next page is formatted as a right page.
A potential page break location is typically under the influence of the
parent element's 'page-break-inside' property, the 'page-break-after'
property of the preceding element, and the 'page-break-before' property of
the following element. When these properties have values other than 'auto',
the values 'always', 'left', and 'right' take precedence over 'avoid'. See
the section on allowed page breaks for the exact rules on how these
properties may force or suppress a page break.
13.3.2 Using named pages: 'page'
'page'
Value: <identifier> | auto
Initial: auto
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
The 'page' property can be used to specify a particular type of page where
an element should be displayed.
Example(s):
This example will put all tables on a right-hand side landscape page (named
"rotated"):
@page rotated {size: landscape}
TABLE {page: rotated; page-break-before: right}
The 'page' property works as follows: If a block box with inline content has
a 'page' property that is different from the preceding block box with inline
content, then one or two page breaks are inserted between them, and the
boxes after the break are rendered on a page box of the named type. See
"Forced page breaks" below.
Example(s):
In this example, the two tables are rendered on landscape pages (indeed, on
the same page, if they fit), and the page type "narrow" is not used at all,
despite having been set on the DIV:
@page narrow {size: 9cm 18cm}
@page rotated {size: landscape}
DIV {page: narrow}
TABLE {page: rotated}
with this document::
<DIV>
<TABLE>...</TABLE>
<TABLE>...</TABLE>
</DIV>
13.3.3 Breaks inside elements: 'orphans', 'widows'
'orphans'
Value: <integer> | inherit
Initial: 2
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
'widows'
Value: <integer> | inherit
Initial: 2
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, paged
The 'orphans' property specifies the minimum number of lines of a paragraph
that must be left at the bottom of a page. The 'widows' property specifies
the minimum number of lines of a paragraph that must be left at the top of a
page. Examples of how they are used to control page breaks are given below.
For information about paragraph formatting, please consult the section on
line boxes.
13.3.4 Allowed page breaks
In the normal flow, page breaks can occur at the following places:
1. In the vertical margin between block boxes. When a page break occurs
here, the computed values of the relevant 'margin-top' and
'margin-bottom' properties are set to '0'.
2. Between line boxes inside a block box.
These breaks are subject to the following rules:
* Rule A: Breaking at (1) is allowed only if the 'page-break-after' and
'page-break-before' properties of all the elements generating boxes
that meet at this margin allow it, which is when at least one of them
has the value 'always', 'left', or 'right', or when all of them are
'auto'.
* Rule B: However, if all of them are 'auto' and the nearest common
ancestor of all the elements has a 'page-break-inside' value of
'avoid', then breaking here is not allowed.
* Rule C: Breaking at (2) is allowed only if the number of line boxes
between the break and the start of the enclosing block box is the value
of 'orphans' or more, and the number of line boxes between the break
and the end of the box is the value of 'widows' or more.
* Rule D: In addition, breaking at (2) is allowed only if the
'page-break-inside' property is 'auto'.
If the above doesn't provide enough break points to keep content from
overflowing the page boxes, then rules B and D are dropped in order to find
additional breakpoints.
If that still does not lead to sufficient break points, rules A and C are
dropped as well, to find still more break points.
Page breaks cannot occur inside boxes that are absolutely positioned.
13.3.5 Forced page breaks
A page break must occur at (1) if, among the 'page-break-after' and
'page-break-before' properties of all the elements generating boxes that
meet at this margin, there is at least one with the value 'always', 'left',
or 'right'.
A page break must also occur at (1) if the last line box above this margin
and the first one below it do not have the same value for 'page'.
13.3.6 "Best" page breaks
CSS2 does not define which of a set of allowed page breaks must be used;
CSS2 does not forbid a user agent from breaking at every possible break
point, or not to break at all. But CSS2 does recommend that user agents
observe the following heuristics (while recognizing that they are sometimes
contradictory):
* Break as few times as possible.
* Make all pages that don't end with a forced break appear to have about
the same height.
* Avoid breaking inside a block that has a border.
* Avoid breaking inside a table.
* Avoid breaking inside a floated element
Example(s):
Suppose, for example, that the style sheet contains 'orphans : 4', 'widows :
2', and there are 20 lines (line boxes) available at the bottom of the
current page:
* If a paragraph at the end of the current page contains 20 lines or
fewer, it should be placed on the current page.
* If the paragraph contains 21 or 22 lines, the second part of the
paragraph must not violate the 'widows' constraint, and so the second
part must contain exactly two lines
* If the paragraph contains 23 lines or more, the first part should
contain 20 lines and the second part the remaining lines.
Now suppose that 'orphans' is '10', 'widows' is '20', and there are 8 lines
available at the bottom of the current page:
* If a paragraph at the end of the current page contains 8 lines or
fewer, it should be placed on the current page.
* If the paragraph contains 9 lines or more, it cannot be split (that
would violate the orphan constraint), so it should move as a block to
the next page.
13.4 Cascading in the page context
Declarations in the page context obey the cascade just like normal CSS2
declarations.
Example(s):
Consider the following example:
@page {
margin-left: 3cm;
}
@page :left {
margin-left: 4cm;
}
Due to the higher specificity of the pseudo-class selector, the left margin
on left pages will be '4cm' and all other pages (i.e., the right pages) will
have a left margin of '3cm'.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
14 Colors and Backgrounds
Contents
* 14.1 Foreground color: the 'color' property
* 14.2 The background
o 14.2.1 Background properties: 'background-color',
'background-image', 'background-repeat', 'background-attachment',
'background-position', and 'background'
* 14.3 Gamma correction
CSS properties allow authors to specify the foreground color and background
of an element. Backgrounds may be colors or images. Background properties
allow authors to position a background image, repeat it, and declare whether
it should be fixed with respect to the viewport or scrolled along with the
document.
See the section on color units for the syntax of valid color values.
14.1 Foreground color: the 'color' property
'color'
Value: <color> | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property describes the foreground color of an element's text content.
There are different ways to specify red:
Example(s):
EM { color: red } /* predefined color name */
EM { color: rgb(255,0,0) } /* RGB range 0-255 */
14.2 The background
Authors may specify the background of an element (i.e., its rendering
surface) as either a color or an image. In terms of the box model,
"background" refers to the background of the content and the padding areas.
Border colors and styles are set with the border properties. Margins are
always transparent so the background of the parent box always shines
through.
Background properties are not inherited, but the parent box's background
will shine through by default because of the initial 'transparent' value on
'background-color'.
The background of the box generated by the root element covers the entire
canvas.
For HTML documents, however, we recommend that authors specify the
background for the BODY element rather than the HTML element. User agents
should observe the following precedence rules to fill in the background: if
the value of the 'background' property for the HTML element is different
from 'transparent' then use it, else use the value of the 'background'
property for the BODY element. If the resulting value is 'transparent', the
rendering is undefined.
According to these rules, the canvas underlying the following HTML document
will have a "marble" background:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Setting the canvas background</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
BODY { background: url("http://style.com/marble.png") }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>My background is marble.
</BODY>
</HTML>
14.2.1 Background properties: 'background-color', 'background-image',
'background-repeat', 'background-attachment', 'background-position', and
'background'
'background-color'
Value: <color> | transparent | inherit
Initial: transparent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property sets the background color of an element, either a <color>
value or the keyword 'transparent', to make the underlying colors shine
through.
Example(s):
H1 { background-color: #F00 }
'background-image'
Value: <uri> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property sets the background image of an element. When setting a
background image, authors should also specify a background color that will
be used when the image is unavailable. When the image is available, it is
rendered on top of the background color. (Thus, the color is visible in the
transparent parts of the image).
Values for this property are either <uri>, to specify the image, or 'none',
when no image is used.
Example(s):
BODY { background-image: url("marble.gif") }
P { background-image: none }
'background-repeat'
Value: repeat | repeat-x | repeat-y | no-repeat | inherit
Initial: repeat
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
If a background image is specified, this property specifies whether the
image is repeated (tiled), and how. All tiling covers the content and
padding areas of a box. Values have the following meanings:
repeat
The image is repeated both horizontally and vertically.
repeat-x
The image is repeated horizontally only.
repeat-y
The image is repeated vertically only.
no-repeat
The image is not repeated: only one copy of the image is drawn.
Example(s):
BODY {
background: white url("pendant.gif");
background-repeat: repeat-y;
background-position: center;
}
[A centered background image,with copies repeated up and down the padding and content areas.] [D]
One copy of the background image is centered, and other copies are put above
and below it to make a vertical band behind the element.
'background-attachment'
Value: scroll | fixed | inherit
Initial: scroll
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
If a background image is specified, this property specifies whether it is
fixed with regard to the viewport ('fixed') or scrolls along with the
document ('scroll').
Even if the image is fixed, it is still only visible when it is in the
background or padding area of the element. Thus, unless the image is tiled
('background-repeat: repeat'), it may be invisible.
Example(s):
This example creates an infinite vertical band that remains "glued" to the
viewport when the element is scrolled.
BODY {
background: red url("pendant.gif");
background-repeat: repeat-y;
background-attachment: fixed;
}
User agents may treat 'fixed' as 'scroll'. However, it is recommended they
interpret 'fixed' correctly, at least for the HTML and BODY elements, since
there is no way for an author to provide an image only for those browsers
that support 'fixed'. See the section on conformance for details.
'background-position'
Value: [ [<percentage> | <length> ]{1,2} | [ [top | center |
bottom] || [left | center | right] ] ] | inherit
Initial: 0% 0%
Applies to: block-level and replaced elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: refer to the size of the box itself
Media: visual
If a background image has been specified, this property specifies its
initial position. Values have the following meanings:
<percentage> <percentage>
With a value pair of '0% 0%', the upper left corner of the image is
aligned with the upper left corner of the box's padding edge. A value
pair of '100% 100%' places the lower right corner of the image in the
lower right corner of padding area. With a value pair of '14% 84%', the
point 14% across and 84% down the image is to be placed at the point
14% across and 84% down the padding area.
<length> <length>
With a value pair of '2cm 2cm', the upper left corner of the image is
placed 2cm to the right and 2cm below the upper left corner of the
padding area.
top left and left top
Same as '0% 0%'.
top, top center, and center top
Same as '50% 0%'.
right top and top right
Same as '100% 0%'.
left, left center, and center left
Same as '0% 50%'.
center and center center
Same as '50% 50%'.
right, right center, and center right
Same as '100% 50%'.
bottom left and left bottom
Same as '0% 100%'.
bottom, bottom center, and center bottom
Same as '50% 100%'.
bottom right and right bottom
Same as '100% 100%'.
If only one percentage or length value is given, it sets the horizontal
position only, the vertical position will be 50%. If two values are given,
the horizontal position comes first. Combinations of length and percentage
values are allowed, (e.g., '50% 2cm'). Negative positions are allowed.
Keywords cannot be combined with percentage values or length values (all
possible combinations are given above).
Example(s):
BODY { background: url("banner.jpeg") right top } /* 100% 0% */
BODY { background: url("banner.jpeg") top center } /* 50% 0% */
BODY { background: url("banner.jpeg") center } /* 50% 50% */
BODY { background: url("banner.jpeg") bottom } /* 50% 100% */
If the background image is fixed within the viewport (see the
'background-attachment' property), the image is placed relative to the
viewport instead of the element's padding area. For example,
Example(s):
BODY {
background-image: url("logo.png");
background-attachment: fixed;
background-position: 100% 100%;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
In the example above, the (single) image is placed in the lower-right corner
of the viewport.
'background'
Value: [<'background-color'> || <'background-image'> ||
<'background-repeat'> || <'background-attachment'> ||
<'background-position'>] | inherit
Initial: not defined for shorthand properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: allowed on 'background-position'
Media: visual
The 'background' property is a shorthand property for setting the individual
background properties (i.e., 'background-color', 'background-image',
'background-repeat', 'background-attachment' and 'background-position') at
the same place in the style sheet.
The 'background' property first sets all the individual background
properties to their initial values, then assigns explicit values given in
the declaration.
Example(s):
In the first rule of the following example, only a value for
'background-color' has been given and the other individual properties are
set to their initial value. In the second rule, all individual properties
have been specified.
BODY { background: red }
P { background: url("chess.png") gray 50% repeat fixed }
14.3 Gamma correction
For information about gamma issues, please consult the the Gamma Tutorial in
the PNG specification ([PNG10]).
In the computation of gamma correction, UAs displaying on a CRT may assume
an ideal CRT and ignore any effects on apparent gamma caused by dithering.
That means the minimal handling they need to do on current platforms is:
PC using MS-Windows
none
Unix using X11
none
Mac using QuickDraw
apply gamma 1.45 [ICC32] (ColorSync-savvy applications may simply pass
the sRGB ICC profile to ColorSync to perform correct color correction)
SGI using X
apply the gamma value from /etc/config/system.glGammaVal (the default
value being 1.70; applications running on Irix 6.2 or above may simply
pass the sRGB ICC profile to the color management system)
NeXT using NeXTStep
apply gamma 2.22
"Applying gamma" means that each of the three R, G and B must be converted
to R'=Rgamma, G'=Ggamma, B'=Bgamma, before being handed to the OS.
This may rapidly be done by building a 256-element lookup table once per
browser invocation thus:
for i := 0 to 255 do
raw := i / 255.0;
corr := pow (raw, gamma);
table[i] := trunc (0.5 + corr * 255.0)
end
which then avoids any need to do transcendental math per color attribute,
far less per pixel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
15 Fonts
Contents
* 15.1 Introduction
* 15.2 Font specification
o 15.2.1 Font specification properties
o 15.2.2 Font family: the 'font-family' property
o 15.2.3 Font styling: the 'font-style', 'font-variant',
'font-weight' and 'font-stretch' properties
o 15.2.4 Font size: the 'font-size' and 'font-size-adjust'
properties
o 15.2.5 Shorthand font property: the 'font' property
o 15.2.6 Generic font families
+ serif
+ sans-serif
+ cursive
+ fantasy
+ monospace
* 15.3 Font selection
o 15.3.1 Font Descriptions and @font-face
o 15.3.2 Descriptors for Selecting a Font: 'font-family',
'font-style', 'font-variant', 'font-weight', 'font-stretch' and
'font-size'
o 15.3.3 Descriptors for Font Data Qualification: 'unicode-range'
o 15.3.4 Descriptor for Numeric Values: 'units-per-em'
o 15.3.5 Descriptor for Referencing: 'src'
o 15.3.6 Descriptors for Matching: 'panose-1', 'stemv', 'stemh',
'slope', 'cap-height', 'x-height', 'ascent', and 'descent'
o 15.3.7 Descriptors for Synthesis: 'widths', 'bbox' and
'definition-src'
o 15.3.8 Descriptors for Alignment: 'baseline', 'centerline',
'mathline', and 'topline'
o 15.3.9 Examples
* 15.4 Font Characteristics
o 15.4.1 Introducing Font Characteristics
o 15.4.2 Full font name
o 15.4.3 Coordinate units on the em square
o 15.4.4 Central Baseline
o 15.4.5 Font Encoding
o 15.4.6 Font family name
o 15.4.7 Glyph widths
o 15.4.8 Horizontal stem width
o 15.4.9 Height of uppercase glyphs
o 15.4.10 Height of lowercase glyphs
o 15.4.11 Lower Baseline
o 15.4.12 Mathematical Baseline
o 15.4.13 Maximal bounding box
o 15.4.14 Maximum unaccented height
o 15.4.15 Maximum unaccented depth
o 15.4.16 Panose-1 number
o 15.4.17 Range of ISO 10646 characters
o 15.4.18 Top Baseline
o 15.4.19 Vertical stem width
o 15.4.20 Vertical stroke angle
* 15.5 Font matching algorithm
o 15.5.1 Mapping font weight values to font names
o 15.5.2 Examples of font matching
15.1 Introduction
When a document's text is to be displayed visually, characters (abstract
information elements) must be mapped to abstract glyphs. One or more
characters may be depicted by one or more abstract glyphs, in a possibly
context-dependent fashion. A glyph is the actual artistic representation of
an abstract glyph, in some typographic style, in the form of outlines or
bitmaps that may be drawn on the screen or paper. A font is a set of glyphs,
all observing the same basic motif according to design, size, appearance,
and other attributes associated with the entire set, and a mapping from
characters to abstract glyphs.
A visual user agent must address the following issues before actually
rendering a character:
* Is there, directly or by inheritance, a font specified for this
character?
* Does the user agent have this font available?
* If so, what glyph(s) does this character or sequence of characters map
to?
* If not, what should be done? Should a different font be substituted?
Can the font be synthesized? Can it be retrieved from the Web?
In both CSS1 and CSS2, authors specify font characteristics via a series of
font properties.
How the user agent handles these properties, when there is no matching font
on the client has expanded between CSS1 and CSS2. In CSS1, all fonts were
assumed to be present on the client system and were identified solely by
name. Alternate fonts could be specified through the properties, but beyond
that, user agents had no way to propose other fonts to the user (even
stylistically similar fonts that the user agent had available) other than
generic default fonts.
CSS2 changes all that, and allows much greater liberty for:
* style sheet authors, to describe the fonts they want to be used
* user agents, in selecting a font when an author's requested font is not
immediately available.
CSS2 improves client-side font matching, enables font synthesis and
progressive rendering, and enables fonts to be downloaded over the Web.
These enhanced capabilities are referred to as 'WebFonts'
In the CSS2 font model, as in CSS1, each user agent has a "font database" at
its disposition. CSS1 referred to this database but gave no details about
what was in it. CSS2 defines the information in that database and allows
style sheet authors to contribute to it. When asked to display a character
with a particular font, the user agent first identifies the font in the
database that "best fits" the specified font (according to the font matching
algorithm) Once it has identified a font, it retrieves the font data locally
or from the Web, and may display the character using those glyphs.
In light of this model, we have organized the specification into two
sections. The first concerns the font specification mechanism, whereby
authors specify which fonts they would like to have used. The second
concerns the font selection mechanism, whereby the client's user agent
identifies and loads a font that best fits the author's specification.
How the user agent constructs the font database lies outside the scope of
this specification since the database's implementation depends on such
factors as the operating system, the windowing system, and the client.
15.2 Font specification
The first phase of the CSS font mechanism concerns how style sheet authors
specify which fonts should be used by a user agent. At first, it seem that
the obvious way to specify a font is by it's name, a single string - which
appears to be separated into distinct parts; for example "BT Swiss 721 Heavy
Italic".
Unfortunately, there exists no well-defined and universally accepted
taxonomy for classifying fonts based on their names, and terms that apply to
one font family name may not be appropriate for others. For example, the
term 'italic' is commonly used to label slanted text, but slanted text may
also be labeled Oblique, Slanted, Incline, Cursive, or Kursiv. Similarly,
font names typically contain terms that describe the "weight" of a font. The
primary role of these names is to distinguish faces of differing darkness
within a single font family. There is no accepted, universal meaning to
these weight names and usage varies widely. For example a font that you
might think of as being bold might be described as being Regular, Roman,
Book, Medium, Semi- or Demi-Bold, Bold, or Black, depending on how black the
"normal" face of the font is within the design.
This lack of systematic naming makes it impossible, in the general case, to
generate a modified font face name that differs in a particular way, such as
being bolder.
Because of this, CSS uses a different model. Fonts are requested not through
a single font name but through setting a series of font properties. These
property values form the basis of the user agent's font selection mechanism.
The font properties can be individually modified, for example to increase
the boldness, and the new set of font property values will then be used to
select from the font database again. The result is an increase in regularity
for style sheet authors and implementors, and an increase in robustness.
15.2.1 Font specification properties
CSS2 specifies fonts according to these characteristics:
Font family
The font family specifies which font family is to be used to render the
text. A font family is a group of fonts,designed to be used in
combination and exhibiting similarities in design. One member of the
family may be italic, another bold, another condensed or using small
caps. Font family names include "Helvetica", "New Century Schoolbook",
and "Kyokasho ICA L". Font family names are not restricted to Latin
characters. Font families may be grouped into different categories:
those with or without serifs, those whose characters are or are not
proportionally spaced, those that resemble handwriting, those that are
fantasy fonts, etc.
Font style
The font style specifies whether the text is to be rendered using a
normal, italic, or oblique face. Italic is a more cursive companion
face to the normal face, but not so cursive as to make it a script
face. Oblique is a slanted form of the normal face, and is more
commonly used as a companion face to sans-serif. This definition avoids
having to label slightly slanted normal faces as oblique, or normal
Greek faces as italic.
Font variant
The font variant indicates whether the text is to be rendered using the
normal glyphs for lowercase characters or using small-caps glyphs for
lowercase characters. A particular font may contain only normal, only
small-caps, or both types of glyph; this property is used to request an
appropriate font and, if the font contains both variants, the
appropriate glyphs.
Font weight
The font weight refers to the boldness or lightness of the glyphs used
to render the text, relative to other fonts in the same font family.
Font stretch
The font stretch indicates the desired amount of condensing or
expansion in the glyphs used to render the text, relative to other
fonts in the same font family.
Font size
The font size refers to the size of the font from baseline to baseline,
when set solid (in CSS terms, this is when the 'font-size' and
'line-height' properties have the same value).
On all properties except 'font-size', 'em' and 'ex' length values refer to
the font size of the current element. For 'font-size', these length units
refer to the font size of the parent element. Please consult the section on
length units for more information.
The CSS font properties are used to describe the desired appearance of text
in the document. The font descriptors, in contrast, are used to describe the
characteristics of fonts, so that a suitable font can be chosen to create
the desired appearance. For information about the classification of fonts,
please consult the section on font descriptors.
15.2.2 Font family: the 'font-family' property
'font-family'
Value: [[ <family-name> | <generic-family> ],]* [<family-name>
| <generic-family>] | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies a prioritized list of font family names and/or
generic family names. To deal with the problem that a single font may not
contain glyphs to display all the characters in a document, or that not all
fonts are available on all systems, this property allows authors to specify
a list of fonts, all of the same style and size, that are tried in sequence
to see if they contain a glyph for a certain character. This list is called
a font set.
Example(s):
For example, text that contains English words mixed with mathematical
symbols may need a font set of two fonts, one containing Latin letters and
digits, the other containing mathematical symbols. Here is an example of a
font set suitable for a text that is expected to contain text with Latin
characters, Japanese characters, and mathematical symbols:
BODY { font-family: Baskerville, "Heisi Mincho W3", Symbol, serif }
The glyphs available in the "Baskerville" font (a font that covers only
Latin characters) will be taken from that font, Japanese glyphs will be
taken from "Heisi Mincho W3", and the mathematical symbol glyphs will come
from "Symbol". Any others will come from the generic font family 'serif'.
The generic font family will be used if one or more of the other fonts in a
font set is unavailable. Although many fonts provide the "missing character"
glyph, typically an open box, as its name implies this should not be
considered a match except for the last font in a font set.
There are two types of font family names:
<family-name>
The name of a font family of choice. In the previous example,
"Baskerville", "Heisi Mincho W3", and "Symbol" are font families. Font
family names containing whitespace should be quoted. If quoting is
omitted, any whitespace characters before and after the font name are
ignored and any sequence of whitespace characters inside the font name
is converted to a single space.
<generic-family>
The following generic families are defined: 'serif', 'sans-serif',
'cursive', 'fantasy', and 'monospace'. Please see the section on
generic font families for descriptions of these families. Generic font
family names are keywords, and therefore must not be quoted.
Authors are encouraged to offer a generic font family as a last
alternative, for improved robustness.
For example:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Font test</TITLE>
<STYLE type="text/css">
BODY { font-family: "new century schoolbook", serif }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1 style="font-family: 'My own font', fantasy">Test</H1>
<P>What's up, Doc?
</BODY>
</HTML>
Example(s):
The richer selector syntax of CSS2 may be used to create language-sensitive
typography. For example, some Chinese and Japanese characters are unified to
have the same Unicode codepoint, although the abstract glyphs are not the
same in the two languages.
*:lang(ja-jp) { font: 900 14pt/16pt "Heisei Mincho W9", serif }
*:lang(zh-tw) { font: 800 14pt/16.5pt "Li Sung", serif }
This selects any element that has the given language - Japanese or
Traditional Chinese - and requests the appropriate font.
15.2.3 Font styling: the 'font-style', 'font-variant', 'font-weight' and
'font-stretch' properties
'font-style'
Value: normal | italic | oblique | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'font-style' property requests normal (sometimes referred to as "roman"
or "upright"), italic, and oblique faces within a font family. Values have
the following meanings:
normal
Specifies a font that is classified as 'normal' in the UA's font
database.
oblique
Specifies a font that is classified as 'oblique' in the UA's font
database. Fonts with Oblique, Slanted, or Incline in their names will
typically be labeled 'oblique' in the font database. A font that is
labeled 'oblique' in the UA's font database may actually have been
generated by electronically slanting a normal font.
italic
Specifies a font that is classified as 'italic' in the UA's font
database, or, if that is not available, one labeled 'oblique'. Fonts
with Italic, Cursive, or Kursiv in their names will typically be
labeled 'italic'.
Example(s):
In this example, normal text in an H1, H2, or H3 element will be displayed
with an italic font. However, emphasized text (EM) within an H1 will appear
in a normal face.
H1, H2, H3 { font-style: italic }
H1 EM { font-style: normal }
'font-variant'
Value: normal | small-caps | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
In a small-caps font, the glyphs for lowercase letters look similar to the
uppercase ones, but in a smaller size and with slightly different
proportions. The 'font-variant' property requests such a font for bicameral
(having two cases, as with Latin script). This property has no visible
effect for scripts that are unicameral (having only one case, as with most
of the world's writing systems). Values have the following meanings:
normal
Specifies a font that is not labeled as a small-caps font.
small-caps
Specifies a font that is labeled as a small-caps font. If a genuine
small-caps font is not available, user agents should simulate a
small-caps font, for example by taking a normal font and replacing the
lowercase letters by scaled uppercase characters. As a last resort,
unscaled uppercase letter glyphs in a normal font may replace glyphs in
a small-caps font so that the text appears in all uppercase letters.
Example(s):
The following example results in an H3 element in small-caps, with
emphasized words (EM) in oblique small-caps:
H3 { font-variant: small-caps }
EM { font-style: oblique }
Insofar as this property causes text to be transformed to uppercase, the
same considerations as for 'text-transform' apply.
'font-weight'
Value: normal | bold | bolder | lighter | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400
| 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'font-weight' property specifies the weight of the font. Values have the
following meanings:
100 to 900
These values form an ordered sequence, where each number indicates a
weight that is at least as dark as its predecessor.
normal
Same as '400'.
bold
Same as '700'.
bolder
Specifies the next weight that is assigned to a font that is darker
than the inherited one. If there is no such weight, it simply results
in the next darker numerical value (and the font remains unchanged),
unless the inherited value was '900', in which case the resulting
weight is also '900'.
lighter
Specifies the next weight that is assigned to a font that is lighter
than the inherited one. If there is no such weight, it simply results
in the next lighter numerical value (and the font remains unchanged),
unless the inherited value was '100', in which case the resulting
weight is also '100'.
Example(s):
P { font-weight: normal } /* 400 */
H1 { font-weight: 700 } /* bold */
BODY { font-weight: 400 }
STRONG { font-weight: bolder } /* 500 if available */
Child elements inherit the computed value of the weight.
'font-stretch'
Value: normal | wider | narrower | ultra-condensed |
extra-condensed | condensed | semi-condensed |
semi-expanded | expanded | extra-expanded |
ultra-expanded | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'font-stretch' property selects a normal, condensed, or extended face
from a font family. Absolute keyword values have the following ordering,
from narrowest to widest :
1. ultra-condensed
2. extra-condensed
3. condensed
4. semi-condensed
5. normal
6. semi-expanded
7. expanded
8. extra-expanded
9. ultra-expanded
The relative keyword 'wider' sets the value to the next expanded value above
the inherited value (while not increasing it above 'ultra-expanded'); the
relative keyword 'narrower' sets the value to the next condensed value below
the inherited value (while not decreasing it below 'ultra-condensed').
15.2.4 Font size: the 'font-size' and 'font-size-adjust' properties
'font-size'
Value: <absolute-size> | <relative-size> | <length> |
<percentage> | inherit
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes, the computed value is inherited
Percentages: refer to parent element's font size
Media: visual
This property describes the size of the font when set solid. Values have the
following meanings:
<absolute-size>
An <absolute-size> keyword refers to an entry in a table of font sizes
computed and kept by the user agent. Possible values are:
[ xx-small | x-small | small | medium | large | x-large | xx-large ]
On a computer screen a scaling factor of 1.2 is suggested between
adjacent indexes; if the 'medium' font is 12pt, the 'large' font could
be 14.4pt. Different media may need different scaling factors. Also,
the user agent should take the quality and availability of fonts into
account when computing the table. The table may be different from one
font family to another.
Note. In CSS1, the suggested scaling factor between adjacent indexes
was 1.5 which user experience proved to be too large.
<relative-size>
A <relative-size> keyword is interpreted relative to the table of font
sizes and the font size of the parent element. Possible values are:
[ larger | smaller ]
For example, if the parent element has a font size of 'medium', a value
of 'larger' will make the font size of the current element be 'large'.
If the parent element's size is not close to a table entry, the user
agent is free to interpolate between table entries or round off to the
closest one. The user agent may have to extrapolate table values if the
numerical value goes beyond the keywords.
<length>
A length value specifies an absolute font size (that is independent of
the user agent's font table). Negative lengths are illegal.
<percentage>
A percentage value specifies an absolute font size relative to the
parent element's font size. Use of percentage values, or values in
'em's, leads to more robust and cascadable style sheets.
The actual value of this property may differ from the computed value due a
numerical value on 'font-size-adjust' and the unavailability of certain font
sizes.
Child elements inherit the computed 'font-size' value (otherwise, the effect
of 'font-size-adjust' would compound).
Example(s):
P { font-size: 12pt; }
BLOCKQUOTE { font-size: larger }
EM { font-size: 150% }
EM { font-size: 1.5em }
'font-size-adjust'
Value: <number> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
In bicameral scripts, the subjective apparent size and legibility of a font
are less dependent on their 'font-size' value than on the value of their
'x-height', or, more usefully, on the ratio of these two values, called the
aspect value (font size divided by x-height). The higher the aspect value,
the more likely it is that a font at smaller sizes will be legible.
Inversely, faces with a lower aspect value will become illegible more
rapidly below a given threshold size than faces with a higher aspect value.
Straightforward font substitution that relies on font size alone may lead to
illegible characters.
For example, the popular font Verdana has an aspect value of 0.58; when
Verdana's font size 100 units, its x-height is 58 units. For comparison,
Times New Roman has an aspect value of 0.46. Verdana will therefore tend to
remain legible at smaller sizes than Times New Roman. Conversely, Verdana
will often look 'too big' if substituted for Times New Roman at a chosen
size.
This property allows authors to specify an aspect value for an element that
will preserve the x-height of the first choice font in the substitute font.
Values have the following meanings:
none
Do not preserve the font's x-height.
<number>
Specifies the aspect value. The number refers to the aspect value of
the first choice font. The scaling factor for available fonts is
computed according to the following formula:
y(a/a') = c
where:
y = 'font-size' of first-choice font
a' = aspect value of available font
c = 'font-size' to apply to available font
Example(s):
For example, if 14px Verdana (with an aspect value of 0.58) was unavailable
and an available font had an aspect value of 0.46, the font-size of the
substitute would be 14 * (0.58/0.46) = 17.65px.
Font size adjustments take place when computing the actual value of
'font-size'. Since inheritance is based on the computed value, child
elements will inherit unadjusted values.
The first image below shows several typefaces rasterized at a common font
size (11pt. at 72 ppi), together with their aspect values. Note that faces
with higher aspect values appear larger than those with lower. Faces with
very low aspect values are illegible at the size shown.
[Comparison of 12 point fonts]
The next image shows the results of 'font-size-adjust' where Verdana has
been taken as the"first choice", together with the scaling factor applied.
As adjusted, the apparent sizes are nearly linear across faces, though the
actual (em) sizes vary by more than 100%. Note that 'font-size-adjust' tends
to stabilize the horizontal metrics of lines, as well.
[Comparison of font-adjusted fonts]
15.2.5 Shorthand font property: the 'font' property
'font'
Value: [ [ <'font-style'> || <'font-variant'> ||
<'font-weight'> ]? <'font-size'> [ / <'line-height'> ]?
<'font-family'> ] | caption | icon | menu | message-box
| small-caption | status-bar | inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: allowed on 'font-size' and 'line-height'
Media: visual
The 'font' property is, except as described below, a shorthand property for
setting 'font-style', 'font-variant', 'font-weight', 'font-size',
'line-height', and 'font-family', at the same place in the style sheet. The
syntax of this property is based on a traditional typographical shorthand
notation to set multiple properties related to fonts.
All font-related properties are first reset to their initial values,
including those listed in the preceding paragraph plus 'font-stretch' and
'font-size-adjust'. Then, those properties that are given explicit values in
the 'font' shorthand are set to those values. For a definition of allowed
and initial values, see the previously defined properties. For reasons of
backwards compatibility, it is not possible to set 'font-stretch' and
'font-size-adjust' to other than their initial values using the 'font'
shorthand property; instead, set the individual properties.
Example(s):
P { font: 12pt/14pt sans-serif }
P { font: 80% sans-serif }
P { font: x-large/110% "new century schoolbook", serif }
P { font: bold italic large Palatino, serif }
P { font: normal small-caps 120%/120% fantasy }
P { font: oblique 12pt "Helvetica Nue", serif; font-stretch: condensed }
In the second rule, the font size percentage value ('80%') refers to the
font size of the parent element. In the third rule, the line height
percentage ('110%') refers to the font size of the element itself.
The first three rules do not specify the 'font-variant' and 'font-weight'
explicitly, so these properties receive their initial values ('normal').
Notice that the font family name "new century schoolbook", which contains
spaces, is enclosed in quotes. The fourth rule sets the 'font-weight' to
'bold', the 'font-style' to 'italic', and implicitly sets 'font-variant' to
'normal'.
The fifth rule sets the 'font-variant' ('small-caps'), the 'font-size' (120%
of the parent's font size), the 'line-height' (120% of the font size) and
the 'font-family' ('fantasy'). It follows that the keyword 'normal' applies
to the two remaining properties: 'font-style' and 'font-weight'.
The sixth rule sets the 'font-style', 'font-size', and 'font-family', the
other font properties being set to their initial values. It then sets
'font-stretch' to 'condensed' since that property cannot be set to that
value using the 'font' shorthand property.
The following values refer to system fonts:
caption
The font used for captioned controls (e.g., buttons, drop-downs, etc.).
icon
The font used to label icons.
menu
The font used in menus (e.g., dropdown menus and menu lists).
message-box
The font used in dialog boxes.
small-caption
The font used for labeling small controls.
status-bar
The font used in window status bars.
System fonts may only be set as a whole; that is, the font family, size,
weight, style, etc. are all set at the same time.These values may then be
altered individually if desired. If no font with the indicated
characteristics exists on a given platform, the user agent should either
intelligently substitute (e.g., a smaller version of the 'caption' font
might be used for the 'smallcaption' font), or substitute a user agent
default font. As for regular fonts, if, for a system font, any of the
individual properties are not part of the operating system's available user
preferences, those properties should be set to their initial values.
That is why this property is "almost" a shorthand property: system fonts can
only be specified with this property, not with 'font-family' itself, so
'font' allows authors to do more than the sum of its subproperties. However,
the individual properties such as 'font-weight' are still given values taken
from the system font, which can be independently varied.
Example(s):
BUTTON { font: 300 italic 1.3em/1.7em "FB Armada", sans-serif }
BUTTON P { font: menu }
BUTTON P EM { font-weight: bolder }
If the font used for dropdown menus on a particular system happened to be,
for example, 9-point Charcoal, with a weight of 600, then P elements that
were descendants of BUTTON would be displayed as if this rule were in
effect:
BUTTON P { font: 600 9pt Charcoal }
Because the 'font' shorthand resets to its initial value any property not
explicitly given a value, this has the same effect as this declaration:
BUTTON P {
font-style: normal;
font-variant: normal;
font-weight: 600;
font-size: 9pt;
line-height: normal;
font-family: Charcoal
}
15.2.6 Generic font families
Generic font families are a fallback mechanism, a means of preserving some
of the style sheet author's intent in the worst case when none of the
specified fonts can be selected. For optimum typographic control, particular
named fonts should be used in style sheets.
All five generic font families are defined to exist in all CSS
implementations (they need not necessarily map to five distinct actual
fonts). User agents should provide reasonable default choices for the
generic font families, which express the characteristics of each family as
well as possible within the limits allowed by the underlying technology.
User agents are encouraged to allow users to select alternative choices for
the generic fonts.
serif
Glyphs of serif fonts, as the term is used in CSS, have finishing strokes,
flared or tapering ends, or have actual serifed endings (including slab
serifs). Serif fonts are typically proportionately-spaced. They often
display a greater variation between thick and thin strokes than fonts from
the 'sans-serif' generic font family. CSS uses the term 'serif' to apply to
a font for any script, although other names may be more familiar for
particular scripts, such as Mincho (Japanese), Sung or Song (Chinese), Totum
or Kodig (Korean). Any font that is so described may be used to represent
the generic 'serif' family.
Examples of fonts that fit this description include:
Latin fonts Times New Roman, Bodoni, Garamond, Minion Web, ITC Stone
Serif, MS Georgia, Bitstream Cyberbit
Greek fonts Bitstream Cyberbit
Cyrillic fonts Adobe Minion Cyrillic, Excelcior Cyrillic Upright, Monotype
Albion 70, Bitstream Cyberbit, ER Bukinst
Hebrew fonts New Peninim, Raanana, Bitstream Cyberbit
Japanese fonts Ryumin Light-KL, Kyokasho ICA, Futo Min A101
Arabic fonts Bitstream Cyberbit
Cherokee fonts Lo Cicero Cherokee
sans-serif
Glyphs in sans-serif fonts, as the term is used in CSS, have stroke endings
that are plain -- without any flaring, cross stroke, or other ornamentation.
Sans-serif fonts are typically proportionately-spaced. They often have
little variation between thick and thin strokes, compared to fonts from the
'serif' family. CSS uses the term 'sans-serif' to apply to a font for any
script, although other names may be more familiar for particular scripts,
such as Gothic (Japanese), Kai (Chinese), or Pathang (Korean). Any font that
is so described may be used to represent the generic 'sans-serif' family.
Examples of fonts that fit this description include:
MS Trebuchet, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, MS Arial, MS Verdana,
Latin fonts Univers, Futura, ITC Stone Sans, Gill Sans, Akzidenz
Grotesk, Helvetica
Greek fonts Attika, Typiko New Era, MS Tahoma, Monotype Gill Sans 571,
Helvetica Greek
Cyrillic fonts Helvetica Cyrillic, ER Univers, Lucida Sans Unicode,
Bastion
Hebrew fonts Arial Hebrew, MS Tahoma
Japanese fonts Shin Go, Heisei Kaku Gothic W5
Arabic fonts MS Tahoma
cursive
Glyphs in cursive fonts, as the term is used in CSS, generally have either
joining strokes or other cursive characteristics beyond those of italic
typefaces. The glyphs are partially or completely connected, and the result
looks more like handwritten pen or brush writing than printed letterwork.
Fonts for some scripts, such as Arabic, are almost always cursive. CSS uses
the term 'cursive' to apply to a font for any script, although other names
such as Chancery, Brush, Swing and Script are also used in font names.
Examples of fonts that fit this description include:
Latin fonts Caflisch Script, Adobe Poetica, Sanvito, Ex Ponto, Snell
Roundhand, Zapf-Chancery
Cyrillic fonts ER Architekt
Hebrew fonts Corsiva
Arabic fonts DecoType Naskh, Monotype Urdu 507
fantasy
Fantasy fonts, as used in CSS, are primarily decorative while still
containing representations of characters (as opposed to Pi or Picture fonts,
which do not represent characters). Examples include:
Latin fonts Alpha Geometrique, Critter, Cottonwood, FB Reactor, Studz
monospace
The sole criterion of a monospace font is that all glyphs have the same
fixed width. (This can make some scripts, such as Arabic, look most
peculiar.) The effect is similar to a manual typewriter, and is often used
to set samples of computer code.
Examples of fonts which fit this description include:
Latin fonts Courier, MS Courier New, Prestige, Everson Mono
Greek Fonts MS Courier New, Everson Mono
Cyrillic fonts ER Kurier, Everson Mono
Japanese fonts Osaka Monospaced
Cherokee fonts Everson Mono
15.3 Font selection
The second phase of the CSS2 font mechanism concerns the user agent's
selection of a font based on author-specified font properties, available
fonts, etc. The details of the font matching algorithm are provided below.
There are four possible font selection actions: name matching, intelligent
matching, synthesis, and download.
font name matching
In this case, the user agent uses an existing, accessible font that has
the same family name as the requested font. (Note that the appearance
and the metrics might not necessarily match, if the font that the
document author used and the font on the client system are from
different foundries). The matching information is restricted to the CSS
font properties, including the family name. This is the only method
used by CSS1.
intelligent font matching
In this case, the user agent uses an existing, accessible font that is
the closest match in appearance to the requested font. (Note that the
metrics might not match exactly). The matching information includes
information about the kind of font (text or symbol), nature of serifs,
weight, cap height, x height, ascent, descent, slant, etc.
font synthesis
In this case, the user agent creates a font that is not only a close
match in appearance, but also matches the metrics of the requested
font. The synthesizing information includes the matching information
and typically requires more accurate values for the parameters than are
used for some matching schemes. In particular, synthesis requires
accurate width metrics and character to glyph substitution and position
information if all the layout characteristics of the specified font are
to be preserved.
font download
Finally, the user agent may retrieve a font over the Web. This is
similar to the process of fetching images, sounds, or applets over the
Web for display in the current document, and likewise can cause some
delay before the page can be displayed.
Progressive rendering is a combination of download and one of the other
methods; it provides a temporary substitute font (using name matching,
intelligent matching, or synthesis) to allow content to be read while the
requested font downloads. Once the real font has been successfully
downloaded, it replaces the temporary font, hopefully without the need to
reflow.
Note. Progressive rendering requires metric information about the font in
order to avoid re-layout of the content when the actual font has been loaded
and rendered. This metric information is sufficiently verbose that it should
only be specified at most once per font in a document.
15.3.1 Font Descriptions and @font-face
The font description provides the bridge between an author's font
specification and the font data, which is the data needed to format text and
to render the abstract glyphs to which the characters map - the actual
scalable outlines or bitmaps. Fonts are referenced by style sheet
properties.
The font description is added to the font database and then used to select
the relevant font data. The font description contains descriptors such as
the location of the font data on the Web, and characterizations of that font
data. The font descriptors are also needed to match the style sheet font
properties to particular font data. The level of detail of a font
description can vary from just the name of the font up to a list of glyph
widths.
Font descriptors may be classified into three types:
1. those that provide the link between the CSS usage of the font and the
font description (these have the same names as the corresponding CSS
font properties),
2. the URI for the location of the font data,
3. those that further characterize the font, to provide a link between the
font description and the font data.
All font descriptions are specified via a @font-face at-rule. The general
form is:
@font-face { <font-description> }
where the <font-description> has the form:
descriptor: value;
descriptor: value;
[...]
descriptor: value;
Each @font-face rule specifies a value for every font descriptor, either
implicitly or explicitly. Those not given explicit values in the rule take
the initial value listed with each descriptor in this specification. These
descriptors apply solely within the context of the @font-face rule in which
they are defined, and do not apply to document language elements. Thus,
there is no notion of which elements the descriptors apply to, or whether
the values are inherited by child elements.
The available font descriptors are described in later sections of this
specification.
For example, here the font 'Robson Celtic' is defined and referenced in a
style sheet contained in an HTML document.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Font test</TITLE>
<STYLE TYPE="text/css" MEDIA="screen, print">
@font-face {
font-family: "Robson Celtic";
src: url("http://site/fonts/rob-celt")
}
H1 { font-family: "Robson Celtic", serif }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1> This heading is displayed using Robson Celtic</H1>
</BODY>
</HTML>
The style sheet (in the STYLE element) contains a CSS rule that sets all H1
elements to use the 'Robson Celtic' font family.
A CSS1 implementation will search the client for a font whose family name
and other properties match 'Robson Celtic' and, if it fails to find it, will
use the UA-specific fallback serif font (which is defined to exist).
A user agent implementing CSS2 will first examine @font-face rules in search
of a font description defining 'Robson Celtic'. This example contains a rule
that matches. Although this rule doesn't contain much font data, it does
have a URI where the font can be retrieved for rendering this document.
Downloaded fonts should not be made available to other applications. If no
matching @font-face is found, the user agent will attempt the same match as
a user agent implementing CSS1.
Note that if the font 'Robson Celtic' had been installed on the client
system, this would have caused the UA to add an entry in the font database
for the installed copy as described in the section on the font matching
algorithm. The installed copy would have been matched before the
downloadable font in the example above.
CSS1 implementations, which do not understand the @font-face rule, will
encounter the opening curly brackets and will ignore forward until the
matching closing curly brackets. This at-rule conforms with the
forward-compatible parsing requirement of CSS. Parsers may ignore these
rules without error.
Having the font descriptors separate from the font data has a benefit beyond
being able to do font selection and/or substitution. The data protection and
replication restrictions on the font descriptors may be much weaker than on
the full font data. Thus, it may be possible to install the font definition
locally, or at least to have it in a local cache if it occurs in a commonly
referenced style sheet; this would not require accessing the full font
definition over the Web more than once per named font.
If a font descriptor is duplicated, the last occurring descriptor wins and
the rest must be ignored.
Also, any descriptors that are not recognized or useful to the user agent
must be ignored. Future versions of CSS may allow additional descriptors for
the purpose of better font substitution, matching, or synthesis.
15.3.2 Descriptors for Selecting a Font: 'font-family', 'font-style',
'font-variant', 'font-weight', 'font-stretch' and 'font-size'
The following descriptors have the same names as the corresponding CSS2 font
properties, and take a single value or comma-separated list of values.
The values within that list are, except as explicitly noted, the same as
those for the corresponding CSS2 property. If there is a single value, that
is the value that must be matched. If there is a list, any list item
constitutes a match. If the descriptor is omitted from the @font-face, the
initial value for the descriptor is used.
'font-family' (Descriptor)
Value: [ <family-name> | <generic-family> ] [, [<family-name> |
<generic-family> ]]*
Initial: depends on user agent
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the font family name of a font and takes the same
values as the 'font-family' property.
'font-style' (Descriptor)
Value: all | [ normal | italic | oblique ] [, [normal | italic |
oblique] ]*
Initial: all
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the style of a font and takes the same values as
the 'font-style' property, except that a comma-separated list is permitted.
'font-variant' (Descriptor)
Value: [normal | small-caps] [,[normal | small-caps]]*
Initial: normal
Media: visual
This is the CSS indication of whether this face is the small-caps variant of
a font. It takes the same values as the 'font-variant' property except that
a comma-separated list is permitted.
Note. Cyrillic pryamo? faces may be labeled with a 'font-variant' of
small-caps, which will give better consistency with Latin faces (and the
companion kursiv face labeled with 'font-style' italic for the same reason).
'font-weight' (Descriptor)
Value: all | [normal | bold | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 |
700 | 800 | 900] [, [normal | bold | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 |
500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900]]*
Initial: all
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the weight of a face relative to others in the
same font family. It takes the same values as the 'font-weight' property
with three exceptions:
1. relative keywords (bolder, lighter) are not permitted.
2. a comma-separated list of values is permitted, for fonts that contain
multiple weights.
3. an additional keyword, 'all' is permitted, which means that the font
will match for all possible weights; either because it contains
multiple weights, or because that face only has a single weight.
'font-stretch' (Descriptor)
Value: all | [ normal | ultra-condensed | extra-condensed |
condensed | semi-condensed | semi-expanded | expanded |
extra-expanded | ultra-expanded ] [, [ normal |
ultra-condensed | extra-condensed | condensed |
semi-condensed | semi-expanded | expanded | extra-expanded |
ultra-expanded] ]*
Initial: normal
Media: visual
This is the CSS indication of the condensed or expanded nature of the face
relative to others in the same font family. It takes the same values as the
'font-stretch' property except that:
* relative keywords (wider, narrower) are not permitted
* a comma-separated list is permitted
* The keyword 'all' is permitted
'font-size' (Descriptor)
Value: all | <length> [, <length>]*
Initial: all
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the sizes provided by this font. Only absolute
length units are permitted, in contrast to the 'font-size' property, which
allows both relative and absolute lengths and sizes. A comma-separated list
of absolute lengths is permitted.
The initial value of 'all' is suitable for most scalable fonts, so this
descriptor is primarily for use in an @font-face for bitmap fonts, or
scalable fonts designed to be rasterised at a restricted range of font
sizes.
15.3.3 Descriptors for Font Data Qualification: 'unicode-range'
The following descriptor is optional within a font definition, but is used
to avoid checking or downloading a font that does not have sufficient glyphs
to render a particular character.
'unicode-range' (Descriptor)
Value: <urange> [, <urange>]*
Initial: U+0-7FFFFFFF
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the range of ISO 10646 characters covered by the
font.
The values of <urange> are expressed using hexadecimal numbers prefixed by
"U+", corresponding to character code positions in ISO 10646 ([ISO10646]).
For example, U+05D1 is the ISO 10646 character 'Hebrew letter bet'. For
values outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP), additional leading digits
corresponding to the plane number are added, also in hexadecimal, like this:
U+A1234 which is the character on Plane 10 at hexadecimal code position
1234. At the time of writing no characters had been assigned outside the
BMP. Leading zeros (for example, 0000004D) are valid, but not required.
The initial value of this descriptor covers not only the entire Basic
Multilingual Plane (BMP), which would be expressed as U+0-FFFF, but also the
whole repertoire of ISO 10646. Thus, the initial value says that the font
may have glyphs for characters anywhere in ISO 10646. Specifying a value for
'unicode-range' provides information to make searching efficient, by
declaring a constrained range in which the font may have glyphs for
characters. The font need not be searched for characters outside this range.
Values may be written with any number of digits. For single numbers, the
character '?' is assumed to mean 'any value' which creates a range of
character positions. Thus, using a single number:
unicode-range: U+20A7
no wild cards - it indicates a single character position (the Spanish
peseta currency symbol)
unicode-range: U+215?
one wild card, covers the range 2150 to 215F (the fractions)
unicode-range: U+00??
two wild cards, covers the range 0000 to 00FF (Latin-1)
unicode-range: U+E??
two wild cards, covers 0E00 to 0EFF (the Lao script)
A pair of numbers in this format can be combined with the dash character to
indicate larger ranges. For example:
unicode-range: U+AC00-D7FF
the range is AC00 to D7FF (the Hangul Syllables area)
Multiple, discontinuous ranges can be specified, separated by a comma. As
with other comma-separated lists in CSS, any whitespace before or after the
comma is ignored. For example:
unicode-range: U+370-3FF, U+1F??
This covers the range 0370 to 03FF (Modern Greek) plus 1F00 to 1FFF
(Ancient polytonic Greek).
unicode-range: U+3000-303F, U+3100-312F, U+32??, U+33??, U+4E00-9FFF,
U+F9000-FAFF, U+FE30-FE4F
Something of a worst case in terms of verbosity, this very precisely
indicates that this (extremely large) font contains only Chinese
characters from ISO 10646, without including any characters that are
uniquely Japanese or Korean. The range is 3000 to 303F (CJK symbols and
punctuation) plus 3100 to 312F (Bopomofo) plus 3200 to 32FF (enclosed
CJK letters and months) plus 3300 to 33FF (CJK compatibility zone) plus
4E00 to 9FFF (CJK unified Ideographs) plus F900 to FAFF (CJK
compatibility ideographs) plus FE30 to FE4F (CJK compatibility forms).
A more likely representation for a typical Chinese font would be:
unicode-range: U+3000-33FF, U+4E00-9FFF
unicode-range: U+11E00-121FF
This font covers a proposed registration for Aztec pictograms, covering
the range 1E00 to 21FF in plane 1.
unicode-range: U+1A00-1A1F
This font covers a proposed registration for Irish Ogham covering the
range 1A00 to 1A1F
15.3.4 Descriptor for Numeric Values: 'units-per-em'
The following descriptor specifies the number of "units" per em; these units
may be used by several other descriptors to express various lengths, so
'units-per-em' is required if other descriptors depend on it.
'units-per-em' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the number of the coordinate units on the em
square, the size of the design grid on which glyphs are laid out.
15.3.5 Descriptor for Referencing: 'src'
This descriptor is required for referencing actual font data, whether
downloadable or locally installed.
'src' (Descriptor)
Value: [ <uri> [format(<string> [, <string>]*)] | <font-face-name>
] [, <uri> [format(<string> [, <string>]*)] |
<font-face-name> ]*
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is a prioritized, comma-separated list of external references and/or
locally installed font face names. The external reference points to the font
data on the Web. This is required if the WebFont is to be downloaded. The
font resource may be a subset of the source font, for example it may contain
only the glyphs needed for the current page or for a set of pages.
The external reference consists of a URI, followed by an optional hint
regarding the format of font resource to be found at that URI, and this
information should be used by clients to avoid following links to fonts in
formats they are unable to use. As with any hypertext reference, there may
be other formats available, but the client has a better idea of what is
likely to be there, in a more robust way than trying to parse filename
extensions in URIs.
The format hint contains a comma-separated list of format strings that
denote well-known font formats. The user agent will recognize the name of
font formats that it supports, and will avoid downloading fonts in formats
that it does not recognize.
An initial list of format strings defined by this specification and
representing formats likely to be used by implementations on various
platforms is:
String Font Format Examples of common
extensions
"truedoc-pfr" TrueDoc™ Portable Font .pfr
Resource
"embedded-opentype"Embedded OpenType .eot
"type-1" PostScript™ Type 1 .pfb, .pfa
"truetype" TrueType .ttf
"opentype" OpenType, including TrueType .ttf
Open
"truetype-gx" TrueType with GX extensions
"speedo" Speedo
"intellifont" Intellifont
As with other URIs in CSS, the URI may be partial, in which case it is
resolved relative to the location of the style sheet containing the
@font-face.
The locally-installed <font-face-name> is the full font name of a locally
installed font. The full font name is the name of the font as reported by
the operating system and is the name most likely to be used in reader style
sheets, browser default style sheets or possibly author style sheets on an
intranet. Adornments such as bold, italic, and underline are often used to
differentiate faces within a font family. For more information about full
font names please consult the notes below.
The notation for a <font-face-name> is the full font name, which must be
quoted since it may contain any character, including spaces and punctuation,
and also must be enclosed in "local(" and ")".
Example(s):
src: url("http://foo/bar")
a full URI and no information about the font format(s) available there
src: local("BT Century 751 No. 2 Semi Bold Italic")
references a particular face of a locally installed font
src: url("../fonts/bar") format("truedoc-pfr")
a partial URI which has a font available in TrueDoc format
src: url("http://cgi-bin/bar?stuff") format("opentype", "intellifont")
a full URI, in this case to a script, which can generate two different
formats - OpenType and Intellifont
src: local("T-26 Typeka Mix"), url("http://site/magda-extra")
format("type-1")
two alternatives are given, firstly a locally installed font and
secondly a downloadable font available in Type 1 format.
Access to locally installed fonts is via the <font-face-name>. The font face
name is not truly unique, nor is it truly platform or font format
independent, but at the moment it is the best way to identify locally
installed font data. The use of the font face name can be made more accurate
by providing an indication of the glyph complement required. This may be
done by indicating the range of ISO 10646 character positions for which the
font provides some glyphs (see 'unicode-range').
15.3.6 Descriptors for Matching: 'panose-1', 'stemv', 'stemh', 'slope',
'cap-height', 'x-height', 'ascent', and 'descent'
These descriptors are optional for a CSS2 definition, but may be used if
intelligent font matching or font size adjustment is desired by the author.
'panose-1' (Descriptor)
Value: [<integer>]{10}
Initial: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the Panose-1 number and consists of ten decimal
integers, separated by whitespace. A comma-separated list is not permitted
for this descriptor, because the Panose-1 system can indicate that a range
of values are matched. The initial value is zero, which means "any", for
each PANOSE digit; all fonts will match the Panose number if this value is
used. Use of the Panose-1 descriptor is strongly recommended for latin
fonts. For further details, see Appendix C.
'stemv' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the vertical stem width of the font. If the value
is undefined, the descriptor is not used for matching. If this descriptor is
used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
'stemh' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the horizontal stem width of the font. If the
value is undefined, the descriptor is not used for matching. If this
descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
'slope' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: 0
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the vertical stroke angle of the font.
'cap-height' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the number of the height of uppercase glyphs of
the font. If the value is undefined, the descriptor is not used for
matching. If this descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must
also be used.
'x-height' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the height of lowercase glyphs of the font. If
the value is undefined, the descriptor is not used for matching. If this
descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used. This
descriptor can be very useful when using the 'font-size-adjust' property,
because computation of the z value of candidate fonts requires both the font
size and the x-height; it is therefore recommended to include this
descriptor.
'ascent' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the maximum unaccented height of the font. If the
value is undefined, the descriptor is not used for matching. If this
descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
'descent' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the Maximum unaccented depth of the font. If the
value is undefined, the descriptor is not used for matching. If this
descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
15.3.7 Descriptors for Synthesis: 'widths', 'bbox' and 'definition-src'
Synthesizing a font means, at minimum, matching the width metrics of the
specified font. Therefore, for synthesis, this metric information must be
available. Similarly, progressive rendering requires width metrics in order
to avoid reflow of the content when the actual font has been loaded.
Although the following descriptors are optional for a CSS2 definition, some
are required if synthesizing (or reflow-free progressive rendering) is
desired by the author. Should the actual font become available, the
substitute should be replaced by the actual font. Any of these descriptors
that are present will be used to provide a better or faster approximation of
the intended font.
Of these descriptors, the most important are the 'widths' descriptor and
'bbox' which are used to prevent text reflow should the actual font become
available. In addition, the descriptors in the set of descriptors used for
matching can be used to provide a better synthesis of the actual font
appearance.
'widths' (Descriptor)
Value: [<urange> ]? [<number> ]+ [,[<urange> ]? <number> ]+]
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the glyph widths. The value is a comma-separated
list of <urange> values each followed by one or more glyph widths. If this
descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
If the <urange> is omitted, a range of U+0-7FFFFFFF is assumed which covers
all characters and their glyphs. If not enough glyph widths are given, the
last in the list is replicated to cover that urange. If too many widths are
provided, the extras are ignored.
Example(s):
For example:
widths: U+4E00-4E1F 1736 1874 1692
widths: U+1A?? 1490, U+215? 1473 1838 1927 1684 1356 1792
1815 1848 1870 1492 1715 1745 1584 1992 1978 1770
In the first example a range of 32 characters is given, from 4E00 to 4E1F.
The glyph corresponding to the first character (4E00) has a width of 1736,
the second has a width of 1874 and the third, 1692. Because not enough
widths have been provided, the last width replicates to cover the rest of
the specified range. The second example sets a single width, 1490, for an
entire range of 256 glyphs and then explicit widths for a range of 16
glyphs.
This descriptor cannot describe multiple glyphs corresponding to a single
character, or ligatures of multiple characters. Thus, this descriptor can
only be used for scripts that do not have contextual forms or mandatory
ligatures. It is nevertheless useful in those situations. Scripts that
require a one-to-many or many-to-many mapping of characters to glyphs cannot
at present use this descriptor to enable font synthesis although they can
still use font downloading or intelligent matching.
'bbox' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>, <number>, <number>, <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the maximal bounding box of the font. The value
is a comma-separated list of exactly four numbers specifying, in order, the
lower left x, lower left y, upper right x, and upper right y of the bounding
box for the complete font.
'definition-src' (Descriptor)
Value: <uri>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
The font descriptors may either be within the font definition in the style
sheet, or may be provided within a separate font definition resource
identified by a URI. The latter approach can reduce network traffic when
multiple style sheets reference the same fonts.
15.3.8 Descriptors for Alignment: 'baseline', 'centerline', 'mathline', and
'topline'
These optional descriptors are used to align runs of different scripts with
one another.
'baseline' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: 0
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the lower baseline of a font. If this descriptor
is given a non-default (non-zero) value, the 'units-per-em' descriptor must
also be used.
'centerline' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the central baseline of a font. If the value is
undefined, the UA may employ various heuristics such as the midpoint of the
ascent and descent values. If this descriptor is used, the 'units-per-em'
descriptor must also be used.
'mathline' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the mathematical baseline of a font. If
undefined, the UA may use the center baseline. If this descriptor is used,
the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
'topline' (Descriptor)
Value: <number>
Initial: undefined
Media: visual
This is the descriptor for the top baseline of a font. If undefined, the UA
may use an approximate value such as the ascent. If this descriptor is used,
the 'units-per-em' descriptor must also be used.
15.3.9 Examples
Example(s):
Given the following list of fonts:
Swiss 721 light light & light italic
Swiss 721 roman, bold, italic, bold italic
Swiss 721 medium medium & medium italic
Swiss 721 heavy heavy & heavy italic
Swiss 721 black black, black italic, & black #2
Swiss 721 Condensed roman, bold, italic, bold italic
Swiss 721 Expanded roman, bold, italic, bold italic
The following font descriptions could be used to make them available for
download.
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url("swiss721lt.pfr"); /* Swiss 721 light */
font-style: normal, italic;
font-weight: 200;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url("swiss721.pfr"); /* The regular Swiss 721 */
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url("swiss721md.pfr"); /* Swiss 721 medium */
font-style: normal, italic;
font-weight: 500;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url("swiss721hvy.pfr"); /* Swiss 721 heavy */
font-style: normal, italic;
font-weight: 700;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url("swiss721blk.pfr"); /* Swiss 721 black */
font-style: normal, italic;
font-weight: 800,900; /* note the interesting problem that
the 900 weight italic doesn't exist */
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url(swiss721.pfr); /* The condensed Swiss 721 */
font-stretch: condensed;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Swiss 721";
src: url(swiss721.pfr); /* The expanded Swiss 721 */
font-stretch: expanded;
}
15.4 Font Characteristics
15.4.1 Introducing Font Characteristics
In this section are listed the font characteristics that have been found
useful for client-side font matching, synthesis, and download for
heterogeneous platforms accessing the Web. The data may be useful for any
medium that needs to use fonts on the Web by some other means than physical
embedding of the font data inside the medium.
These characteristics are used to characterize fonts. They are not specific
to CSS, or to style sheets. In CSS, each characteristic is described by a
font descriptor. These characteristics could also be mapped onto VRML nodes,
or CGM Application Structures, or a Java API, or alternative style sheet
languages. Fonts retrieved by one medium and stored in a proxy cache could
be re-used by another medium, saving download time and network bandwidth, if
a common system of font characteristics are used throughout.
A non-exhaustive list of examples of such media includes:
* 2-D vector formats
o Computer Graphics Metafile
o Simple Vector Format
* 3-D graphics formats
o VRML
o 3DMF
* Object embedding technologies
o Java
o Active-X
o Obliq
15.4.2 Full font name
This is the full name of a particular face of a font family. It typically
includes a variety of non-standardized textual qualifiers or adornments
appended to the font family name. It may also include a foundry name or
abbreviation, often prepended to the font family name. It is only used to
refer to locally installed fonts, because the format of the adorned name can
vary from platform to platform. It must be quoted.
For example, the font family name of the TrueType font and the PostScript
name may differ in the use of space characters, punctuation, and in the
abbreviation of some words (e.g., to meet various system or printer
interpreter constraints on length of names). For example, spaces are not
allow in a PostScript name, but are common in full font names. The TrueType
name table can also contain the PostScript name, which has no spaces.
The name of the font definition is important because it is the link to any
locally installed fonts. It is important that the name be robust, both with
respect to platform and application independence. For this reason, the name
should be one that is not application- or language-specific.
The ideal solution would be to have a name that uniquely identifies each
collection of font data. This name does not exist in current practice for
font data. Fonts with the same face name can vary over a number of
descriptors. Some of these descriptors, such as different complements of
glyphs in the font, may be insignificant if the needed glyphs are in the
font. Other descriptors, such as different width metrics, make fonts with
the same name incompatible. It does not seem possible to define a rule that
will always identify incompatibilities, but will not prevent the use of a
perfectly suitable local copy of the font data with a given name. Therefore,
only the range of ISO 10646 characters will be used to qualify matches for
the font face name.
Since a prime goal of the font face name in the font definition is to allow
a user agent to determine when there is a local copy of the specified font
data, the font face name must be a name that will be in all legitimate
copies of the font data. Otherwise, unnecessary Web traffic may be generated
due to missed matches for the local copy.
15.4.3 Coordinate units on the em square
Certain values, such as width metrics, are expressed in units that are
relative to an abstract square whose height is the intended distance between
lines of type in the same type size. This square is called the em square and
it is the design grid on which the glyph outlines are defined. The value of
this descriptor specifies how many units the EM square is divided into.
Common values are for example 250 (Intellifont), 1000 (Type 1) and 2048
(TrueType, TrueType GX and OpenType).
If this value is not specified, it becomes impossible to know what any font
metrics mean. For example, one font has lowercase glyphs of height 450;
another has smaller ones of height 890! The numbers are actually fractions;
the first font has 450/1000 and the second has 890/2048 which is indeed
smaller.
15.4.4 Central Baseline
This gives the position in the em square of the central baseline. The
central baseline is used by ideographic scripts for alignment, just as the
bottom baseline is used for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts.
15.4.5 Font Encoding
Either explicitly or implicitly, each font has a table associated with it,
the font encoding table, that tells what character each glyph represents.
This table is also referred to as an encoding vector.
In fact, many fonts contain several glyphs for the same character. Which of
those glyphs should be used depends either on the rules of the language, or
on the preference of the designer.
In Arabic, for example, all letters have four (or two) different shapes,
depending on whether the letter is used at the start of a word, in the
middle, at the end, or in isolation. It is the same character in all cases,
and thus there is only one character in the source document, but when
printed, it looks different each time.
There are also fonts that leave it to the graphic designer to choose from
among various alternative shapes provided. Unfortunately, CSS2 doesn't yet
provide the means to select those alternatives. Currently, it is always the
default shape that is chosen from such fonts.
15.4.6 Font family name
This specifies the family name portion of the font face name. For example,
the family name for Helvetica-Bold is Helvetica and the family name of ITC
Stone Serif Semibold Italic is ITC Stone Serif. Some systems treat
adornments relating to condensed or expanded faces as if they were part of
the family name.
15.4.7 Glyph widths
This is a list of widths, on the design grid, for the glyph corresponding to
each character. The list is ordered by ISO10646 code point. Widths cannot
usefully be specified when more than one glyph maps to the same character or
when there are mandatory ligatures.
15.4.8 Horizontal stem width
This value refers to the dominant stem of the font. There may be two or more
designed widths. For example, the main vertical stems of Roman characters
will differ from the thin stems on serifed "M" and "N", plus there may be
different widths for uppercase and lowercase characters in the same font.
Also, either by design or by error, all stems may have slightly different
widths.
15.4.9 Height of uppercase glyphs
This measurement is the y-coordinate of the top of flat uppercase letters in
Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts, measured from the baseline. This
descriptor is not necessarily useful for fonts that do not contain any
glyphs from these scripts.
15.4.10 Height of lowercase glyphs
This measurement is the y-coordinate of the top of unaccented, non-ascending
lowercase letters in Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts, measured from the
baseline. Flat-topped letters are used, ignoring any optical correction
zone. This is usually used as a ratio of lowercase to uppercase heights as a
means to compare font families.
[Illustration of x-height]
This descriptor is not useful for fonts that do not contain any glyphs from
these scripts. Since the heights of lowercase and uppercase letters are
often expressed as a ratio for comparing different fonts, it may be useful
to set both the lowercase and uppercase heights to the same value for
unicameral scripts such as Hebrew, where for mixed Latin and Hebrew text,
the Hebrew characters are typically set at a height midway between the
uppercase and lowercase heights of the Latin font.
[Height of Hebrew characters]
15.4.11 Lower Baseline
This gives the position in the em square of the lower baseline. The lower
baseline is used by Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts for alignment, just
as the upper baseline is used for Sanscrit-derived scripts.
15.4.12 Mathematical Baseline
This gives the position in the em square of the mathematical baseline. The
mathematical baseline is used by mathematical symbols for alignment, just as
the lower baseline is used for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts.
15.4.13 Maximal bounding box
The maximal bounding box is the smallest rectangle enclosing the shape that
results if all glyphs in the font are placed with their origins coincident,
and then painted.
If a dynamically downloadable font has been generated by subsetting a parent
font, the bbox should be that of the parent font.
15.4.14 Maximum unaccented height
This measurement, on the em square, is from the baseline to the highest
point reached by any glyph, excluding any accents or diacritical marks.
[Diagram showing several glyphs and the maximum unaccented height]
15.4.15 Maximum unaccented depth
This measurement, on the em square, is from the baseline to the lowest point
reached by any glyph, excluding any accents or diacritical marks.
[Diagram showing several glyphs and the maximum unaccented depth]
15.4.16 Panose-1 number
Panose-1 is an industry standard TrueType font classification and matching
technology. The PANOSE system consists of a set of ten numbers that
categorize the key attributes of a Latin typeface, a classification
procedure for creating those numbers, and Mapper software that determines
the closest possible font match given a set of typefaces. The system could,
with modification, also be used for Greek and Cyrillic, but is not suitable
for unicameral and ideographic scripts (Hebrew, Armenian, Arabic,
Chinese/Japanese/Korean).
15.4.17 Range of ISO 10646 characters
This indicates the glyph repertoire of the font, relative to ISO 10646
(Unicode). Since this is sparse (most fonts do not cover the whole of ISO
10646) this descriptor lists blocks or ranges that do have some coverage (no
promise is made of complete coverage) and is used to eliminate unsuitable
fonts (ones that will not have the required glyphs). It does not indicate
that the font definitely has the required glyphs, only that it is worth
downloading and looking at the font. See [ISO10646] for information about
useful documents.
This method is extensible to future allocation of characters in Unicode,
without change of syntax and without invalidating existing content.
Font formats that do not include this information, explicitly or indirectly,
may still use this characteristic, but the value must be supplied by the
document or style sheet author.
There are other classifications into scripts, such as the Monotype system
(see [MONOTYPE]) and a proposed ISO script system. These are not readily
extensible.
Because of this, classification of glyph repertoires by the range of ISO
10646 characters that may be represented with a particular font is used in
this specification. This system is extensible to cover any future
allocation.
15.4.18 Top Baseline
This gives the position in the em square of the top baseline. The top
baseline is used by Sanscrit-derived scripts for alignment, just as the
bottom baseline is used for Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts.
15.4.19 Vertical stem width
This is the width of vertical (or near-vertical) stems of glyphs. This
information is often tied to hinting, and may not be directly accessible in
some font formats. The measurement should be for the dominant vertical stem
in the font because there might be different groupings of vertical stems
(e.g., one main one, and one lighter weight one as for an uppercase M or N).
15.4.20 Vertical stroke angle
This is the angle, in degrees counterclockwise from the vertical, of the
dominant vertical strokes of the font. The value is negative for fonts that
slope to the right, as almost all italic fonts do. This descriptor may also
be specified for oblique fonts, slanted fonts, script fonts, and in general
for any font whose vertical strokes are not precisely vertical. A non-zero
value does not of itself indicate an italic font.
15.5 Font matching algorithm
This specification extends the algorithm given in the CSS1 specification.
This algorithm reduces down to the algorithm in the CSS1 specification when
the author and reader style sheets do not contain any @font-face rules.
Matching of descriptors to font faces must be done carefully. The
descriptors are matched in a well-defined order to insure that the results
of this matching process are as consistent as possible across UAs (assuming
that the same library of font faces and font descriptions is presented to
each of them). This algorithm may be optimized, provided that an
implementation behaves as if the algorithm had been followed exactly.
1. The user agent makes (or accesses) a database of relevant font-face
descriptors of all the fonts of which the UA is aware. If there are two
fonts with exactly the same descriptors, one of them is ignored. The UA
may be aware of a font because:
o it has been installed locally
o it is declared using an @font-face rule in one of the style sheets
linked to or contained in the current document
o it is used in the UA default style sheet, which conceptually
exists in all UAs and is considered to have full @font-face rules
for all fonts which the UA will use for default presentation, plus
@font-face rules for the five special generic font families (see
'font-family') defined in CSS2
2. At a given element and for each character in that element, the UA
assembles the font properties applicable to that element. Using the
complete set of properties, the UA uses the 'font-family' descriptor to
choose a tentative font family. Thus, matching on a family name will
succeed before matching on some other descriptor. The remaining
properties are tested against the family according to the matching
criteria described with each descriptor. If there are matches for all
the remaining properties, then that is the matching font face for the
given element.
3. If there is no matching font face within the 'font-family' being
processed by step 2, UAs that implement intelligent matching may
proceed to examine other descriptors such as x-height, glyph widths,
and panose-1 to identify a different tentative font family. If there
are matches for all the remaining descriptors, then that is the
matching font face for the given element. The 'font-family' descriptor
that is reflected into the CSS2 properties is the font family that was
requested, not whatever name the intelligently matched font may have.
UAs that do not implement intelligent matching are considered to fail
at this step.
4. If there is no matching font face within the 'font-family' being
processed by step 3, UAs that implement font downloading may proceed to
examine the 'src' descriptor of the tentative font face identified in
step 2 or 3 to identify a network resource that is available, and of
the correct format. If there are matches for all the remaining
descriptors, then that is the matching font face for the given element
and the UA may attempt to download this font resource. The UA may
choose to block on this download or may choose to proceed to the next
step while the font downloads. UAs that do not implement font download,
or are not connected to a network, or where the user preferences have
disabled font download, or where the requested resource is unavailable
for whatever reason, or where the downloaded font cannot be used for
whatever reason, are considered to fail at this step.
5. If there is no matching font face within the 'font-family' being
processed by step 3, UAs that implement font synthesis may proceed to
examine other descriptors such as 'x-height', glyph widths, and
'panose-1' to identify a different tentative font family for synthesis.
If there are matches for all the remaining descriptors, then that is
the matching font face for the given element and synthesis of the faux
font may begin. UAs that do not implement font synthesis are considered
to fail at this step.
6. If all of steps 3, 4 and 5 fail, and if there is a next alternative
'font-family' in the font set, then repeat from step 2 with the next
alternative 'font-family'.
7. If there is a matching font face, but it doesn't contain glyph(s) for
the current character(s), and if there is a next alternative
'font-family' in the font sets, then repeat from step 2 with the next
alternative 'font-family'. The 'unicode-range' descriptor may be used
to rapidly eliminate from consideration those font faces that do not
have the correct glyphs. If the 'unicode-range' descriptor indicates
that a font contains some glyphs in the correct range, it may be
examined by the UA to see if it has that particular one.
8. If there is no font within the family selected in 2, then use the
inherited or UA-dependent 'font-family' value and repeat from step 2,
using the best match that can be obtained within this font. If a
particular character cannot be displayed using this font, the UA should
indicate that a character is not being displayed (for example, using
the 'missing character' glyph).
9. UAs that implement progressive rendering and have pending font
downloads may, once download is successful, use the downloaded font as
a font family. If the downloaded font is missing some glyphs that the
temporary progressive font did contain, the downloaded font is not used
for that character and the temporary font continues to be used.
Note. The above algorithm can be optimized to avoid having to revisit the
CSS2 properties for each character.
The per-descriptor matching rules from (2) above are as follows:
1. 'font-style' is tried first. 'italic' will be satisfied if there is
either a face in the UA's font database labeled with the CSS keyword
'italic' (preferred) or 'oblique'. Otherwise the values must be matched
exactly or font-style will fail.
2. 'font-variant' is tried next. 'normal' matches a font not labeled as
'small-caps'; 'small-caps' matches (1) a font labeled as 'small-caps',
(2) a font in which the small caps are synthesized, or (3) a font where
all lowercase letters are replaced by uppercase letters. A small-caps
font may be synthesized by electronically scaling uppercase letters
from a normal font.
3. 'font-weight' is matched next, it will never fail. (See 'font-weight'
below.)
4. 'font-size' must be matched within a UA-dependent margin of tolerance.
(Typically, sizes for scalable fonts are rounded to the nearest whole
pixel, while the tolerance for bitmapped fonts could be as large as
20%.) Further computations, e.g., by 'em' values in other properties,
are based on the 'font-size' value that is used, not the one that is
specified.
15.5.1 Mapping font weight values to font names
The 'font-weight' property values are given on a numerical scale in which
the value '400' (or 'normal') corresponds to the "normal" text face for that
family. The weight name associated with that face will typically be Book,
Regular, Roman, Normal or sometimes Medium.
The association of other weights within a family to the numerical weight
values is intended only to preserve the ordering of weights within that
family. User agents must map names to values in a way that preserves visual
order; a face mapped to a value must not be lighter than faces mapped to
lower values. There is no guarantee on how a user agent will map font faces
within a family to weight values. However, the following heuristics tell how
the assignment is done in typical cases:
* If the font family already uses a numerical scale with nine values (as
e.g., OpenType does), the font weights should be mapped directly.
* If there is both a face labeled Medium and one labeled Book, Regular,
Roman or Normal, then the Medium is normally assigned to the '500'.
* The font labeled "Bold" will often correspond to the weight value
'700'.
* If there are fewer then 9 weights in the family, the default algorithm
for filling the "holes" is as follows. If '500' is unassigned, it will
be assigned the same font as '400'. If any of the values '600', '700',
'800', or '900' remains unassigned, they are assigned to the same face
as the next darker assigned keyword, if any, or the next lighter one
otherwise. If any of '300', '200', or '100' remains unassigned, it is
assigned to the next lighter assigned keyword, if any, or the next
darker otherwise.
There is no guarantee that there will be a darker face for each of the
'font-weight' values; for example, some fonts may have only a normal and a
bold face, others may have eight different face weights.
The following two examples show typical mappings.
Assume four weights in the "Rattlesnake" family, from lightest to darkest:
Regular, Medium, Bold, Heavy.
First example of font-weight mapping
Available faces Assignments Filling the holes
"Rattlesnake Regular" 400 100, 200, 300
"Rattlesnake Medium" 500
"Rattlesnake Bold" 700 600
"Rattlesnake Heavy" 800 900
Assume six weights in the "Ice Prawn" family: Book, Medium, Bold, Heavy,
Black, ExtraBlack. Note that in this instance the user agent has decided not
to assign a numeric value to "Example2 ExtraBlack".
Second example of font-weight mapping
Available faces Assignments Filling the holes
"Ice Prawn Book" 400 100, 200, 300
"Ice Prawn Medium" 500
"Ice Prawn Bold" 700 600
"Ice Prawn Heavy" 800
"Ice Prawn Black" 900
"Ice Prawn ExtraBlack" (none)
15.5.2 Examples of font matching
Example(s):
The following example defines a specific font face, Alabama Italic. A panose
font description and source URI for retrieving a truetype server font are
also provided. Font-weight and font-style descriptors are provided to
describe the font. The declaration says that the weight will also match any
request in the range 300 to 500. The font family is Alabama and the adorned
font name is Alabama Italic.
@font-face {
src: local("Alabama Italic"),
url(http://www.fonts.org/A/alabama-italic) format("truetype");
panose-1: 2 4 5 2 5 4 5 9 3 3;
font-family: Alabama, serif;
font-weight: 300, 400, 500;
font-style: italic, oblique;
}
Example(s):
The next example defines a family of fonts. A single URI is provided for
retrieving the font data. This data file will contain multiple styles and
weights of the named font. Once one of these @font-face definitions has been
dereferenced, the data will be in the UA cache for other faces that use the
same URI.
@font-face {
src: local("Helvetica Medium"),
url(http://www.fonts.org/sans/Helvetica_family) format("truedoc");
font-family: "Helvetica";
font-style: normal
}
@font-face {
src: local("Helvetica Oblique"),
url("http://www.fonts.org/sans/Helvetica_family") format("truedoc");
font-family: "Helvetica";
font-style: oblique;
slope: -18
}
Example(s):
The following example groups three physical fonts into one virtual font with
extended coverage. In each case, the adorned font name is given in the src
descriptor to allow locally installed versions to be preferentially used if
available. A fourth rule points to a font with the same coverage, but
contained in a single resource.
@font-face {
font-family: Excelsior;
src: local("Excelsior Roman"), url("http://site/er") format("intellifont");
unicode-range: U+??; /* Latin-1 */
}
@font-face {
font-family: Excelsior;
src: local("Excelsior EastA Roman"), url("http://site/ear") format("intellifont");
unicode-range: U+100-220; /* Latin Extended A and B */
}
@font-face {
font-family: Excelsior;
src: local("Excelsior Cyrillic Upright"), url("http://site/ecr") format("intellifont");
unicode-range: U+4??; /* Cyrillic */
}
@font-face {
font-family: Excelsior;
src: url("http://site/excels") format("truedoc");
unicode-range: U+??,U+100-220,U+4??;
}
Example(s):
This next example might be found in a UA's default style sheet. It
implements the CSS2 generic font family, serif by mapping it to a wide
variety of serif fonts that might exist on various platforms. No metrics are
given since these vary among the possible alternatives.
@font-face {
src: local("Palatino"),
local("Times New Roman"),
local("New York"),
local("Utopia"),
url("http://somewhere/free/font");
font-family: serif;
font-weight: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500;
font-style: normal;
font-variant: normal;
font-size: all
}
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
16 Text
Contents
* 16.1 Indentation: the 'text-indent' property
* 16.2 Alignment: the 'text-align' property
* 16.3 Decoration
o 16.3.1 Underlining, overlining, striking, and blinking: the
'text-decoration' property
o 16.3.2 Text shadows: the 'text-shadow' property
* 16.4 Letter and word spacing: the 'letter-spacing' and 'word-spacing'
properties
* 16.5 Capitalization: the 'text-transform' property
* 16.6 Whitespace: the 'white-space' property
The properties defined in the following sections affect the visual
presentation of characters, spaces, words, and paragraphs.
16.1 Indentation: the 'text-indent' property
'text-indent'
Value: <length> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial: 0
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: refer to width of containing block
Media: visual
This property specifies the indentation of the first line of text in a
block. More precisely, it specifies the indentation of the first box that
flows into the block's first line box. The box is indented with respect to
the left (or right, for right-to-left layout) edge of the line box. User
agents should render this indentation as blank space.
Values have the following meanings:
<length>
The indentation is a fixed length.
<percentage>
The indentation is a percentage of the containing block width.
The value of 'text-indent' may be negative, but there may be
implementation-specific limits.
Example(s):
The following example causes a '3em' text indent.
P { text-indent: 3em }
16.2 Alignment: the 'text-align' property
'text-align'
Value: left | right | center | justify | <string> | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent and writing direction
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property describes how inline content of a block is aligned. Values
have the following meanings:
left, right, center, and justify
Left, right, center, and double justify text, respectively.
<string>
Specifies a string on which cells in a table column will align (see the
section on horizontal alignment in a column for details and an
example). This value applies only to table cells. If set on other
elements, it will be treated as 'left' or 'right', depending on whether
'direction' is 'ltr', or 'rtl', respectively.
A block of text is a stack of line boxes. In the case of 'left', 'right' and
'center', this property specifies how the inline boxes within each line box
align with respect to the line box's left and right sides; alignment is not
with respect to the viewport. In the case of 'justify', the UA may stretch
the inline boxes in addition to adjusting their positions. (See also
'letter-spacing' and 'word-spacing'.)
Example(s):
In this example, note that since 'text-align' is inherited, all block-level
elements inside the DIV element with 'class=center' will have their inline
content centered.
DIV.center { text-align: center }
Note. The actual justification algorithm used is user-agent and written
language dependent.
Conforming user agents may interpret the value 'justify' as 'left' or
'right', depending on whether the element's default writing direction is
left-to-right or right-to-left, respectively.
16.3 Decoration
16.3.1 Underlining, overlining, striking, and blinking: the
'text-decoration' property
'text-decoration'
Value: none | [ underline || overline || line-through || blink
] | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no (see prose)
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property describes decorations that are added to the text of an
element. If the property is specified for a block-level element, it affects
all inline-level descendants of the element. If it is specified for (or
affects) an inline-level element, it affects all boxes generated by the
element. If the element has no content or no text content (e.g., the IMG
element in HTML), user agents must ignore this property.
Values have the following meanings:
none
Produces no text decoration.
underline
Each line of text is underlined.
overline
Each line of text has a line above it.
line-through
Each line of text has a line through the middle
blink
Text blinks (alternates between visible and invisible). Conforming user
agents are not required to support this value.
The color(s) required for the text decoration should be derived from the
'color' property value.
This property is not inherited, but descendant boxes of a block box should
be formatted with the same decoration (e.g., they should all be underlined).
The color of decorations should remain the same even if descendant elements
have different 'color' values.
Example(s):
In the following example for HTML, the text content of all A elements acting
as hyperlinks will be underlined:
A[href] { text-decoration: underline }
16.3.2 Text shadows: the 'text-shadow' property
'text-shadow'
Value: none | [<color> || <length> <length> <length>? ,]*
[<color> || <length> <length> <length>?] | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no (see prose)
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property accepts a comma-separated list of shadow effects to be applied
to the text of the element. The shadow effects are applied in the order
specified and may thus overlay each other, but they will never overlay the
text itself. Shadow effects do not alter the size of a box, but may extend
beyond its boundaries. The stack level of the shadow effects is the same as
for the element itself.
Each shadow effect must specify a shadow offset and may optionally specify a
blur radius and a shadow color.
A shadow offset is specified with two <length> values that indicate the
distance from the text. The first length value specifies the horizontal
distance to the right of the text. A negative horizontal length value places
the shadow to the left of the text. The second length value specifies the
vertical distance below the text. A negative vertical length value places
the shadow above the text.
A blur radius may optionally be specified after the shadow offset. The blur
radius is a length value that indicates the boundaries of the blur effect.
The exact algorithm for computing the blur effect is not specified.
A color value may optionally be specified before or after the length values
of the shadow effect. The color value will be used as the basis for the
shadow effect. If no color is specified, the value of the 'color' property
will be used instead.
Text shadows may be used with the :first-letter and :first-line
pseudo-elements.
Example(s):
The example below will set a text shadow to the right and below the
element's text. Since no color has been specified, the shadow will have the
same color as the element itself, and since no blur radius is specified, the
text shadow will not be blurred:
H1 { text-shadow: 0.2em 0.2em }
The next example will place a shadow to the right and below the element's
text. The shadow will have a 5px blur radius and will be red.
H2 { text-shadow: 3px 3px 5px red }
The next example specifies a list of shadow effects. The first shadow will
be to the right and below the element's text and will be red with no
blurring. The second shadow will overlay the first shadow effect, and it
will be yellow, blurred, and placed to the left and below the text. The
third shadow effect will be placed to the right and above the text. Since no
shadow color is specified for the third shadow effect, the value of the
element's 'color' property will be used:
H2 { text-shadow: 3px 3px red, yellow -3px 3px 2px, 3px -3px }
Example(s):
Consider this example:
SPAN.glow {
background: white;
color: white;
text-shadow: black 0px 0px 5px;
}
Here, the 'background' and 'color' properties have the same value and the
'text-shadow' property is used to create a "solar eclipse" effect:
[Solar eclipse effect] [D]
Note. This property is not defined in CSS1. Some shadow effects (such as the
one in the last example) may render text invisible in UAs that only support
CSS1.
16.4 Letter and word spacing: the 'letter-spacing' and 'word-spacing'
properties
'letter-spacing'
Value: normal | <length> | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies spacing behavior between text characters. Values
have the following meanings:
normal
The spacing is the normal spacing for the current font. This value
allows the user agent to alter the space between characters in order to
justify text.
<length>
This value indicates inter-character space in addition to the default
space between characters. Values may be negative, but there may be
implementation-specific limits. User agents may not further increase or
decrease the inter-character space in order to justify text.
Character spacing algorithms are user agent-dependent. Character spacing may
also be influenced by justification (see the 'text-align' property).
Example(s):
In this example, the space between characters in BLOCKQUOTE elements is
increased by '0.1em'.
BLOCKQUOTE { letter-spacing: 0.1em }
In the following example, the user agent is not permitted to alter
inter-character space:
BLOCKQUOTE { letter-spacing: 0cm } /* Same as '0' */
When the resultant space between two characters is not the same as the
default space, user agents should not use ligatures.
Conforming user agents may consider the value of the 'letter-spacing'
property to be 'normal'.
'word-spacing'
Value: normal | <length> | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies spacing behavior between words. Values have the
following meanings:
normal
The normal inter-word space, as defined by the current font and/or the
UA.
<length>
This value indicates inter-word space in addition to the default space
between words. Values may be negative, but there may be
implementation-specific limits.
Word spacing algorithms are user agent-dependent. Word spacing is also
influenced by justification (see the 'text-align' property).
Example(s):
In this example, the word-spacing between each word in H1 elements is
increased by '1em'.
H1 { word-spacing: 1em }
Conforming user agents may consider the value of the 'word-spacing' property
to be 'normal'.
16.5 Capitalization: the 'text-transform' property
'text-transform'
Value: capitalize | uppercase | lowercase | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property controls capitalization effects of an element's text. Values
have the following meanings:
capitalize
Puts the first character of each word in uppercase.
uppercase
Puts all characters of each word in uppercase.
lowercase
Puts all characters of each word in lowercase.
none
No capitalization effects.
The actual transformation in each case is written language dependent. See
RFC 2070 ([RFC2070]) for ways to find the language of an element.
Conforming user agents may consider the value of 'text-transform' to be
'none' for characters that are not from the Latin-1 repertoire and for
elements in languages for which the transformation is different from that
specified by the case-conversion tables of ISO 10646 ([ISO10646]).
Example(s):
In this example, all text in an H1 element is transformed to uppercase text.
H1 { text-transform: uppercase }
16.6 Whitespace: the 'white-space' property
'white-space'
Value: normal | pre | nowrap | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: block-level elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property declares how whitespace inside the element is handled. Values
have the following meanings:
normal
This value directs user agents to collapse sequences of whitespace, and
break lines as necessary to fill line boxes. Additional line breaks may
be created by occurrences of "\A" in generated content (e.g., for the
BR element in HTML).
pre
This value prevents user agents from collapsing sequences of
whitespace. Lines are only broken at newlines in the source, or at
occurrences of "\A" in generated content.
nowrap
This value collapses whitespace as for 'normal', but suppresses line
breaks within text except for those created by "\A" in generated
content (e.g., for the BR element in HTML).
Example(s):
The following examples show what whitespace behavior is expected from the
PRE and P elements, and the "nowrap" attribute in HTML.
PRE { white-space: pre }
P { white-space: normal }
TD[nowrap] { white-space: nowrap }
Conforming user agents may ignore the 'white-space' property in author and
user style sheets but must specify a value for it in the default style
sheet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
17 Tables
Contents
* 17.1 Introduction to tables
* 17.2 The CSS table model
o 17.2.1 Anonymous table objects
* 17.3 Column selectors
* 17.4 Tables in the visual formatting model
o 17.4.1 Caption position and alignment
* 17.5 Visual layout of table contents
o 17.5.1 Table layers and transparency
o 17.5.2 Table width algorithms: the 'table-layout' property
+ Fixed table layout
+ Automatic table layout
o 17.5.3 Table height algorithms
o 17.5.4 Horizontal alignment in a column
o 17.5.5 Dynamic row and column effects
* 17.6 Borders
o 17.6.1 The separated borders model
+ Borders around empty cells: the 'empty-cells' property
o 17.6.2 The collapsing border model
+ Border conflict resolution
o 17.6.3 Border styles
* 17.7 Audio rendering of tables
o 17.7.1 Speaking headers: the 'speak-header' property
17.1 Introduction to tables
Tables represent relationships between data. Authors specify these
relationships in the document language and specify their presentation in
CSS, in two ways: visually and aurally.
Authors may specify the visual formatting of a table as a rectangular grid
of cells. Rows and columns of cells may be organized into row groups and
column groups. Rows, columns, row groups, row columns, and cells may have
borders drawn around them (there are two border models in CSS2). Authors may
align data vertically or horizontally within a cell and align data in all
cells of a row or column.
Authors may also specify the aural rendering of a table; how headers and
data will be spoken. In the document language, authors may label cells and
groups of cells so that when rendered aurally, cell headers are spoken
before cell data. In effect, this "serializes" the table: users browsing the
table aurally hear a sequence of headers followed by data.
Example(s):
Here is a simple three-row, three-column table described in HTML 4.0:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>This is a simple 3x3 table</CAPTION>
<TR id="row1">
<TH>Header 1 <TD>Cell 1 <TD>Cell 2
<TR id="row2">
<TH>Header 2 <TD>Cell 3 <TD>Cell 4
<TR id="row3">
<TH>Header 3 <TD>Cell 5 <TD>Cell 6
</TABLE>
This code creates one table (the TABLE element), three rows (the TR
elements), three header cells (the TH elements), and six data cells (the TD
elements). Note that the three columns of this example are specified
implicitly: there are as many columns in the table as required by header and
data cells.
The following CSS rule centers the text horizontally in the header cells and
present the data with a bold font weight:
TH { text-align: center; font-weight: bold }
The next rules align the text of the header cells on their baseline and
vertically centers the text in each data cell:
TH { vertical-align: baseline }
TD { vertical-align: middle }
The next rules specify that the top row will be surrounded by a 3px solid
blue border and each of the other rows will be surrounded by a 1px solid
black border:
TABLE { border-collapse: collapse }
TR#row1 { border-top: 3px solid blue }
TR#row2 { border-top: 1px solid black }
TR#row3 { border-top: 1px solid black }
Note, however, that the borders around the rows overlap where the rows meet.
What color (black or blue) and thickness (1px or 3px) will the border
between row1 and row2 be? We discuss this in the section on border conflict
resolution.
The following rule puts the table caption above the table:
CAPTION { caption-side: top }
Finally, the following rule specifies that, when rendered aurally, each row
of data is to be spoken as a "Header, Data, Data":
TH { speak-header: once }
For instance, the first row would be spoken "Header1 Cell1 Cell2". On the
other hand, with the following rule:
TH { speak-header: always }
it would be spoken "Header1 Cell1 Header1 Cell2".
The preceding example shows how CSS works with HTML 4.0 elements; in HTML
4.0, the semantics of the various table elements (TABLE, CAPTION, THEAD,
TBODY, TFOOT, COL, COLGROUP, TH, and TD) are well-defined. In other document
languages (such as XML applications), there may not be pre-defined table
elements. Therefore, CSS2 allows authors to "map" document language elements
to table elements via the 'display' property. For example, the following
rule makes the FOO element act like an HTML TABLE element and the BAR
element act like a CAPTION element:
FOO { display : table }
BAR { display : table-caption }
We discuss the various table elements in the following section. In this
specification, the term table element refers to any element involved in the
creation of a table. An "internal" table element is one that produces a row,
row group, column, column group, or cell.
17.2 The CSS table model
The CSS table model is based on the HTML 4.0 table model, in which the
structure of a table closely parallels the visual layout of the table. In
this model, a table consists of an optional caption and any number of rows
of cells. The table model is said to be "row primary" since authors specify
rows, not columns, explicitly in the document language. Columns are derived
once all the rows have been specified -- the first cell of each row belongs
to the first column, the second to the second column, etc.). Rows and
columns may be grouped structurally and this grouping reflected in
presentation (e.g., a border may be drawn around a group of rows).
Thus, the table model consists of tables, captions, rows, row groups,
columns, column groups, and cells.
The CSS model does not require that the document language include elements
that correspond to each of these components. For document languages (such as
XML applications) that do not have pre-defined table elements, authors must
map document language elements to table elements; this is done with the
'display' property. The following 'display' values assign table semantics to
an arbitrary element:
table (In HTML: TABLE)
Specifies that an element defines a block-level table: it is a
rectangular block that participates in a block formatting context.
inline-table (In HTML: TABLE)
Specifies that an element defines an inline-level table: it is a
rectangular block that participates in an inline formatting context).
table-row (In HTML: TR)
Specifies that an element is a row of cells.
table-row-group (In HTML: TBODY)
Specifies that an element groups one or more rows.
table-header-group (In HTML: THEAD)
Like 'table-row-group', but for visual formatting, the row group is
always displayed before all other rows and rowgroups and after any top
captions. Print user agents may repeat footer rows on each page spanned
by a table.
table-footer-group (In HTML: TFOOT)
Like 'table-row-group', but for visual formatting, the row group is
always displayed after all other rows and rowgroups and before any
bottom captions. Print user agents may repeat footer rows on each page
spanned by a table.
table-column (In HTML: COL)
Specifies that an element describes a column of cells.
table-column-group (In HTML: COLGROUP)
Specifies that an element groups one or more columns.
table-cell (In HTML: TD, TH)
Specifies that an element represents a table cell.
table-caption (In HTML: CAPTION)
Specifies a caption for the table.
Elements with 'display' set to 'table-column' or 'table-column-group' are
not rendered (exactly as if they had 'display: none'), but they are useful,
because they may have attributes which induce a certain style for the
columns they represent.
The default style sheet for HTML 4.0 in the appendix illustrates the use of
these values for HTML 4.0:
TABLE { display: table }
TR { display: table-row }
THEAD { display: table-header-group }
TBODY { display: table-row-group }
TFOOT { display: table-footer-group }
COL { display: table-column }
COLGROUP { display: table-column-group }
TD, TH { display: table-cell }
CAPTION { display: table-caption }
User agents may ignore these 'display' property values for HTML documents,
since authors should not alter an element's expected behavior.
17.2.1 Anonymous table objects
Document languages other than HTML may not contain all the elements in the
CSS2 table model. In these cases, the "missing" elements must be assumed in
order for the table model to work. The missing elements generate anonymous
objects (e.g., anonymous boxes in visual table layout) according to the
following rules:
1. Any table element will automatically generate necessary anonymous table
objects around itself, consisting of at least three nested objects
corresponding to a 'table'/'inline-table' element, a 'table-row'
element, and a 'table-cell' element.
2. If the parent P of a 'table-cell' element T is not a 'table-row', an
object corresponding to a 'table-row' will be generated between P and
T. This object will span all consecutive 'table-cell' siblings (in the
document tree) of T.
3. If the parent P of a 'table-row' element T is not a 'table',
'inline-table', or 'table-row-group' element, an object corresponding
to a 'table' element will be generated between P and T. This object
will span all consecutive siblings (in the document tree) of T that
require a 'table' parent: 'table-row', 'table-row-group',
'table-header-group', 'table-footer-group', 'table-column',
'table-column-group', and 'caption'.
4. If the parent P of a 'table-row-group' (or 'table-header-group' or
'table-footer-group') element T is not a 'table' or 'inline-table', an
object corresponding to a 'table' element will be generated between P
and T. This object will span all consecutive siblings (in the document
tree) of T that require a 'table' parent: 'table-row',
'table-row-group', 'table-header-group', 'table-footer-group',
'table-column', 'table-column-group', and 'caption'.
5. If a child T of a 'table-row' element P is not a 'table-cell' element,
an object corresponding to a 'table-cell' element will be generated
between P and T. This object spans all consecutive siblings of T that
are not 'table-cell' elements.
Example(s):
In this XML example, a 'table' element is assumed to contain the HBOX
element:
<HBOX>
<VBOX>George</VBOX>
<VBOX>4287</VBOX>
<VBOX>1998</VBOX>
</HBOX>
because the associated style sheet is:
HBOX { display: table-row }
VBOX { display: table-cell }
Example(s):
In this example, three 'table-cell' elements are assumed to contain the text
in the ROWs. Note that the text is further encapsulated in anonymous inline
boxes, as explained in visual formatting model:
<STACK>
<ROW>This is the <D>top</D> row.</ROW>
<ROW>This is the <D>middle</D> row.</ROW>
<ROW>This is the <D>bottom</D> row.</ROW>
</STACK>
The style sheet is:
STACK { display: inline-table }
ROW { display: table-row }
D { display: inline; font-weight: bolder }
HTML user agents are not required to create anonymous objects according to
the above rules.
17.3 Column selectors
Table cells may belong to two contexts: rows and columns. However, in the
source document cells are descendants of rows, never of columns.
Nevertheless, some aspects of cells can be influenced by setting properties
on columns.
The following properties apply to column and column-group elements:
'border'
The various border properties apply to columns only if
'border-collapse' is set to 'collapse' on the table element. In that
case, borders set on columns and column groups are input to the
conflict resolution algorithm that selects the border styles at every
cell edge.
'background'
The background properties set the background for cells in the column,
but only if both the cell and row have transparent backgrounds. See
"Table layers and transparency."
'width'
The 'width' property gives the minimum width for the column.
'visibility'
If the 'visibility' of a column is set to 'collapse', none of the cells
in the column are rendered, and cells that span into other columns are
clipped. In addition, the width of the table is diminished by the width
the column would have taken up. See "Dynamic effects" below. Other
values for 'visibility' have no effect.
Example(s):
Here are some examples of style rules that set properties on columns. The
first two rules together implement the "rules" attribute of HTML 4.0 with a
value of "cols". The third rule makes the "totals" column blue, the final
two rules shows how to make a column a fixed size, by using the fixed layout
algorithm.
COL { border-style: none solid }
TABLE { border-style: hidden }
COL.totals { background: blue }
TABLE { table-layout: fixed }
COL.totals { width: 5em }
17.4 Tables in the visual formatting model
In terms of the visual formatting model, a table may behave like a
block-level or replaced inline-level element. Tables have content, padding,
borders, and margins.
In both cases, the table element generates an anonymous box that contains
the table box itself and the caption's box (if present). The table and
caption boxes retain their own content, padding, margin, and border areas,
and the dimensions of the rectangular anonymous box are the smallest
required to contain both. Vertical margins collapse where the table box and
caption box touch. Any repositioning of the table must move the entire
anonymous box, not just the table box, so that the caption follows the
table.
[A table with a caption aboveit; both have margins and the margins between them are collapsed, asis normal for vertical margins.] [D]
Diagram of a table with a caption above it; the bottom margin of the caption
is collapsed with the top margin of the table.
17.4.1 Caption position and alignment
'caption-side'
Value: top | bottom | left | right | inherit
Initial: top
Applies to: 'table-caption' elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property specifies the position of the caption box with respect to the
table box. Values have the following meanings:
top
Positions the caption box above the table box.
bottom
Positions the caption box below the table box.
left
Positions the caption box to the left of the table box.
right
Positions the caption box to the right of the table box.
Captions above or below a 'table' element are formatted very much as if they
were a block element before or after the table, except that (1) they inherit
inheritable properties from the table, and (2) they are not considered to be
a block box for the purposes of any 'compact' or 'run-in' element that may
precede the table.
A caption that is above or below a table box also behaves like a block box
for width calculations; the width is computed with respect to the width of
the table box's containing block.
For a caption that is on the left or right side of a table box, on the other
hand, a value other than 'auto' for 'width' sets the width explicitly, but
'auto' tells the user agent to chose a "reasonable width". This may vary
between "the narrowest possible box" to "a single line", so we recommend
that users do not specify 'auto' for left and right caption widths.
To align caption content horizontally within the caption box, use the
'text-align' property. For vertical alignment of a left or right caption box
with respect to the table box, use the 'vertical-align' property. The only
meaningful values in this case are 'top', 'middle', and 'bottom'. All other
values are treated the same as 'top'.
Example(s):
In this example, the 'caption-side' property places captions below tables.
The caption will be as wide as the parent of the table, and caption text
will be left-justified.
CAPTION { caption-side: bottom;
width: auto;
text-align: left }
Example(s):
The following example shows how to put a caption in the left margin. The
table itself is centered, by setting its left and right margins to 'auto',
and the whole box with table and caption is shifted into the left margin by
the same amount as the width of the caption.
BODY {
margin-left: 8em
}
TABLE {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto
}
CAPTION {
caption-side: left;
margin-left: -8em;
width: 8em;
text-align: right;
vertical-align: bottom
}
Assuming the width of the table is less than the available width, the
formatting will be similar to this:
[A centered table with acaption in the left margin of the page] [D]
Diagram showing a centered table with the caption extending into the left
margin, as a result of a negative 'margin-left' property.
17.5 Visual layout of table contents
Like other elements of the document language, internal table elements
generate rectangular boxes with content, padding, and borders. They do not
have margins, however.
The visual layout of these boxes is governed by a rectangular, irregular
grid of rows and columns. Each box occupies a whole number of grid cells,
determined according to the following rules. These rules do not apply to
HTML 4.0 or earlier HTML versions; HTML imposes its own limitations on row
and column spans.
1. Each row box occupies one row of grid cells. Together, the row boxes
fill the table from top to bottom in the order they occur in the source
document (i.e., the table occupies exactly as many grid rows as there
are row elements).
2. A row group occupies the same grid cells as the rows it contains.
3. A column box occupies one or more columns of grid cells. Column boxes
are placed next to each other in the order they occur. The first column
box may be either on the left or on the right, depending on the value
of the 'direction' property of the table.
4. A column group box occupies the same grid cells as the columns it
contains.
5. Cells may span several rows or columns. (Although CSS2 doesn't define
how the number of spanned rows or columns is determined, a user agent
may have special knowledge about the source document; a future version
of CSS may provide a way to express this knowledge in CSS syntax.) Each
cell is thus a rectangular box, one or more grid cells wide and high.
The top row of this rectangle is in the row specified by the cell's
parent. The rectangle must be as far to the left as possible, but it
may not overlap with any other cell box, and must be to the right of
all cells in the same row that are earlier in the source document.
(This constraint holds if the 'direction' property of the table is
'ltr'; if the 'direction' is 'rtl', interchange "left" and "right" in
the previous sentence.)
6. A cell box cannot extend beyond the last row box of a table or
row-group; the user agents must shorten it until it fits.
Note. Table cells may be relatively and absolutely positioned, but this is
not recommended: positioning and floating remove a box from the flow,
affecting table alignment.
Here are two examples. The first is assumed to occur in an HTML document:
<TABLE>
<TR><TD>1 <TD rowspan="2">2 <TD>3 <TD>4
<TR><TD colspan="2">5
</TABLE>
<TABLE>
<ROW><CELL>1 <CELL rowspan="2">2 <CELL>3 <CELL>4
<ROW><CELL colspan="2">5
</TABLE>
The second table is formatted as in the figure on the right. However, the
HTML table's rendering is explicitly undefined by HTML, and CSS doesn't try
to define it. User agents are free to render it, e.g., as in the figure on
the left.
[One table with overlappingcells and one without] [D]
On the left, one possible rendering of an erroneous HTML 4.0 table; on the
right, the only possible formatting of a similar, non-HTML table.
17.5.1 Table layers and transparency
For the purposes of finding the background of each table cell, the different
table elements may be thought of as being on six superimposed layers. The
background set on an element in one of the layers will only be visible if
the layers above it have a transparent background.
[schema of table layers] [D]
Schema of table layers.
1. The lowest layer is a single plane, representing the table box itself.
Like all boxes, it may be transparent.
2. The next layer contains the column groups. The columns groups are as
tall as the table, but they need not cover the whole table
horizontally.
3. On top of the column groups are the areas representing the column
boxes. Like column groups, columns are as tall as the table, but need
not cover the whole table horizontally.
4. Next is the layer containing the row groups. Each row group is as wide
as the table. Together, the row groups completely cover the table from
top to bottom.
5. The next to last layer contains the rows. The rows also cover the whole
table.
6. The topmost layer contains the cells themselves. As the figure shows,
although all rows contain the same number of cells, not every cell may
have specified content. These "empty" cells are transparent, letting
lower layers shine through.
In the following example, the first row contains four cells, but the second
row contains no cells, and thus the table background shines through, except
where a cell from the first row spans into this row. The following HTML code
and style rules
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<STYLE type="text/css">
TABLE { background: #ff0; border-collapse: collapse }
TD { background: red; border: double black }
</STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD> 1
<TD rowspan="2"> 2
<TD> 3
<TD> 4
</TR>
<TR><TD></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>
might be formatted as follows:
[Table with three empty cellsin bottom row] [D]
Table with three empty cells in the bottom row.
17.5.2 Table width algorithms: the 'table-layout' property
CSS does not define an "optimal" layout for tables since, in many cases,
what is optimal is a matter of taste. CSS does define constraints that user
agents must respect when laying out a table. User agents may use any
algorithm they wish to do so, and are free to prefer rendering speed over
precision, except when the "fixed layout algorithm" is selected.
'table-layout'
Value: auto | fixed | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: 'table' and 'inline-table' elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The 'table-layout' property controls the algorithm used to lay out the table
cells, rows, and columns. Values have the following meaning:
fixed
Use the fixed table layout algorithm
auto
Use any automatic table layout algorithm
The two algorithms are described below.
Fixed table layout
With this (fast) algorithm, the horizontal layout of the table does not
depend on the contents of the cells; it only depends on the table's width,
the width of the columns, and borders or cell spacing.
The table's width may be specified explicitly with the 'width' property. A
value of 'auto' (for both 'display: table' and 'display: inline-table')
means use the automatic table layout algorithm.
In the fixed table layout algorithm, the width of each column is determined
as follows:
1. A column element with a value other than 'auto' for the 'width'
property sets the width for that column.
2. Otherwise, a cell in the first row with a value other than 'auto' for
the 'width' property sets the width for that column. If the cell spans
more than one column, the width is divided over the columns.
3. Any remaining columns equally divide the remaining horizontal table
space (minus borders or cell spacing).
The width of the table is then the greater of the value of the 'width'
property for the table element and the sum of the column widths (plus cell
spacing or borders). If the table is wider than the columns, the extra space
should be distributed over the columns.
In this manner, the user agent can begin to lay out the table once the
entire first row has been received. Cells in subsequent rows do not affect
column widths. Any cell that has content that overflows uses the 'overflow'
property to determine whether to clip the overflow content.
Automatic table layout
In this algorithm (which generally requires no more than two passes), the
table's width is given by the width of its columns (and intervening
borders). This algorithm reflects the behavior of several popular HTML user
agents at the writing of this specification. UAs are not required to
implement this algorithm to determine the table layout in the case that
'table-layout' is 'auto'; they can use any other algorithm.
This algorithm may be inefficient since it requires the user agent to have
access to all the content in the table before determining the final layout
and may demand more than one pass.
Column widths are determined as follows:
1. Calculate the minimum content width (MCW) of each cell: the formatted
content may span any number of lines but may not overflow the cell box.
If the specified 'width' (W) of the cell is greater than MCW, W is the
minimum cell width. A value of 'auto' means that MCW is the minimum
cell width.
Also, calculate the "maximum" cell width of each cell: formatting then
content without breaking lines other than where explicit line breaks
occur.
2. For each column, determine a maximum and minimum column width from the
cells that span only that column. The minimum is that required by the
cell with the largest minimum cell width (or the column 'width',
whichever is larger). The maximum is that required by the cell with the
largest maximum cell width (or the column 'width', whichever is
larger).
3. For each cell that spans more than one column, increase the minimum
widths of the columns it spans so that together, they are at least as
wide as the cell. Do the same for the maximum widths. If possible,
widen all spanned columns by approximately the same amount.
This gives a maximum and minimum width for each column. Column widths
influence the final table width as follows:
1. If the 'table' or 'inline-table' element's 'width' property has a
specified value (W) other than 'auto', the property's computed value is
the greater of W and the minimum width required by all the columns plus
cell spacing or borders (MIN). If W is greater than MIN, the extra
width should be distributed over the columns.
2. If the 'table' or 'inline-table' element has 'width: auto', the
computed table width is the greater of the table's containing block
width and MIN. However, if the maximum width required by the columns
plus cell spacing or borders (MAX) is less than that of the containing
block, use MAX.
A percentage value for a column width is relative to the table width. If the
table has 'width: auto', a percentage represents a constraint on the
column's width, which a UA should try to satisfy. (Obviously, this is not
always possible: if the column's width is '110%', the constraint cannot be
satisfied.)
Note. In this algorithm, rows (and row groups) and columns (and column
groups) both constrain and are constrained by the dimensions of the cells
they contain. Setting the width of a column may indirectly influence the
height of a row, and vice versa.
17.5.3 Table height algorithms
The height of a table is given by the 'height' property for the 'table' or
'inline-table' element. A value of 'auto' means that the height is the sum
of the row heights plus any cell spacing or borders. Any other value
specifies the height explicitly; the table may thus be taller or shorter
than the height of its rows. CSS2 does not specify rendering when the
specified table height differs from the content height, in particular
whether content height should override specified height; if it doesn't, how
extra space should be distributed among rows that add up to less than the
specified table height; or, if the content height exceeds the specified
table height, whether the UA should provide a scrolling mechanism. Note.
Future versions of CSS may specify this further.
The height of a 'table-row' element's box is calculated once the user agent
has all the cells in the row available: it is the maximum of the row's
specified 'height' and the minimum height (MIN) required by the cells. A
'height' value of 'auto' for a 'table-row' means the computed row height is
MIN. MIN depends on cell box heights and cell box alignment (much like the
calculation of a line box height). CSS2 does not define what percentage
values of 'height' refer to when specified for table rows and row groups.
In CSS2, the height of a cell box is the maximum of the table cell's
'height' property and the minimum height required by the content (MIN). A
value of 'auto' for 'height' implies a computed value of MIN. CSS2 does not
define what percentage values of 'height' refer to when specified for table
cells.
CSS2 does not specify how cells that span more than row affect row height
calculations except that the sum of the row heights involved must be great
enough to encompass the cell spanning the rows.
The 'vertical-align' property of each table cell determines its alignment
within the row. Each cell's content has a baseline, a top, a middle, and a
bottom, as does the row itself. In the context of tables, values for
'vertical-align' have the following meanings:
baseline
The baseline of the cell is put at the same height as the baseline of
the first of the rows it spans (see below for the definition of
baselines of cells and rows).
top
The top of the cell box is aligned with the top of the first row it
spans.
bottom
The bottom of the cell box is aligned with the bottom of the last row
it spans.
middle
The center of the cell is aligned with the center of the rows it spans.
sub, super, text-top, text-bottom
These values do not apply to cells; the cell is aligned at the baseline
instead.
The baseline of a cell is the baseline of the first line box in the cell. If
there is no text, the baseline is the baseline of whatever object is
displayed in the cell, or, if it has none, the bottom of the cell box. The
maximum distance between the top of the cell box and the baseline over all
cells that have 'vertical-align: baseline' is used to set the baseline of
the row. Here is an example:
[Example of verticallyaligning the cells] [D]
Diagram showing the effect of various values of 'vertical-align' on table
cells.
Cell boxes 1 and 2 are aligned at their baselines. Cell box 2 has the
largest height above the baseline, so that determines the baseline of the
row. Note that if there is no cell box aligned at its baseline, the row will
not have (nor need) a baseline.
To avoid ambiguous situations, the alignment of cells proceeds in the
following order:
1. First the cells that are aligned on their baseline are positioned. This
will establish the baseline of the row. Next the cells with
'vertical-align: top' are positioned.
2. The row now has a top, possibly a baseline, and a provisional height,
which is the distance from the top to the lowest bottom of the cells
positioned so far. (See conditions on the cell padding below.)
3. If any of the remaining cells, those aligned at the bottom or the
middle, have a height that is larger than the current height of the
row, the height of the row will be increased to the maximum of those
cells, by lowering the bottom.
4. Finally the remaining cells are positioned.
Cell boxes that are smaller than the height of the row receive extra top or
bottom padding.
17.5.4 Horizontal alignment in a column
The horizontal alignment of a cell's content within a cell box is specified
with the 'text-align' property.
When the 'text-align' property for more than one cell in a column is set to
a <string> value, the content of those cells is aligned along a vertical
axis. The beginning of the string touches this axis. Character
directionality determines whether the string lies to the left or right of
the axis.
Aligning text in this way is only useful if the text fits on one line. The
result is undefined if the cell content spans more than one line.
If value of 'text-align' for a table cell is a string but the string doesn't
occur in the cell content, the end of the cell's content touches the
vertical axis of alignment.
Note that the strings do not have to be the same for each cell, although
they usually are.
CSS does not provide a way specify the offset of the vertical alignment axis
with respect to the edge of a column box.
Example(s):
The following style sheet:
TD { text-align: "." }
TD:before { content: "$" }
will cause the column of dollar figures in the following HTML table:
<TABLE>
<COL width="40">
<TR> <TH>Long distance calls
<TR> <TD> 1.30
<TR> <TD> 2.50
<TR> <TD> 10.80
<TR> <TD> 111.01
<TR> <TD> 85.
<TR> <TD> 90
<TR> <TD> .05
<TR> <TD> .06
</TABLE>
to align along the decimal point. For fun, we have used the :before
pseudo-element to insert a dollar sign before each figure. The table might
be rendered as follows:
Long distance calls
$1.30
$2.50
$10.80
$111.01
$85.
$90
$.05
$.06
17.5.5 Dynamic row and column effects
The 'visibility' property takes the value 'collapse' for row, row group,
column, and column group elements. This value causes the entire row or
column to be removed from the display, and the space normally taken up by
the row or column to be made available for other content. The suppression of
the row or column, however, does not otherwise affect the layout of the
table. This allows dynamic effects to remove table rows or columns without
forcing a re-layout of the table in order to account for the potential
change in column constraints.
17.6 Borders
There are two distinct models for setting borders on table cells in CSS. One
is most suitable for so-called separated borders around individual cells,
the other is suitable for borders that are continuous from one end of the
table to the other. Many border styles can be achieved with either model, so
it is often a matter of taste which one is used.
'border-collapse'
Value: collapse | separate | inherit
Initial: collapse
Applies to: 'table' and 'inline-table' elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
This property selects a table's border model. The value 'separate' selects
the separated borders border model. The value 'collapse' selects the
collapsing borders model. The models are described below.
17.6.1 The separated borders model
'border-spacing'
Value: <length> <length>? | inherit
Initial: 0
Applies to: 'table' and 'inline-table' elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
The lengths specify the distance that separates adjacent cell borders. If
one length is specified, it gives both the horizontal and vertical spacing.
If two are specified, the first gives the horizontal spacing and the second
the vertical spacing. Lengths may not be negative.
In this model, each cell has an individual border. The 'border-spacing'
property specifies the distance between the borders of adjacent cells. This
space is filled with the background of the table element. Rows, columns, row
groups, and column groups cannot have borders (i.e., user agents must ignore
the border properties for those elements).
Example(s):
The table in the figure below could be the result of a style sheet like
this:
TABLE { border: outset 10pt;
border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 15pt }
TD { border: inset 5pt }
TD.special { border: inset 10pt } /* The top-left cell */
[A table withborder-spacing] [D]
A table with 'border-spacing' set to a length value. Note that each cell has
its own border, and the table has a separate border as well.
Borders around empty cells: the 'empty-cells' property
'empty-cells'
Value: show | hide | inherit
Initial: show
Applies to: 'table-cell' elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual
In the separated borders model, this property controls the rendering of
borders around cells that have no visible content. Empty cells and cells
with the 'visibility' property set to 'hidden' are considered to have no
visible content. Visible content includes " " and other whitespace
except ASCII CR ("\0D"), LF ("\0A"), tab ("\09"), and space ("\20").
When this property has the value 'show', borders are drawn around empty
cells (like normal cells).
A value of 'hide' means that no borders are drawn around empty cells.
Furthermore, if all the cells in a row have a value of 'hide' and have no
visible content, the entire row behaves as if it had 'display: none'.
Example(s):
The following rule causes borders to be drawn around all cells:
TABLE { empty-cells: show }
17.6.2 The collapsing border model
In the collapsing border model, it is possible to specify borders that
surround all or part of a cell, row, row group, column, and column group.
Borders for HTML's "rule" attribute can be specified this way.
Borders are centered on the grid lines between the cells. User agents must
find a consistent rule for rounding off in the case of an odd number of
discrete units (screen pixels, printer dots).
The diagram below shows how the width of the table, the widths of the
borders, the padding, and the cell width interact. Their relation is given
by the following equation, which holds for every row of the table:
row-width = (0.5 * border-width0) + padding-left1 + width1 +
padding-right1 + border-width1 + padding-left2 +...+
padding-rightn + (0.5 * border-widthn)
Here n is the number of cells in the row, and border-widthi refers to the
border between cells i and i + 1. Note only half of the two exterior borders
are counted in the table width; the other half of these two borders lies in
the margin area.
[Schema showing the widths ofcells and borders and the padding of cells] [D]
Schema showing the widths of cells and borders and the padding of cells.
Note that in this model, the width of the table includes half the table
border. Also, in this model, a table doesn't have padding (but does have
margins).
Border conflict resolution
In the collapsing border model, borders at every edge of every cell may be
specified by border properties on a variety of elements that meet at that
edge (cells, rows, row groups, columns, column groups, and the table
itself), and these borders may vary in width, style, and color. The rule of
thumb is that at each edge the most "eye catching" border style is chosen,
except that any occurrence of the style 'hidden' unconditionally turns the
border off.
The following rules determine which border style "wins" in case of a
conflict:
1. Borders with the 'border-style' of 'hidden' take precedence over all
other conflicting borders. Any border with this value suppresses all
borders at this location.
2. Borders with a style of 'none' have the lowest priority. Only if the
border properties of all the elements meeting at this edge are 'none'
will the border be omitted (but note that 'none' is the default value
for the border style.)
3. If none of the styles is 'hidden' and at least one of them is not
'none', then narrow borders are discarded in favor of wider ones. If
several have the same 'border-width' than styles are preferred in this
order: 'double', 'solid', 'dashed', 'dotted', 'ridge', 'outset',
'groove', and the lowest: 'inset'.
4. If border styles differ only in color, then a style set on a cell wins
over one on a row, which wins over a row group, column, column group
and, lastly, table.
Example(s):
The following example illustrates the application of these precedence rules.
This style sheet:
TABLE { border-collapse: collapse;
border: 5px solid yellow; }
*#col1 { border: 3px solid black; }
TD { border: 1px solid red; padding: 1em; }
TD.solid-blue { border: 5px dashed blue; }
TD.solid-green { border: 5px solid green; }
with this HTML source:
<P>
<TABLE>
<COL id="col1"><COL id="col2"><COL id="col3">
<TR id="row1">
<TD> 1
<TD> 2
<TD> 3
</TR>
<TR id="row2">
<TD> 4
<TD class="solid-blue"> 5
<TD class="solid-green"> 6
</TR>
<TR id="row3">
<TD> 7
<TD> 8
<TD> 9
</TR>
<TR id="row4">
<TD> 10
<TD> 11
<TD> 12
</TR>
<TR id="row5">
<TD> 13
<TD> 14
<TD> 15
</TR>
</TABLE>
would produce something like this:
[An example of a table with collapsed borders] [D]
An example of a table with collapsed borders.
Example(s):
The next example shows a table with horizontal rules between the rows. The
top border of the table is set to 'hidden' to suppress the top border of the
first row. This implements the "rules" attribute of HTML 4.0 (rules="rows").
TABLE[rules=rows] TR { border-top: solid }
TABLE[rules=rows] { border-collapse: collapse;
border-top: hidden }
[Table with horizontalrules] [D]
Table with horizontal rules between the rows.
In this case the same effect can also be achieved without setting a 'hidden'
border on TABLE, by addressing the first row separately. Which method is
preferred is a matter of taste.
TR:first-child { border-top: none }
TR { border-top: solid }
Example(s):
Here is another example of hidden collapsing borders:
[Tablewith two omitted borders] [D]
Table with two omitted internal borders.
HTML source:
<TABLE style="border-collapse: collapse; border: solid;">
<TR><TD style="border-right: hidden; border-bottom: hidden">foo</TD>
<TD style="border: solid">bar</TD></TR>
<TR><TD style="border: none">foo</TD>
<TD style="border: solid">bar</TD></TR>
</TABLE>
17.6.3 Border styles
Some of the values of the 'border-style' have different meanings in tables
than for other elements. In the list below they are marked with an asterisk.
none
No border.
*hidden
Same as 'none', but in the collapsing border model, also inhibits any
other border (see the section on border conflicts).
dotted
The border is a series of dots.
dashed
The border is a series of short line segments.
solid
The border is a single line segment.
double
The border is two solid lines. The sum of the two lines and the space
between them equals the value of 'border-width'.
groove
The border looks as though it were carved into the canvas.
ridge
The opposite of 'grove': the border looks as though it were coming out
of the canvas.
*inset
In the separated borders model, the border makes the entire box look as
though it were embedded in the canvas. In the collapsing border model,
same as 'groove'.
*outset
In the separated borders model, the border makes the entire box look as
though it were coming out of the canvas. In the collapsing border
model, same as 'ridge'.
17.7 Audio rendering of tables
When a table is spoken by a speech generator, the relation between the data
cells and the header cells must be expressed in a different way than by
horizontal and vertical alignment. Some speech browsers may allow a user to
move around in the 2-dimensional space, thus giving them the opportunity to
map out the spatially represented relations. When that is not possible, the
style sheet must specify at which points the headers are spoken.
17.7.1 Speaking headers: the 'speak-header' property
'speak-header'
Value: once | always | inherit
Initial: once
Applies to: elements that have table header information
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
This property specifies whether table headers are spoken before every cell,
or only before a cell when that cell is associated with a different header
than the previous cell. Values have the following meanings:
once
The header is spoken one time, before a series of cells.
always
The header is spoken before every pertinent cell.
Each document language may have different mechanisms that allow authors to
specify headers. For example, in HTML 4.0 ([HTML40]), it is possible to
specify header information with three different attributes ("headers",
"scope", and "axis"), and the specification gives an algorithm for
determining header information when these attributes have not been
specified.
[Image of a table created in MSWord] [D]
Image of a table with header cells ("San Jose" and "Seattle") that are not
in the same column or row as the data they apply to.
This HTML example presents the money spent on meals, hotels and transport in
two locations (San Jose and Seattle) for successive days. Conceptually, you
can think of the table in terms of a n-dimensional space. The headers of
this space are: location, day, category and subtotal. Some cells define
marks along an axis while others give money spent at points within this
space. The markup for this table is:
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>Travel Expense Report</CAPTION>
<TR>
<TH></TH>
<TH>Meals</TH>
<TH>Hotels</TH>
<TH>Transport</TH>
<TH>subtotal</TH>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH id="san-jose" axis="san-jose">San Jose</TH>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH headers="san-jose">25-Aug-97</TH>
<TD>37.74</TD>
<TD>112.00</TD>
<TD>45.00</TD>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH headers="san-jose">26-Aug-97</TH>
<TD>27.28</TD>
<TD>112.00</TD>
<TD>45.00</TD>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH headers="san-jose">subtotal</TH>
<TD>65.02</TD>
<TD>224.00</TD>
<TD>90.00</TD>
<TD>379.02</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH id="seattle" axis="seattle">Seattle</TH>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH headers="seattle">27-Aug-97</TH>
<TD>96.25</TD>
<TD>109.00</TD>
<TD>36.00</TD>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH headers="seattle">28-Aug-97</TH>
<TD>35.00</TD>
<TD>109.00</TD>
<TD>36.00</TD>
<TD></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH headers="seattle">subtotal</TH>
<TD>131.25</TD>
<TD>218.00</TD>
<TD>72.00</TD>
<TD>421.25</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TH>Totals</TH>
<TD>196.27</TD>
<TD>442.00</TD>
<TD>162.00</TD>
<TD>800.27</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
By providing the data model in this way, authors make it possible for speech
enabled-browsers to explore the table in rich ways, e.g., each cell could be
spoken as a list, repeating the applicable headers before each data cell:
San Jose, 25-Aug-97, Meals: 37.74
San Jose, 25-Aug-97, Hotels: 112.00
San Jose, 25-Aug-97, Transport: 45.00
...
The browser could also speak the headers only when they change:
San Jose, 25-Aug-97, Meals: 37.74
Hotels: 112.00
Transport: 45.00
26-Aug-97, Meals: 27.28
Hotels: 112.00
...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
18 User interface
Contents
* 18.1 Cursors: the 'cursor' property
* 18.2 User preferences for colors
* 18.3 User preferences for fonts
* 18.4 Dynamic outlines: the 'outline' property
o 18.4.1 Outlines and the focus
* 18.5 Magnification
18.1 Cursors: the 'cursor' property
'cursor'
Value: [ [<uri> ,]* [ auto | crosshair | default | pointer |
move | e-resize | ne-resize | nw-resize | n-resize |
se-resize | sw-resize | s-resize | w-resize| text | wait
| help ] ] | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, interactive
This property specifies the type of cursor to be displayed for the pointing
device. Values have the following meanings:
auto
The UA determines the cursor to display based on the current context.
crosshair
A simple crosshair (e.g., short line segments resembling a "+" sign).
default
The platform-dependent default cursor. Often rendered as an arrow.
pointer
The cursor is a pointer that indicates a link.
move
Indicates something is to be moved.
e-resize, ne-resize, nw-resize, n-resize, se-resize, sw-resize, s-resize,
w-resize
Indicate that some edge is to be moved. For example, the 'se-resize'
cursor is used when the movement starts from the south-east corner of
the box.
text
Indicates text that may be selected. Often rendered as an I-bar.
wait
Indicates that the program is busy and the user should wait. Often
rendered as a watch or hourglass.
help
Help is available for the object under the cursor. Often rendered as a
question mark or a balloon.
<uri>
The user agent retrieves the cursor from the resource designated by the
URI. If the user agent cannot handle the first cursor of a list of
cursors, it should attempt to handle the second, etc. If the user agent
cannot handle any user-defined cursor, it must use the generic cursor
at the end of the list.
Example(s):
P { cursor : url("mything.cur"), url("second.csr"), text; }
18.2 User preferences for colors
In addition to being able to assign pre-defined color values to text,
backgrounds, etc., CSS2 allows authors to specify colors in a manner that
integrates them into the user's graphic environment. Style rules that take
into account user preferences thus offer the following advantages:
1. They produce pages that fit the user's defined look and feel.
2. They produce pages that may be more accessible as the current user
settings may be related to a disability.
The set of values defined for system colors is intended to be exhaustive.
For systems that do not have a corresponding value, the specified value
should be mapped to the nearest system attribute, or to a default color.
The following lists additional values for color-related CSS attributes and
their general meaning. Any color property (e.g., 'color' or
'background-color') can take one of the following names. Although these are
case-insensitive, it is recommended that the mixed capitalization shown
below be used, to make the names more legible.
ActiveBorder
Active window border.
ActiveCaption
Active window caption.
AppWorkspace
Background color of multiple document interface.
Background
Desktop background.
ButtonFace
Face color for three-dimensional display elements.
ButtonHighlight
Dark shadow for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing
away from the light source).
ButtonShadow
Shadow color for three-dimensional display elements.
ButtonText
Text on push buttons.
CaptionText
Text in caption, size box, and scrollbar arrow box.
GrayText
Grayed (disabled) text. This color is set to #000 if the current
display driver does not support a solid gray color.
Highlight
Item(s) selected in a control.
HighlightText
Text of item(s) selected in a control.
InactiveBorder
Inactive window border.
InactiveCaption
Inactive window caption.
InactiveCaptionText
Color of text in an inactive caption.
InfoBackground
Background color for tooltip controls.
InfoText
Text color for tooltip controls.
Menu
Menu background.
MenuText
Text in menus.
Scrollbar
Scroll bar gray area.
ThreeDDarkShadow
Dark shadow for three-dimensional display elements.
ThreeDFace
Face color for three-dimensional display elements.
ThreeDHighlight
Highlight color for three-dimensional display elements.
ThreeDLightShadow
Light color for three-dimensional display elements (for edges facing
the light source).
ThreeDShadow
Dark shadow for three-dimensional display elements.
Window
Window background.
WindowFrame
Window frame.
WindowText
Text in windows.
Example(s):
For example, to set the foreground and background colors of a paragraph to
the same foreground and background colors of the user's window, write the
following:
P { color: WindowText; background-color: Window }
18.3 User preferences for fonts
As for colors, authors may specify fonts in a way that makes use of a user's
system resources. Please consult the 'font' property for details.
18.4 Dynamic outlines: the 'outline' property
At times, style sheet authors may want to create outlines around visual
objects such as buttons, active form fields, image maps, etc., to make them
stand out. CSS2 outlines differ from borders in the following ways:
1. Outlines do not take up space.
2. Outlines may be non-rectangular.
The outline properties control the style of these dynamic outlines.
'outline'
Value: [ <'outline-color'> || <'outline-style'> ||
<'outline-width'> ] | inherit
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, interactive
'outline-width'
Value: <border-width> | inherit
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, interactive
'outline-style'
Value: <border-style> | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, interactive
'outline-color'
Value: <color> | invert | inherit
Initial: invert
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: visual, interactive
The outline created with the outline properties is drawn "over" a box, i.e.,
the outline is always on top, and doesn't influence the position or size of
the box, or of any other boxes. Therefore, displaying or suppressing
outlines does not cause reflow.
The outline is drawn starting just outside the border edge.
Outlines may be non-rectangular. For example, if the element is broken
across several lines, the outline is the minimum outline that encloses all
the element's boxes. In contrast to borders, the outline is not open at the
line box's end or start, but is always fully connected.
The 'outline-width' property accepts the same values as 'border-width'.
The 'outline-style' property accepts the same values as 'border-style',
except that 'hidden' is not a legal outline style.
The 'outline-color' accepts all colors, as well as the keyword 'invert'.
'Invert' is expected to perform a color inversion on the pixels on the
screen. This is a common trick to ensure the focus border is visible,
regardless of color background.
The 'outline' property is a shorthand property, and sets all three of
'outline-style', 'outline-width', and 'outline-color'.
Note that the outline is the same on all sides. In contrast to borders,
there is no 'outline-top' or 'outline-left' property.
This specification does not define how multiple overlapping outlines are
drawn, or how outlines are drawn for boxes that are partially obscured
behind other elements.
Note. Since the focus outline does not affect formatting (i.e., no space is
left for it in the box model), it may well overlap other elements on the
page.
Example(s):
Here's an example of drawing a thick outline around a BUTTON element:
BUTTON { outline-width : thick }
Scripts may be used to dynamically change the width of the outline, without
provoking reflow.
18.4.1 Outlines and the focus
Graphical user interfaces may use outlines around elements to tell the user
which element on the page has the focus. These outlines are in addition to
any borders, and switching outlines on and off should not cause the document
to reflow. The focus is the subject of user interaction in a document (e.g.,
for entering text, selecting a button, etc.). User agents supporting the
interactive media group must keep track of where the focus lies and must
also represent the focus. This may be done by using dynamic outlines in
conjunction with the :focus pseudo-class.
Example(s):
For example, to draw a thick black line around an element when it has the
focus, and a thick red line when it is active, the following rules can be
used:
:focus { outline: thick solid black }
:active { outline: thick solid red }
18.5 Magnification
The CSS working group considers that the magnification of a document or
portions of a document should not be specified through style sheets. User
agents may support such magnification in different ways (e.g., larger
images, louder sounds, etc.)
When magnifying a page, UAs should preserve the relationships between
positioned elements. For example, a comic strip may be composed of images
with overlaid text elements. When magnifying this page, a user agent should
keep the text within the comic strip balloon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 Aural style sheets
Contents
* 19.1 Introduction to aural style sheets
* 19.2 Volume properties: 'volume'
* 19.3 Speaking properties: 'speak'
* 19.4 Pause properties: 'pause-before', 'pause-after', and 'pause'
* 19.5 Cue properties: 'cue-before', 'cue-after', and 'cue'
* 19.6 Mixing properties: 'play-during'
* 19.7 Spatial properties: 'azimuth' and 'elevation'
* 19.8 Voice characteristic properties: 'speech-rate', 'voice-family',
'pitch', 'pitch-range', 'stress', and 'richness'
* 19.9 Speech properties: 'speak-punctuation' and 'speak-numeral'
19.1 Introduction to aural style sheets
The aural rendering of a document, already commonly used by the blind and
print-impaired communities, combines speech synthesis and "auditory icons."
Often such aural presentation occurs by converting the document to plain
text and feeding this to a screen reader -- software or hardware that simply
reads all the characters on the screen. This results in less effective
presentation than would be the case if the document structure were retained.
Style sheet properties for aural presentation may be used together with
visual properties (mixed media) or as an aural alternative to visual
presentation.
Besides the obvious accessibility advantages, there are other large markets
for listening to information, including in-car use, industrial and medical
documentation systems (intranets), home entertainment, and to help users
learning to read or who have difficulty reading.
When using aural properties, the canvas consists of a three-dimensional
physical space (sound surrounds) and a temporal space (one may specify
sounds before, during, and after other sounds). The CSS properties also
allow authors to vary the quality of synthesized speech (voice type,
frequency, inflection, etc.).
Example(s):
H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 {
voice-family: paul;
stress: 20;
richness: 90;
cue-before: url("ping.au")
}
P.heidi { azimuth: center-left }
P.peter { azimuth: right }
P.goat { volume: x-soft }
This will direct the speech synthesizer to speak headers in a voice (a kind
of "audio font") called "paul", on a flat tone, but in a very rich voice.
Before speaking the headers, a sound sample will be played from the given
URL. Paragraphs with class "heidi" will appear to come from front left (if
the sound system is capable of spatial audio), and paragraphs of class
"peter" from the right. Paragraphs with class "goat" will be very soft.
19.2 Volume properties: 'volume'
'volume'
Value: <number> | <percentage> | silent | x-soft | soft |
medium | loud | x-loud | inherit
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: refer to inherited value
Media: aural
Volume refers to the median volume of the waveform. In other words, a highly
inflected voice at a volume of 50 might peak well above that. The overall
values are likely to be human adjustable for comfort, for example with a
physical volume control (which would increase both the 0 and 100 values
proportionately); what this property does is adjust the dynamic range.
Values have the following meanings:
<number>
Any number between '0' and '100'. '0' represents the minimum audible
volume level and 100 corresponds to the maximum comfortable level.
<percentage>
Percentage values are calculated relative to the inherited value, and
are then clipped to the range '0' to '100'.
silent
No sound at all. The value '0' does not mean the same as 'silent'.
x-soft
Same as '0'.
soft
Same as '25'.
medium
Same as '50'.
loud
Same as '75'.
x-loud
Same as '100'.
User agents should allow the values corresponding to '0' and '100' to be set
by the listener. No one setting is universally applicable; suitable values
depend on the equipment in use (speakers, headphones), the environment (in
car, home theater, library) and personal preferences. Some examples:
* A browser for in-car use has a setting for when there is lots of
background noise. '0' would map to a fairly high level and '100' to a
quite high level. The speech is easily audible over the road noise but
the overall dynamic range is compressed. Cars with better insulation
might allow a wider dynamic range.
* Another speech browser is being used in an apartment, late at night, or
in a shared study room. '0' is set to a very quiet level and '100' to a
fairly quiet level, too. As with the first example, there is a low
slope; the dynamic range is reduced. The actual volumes are low here,
whereas they were high in the first example.
* In a quiet and isolated house, an expensive hi-fi home theater setup.
'0' is set fairly low and '100' to quite high; there is wide dynamic
range.
The same author style sheet could be used in all cases, simply by mapping
the '0' and '100' points suitably at the client side.
19.3 Speaking properties: 'speak'
'speak'
Value: normal | none | spell-out | inherit
Initial: normal
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
This property specifies whether text will be rendered aurally and if so, in
what manner (somewhat analogous to the 'display' property). The possible
values are:
none
Suppresses aural rendering so that the element requires no time to
render. Note, however, that descendants may override this value and
will be spoken. (To be sure to suppress rendering of an element and its
descendants, use the 'display' property).
normal
Uses language-dependent pronunciation rules for rendering an element
and its children.
spell-out
Spells the text one letter at a time (useful for acronyms and
abbreviations).
Note the difference between an element whose 'volume' property has a value
of 'silent' and an element whose 'speak' property has the value 'none'. The
former takes up the same time as if it had been spoken, including any pause
before and after the element, but no sound is generated. The latter requires
no time and is not rendered (though its descendants may be).
19.4 Pause properties: 'pause-before', 'pause-after', and 'pause'
'pause-before'
Value: <time> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: see prose
Media: aural
'pause-after'
Value: <time> | <percentage> | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: see prose
Media: aural
These properties specify a pause to be observed before (or after) speaking
an element's content. Values have the following meanings:
<time>
Expresses the pause in absolute time units (seconds and milliseconds).
<percentage>
Refers to the inverse of the value of the 'speech-rate' property. For
example, if the speech-rate is 120 words per minute (i.e., a word takes
half a second, or 500ms) then a 'pause-before' of 100% means a pause of
500 ms and a 'pause-before' of 20% means 100ms.
The pause is inserted between the element's content and any 'cue-before' or
'cue-after' content.
Authors should use relative units to create more robust style sheets in the
face of large changes in speech-rate.
'pause'
Value: [ [<time> | <percentage>]{1,2} ] | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: see descriptions of 'pause-before' and 'pause-after'
Media: aural
The 'pause' property is a shorthand for setting 'pause-before' and
'pause-after'. If two values are given, the first value is 'pause-before'
and the second is 'pause-after'. If only one value is given, it applies to
both properties.
Example(s):
H1 { pause: 20ms } /* pause-before: 20ms; pause-after: 20ms */
H2 { pause: 30ms 40ms } /* pause-before: 30ms; pause-after: 40ms */
H3 { pause-after: 10ms } /* pause-before: ?; pause-after: 10ms */
19.5 Cue properties: 'cue-before', 'cue-after', and 'cue'
'cue-before'
Value: <uri> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
'cue-after'
Value: <uri> | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Auditory icons are another way to distinguish semantic elements. Sounds may
be played before and/or after the element to delimit it. Values have the
following meanings:
<uri>
The URI must designate an auditory icon resource. If the URI resolves
to something other than an audio file, such as an image, the resource
should be ignored and the property treated as if it had the value
'none'.
none
No auditory icon is specified.
Example(s):
A {cue-before: url("bell.aiff"); cue-after: url("dong.wav") }
H1 {cue-before: url("pop.au"); cue-after: url("pop.au") }
'cue'
Value: [ <'cue-before'> || <'cue-after'> ] | inherit
Initial: not defined for shorthand properties
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
The 'cue' property is a shorthand for setting 'cue-before' and 'cue-after'.
If two values are given, the first value is 'cue-before' and the second is
'cue-after'. If only one value is given, it applies to both properties.
Example(s):
The following two rules are equivalent:
H1 {cue-before: url("pop.au"); cue-after: url("pop.au") }
H1 {cue: url("pop.au") }
If a user agent cannot render an auditory icon (e.g., the user's environment
does not permit it), we recommend that it produce an alternative cue (e.g.,
popping up a warning, emitting a warning sound, etc.)
Please see the sections on the :before and :after pseudo-elements for
information on other content generation techniques.
19.6 Mixing properties: 'play-during'
'play-during'
Value: <uri> mix? repeat? | auto | none | inherit
Initial: auto
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: no
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Similar to the 'cue-before' and 'cue-after' properties, this property
specifies a sound to be played as a background while an element's content is
spoken. Values have the following meanings:
<uri>
The sound designated by this <uri> is played as a background while the
element's content is spoken.
mix
When present, this keyword means that the sound inherited from the
parent element's 'play-during' property continues to play and the sound
designated by the <uri> is mixed with it. If 'mix' is not specified,
the element's background sound replaces the parent's.
repeat
When present, this keyword means that the sound will repeat if it is
too short to fill the entire duration of the element. Otherwise, the
sound plays once and then stops. This is similar to the
'background-repeat' property. If the sound is too long for the element,
it is clipped once the element has been spoken.
auto
The sound of the parent element continues to play (it is not restarted,
which would have been the case if this property had been inherited).
none
This keyword means that there is silence. The sound of the parent
element (if any) is silent during the current element and continues
after the current element.
Example(s):
BLOCKQUOTE.sad { play-during: url("violins.aiff") }
BLOCKQUOTE Q { play-during: url("harp.wav") mix }
SPAN.quiet { play-during: none }
19.7 Spatial properties: 'azimuth' and 'elevation'
Spatial audio is an important stylistic property for aural presentation. It
provides a natural way to tell several voices apart, as in real life (people
rarely all stand in the same spot in a room). Stereo speakers produce a
lateral sound stage. Binaural headphones or the increasingly popular
5-speaker home theater setups can generate full surround sound, and
multi-speaker setups can create a true three-dimensional sound stage. VRML
2.0 also includes spatial audio, which implies that in time consumer-priced
spatial audio hardware will become more widely available.
'azimuth'
Value: <angle> | [[ left-side | far-left | left | center-left |
center | center-right | right | far-right | right-side ]
|| behind ] | leftwards | rightwards | inherit
Initial: center
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Values have the following meanings:
<angle>
Position is described in terms of an angle within the range '-360deg'
to '360deg'. The value '0deg' means directly ahead in the center of the
sound stage. '90deg' is to the right, '180deg' behind, and '270deg'
(or, equivalently and more conveniently, '-90deg') to the left.
left-side
Same as '270deg'. With 'behind', '270deg'.
far-left
Same as '300deg'. With 'behind', '240deg'.
left
Same as '320deg'. With 'behind', '220deg'.
center-left
Same as '340deg'. With 'behind', '200deg'.
center
Same as '0deg'. With 'behind', '180deg'.
center-right
Same as '20deg'. With 'behind', '160deg'.
right
Same as '40deg'. With 'behind', '140deg'.
far-right
Same as '60deg'. With 'behind', '120deg'.
right-side
Same as '90deg'. With 'behind', '90deg'.
leftwards
Moves the sound to the left, relative to the current angle. More
precisely, subtracts 20 degrees. Arithmetic is carried out modulo 360
degrees. Note that 'leftwards' is more accurately described as "turned
counter-clockwise," since it always subtracts 20 degrees, even if the
inherited azimuth is already behind the listener (in which case the
sound actually appears to move to the right).
rightwards
Moves the sound to the right, relative to the current angle. More
precisely, adds 20 degrees. See 'leftwards' for arithmetic.
This property is most likely to be implemented by mixing the same signal
into different channels at differing volumes. It might also use phase
shifting, digital delay, and other such techniques to provide the illusion
of a sound stage. The precise means used to achieve this effect and the
number of speakers used to do so are user agent-dependent; this property
merely identifies the desired end result.
Example(s):
H1 { azimuth: 30deg }
TD.a { azimuth: far-right } /* 60deg */
#12 { azimuth: behind far-right } /* 120deg */
P.comment { azimuth: behind } /* 180deg */
If spatial-azimuth is specified and the output device cannot produce sounds
behind the listening position, user agents should convert values in the
rearwards hemisphere to forwards hemisphere values. One method is as
follows:
* if 90deg < x <= 180deg then x := 180deg - x
* if 180deg < x <= 270deg then x := 540deg - x
'elevation'
Value: <angle> | below | level | above | higher | lower |
inherit
Initial: level
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Values of this property have the following meanings:
<angle>
Specifies the elevation as an angle, between '-90deg' and '90deg'.
'0deg' means on the forward horizon, which loosely means level with the
listener. '90deg' means directly overhead and '-90deg' means directly
below.
below
Same as '-90deg'.
level
Same as '0deg'.
above
Same as '90deg'.
higher
Adds 10 degrees to the current elevation.
lower
Subtracts 10 degrees from the current elevation.
The precise means used to achieve this effect and the number of speakers
used to do so are undefined. This property merely identifies the desired end
result.
Example(s):
H1 { elevation: above }
TR.a { elevation: 60deg }
TR.b { elevation: 30deg }
TR.c { elevation: level }
19.8 Voice characteristic properties: 'speech-rate', 'voice-family',
'pitch', 'pitch-range', 'stress', and 'richness'
'speech-rate'
Value: <number> | x-slow | slow | medium | fast | x-fast |
faster | slower | inherit
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
This property specifies the speaking rate. Note that both absolute and
relative keyword values are allowed (compare with 'font-size'). Values have
the following meanings:
<number>
Specifies the speaking rate in words per minute, a quantity that varies
somewhat by language but is nevertheless widely supported by speech
synthesizers.
x-slow
Same as 80 words per minute.
slow
Same as 120 words per minute
medium
Same as 180 - 200 words per minute.
fast
Same as 300 words per minute.
x-fast
Same as 500 words per minute.
faster
Adds 40 words per minute to the current speech rate.
slower
Subtracts 40 words per minutes from the current speech rate.
'voice-family'
Value: [[<specific-voice> | <generic-voice> ],]*
[<specific-voice> | <generic-voice> ] | inherit
Initial: depends on user agent
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
The value is a comma-separated, prioritized list of voice family names
(compare with 'font-family'). Values have the following meanings:
<generic-voice>
Values are voice families. Possible values are 'male', 'female', and
'child'.
<specific-voice>
Values are specific instances (e.g., comedian, trinoids, carlos, lani).
Example(s):
H1 { voice-family: announcer, male }
P.part.romeo { voice-family: romeo, male }
P.part.juliet { voice-family: juliet, female }
Names of specific voices may be quoted, and indeed must be quoted if any of
the words that make up the name does not conform to the syntax rules for
identifiers. It is also recommended to quote specific voices with a name
consisting of more than one word. If quoting is omitted, any whitespace
characters before and after the font name are ignored and any sequence of
whitespace characters inside the font name is converted to a single space.
'pitch'
Value: <frequency> | x-low | low | medium | high | x-high |
inherit
Initial: medium
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Specifies the average pitch (a frequency) of the speaking voice. The average
pitch of a voice depends on the voice family. For example, the average pitch
for a standard male voice is around 120Hz, but for a female voice, it's
around 210Hz.
Values have the following meanings:
<frequency>
Specifies the average pitch of the speaking voice in hertz (Hz).
x-low, low, medium, high, x-high
These values do not map to absolute frequencies since these values
depend on the voice family. User agents should map these values to
appropriate frequencies based on the voice family and user environment.
However, user agents must map these values in order (i.e., 'x-low' is a
lower frequency than 'low', etc.).
'pitch-range'
Value: <number> | inherit
Initial: 50
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Specifies variation in average pitch. The perceived pitch of a human voice
is determined by the fundamental frequency and typically has a value of
120Hz for a male voice and 210Hz for a female voice. Human languages are
spoken with varying inflection and pitch; these variations convey additional
meaning and emphasis. Thus, a highly animated voice, i.e., one that is
heavily inflected, displays a high pitch range. This property specifies the
range over which these variations occur, i.e., how much the fundamental
frequency may deviate from the average pitch.
Values have the following meanings:
<number>
A value between '0' and '100'. A pitch range of '0' produces a flat,
monotonic voice. A pitch range of 50 produces normal inflection. Pitch
ranges greater than 50 produce animated voices.
'stress'
Value: <number> | inherit
Initial: 50
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Specifies the height of "local peaks" in the intonation contour of a voice.
For example, English is a stressed language, and different parts of a
sentence are assigned primary, secondary, or tertiary stress. The value of
'stress' controls the amount of inflection that results from these stress
markers. This property is a companion to the 'pitch-range' property and is
provided to allow developers to exploit higher-end auditory displays.
Values have the following meanings:
<number>
A value, between '0' and '100'. The meaning of values depends on the
language being spoken. For example, a level of '50' for a standard,
English-speaking male voice (average pitch = 122Hz), speaking with
normal intonation and emphasis would have a different meaning than '50'
for an Italian voice.
'richness'
Value: <number> | inherit
Initial: 50
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
Specifies the richness, or brightness, of the speaking voice. A rich voice
will "carry" in a large room, a smooth voice will not. (The term "smooth"
refers to how the wave form looks when drawn.)
Values have the following meanings:
<number>
A value between '0' and '100'. The higher the value, the more the voice
will carry. A lower value will produce a soft, mellifluous voice.
19.9 Speech properties: 'speak-punctuation' and 'speak-numeral'
An additional speech property, speak-header, is described in the chapter on
tables
'speak-punctuation'
Value: code | none | inherit
Initial: none
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
This property specifies how punctuation is spoken. Values have the following
meanings:
code
Punctuation such as semicolons, braces, and so on are to be spoken
literally.
none
Punctuation is not to be spoken, but instead rendered naturally as
various pauses.
'speak-numeral'
Value: digits | continuous | inherit
Initial: continuous
Applies to: all elements
Inherited: yes
Percentages: N/A
Media: aural
This property controls how numerals are spoken. Values have the following
meanings:
digits
Speak the numeral as individual digits. Thus, "237" is spoken "Two
Three Seven".
continuous
Speak the numeral as a full number. Thus, "237" is spoken "Two hundred
thirty seven". Word representations are language-dependent.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix A. A sample style sheet for HTML 4.0
This appendix is informative, not normative.
This style sheet describes the typical formatting of all HTML 4.0 ([HTML40])
elements based on extensive research into current UA practice. Developers
are encouraged to use it as a default style sheet in their implementations.
The full presentation of some HTML elements cannot be expressed in CSS2,
including replaced elements (IMG, OBJECT), scripting elements (SCRIPT,
APPLET), form control elements, and frame elements.
ADDRESS,
BLOCKQUOTE,
BODY, DD, DIV,
DL, DT,
FIELDSET, FORM,
FRAME, FRAMESET,
H1, H2, H3, H4,
H5, H6, IFRAME,
NOFRAMES,
OBJECT, OL, P,
UL, APPLET,
CENTER, DIR,
HR, MENU, PRE { display: block }
LI { display: list-item }
HEAD { display: none }
TABLE { display: table }
TR { display: table-row }
THEAD { display: table-header-group }
TBODY { display: table-row-group }
TFOOT { display: table-footer-group }
COL { display: table-column }
COLGROUP { display: table-column-group }
TD, TH { display: table-cell }
CAPTION { display: table-caption }
TH { font-weight: bolder; text-align: center }
CAPTION { text-align: center }
BODY { padding: 8px; line-height: 1.33 }
H1 { font-size: 2em; margin: .67em 0 }
H2 { font-size: 1.5em; margin: .83em 0 }
H3 { font-size: 1.17em; margin: 1em 0 }
H4, P,
BLOCKQUOTE, UL,
FIELDSET, FORM,
OL, DL, DIR,
MENU { margin: 1.33em 0 }
H5 { font-size: .83em; line-height: 1.17em; margin: 1.67em 0 }
H6 { font-size: .67em; margin: 2.33em 0 }
H1, H2, H3, H4,
H5, H6, B,
STRONG { font-weight: bolder }
BLOCKQUOTE { margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px }
I, CITE, EM,
VAR, ADDRESS { font-style: italic }
PRE, TT, CODE,
KBD, SAMP { font-family: monospace }
PRE { white-space: pre }
BIG { font-size: 1.17em }
SMALL, SUB, SUP { font-size: .83em }
SUB { vertical-align: sub }
SUP { vertical-align: super }
S, STRIKE, DEL { text-decoration: line-through }
HR { border: 1px inset }
OL, UL, DIR,
MENU, DD { margin-left: 40px }
OL { list-style-type: decimal }
OL UL, UL OL,
UL UL, OL OL { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 }
U, INS { text-decoration: underline }
CENTER { text-align: center }
BR:before { content: "\A" }
/* An example of style for HTML 4.0's ABBR/ACRONYM elements */
ABBR, ACRONYM { font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0.1em }
A[href] { text-decoration: underline }
:focus { outline: thin dotted invert }
/* Begin bidirectionality settings (do not change) */
BDO[DIR="ltr"] { direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: bidi-override }
BDO[DIR="rtl"] { direction: rtl; unicode-bidi: bidi-override }
*[DIR="ltr"] { direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed }
*[DIR="rtl"] { direction: rtl; unicode-bidi: embed }
/* Elements that are block-level in HTML4 */
ADDRESS, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, DD, DIV, DL, DT, FIELDSET,
FORM, FRAME, FRAMESET, H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6, IFRAME,
NOSCRIPT, NOFRAMES, OBJECT, OL, P, UL, APPLET, CENTER,
DIR, HR, MENU, PRE, LI, TABLE, TR, THEAD, TBODY, TFOOT,
COL, COLGROUP, TD, TH, CAPTION
{ unicode-bidi: embed }
/* End bidi settings */
@media print {
@page { margin: 10% }
H1, H2, H3,
H4, H5, H6 { page-break-after: avoid; page-break-inside: avoid }
BLOCKQUOTE,
PRE { page-break-inside: avoid }
UL, OL, DL { page-break-before: avoid }
}
@media speech {
H1, H2, H3,
H4, H5, H6 { voice-family: paul, male; stress: 20; richness: 90 }
H1 { pitch: x-low; pitch-range: 90 }
H2 { pitch: x-low; pitch-range: 80 }
H3 { pitch: low; pitch-range: 70 }
H4 { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60 }
H5 { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 50 }
H6 { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 40 }
LI, DT, DD { pitch: medium; richness: 60 }
DT { stress: 80 }
PRE, CODE, TT { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 0; stress: 0; richness: 80 }
EM { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 60; richness: 50 }
STRONG { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 90; richness: 90 }
DFN { pitch: high; pitch-range: 60; stress: 60 }
S, STRIKE { richness: 0 }
I { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 60; richness: 50 }
B { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 90; richness: 90 }
U { richness: 0 }
A:link { voice-family: harry, male }
A:visited { voice-family: betty, female }
A:active { voice-family: betty, female; pitch-range: 80; pitch: x-high }
}
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix B. Changes from CSS1
Contents
* B.1 New functionality
* B.2 Updated descriptions
* B.3 Semantic changes from CSS1
This appendix is informative, not normative.
CSS2 builds on CSS1 and all valid CSS1 style sheets are valid CSS2 style
sheets. The changes between the CSS1 specification (see [CSS1]) and this
specification fall into three groups: new functionality, updated
descriptions of CSS1 functionality, and changes to CSS1.
B.1 New functionality
In addition to the functionality of CSS1, CSS2 supports:
* The concept of media types.
* The 'inherit' value for all properties.
* Paged media
* Aural style sheets
* Several internationalization features, including list numbering styles,
support for bidirectional text, and support for language-sensitive
quotation marks.
* An extended font selection mechanism, including intelligent matching,
synthesis, and downloadable fonts. Also, the concept of system fonts
has been is introduced, and a new property, 'font-size-adjust', has
been added.
* Tables, including new values on 'display' and 'vertical-align'.
* Relative and absolute positioning, including fixed positioning.
* New box types (along with block and inline): compact and run-in.
* The ability to control content overflow, clipping, and visibility in
the visual formatting model.
* The ability to specify minimum and maximum widths and heights in the
visual formatting model.
* An extended selector mechanism, including child selectors, adjacent
selectors, and attribute selectors.
* Generated content, counters and automatic numbering, and markers.
* Text shadows, through the new 'text-shadow' property.
* Several new pseudo-classes, :first-child, :hover, :focus, :lang.
* System colors and fonts.
* Cursors.
* Dynamic outlines.
B.2 Updated descriptions
The CSS1 specification was short and concise. This specification is much
more voluminous and more readable. Much of the additional content describes
new functionality, but the description of CSS1 features has also been
extended. Except in a few cases described below, the rewritten descriptions
do not indicate a change in syntax nor semantics.
B.3 Semantic changes from CSS1
While all CSS1 style sheets are valid CSS2 style sheets, there are a few
cases where the CSS1 style sheet will have a different meaning when
interpreted as a CSS2 style sheet. Most changes are due to implementation
experience feeding back into the specification, but there are also some
error corrections.
* The meaning of "!important" has been changed. In CSS1, "!important" in
an author's style sheet took precedence over one in a user style sheet.
This has been reversed in CSS2.
* In CSS2 color values are clipped with regard to the device gamut, not
with regard to the sRGB gamut as in CSS1.
* CSS1 simply said that 'margin-right' was ignored if the both
'margin-left' and 'width' were set. In CSS2 the choice between relaxing
'margin-right' or 'margin-left' depends on the writing direction.
* In CSS1, several properties (e.g., 'padding') had values referring to
the width of the parent element. This was an error; the value should
always refer to the width of a block-level element and this
specification reflects this by introducing the term "containing block".
* The initial value of 'display' is 'inline' in CSS2, not 'block' as in
CSS1.
* In CSS1, the 'clear' property applied to all elements. This was an
error, and the property only applies to block-level elements in CSS2.
* In CSS1, ':link', ':visited' and ':active' were mutually exclusive; in
CSS2, ':active' can occur together with ':link' or ':visited'.
* The suggested scaling factor between adjacent 'font-size' indexes in
the table of font sizes has been reduced from 1.5 to 1.2.
* The computed value, not the actual value, of 'font-size' is inherited.
* The CSS1 description of 'inside' (for 'list-style-position') allowed
the interpretation that the left margin of the text was affected,
rather than the position of the bullet. In CSS2 that interpretation is
ruled out.
* Please also consult the normative section on the differences between
the CSS1 and CSS2 tokenizer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix C. Implementation and performance notes for fonts
Contents
* C.1 Glossary of font terms
* C.2 Font retrieval
* C.3 Meaning of the Panose Digits
* C.4 Deducing Unicode Ranges for TrueType
* C.5 Automatic descriptor generation
This appendix is informative, not normative.
C.1 Glossary of font terms
DocLock™
Bitstream's DocLock™ technology ensures that TrueDoc PFRs can
only be used with the site they are published for. A TrueDoc PFR moved
to a different site or referenced from another site will not work.
Digital Signature
Part of a trust management technology, used to provide signed
assertions about a resource.
Font Caching
Font caching allows for a temporary copy of fonts on the client system.
They are often stored on disk with other cached items such as graphics
specifically for the UA.
Font Face
A "handle" that refers to a specific face of a font, excluding the font
size.
Font Matching
Font matching is a process of selecting a similar font based on using
one or more attributes of the primary font. Common attribute include
serif, sans-serif, weight, cap height, x-height, spacing, language, and
posture. Font matching is dependent on the algorithm and the variety of
candidate fonts.
Glyph Representation Sub-setting
Glyph Representation sub-setting is the process by which unwanted glyph
representations (together with their side bearings and kerning
information) are removed from a primary font to produce a smaller
subset font that covers a particular document or set of documents. This
is a particular win for documents that use ideographic scripts, where
the glyph complement of the base font can be very large. Glyph
representation sub-setting for documents using scripts that require
ligatures, such as Arabic, is difficult without knowing the ligature
formation rules of the final display system.
Intellifont
Intellifont technology was developed by Agfa and is the native format
for Hewlett-Packard and other printers that use the PCL5 language. It
is also the native font format on the Amiga computers.
Infinifont
A font synthesis technique which, given a Panose-1 number (and,
optionally, additional font description data) can generate a faux font
without extrapolating from a single master outline or interpolating
between two or more outlines (see [INFINIFONT]).
Italic
A class of letter forms for Latin scripts, that are more cursive than
roman letter forms but less so than script forms. Often, a pair of
fonts are designed to be used together; one is a serifed roman and one
is italic. Other terms to describe this class of letter forms include
cursive and, for Cyrillic scripts, kursiv. For sans-serif faces, the
companion face is often a slanted or oblique variant rather than a
different class of letter form.
[Italic forms] [D]
Kerning
Altering the spacing between selected glyph representations, which
would otherwise appear to be too close or too far apart, to obtain a
more even typographical color.
[Illustration of kerning] [D]
Multiple Master Font
A Multiple Master Font contain two primary fonts that are used with
special rendering software to provide an interpolated result. Adobe
Systems provides a mechanism that allows for parameters to be used to
control the output or the interpolated output font. These parameters
generally describe the characteristics of an original font and the
multiple master result is referred to as a "synthesized font."
Open Type
Open Type is an extension to the TrueType font format that contains
additional information that extends the capabilities of the fonts to
support high-quality international typography. Open Type can associate
a single character with multiple glyph representations, and
combinations of characters with a single glyph representation (ligature
formation). Open Type includes two-dimensional information to support
features for complex positioning and glyph attachment. TrueType Open
and OpenType contain explicit script and language information, so a
text-processing application can adjust its behavior accordingly (see
[OPENTYPE]).
Server Font
A Server Font is a font resource located on the web server that is
referenced by the WebFont definition. The user agent may use this
resource for rendering the page.
Speedo
Speedo font technology was developed by Bitstream and is the native
font format on the Atari ST and Falcon computers. It is also used by
computers running the X window system.
TrueDoc
TrueDoc technology was developed by Bitstream for the creation,
transport, and imaging of platform independent scalable font objects on
the web. Creation of font objects is done by the TrueDoc character
shape recorder (CSR) and the rendering of the font objects is done by
TrueDoc's character shape player (CSP). The technology is intended to
be used on the web for viewing and printing.
TrueDoc Portable Font Resource
A TrueDoc Portable font resource (or, PFR) is a platform-independent
scalable font object that is produced by a character shape player.
Input may be either TrueType or Type 1 of any flavor on either Windows,
Mac, or Unix. TrueDoc Portable Font Resources provide good compression
ratios, are platform independent, and because they are not in an native
font format (TrueType or Type 1) they can not be easily installed.
TrueType
TrueType is a font format developed by Apple and licensed to Microsoft.
TrueType is the native operating system font format for Windows and
Macintosh. TrueType contains a hierarchical set of tables and glyph
representations. Characters can be hinted on a per character and point
size basis yielding excellent quality at screen resolutions. TrueType
fonts for Windows and Mac have few differences, though they can be
different enough to prevent cross platform usage.
TrueType Collection
A TrueType Collection (or TTC) is an extension to the TrueType format
that includes tables that allow for multiple TrueType fonts to be
contained within a single TrueType font file. TrueType collection files
are relatively rare at this time.
TrueType GX Fonts
TrueType GX Fonts contain extensions to the standard TrueType format
that allow for mutable fonts, similar to Multiple Master fonts. There
may be several mutation axis such as weight, height, and slant. The
axis can be defined to obtain almost any effect. TrueType GX can also
supports alternate glyph representation substitution for ligatures,
contextual forms, fractions, etc. To date, TrueType GX is available
only on the Mac (see [TRUETYPEGX]).
Type 1 font
Type 1 fonts, developed by Adobe Systems, were one of first scalable
formats available. Type 1 fonts generally contain 228 characters with
the glyph representations described using third degree bezier curves.
Mac, Windows, and X have similar but separate formats; Adobe provides
Adobe Type Manager for all three platforms. Type1c is a more recent
losslessly-compressed storage form for Type 1 glyph representations.
URI Binding
A process of locking a particular font resource to a given Web site by
embedding an encrypted URI or a digitally signed usage assertion into
the font resource.
C.2 Font retrieval
There are many different font formats in use by many different platforms. To
select a preferred font format, transparent content negotiation is used (see
[NEGOT]). It is always possible to tell when a font is being dereferenced,
because the URI is inside a font description. A given implementation will
know which downloadable font formats it supports and can thus use the format
hint to avoid downloading fonts in an unsupported format.
C.3 Meaning of the Panose Digits
[Illustration of Panose-1] [D]
The Family, Serif Style and Proportion numbers are used by Windows95 for
font selection and matching.
The meaning of the ten numbers and the allowable values (given in
parentheses) are given below for the most common case, where the "family"
digit is 2, Text and Display. (If the first digit has a different value, the
remaining nine digits have different meanings). For further details on
Panose-1, see [PANOSE].
Family
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o [PANOSE] Latin Text and Display (2)
o [PANOSE] Latin Script (3)
o [PANOSE] Latin Decorative (4)
o [PANOSE] Latin Pictorial (5)
Serif Style
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Cove (2)
o Obtuse Cove (3)
o Square Cove (4)
o Obtuse Square Cove (5)
o Square (6)
o Thin (7)
o Bone (8)
o Exaggerated (9)
o Triangle (10)
o Normal Sans (11)
o Obtuse Sans (12)
o Perp Sans (13)
o Flared (14)
o Rounded (15)
Weight
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Very Light (2)[100]
o Light (3) [200]
o Thin (4) [300]
o Book (5) [400] same as CSS1 'normal'
o Medium (6) [500]
o Demi (7) [600]
o Bold (8) [700] same as CSS1 'bold'
o Heavy (9) [800]
o Black (10) [900]
o Extra Black / Nord (11) [900] force mapping to CSS1 100-900 scale
Proportion
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Old Style (2)
o Modern (3)
o Even Width (4)
o Expanded (5)
o Condensed (6)
o Very Expanded (7)
o Very Condensed (8)
o Monospaced (9)
Contrast
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o None (2)
o Very Low (3)
o Low (4)
o Medium Low (5)
o Medium (6)
o Medium High (7)
o High (8)
o Very High (9)
Stroke Variation
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o No Variation (2)
o Gradual/Diagonal (3)
o Gradual/Transitional (4)
o Gradual/Vertical (5)
o Gradual/Horizontal (6)
o Rapid/Vertical (7)
o Rapid/Horizontal (8)
o Instant/Horizontal (9)
o Instant/Vertical (10)
Arm Style
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Straight Arms/Horizontal (2)
o Straight Arms/Wedge (3)
o Straight Arms/Vertical (4)
o Straight Arms/Single Serif (5)
o Straight Arms/Double Serif (6)
o Non-Straight Arms/Horizontal (7)
o Non-Straight Arms/Wedge (8)
o Non-Straight Arms/Vertical 90)
o Non-Straight Arms/Single Serif (10)
o Non-Straight Arms/Double Serif (11)
Letterform
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Normal/Contact (2)
o Normal/Weighted (3)
o Normal/Boxed (4)
o Normal/Flattened (5)
o Normal/Rounded (6)
o Normal/Off Center (7)
o Normal/Square (8)
o Oblique/Contact (9)
o Oblique/Weighted (10)
o Oblique/Boxed (11)
o Oblique/Flattened (12)
o Oblique/Rounded (13)
o Oblique/Off Center (14)
o Oblique/Square (15)
Midline
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Standard/Trimmed (2)
o Standard/Pointed (3)
o Standard/Serifed (4)
o High/Trimmed (5)
o High/Pointed (6)
o High/Serifed (7)
o Constant/Trimmed (8)
o Constant/Pointed (9)
o Constant/Serifed (10)
o Low/Trimmed (11)
o Low/Pointed (12)
o Low/Serifed (13)
XHeight
o Any (0)
o No Fit (1)
o Constant/Small (2)
o Constant/Standard (3)
o Constant/Large (4)
o Ducking/Small (5)
o Ducking/Standard (6)
o Ducking/Large (7)
Panose-2 (see [PANOSE2]) is a specification for a more comprehensive font
classification and matching technology which is not limited to Latin
typefaces. For example, the serif characteristics of a Latin face may be
compared with the stroke terminations of a Kanji face.
[Illustration of Panose-2]
The Panose-2 value is not stored inside any known font formats, but may be
measured.
C.4 Deducing Unicode Ranges for TrueType
This information is available in the font by looking at the 'ulUnicodeRange'
bits in the 'OS/2' table (if it has one), which holds a bitfield
representation of the set. This table is defined in revision 1.66 of the
TrueType specification, from Microsoft. Considering this information as a
set, each element corresponds to a Unicode 1.1 character block, and the
presence of that element in the set indicates that the font has one or more
glyph representations to represent at least one character in that block. The
set has 128 elements as described below. The order generally follows that in
the Unicode 1.1 standard. This table may be used to convert the information
in a TrueType font into a CSS 'unicode-range' descriptor.
------------------------------------------------------------
BlockAdd Block name Unicode range
------------------------------------------------------------
0 1 Basic Latin U+0-7F
1 2 Latin-1 Supplement U+80-FF
2 4 Latin-1 Extended-A U+100-17F
3 8 Latin Extended-B U+180-24F
------------------------------------------------------------
4 1 IPA Extensions U+250-2AF
5 2 Spacing Modifier Letters U+2B0-2FF
6 4 Combining Diacritical Marks U+300-36F
7 8 Greek U+370-3CF
------------------------------------------------------------
8 1 Greek Symbols and Coptic U+3D0-3EF
9 2 Cyrillic U+400-4FF
10 4 Armenian U+530-58F
11 8 Hebrew U+590-5FF
------------------------------------------------------------
12 1 Hebrew Extended-A ?? what ranges ??
Hebrew Extended-B
13 2 Arabic U+600-69F
14 4 Arabic Extended U+670-6FF
15 8 Devanagari U+900-97F
------------------------------------------------------------
16 1 Bengali U+980-9FF
17 2 Gurmukhi U+A00-A7F
18 4 Gujarati U+A80-AFF
19 8 Oriya U+B00-B7F
------------------------------------------------------------
20 1 Tamil U+B80-BFF
21 2 Telugu U+C00-C7F
22 4 Kannada U+C80-CFF
23 8 Malayalam U+D00-D7F
------------------------------------------------------------
24 1 Thai U+E00-E7F
25 2 Lao U+E80-EFF
26 4 Georgian U+10A0-10EF
27 8 Georgian Extended U+10F0-10FF ??
------------------------------------------------------------
28 1 Hangul Jamo U+1100-11FF
29 2 Latin Extended Additional -
30 4 Greek Extended U+1F00-1FFF
31 8 General Punctuation U+2000-206F
------------------------------------------------------------
32 1 Superscripts and Subscripts -
33 2 Currency Symbols U+20A0-20CF
34 4 Combining Marks for Symbols U+20D0-20FF
35 8 Letterlike Symbols U+2100-214F
------------------------------------------------------------
36 1 Number Forms U+2150-218F
37 2 Arrows U+2190-21FF
38 4 Mathematical Operators U+2200-22FF
39 8 Miscellaneous Technical U+2300-23FF
------------------------------------------------------------
40 1 Control Pictures U+2400-243F
41 2 Optical Character Recognition U+2440-245F
42 4 Enclosed Alphanumerics U+2460-24FF
43 8 Box Drawing U+2500-257F
------------------------------------------------------------
44 1 Block Elements U+2580-259F
45 2 Geometric Shapes U+25A0-25FF
46 4 Miscellaneous Symbols U+2600-26FF
47 8 Dingbats U+2700-27BF
------------------------------------------------------------
48 1 CJK Symbols and Punctuation U+3000-303F
49 2 Hiragana U+3040-309F
50 4 Katakana U+30A0-30FF
51 8 Bopomofo U+3100-312F
------------------------------------------------------------
52 1 Hangul Compatibility Jamo U+3130-318F
53 2 CJK Miscellaneous ??
54 4 Enclosed CJK Letters and Months U+3200-32FF
55 8 CJK compatibility U+3300-33FF
------------------------------------------------------------
56 1 Hangul U+AC00-D7FF
59 8 CJK Unified Ideographs U+4E00-9FFF
------------------------------------------------------------
60 1 Private Use Area U+E000-F8FF
61 2 CJK Compatibility Ideographs U+F900-FAFF
62 4 Alphabetic Presentation Forms U+FB00-FB4F
63 8 Arabic Presentation Forms-A U+FB50-FDFF
------------------------------------------------------------
64 1 Combining Half Marks U+FE20-FE2F
65 2 CJK compatibility Forms U+FE30-FE4F
66 4 Small Form Variants U+FE50-FE6F
67 8 Arabic Presentation Forms-B U+FE70-FEFF
------------------------------------------------------------
68 1 Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms U+FF00-FFEF
69 2 Specials U+FFF0-FFFD
The TrueType bitfield system has the problem that it is tied to Unicode 1.1
and is unable to cope with Unicode expansion - it is unable to represent
Tibetan for example, or other scripts introduced with Unicode 2.0 or later
revisions.
C.5 Automatic descriptor generation
Authoring tools should allow style sheet authors to add and edit font
descriptors. In some cases, however, authoring tools can help by examining
locally installed fonts and automatically generating descriptors for fonts
referenced in the style sheet. This is also a function that can be carried
out by tools which subset or convert fonts ready for dynamic download.
This table suggests where such information can be found, for common font
formats.
Descriptor Type 1 TrueType and OpenType TrueType GX
[TRUETYPEGX]
'Ascender' in 'hhea'
'ascent' 'Ascender' in table or (preferably) 'horizontalBefore'
AFM/PFM file 'sTypoAscender' in in 'fmtx' table
'OS/2' table
'baseline' bsln table, see note
'xMin', 'xMax',
'bbox' FontBBox, font 'yMin' and 'yMax'
dictionary entries of the 'head'
table
'cap-height' CapHeight in
AFM/PFM file
'Descender' in
'descent' the AFM/PFM
file.
'mathline' bsln table
FamilyName,
'font-family' fontinfo name table
dictionary
StdHW, private
'stemh' dictionary of
AFM/PFM file
/StdVW,
'stemv' private cvt table
dictionary
'topline' bsln table
'unicode-range' cmap file OS/2 table, see
Appendix C
FontMatrix,
'units-per-em' font unitsPerEm, head
dictionary table.
'widths' hmtx table
* Within the bsln table, the ideographic centered baseline may be used
for stretches of predominantly ideographic characters and the
ideographic low baseline is more suitable for ideographic characters in
a run of predominantly Latin, Greek or Cyrillic characters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix D. The grammar of CSS2
Contents
* D.1 Grammar
* D.2 Lexical scanner
* D.3 Comparison of tokenization in CSS2 and CSS1
This appendix is normative.
The grammar below defines the syntax of CSS2. It is in some sense, however,
a superset of CSS2 as this specification imposes additional semantic
constraints not expressed in this grammar. A conforming UA must also adhere
to the forward-compatible parsing rules, the property and value notation,
and the unit notation. In addition, the document language may impose
restrictions, e.g. HTML imposes restrictions on the possible values of the
"class" attribute.
D.1 Grammar
The grammar below is LL(1) (but note that most UA's should not use it
directly, since it doesn't express the parsing conventions, only the CSS2
syntax). The format of the productions is optimized for human consumption
and some shorthand notation beyond Yacc (see [YACC]) is used:
* *: 0 or more
* +: 1 or more
* ?: 0 or 1
* |: separates alternatives
* [ ]: grouping
The productions are:
stylesheet
: [ CHARSET_SYM S* STRING S* ';' ]?
[S|CDO|CDC]* [ import [S|CDO|CDC]* ]*
[ [ ruleset | media | page | font_face ] [S|CDO|CDC]* ]*
;
import
: IMPORT_SYM S*
[STRING|URI] S* [ medium [ ',' S* medium]* ]? ';' S*
;
media
: MEDIA_SYM S* medium [ ',' S* medium ]* '{' S* ruleset* '}' S*
;
medium
: IDENT S*
;
page
: PAGE_SYM S* IDENT? pseudo_page? S*
'{' S* declaration [ ';' S* declaration ]* '}' S*
;
pseudo_page
: ':' IDENT
;
font_face
: FONT_FACE_SYM S*
'{' S* declaration [ ';' S* declaration ]* '}' S*
;
operator
: '/' S* | ',' S* | /* empty */
;
combinator
: '+' S* | '>' S* | /* empty */
;
unary_operator
: '-' | '+'
;
property
: IDENT S*
;
ruleset
: selector [ ',' S* selector ]*
'{' S* declaration [ ';' S* declaration ]* '}' S*
;
selector
: simple_selector [ combinator simple_selector ]*
;
simple_selector
: element_name? [ HASH | class | attrib | pseudo ]* S*
;
class
: '.' IDENT
;
element_name
: IDENT | '*'
;
attrib
: '[' S* IDENT S* [ [ '=' | INCLUDES | DASHMATCH ] S*
[ IDENT | STRING ] S* ]? ']'
;
pseudo
: ':' [ IDENT | FUNCTION S* IDENT S* ')' ]
;
declaration
: property ':' S* expr prio?
| /* empty */
;
prio
: IMPORTANT_SYM S*
;
expr
: term [ operator term ]*
;
term
: unary_operator?
[ NUMBER S* | PERCENTAGE S* | LENGTH S* | EMS S* | EXS S* | ANGLE S* |
TIME S* | FREQ S* | function ]
| STRING S* | IDENT S* | URI S* | RGB S* | UNICODERANGE S* | hexcolor
;
function
: FUNCTION S* expr ')' S*
;
/*
* There is a constraint on the color that it must
* have either 3 or 6 hex-digits (i.e., [0-9a-fA-F])
* after the "#"; e.g., "#000" is OK, but "#abcd" is not.
*/
hexcolor
: HASH S*
;
D.2 Lexical scanner
The following is the tokenizer, written in Flex (see [FLEX]) notation. The
tokenizer is case-insensitive.
The two occurrences of "\377" represent the highest character number that
current versions of Flex can deal with (decimal 255). They should be read as
"\4177777" (decimal 1114111), which is the highest possible code point in
Unicode/ISO-10646.
%option case-insensitive
h [0-9a-f]
nonascii [\200-\377]
unicode \\{h}{1,6}[ \t\r\n\f]?
escape {unicode}|\\[ -~\200-\377]
nmstart [a-z]|{nonascii}|{escape}
nmchar [a-z0-9-]|{nonascii}|{escape}
string1 \"([\t !#$%&(-~]|\\{nl}|\'|{nonascii}|{escape})*\"
string2 \'([\t !#$%&(-~]|\\{nl}|\"|{nonascii}|{escape})*\'
ident {nmstart}{nmchar}*
name {nmchar}+
num [0-9]+|[0-9]*"."[0-9]+
string {string1}|{string2}
url ([!#$%&*-~]|{nonascii}|{escape})*
w [ \t\r\n\f]*
nl \n|\r\n|\r|\f
range \?{1,6}|{h}(\?{0,5}|{h}(\?{0,4}|{h}(\?{0,3}|{h}(\?{0,2}|{h}(\??|{h})))))
%%
[ \t\r\n\f]+ {return S;}
\/\*[^*]*\*+([^/][^*]*\*+)*\/ /* ignore comments */
"<!--" {return CDO;}
"-->" {return CDC;}
"~=" {return INCLUDES;}
"|=" {return DASHMATCH;}
{string} {return STRING;}
{ident} {return IDENT;}
"#"{name} {return HASH;}
"@import" {return IMPORT_SYM;}
"@page" {return PAGE_SYM;}
"@media" {return MEDIA_SYM;}
"@font-face" {return FONT_FACE_SYM;}
"@charset" {return CHARSET_SYM;}
"@"{ident} {return ATKEYWORD;}
"!{w}important" {return IMPORTANT_SYM;}
{num}em {return EMS;}
{num}ex {return EXS;}
{num}px {return LENGTH;}
{num}cm {return LENGTH;}
{num}mm {return LENGTH;}
{num}in {return LENGTH;}
{num}pt {return LENGTH;}
{num}pc {return LENGTH;}
{num}deg {return ANGLE;}
{num}rad {return ANGLE;}
{num}grad {return ANGLE;}
{num}ms {return TIME;}
{num}s {return TIME;}
{num}Hz {return FREQ;}
{num}kHz {return FREQ;}
{num}{ident} {return DIMEN;}
{num}% {return PERCENTAGE;}
{num} {return NUMBER;}
"url("{w}{string}{w}")" {return URI;}
"url("{w}{url}{w}")" {return URI;}
{ident}"(" {return FUNCTION;}
U\+{range} {return UNICODERANGE;}
U\+{h}{1,6}-{h}{1,6} {return UNICODERANGE;}
. {return *yytext;}
D.3 Comparison of tokenization in CSS2 and CSS1
There are some differences in the syntax specified in the CSS1
recommendation ([CSS1]), and the one above. Most of these are due to new
tokens in CSS2 that didn't exist in CSS1. Others are because the grammar has
been rewritten to be more readable. However, there are some incompatible
changes, that were felt to be errors in the CSS1 syntax. They are explained
below.
* CSS1 style sheets could only be in 1-byte-per-character encodings, such
as ASCII and ISO-8859-1. CSS2 has no such limitation. In practice,
there was little difficulty in extrapolating the CSS1 tokenizer, and
some UAs have accepted 2-byte encodings.
* CSS1 only allowed four hex-digits after the backslash (\) to refer to
Unicode characters, CSS2 allows six. Furthermore, CSS2 allows a
whitespace character to delimit the escape sequence. E.g., according to
CSS1, the string "\abcdef" has 3 letters (\abcd, e, and f), according
to CSS2 it has only one (\abcdef).
* The tab character (ASCII 9) was not allowed in strings. However, since
strings in CSS1 were only used for font names and for URLs, the only
way this can lead to incompatibility between CSS1 and CSS2 is if a
style sheet contains a font family that has a tab in its name.
* Similarly, newlines (escaped with a backslash) were not allowed in
strings in CSS1.
* CSS2 parses a number immediately followed by an identifier as a DIMEN
token (i.e., an unknown unit), CSS1 parsed it as a number and an
identifier. That means that in CSS1, the declaration 'font:
10pt/1.2serif' was correct, as was 'font: 10pt/12pt serif'; in CSS2, a
space is required before "serif". (Some UAs accepted the first example,
but not the second.)
* In CSS1, a class name could start with a digit (".55ft"), unless it was
a dimension (".55in"). In CSS2, such classes are parsed as unknown
dimensions (to allow for future additions of new units). To make
".55ft" a valid class, CSS2 requires the first digit to be escaped
(".\55ft")
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix E. References
Contents
* E.1 Normative references
* E.2 Informative references
E.1 Normative references
[COLORIMETRY]
"Colorimetry, Second Edition", CIE Publication 15.2-1986, ISBN
3-900-734-00-3.
Available at
http://www.hike.te.chiba-u.ac.jp/ikeda/CIE/publ/abst/15-2-86.html.
[CSS1]
"Cascading Style Sheets, level 1", H. W. Lie and B. Bos, 17 December
1996.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1-961217.html.
[FLEX]
"Flex: The Lexical Scanner Generator", Version 2.3.7, ISBN 1882114213.
[HTML40]
"HTML 4.0 Specification", D. Raggett, A. Le Hors, I. Jacobs, 8 July
1997.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/. The Recommendation
defines three document type definitions: Strict, Transitional, and
Frameset, all reachable from the Recommendation.
[IANA]
"Assigned Numbers", STD 2, RFC 1700, USC/ISI, J. Reynolds and J.
Postel, October 1994.
Available at ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc1700.txt.
[ICC32]
"ICC Profile Format Specification, version 3.2", 1995.
Available at ftp://sgigate.sgi.com/pub/icc/ICC32.pdf.
[ISO8879]
ISO 8879:1986 "Information Processing -- Text and Office Systems --
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)", ISO 8879:1986.
For the list of SGML entities, consult
ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/SGML/ENTITIES/.
[ISO10646]
"Information Technology - Universal Multiple- Octet Coded Character Set
(UCS) - Part 1: Architecture and Basic Multilingual Plane", ISO/IEC
10646-1:1993. The current specification also takes into consideration
the first five amendments to ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993. Useful roadmap of
the BMP and roadmap of plane 1 documents show which scripts sit at
which numeric ranges.
[PNG10]
"PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Specification, Version 1.0
specification", T. Boutell ed., 1 October 1996.
Available at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/TR/REC-png-multi.html.
[RFC1808]
"Relative Uniform Resource Locators", R. Fielding, June 1995.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1808.txt.
[RFC2045]
"Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of
Internet Message Bodies", N. Freed and N. Borenstein, November 1996.
Available at ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc2045.txt. Note that this RFC
obsoletes RFC1521, RFC1522, and RFC1590.
[RFC2068]
"HTTP Version 1.1 ", R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk
Nielsen, and T. Berners-Lee, January 1997.
Available at ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc2068.txt.
[RFC2070]
"Internationalization of the HyperText Markup Language", F. Yergeau, G.
Nicol, G. Adams, and M. D¸rst, January 1997.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2070.txt.
[RFC2119]
"Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", S. Bradner,
March 1997.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2119.txt.
[RFC2318]
"The text/css Media Type", H. Lie, B. Bos, C. Lilley, March 1998.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc2318.txt.
[RFC1738]
"Uniform Resource Locators", T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, and M.
McCahill, December 1994.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1738.txt.
[SRGB]
"Proposal for a Standard Color Space for the Internet - sRGB", M.
Anderson, R. Motta, S. Chandrasekar, M. Stokes.
Available at http://www.w3.org/Graphics/Color/sRGB.html.
[UNICODE]
"The Unicode Standard: Version 2.0", The Unicode Consortium,
Addison-Wesley Developers Press, 1996. For bidirectionality, see also
the corrigenda at http://www.unicode.org/unicode/uni2errata/bidi.htm.
For more information, consult the Unicode Consortium's home page at
http://www.unicode.org/.
The latest version of Unicode. For more information, consult the
Unicode Consortium's home page at http://www.unicode.org/.
[URI]
"Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax and Semantics", T.
Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter, 18 November 1997.
Available at
http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/uri/draft-fielding-uri-syntax-01.txt.
This is a work in progress that is expected to update [RFC1738] and
[RFC1808].
[XML10]
"Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0" T. Bray, J. Paoli, C.M.
Sperberg-McQueen, editors, 10 February 1998.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/.
[YACC]
"YACC - Yet another compiler compiler", S. C. Johnson, Technical
Report, Murray Hill, 1975.
E.2 Informative references
[CHARSETS]
Registered charset values. Download a list of registered charset values
from ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/character-sets.
[DOM]
"Document Object Model Specification", L. Wood, A. Le Hors, 9 October
1997.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-DOM/
[ISO10179]
ISO/IEC 10179:1996 "Information technology -- Processing languages --
Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL)"
Available at http://occam.sjf.novell.com:8080/dsssl/dsssl96.
[GAMMA]
"Gamma correction on the Macintosh Platform", C. A. Poynton.
Available at
ftp://ftp.inforamp.net/pub/users/poynton/doc/Mac/Mac_gamma.pdf.
[HTML32]
"HTML 3.2 Reference Specification", Dave Raggett, 14 January 1997.
Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html.
[INFINIFONT]
See http://www.fonts.com/hp/infinifont/moredet.html.
[ISO9899]
ISO/IEC 9899:1990 Programming languages -- C.
[MONOTYPE]
See http://www.monotype.com/html/oem/uni_scrmod.html.
[NEGOT]
"Transparent Content Negotiation in HTTP", K. Holtman, A. Mutz, 9
March, 1997.
Available at
http://gewis.win.tue.nl/~koen/conneg/draft-ietf-http-negotiation-01.html.
[OPENTYPE]
See http://www.microsoft.com/OpenType/OTSpec/tablist.htm.
[PANOSE]
For information about PANOSE classification metrics, consult
http://www.fonts.com/hp/panose/greybook and the following chapters:
Latin Text, Latin Script, Latin Decorative, and Latin Pictorial.
Panose numbers for some fonts are available online and may be queried.
[PANOSE2]
See http://www.w3.org/Fonts/Panose/pan2.html Panose-2 is not limited to
Latin typefaces.
[POSTSCRIPT]
"The PostScript Language Reference Manual", Second Edition, Adobe
Systems, Inc., Addision-Wesley Publishing Co., December 1990.
[RFC1630]
"Universal Resource Identifiers in WWW: A Unifying Syntax for the
Expression of Names and Addresses of Objects on the Network as used in
the World-Wide Web", T. Berners-Lee, June 1994.
Available at ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc1630.txt.
[RFC1766]
"Tags for the Identification of Languages", H. Alvestrand, March 1995.
Available at ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc1766.txt.
[RFC1866]
"HyperText Markup Language 2.0", T. Berners-Lee and D. Connolly,
November 1995.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1866.txt.
[RFC1942]
"HTML Tables", Dave Raggett, May 1996.
Available at ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1942.txt.
[TRUETYPEGX]
See http://fonts.apple.com/TTRefMan/index.html for details about
TrueType GX from Apple Computer, including descriptions of the added
tables and font quality specifications.
[W3CSTYLE]
W3C resource page on web style sheets.
Examine at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Style.
[WAI-PAGEAUTH]
"WAI Accesibility Guidelines: Page Authoring" for designing accessible
documents are available at:
http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-WAI-PAGEAUTH.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix F. Property index
Name Values Initial Applies to Inherited? Percentages Media groups
value (Default: all) (Default: N/A)
<angle> | [[ left-side
| far-left | left |
center-left | center |
'azimuth' center-right | right | center yes aural
far-right | right-side
] || behind ] |
leftwards | rightwards
| inherit
['background-color' ||
'background-image' ||
'background-repeat' ||
'background' 'background-attachment' XX no allowed on visual
|| 'background-position'
'background-position']
| inherit
'background-attachment'scroll | fixed | scroll no visual
inherit
'background-color' <color> | transparent | transparent no visual
inherit
'background-image' <uri> | none | inherit none no visual
[ [<percentage> |
<length> ]{1,2} | [ block-level and
'background-position' [top | center | bottom] 0% 0% replaced no refer to the size of visual
|| [left | center | elements the box itself
right] ] ] | inherit
repeat | repeat-x |
'background-repeat' repeat-y | no-repeat | repeat no visual
inherit
[ 'border-width' || see
'border' 'border-style' || individual no visual
<color> ] | inherit properties
'table' and
'border-collapse' collapse | separate | collapse 'inline-table' yes visual
inherit
elements
see
'border-color' <color>{1,4} | individual no visual
transparent | inherit
properties
'table' and
'border-spacing' <length> <length>? | 0 'inline-table' yes visual
inherit
elements
see
'border-style' <border-style>{1,4} | individual no visual
inherit
properties
'border-top'
'border-right' [ 'border-top-width' || see
'border-bottom' 'border-style' || individual no visual
'border-left' <color> ] | inherit properties
'border-top-color' the value
'border-right-color' of the
'border-bottom-color' <color> | inherit 'color' no visual
'border-left-color' property
'border-top-style'
'border-right-style' <border-style> |
'border-bottom-style' inherit none no visual
'border-left-style'
'border-top-width'
'border-right-width' <border-width> |
'border-bottom-width' inherit medium no visual
'border-left-width'
see
'border-width' <border-width>{1,4} | individual no visual
inherit
properties
'bottom' <length> | <percentage> auto positioned no refer to height of visual
| auto | inherit elements containing block
'caption-side' top | bottom | left | top 'table-caption' yes visual
right | inherit elements
'clear' none | left | right | none block-level no visual
both | inherit elements
block-level and
'clip' <shape> | auto | auto replaced no visual
inherit
elements
'color' <color> | inherit depends on yes visual
user agent
[ <string> | <uri> |
<counter> | attr(X) |
open-quote | :before and
'content' close-quote | empty :after no all
no-open-quote | string pseudo-elements
no-close-quote ]+ |
inherit
[ <identifier>
'counter-increment' <integer>? ]+ | none | none no all
inherit
[ <identifier>
'counter-reset' <integer>? ]+ | none | none no all
inherit
'cue' [ 'cue-before' || XX no aural
'cue-after' ] | inherit
'cue-after' <uri> | none | inherit none no aural
'cue-before' <uri> | none | inherit none no aural
[ [<uri> ,]* [ auto |
crosshair | default |
pointer | move |
e-resize | ne-resize |
'cursor' nw-resize | n-resize | auto yes visual,
se-resize | sw-resize | interactive
s-resize | w-resize|
text | wait | help ] ]
| inherit
'direction' ltr | rtl | inherit ltr all elements, yes visual
but see prose
inline | block |
list-item | run-in |
compact | marker |
table | inline-table |
table-row-group |
table-header-group |
'display' table-footer-group | inline no all
table-row |
table-column-group |
table-column |
table-cell |
table-caption | none |
inherit
<angle> | below | level
'elevation' | above | higher | level yes aural
lower | inherit
'empty-cells' show | hide | inherit show 'table-cell' yes visual
elements
all but
positioned
'float' left | right | none | none elements and no visual
inherit
generated
content
[ [ 'font-style' ||
'font-variant' ||
'font-weight' ]?
'font-size' [ /
see
'font' 'line-height' ]? individual yes allowed on 'font-size' visual
'font-family' ] | and 'line-height'
caption | icon | menu | properties
message-box |
small-caption |
status-bar | inherit
[[ <family-name> |
<generic-family> ],]*
'font-family' [<family-name> | depends on yes visual
<generic-family>] | user agent
inherit
<absolute-size> | yes, the
'font-size' <relative-size> | medium computed refer to parent visual
<length> | <percentage> value is element's font size
| inherit inherited
'font-size-adjust' <number> | none | none yes visual
inherit
normal | wider |
narrower |
ultra-condensed |
extra-condensed |
condensed |
'font-stretch' semi-condensed | normal yes visual
semi-expanded |
expanded |
extra-expanded |
ultra-expanded |
inherit
'font-style' normal | italic | normal yes visual
oblique | inherit
'font-variant' normal | small-caps | normal yes visual
inherit
normal | bold | bolder
| lighter | 100 | 200 |
'font-weight' 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | normal yes visual
700 | 800 | 900 |
inherit
all elements but
non-replaced
'height' <length> | <percentage> auto inline elements, no see prose visual
| auto | inherit table columns,
and column
groups
'left' <length> | <percentage> auto positioned no refer to width of visual
| auto | inherit elements containing block
'letter-spacing' normal | <length> | normal yes visual
inherit
normal | <number> |
'line-height' <length> | <percentage> normal yes refer to the font size visual
| inherit of the element itself
[ 'list-style-type' ||
elements with
'list-style' 'list-style-position' XX 'display: yes visual
|| 'list-style-image' ]
| inherit list-item'
elements with
'list-style-image' <uri> | none | inherit none 'display: yes visual
list-item'
elements with
'list-style-position' inside | outside | outside 'display: yes visual
inherit
list-item'
disc | circle | square
| decimal |
decimal-leading-zero |
lower-roman |
upper-roman |
lower-greek |
lower-alpha |
elements with
'list-style-type' lower-latin | disc 'display: yes visual
upper-alpha |
upper-latin | hebrew | list-item'
armenian | georgian |
cjk-ideographic |
hiragana | katakana |
hiragana-iroha |
katakana-iroha | none |
inherit
'margin' <margin-width>{1,4} | XX no refer to width of visual
inherit containing block
'margin-top'
'margin-right' <margin-width> | refer to width of
'margin-bottom' inherit 0 no containing block visual
'margin-left'
elements with
'marker-offset' <length> | auto | auto 'display: no visual
inherit
marker'
'marks' [ crop || cross ] | none page context N/A visual,
none | inherit paged
all elements
except
'max-height' <length> | <percentage> none non-replaced no refer to height of visual
| none | inherit inline elements containing block
and table
elements
all elements
except
'max-width' <length> | <percentage> none non-replaced no refer to width of visual
| none | inherit inline elements containing block
and table
elements
all elements
except
'min-height' <length> | <percentage> 0 non-replaced no refer to height of visual
| inherit inline elements containing block
and table
elements
all elements
except
'min-width' <length> | <percentage> UA non-replaced no refer to width of visual
| inherit dependent inline elements containing block
and table
elements
'orphans' <integer> | inherit 2 block-level yes visual,
elements paged
[ 'outline-color' ||
see
'outline' 'outline-style' || individual no visual,
'outline-width' ] | interactive
inherit properties
'outline-color' <color> | invert | invert no visual,
inherit interactive
'outline-style' <border-style> | none no visual,
inherit interactive
'outline-width' <border-width> | medium no visual,
inherit interactive
block-level and
'overflow' visible | hidden | visible replaced no visual
scroll | auto | inherit
elements
'padding' <padding-width>{1,4} | XX no refer to width of visual
inherit containing block
'padding-top'
'padding-right' <padding-width> | refer to width of
'padding-bottom' inherit 0 no containing block visual
'padding-left'
'page' <identifier> | auto auto block-level yes visual,
elements paged
'page-break-after' auto | always | avoid | auto block-level no visual,
left | right | inherit elements paged
'page-break-before' auto | always | avoid | auto block-level no visual,
left | right | inherit elements paged
'page-break-inside' avoid | auto | inherit auto block-level yes visual,
elements paged
[ [<time> | see descriptions of
'pause' <percentage>]{1,2} ] | depends on no 'pause-before' and aural
inherit user agent 'pause-after'
'pause-after' <time> | <percentage> | depends on no see prose aural
inherit user agent
'pause-before' <time> | <percentage> | depends on no see prose aural
inherit user agent
<frequency> | x-low |
'pitch' low | medium | high | medium yes aural
x-high | inherit
'pitch-range' <number> | inherit 50 yes aural
'play-during' <uri> mix? repeat? | auto no aural
auto | none | inherit
static | relative | all elements,
'position' absolute | fixed | static but not to no visual
inherit generated
content
'quotes' [<string> <string>]+ | depends on yes visual
none | inherit user agent
'richness' <number> | inherit 50 yes aural
'right' <length> | <percentage> auto positioned no refer to width of visual
| auto | inherit elements containing block
<length>{1,2} | auto |
'size' portrait | landscape | auto the page context N/A visual,
inherit paged
'speak' normal | none | normal yes aural
spell-out | inherit
elements that
'speak-header' once | always | inherit once have table yes aural
header
information
'speak-numeral' digits | continuous | continuous yes aural
inherit
'speak-punctuation' code | none | inherit none yes aural
<number> | x-slow |
'speech-rate' slow | medium | fast | medium yes aural
x-fast | faster |
slower | inherit
'stress' <number> | inherit 50 yes aural
'table' and
'table-layout' auto | fixed | inherit auto 'inline-table' no visual
elements
left | right | center | depends on
'text-align' justify | <string> | user agent block-level yes visual
inherit and writing elements
direction
none | [ underline ||
'text-decoration' overline || none no (see visual
line-through || blink ] prose)
| inherit
'text-indent' <length> | <percentage> 0 block-level yes refer to width of visual
| inherit elements containing block
none | [<color> ||
<length> <length>
'text-shadow' <length>? ,]* [<color> none no (see visual
|| <length> <length> prose)
<length>?] | inherit
capitalize | uppercase
'text-transform' | lowercase | none | none yes visual
inherit
'top' <length> | <percentage> auto positioned no refer to height of visual
| auto | inherit elements containing block
'unicode-bidi' normal | embed | normal all elements, no visual
bidi-override | inherit but see prose
baseline | sub | super
| top | text-top |
inline-level and refer to the
'vertical-align' middle | bottom | baseline 'table-cell' no 'line-height' of the visual
text-bottom |
<percentage> | <length> elements element itself
| inherit
'visibility' visible | hidden | inherit no visual
collapse | inherit
[[<specific-voice> |
<generic-voice> ],]*
'voice-family' [<specific-voice> | depends on yes aural
<generic-voice> ] | user agent
inherit
<number> | <percentage>
'volume' | silent | x-soft | medium yes refer to inherited aural
soft | medium | loud | value
x-loud | inherit
'white-space' normal | pre | nowrap | normal block-level yes visual
inherit elements
'widows' <integer> | inherit 2 block-level yes visual,
elements paged
all elements but
non-replaced
'width' <length> | <percentage> auto inline elements, no refer to width of visual
| auto | inherit containing block
table rows, and
row groups
'word-spacing' normal | <length> | normal yes visual
inherit
'z-index' auto | <integer> | auto positioned no visual
inherit elements
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix G. Descriptor index
Name Values Initial value
'ascent' <number> undefined
'baseline' <number> 0
'bbox' <number>, <number>, <number>, undefined
<number>
'cap-height' <number> undefined
'centerline' <number> undefined
'definition-src' <uri> undefined
'descent' <number> undefined
[ <family-name> | <generic-family> ]
'font-family' [, [<family-name> | <generic-family> depends on user
]]* agent
'font-size' all | <length> [, <length>]* all
all | [ normal | ultra-condensed |
extra-condensed | condensed |
semi-condensed | semi-expanded |
expanded | extra-expanded |
'font-stretch' ultra-expanded ] [, [ normal | normal
ultra-condensed | extra-condensed |
condensed | semi-condensed |
semi-expanded | expanded |
extra-expanded | ultra-expanded] ]*
'font-style' all | [ normal | italic | oblique ] all
[, [normal | italic | oblique] ]*
'font-variant' [normal | small-caps] [,[normal | normal
small-caps]]*
all | [normal | bold | 100 | 200 |
300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 |
'font-weight' 900] [, [normal | bold | 100 | 200 | all
300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 |
900]]*
'mathline' <number> undefined
'panose-1' [<integer>]{10} 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0
'slope' <number> 0
[ <uri> [format(<string> [,
'src' <string>]*)] | <font-face-name> ] [, undefined
<uri> [format(<string> [,
<string>]*)] | <font-face-name> ]*
'stemh' <number> undefined
'stemv' <number> undefined
'topline' <number> undefined
'unicode-range' <urange> [, <urange>]* U+0-7FFFFFFF
'units-per-em' <number> undefined
'widths' [<urange> ]? [<number> ]+ [,[<urange> undefined
]? <number> ]+]
'x-height' <number> undefined
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix H. Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* :active, 2, 3
* :after, 1, 2
* :before, 1, 2, 3
* :first, 1
* :first-child, 1
* :first-letter, 1
* :first-line, 1
* :focus, 1
* :hover, 1
* :lang, 1
* :left, 1
* :link, 1, 2
* :right, 1
* :visited, 1, 2
* =, 1
* ~=, 1
* |=, 1
* @charset, 1
* @font-face, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
* @import, 1, 2, 3
* @media, 1, 2, 3, 4
* @page, 1
* absolute length, 1
* <absolute-size>
o definition of, 1
* absolutely positioned element, 1
* abstract glyph, 1
* active (pseudo-class), 1, 2
* actual value, 1
* after, 1
* 'all' media group, 1
* ancestor, 1
* <angle>, 1, 2
o definition of, 1
* anonymous, 1
* anonymous inline boxes, 1
* armenian, 1
* 'ascent' (descriptor), 1
* aspect value, 1
* at-rule, 1
* at-rules, 1, 2
* attr(), 1
* attribute, 1
* auditory icon, 1
* 'aural' media group, 1
* authoring tool, 1
* automatic numbering, 1
* 'azimuth', 1
* 'background', 1
* 'background-attachment', 1
* 'background-color', 1
* 'background-image', 1
* 'background-position', 1
* 'background-repeat', 1
* backslash escapes, 1
* 'baseline' (descriptor), 1
* 'bbox' (descriptor), 1
* before, 1
* bicameral, 1
o definition of, 1
* bidirectionality (bidi), 1
* 'bitmap' media group, 1
* block, 1
* block box, 1
* 'block', definition of, 1
* block-level element, 1
* border edge, 1
* 'border', 1
* 'border-bottom', 1
* 'border-bottom-color', 1
* 'border-bottom-style', 1
* 'border-bottom-width', 1
* 'border-collapse', 1
* 'border-color', 1
* 'border-left', 1
* 'border-left-color', 1
* 'border-left-style', 1
* 'border-left-width', 1
* 'border-right', 1
* 'border-right-color', 1
* 'border-right-style', 1
* 'border-right-width', 1
* 'border-spacing', 1
* <border-style>, 1
* <border-style>, definition of, 1
* 'border-style', 1
* 'border-top', 1
* 'border-top-color', 1
* 'border-top-style', 1
* 'border-top-width', 1
* <border-width>
o definition of, 1
* 'border-width', 1
* border
o of a box, 1
* <bottom>
o definition of, 1
* 'bottom', 1
* box
o border, 1
o content, 1
o content height, 1
o content width, 1
o height, 1
o margin, 1
o overflow, 1
o padding, 1
o width, 1
* canvas, 1, 2
* 'cap-height' (descriptor), 1
* 'caption-side', 1
* cascade, 1
* case sensitivity, 1
* 'centerline' (descriptor), 1
* character, 1
* character encoding, 1
o default, 1
o user agent's determination of, 1
* child, 1
* child selector, 1
* circle, 1
* cjk-ideographic, 1
* 'clear', 1
* 'clip', 1
* clipping region, 1
* close-quote, 1, 2
* collapsing margin, 1
* color, 1
* <color>, 1, 2
o definition of, 1
* 'color', 1
* combinator, 1, 2
* comments, 1
* compact, 1
* compact box, 1
* 'compact', definition of, 1
* computed value, 1
* conditional import, 1
* conformance, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
* containing block, 1, 2, 3
o initial, 1
* content, 1
* content edge, 1
* 'content', 1
* content
o of a box, 1
o rendered, 1
* 'continuous' media group, 1
* <counter>, 1
* <counter>, definition of, 1
* counter(), 1
* 'counter-increment', 1
* 'counter-reset', 1
* counters, 1
* crop marks, 1
* cross marks, 1
* 'cue', 1
* 'cue-after', 1
* 'cue-before', 1
* cursive, definition of, 1
* 'cursor', 1
* 'dashed', 1, 2
* decimal, 1
* decimal-leading-zero, 1
* declaration, 1
* declaration-block, 1
* default style sheet, 1
* default
o character encoding, 1
* 'definition-src' (descriptor), 1
* descendant, 1
* descendant-selectors, 1
* 'descent' (descriptor), 1
* 'direction', 1
* disc, 1
* 'display', 1
* document language, 1
* document tree, 1
* 'dotted', 1, 2
* 'double', 1, 2
* drop caps, 1
* DTD, 1, 2
* element, 1
o following, 1
o preceding, 1
* 'elevation', 1
* em (unit), 1
* em square, 1, 2
* empty, 1
* 'empty-cells', 1
* encoding vector, 1
* ex (unit), 1
* exact matching, 1
* <family-name>
o definition of, 1
* fantasy, definition of, 1
* fictional tag sequence, 1, 2, 3
* first-child, 1
* first-letter, 1
* first-line, 1
* float rules, 1
* 'float', 1
* focus, 1
* focus (pseudo-class), 1
* following element, 1
* font, 1
* font data, 1
* font definition resource, 1
* font description, 1
* font download, 1
* font encoding table, 1
* font family, 1
* font set, 1
* font synthesis, 1
* 'font', 1
* <font-description>
o definition of, 1
* <font-face-name>
o definition of, 1
* 'font-family', 1
* 'font-family' (descriptor), 1
* 'font-size', 1
* 'font-size' (descriptor), 1
* 'font-size-adjust', 1
* 'font-stretch', 1
* 'font-stretch' (descriptor), 1
* 'font-style', 1
* 'font-style' (descriptor), 1
* 'font-variant', 1
* 'font-variant' (descriptor), 1
* 'font-weight', 1
* 'font-weight' (descriptor), 1
* forced line break, 1
* formatting context, 1
* formatting structure, 1
* forward-compatible parsing, 1
* <frequency>, 1
o definition of, 1
* full font name, 1
* generated content, 1
* <generic-family>
o definition of, 1
* <generic-voice>, definition of, 1
* georgian, 1
* glyph, 1
* 'grid' media group, 1
* 'groove', 1, 2
* half-leading, 1
* hebrew, 1
* 'height', 1
* 'hidden, 1
* 'hidden', 1
* hiragana, 1
* hiragana-iroha, 1
* horizontal margin, 1
* hover (pseudo-class), 1
* hyphen-separated matching, 1
* identifier, 1
* identifier, definition of, 1
* ignore, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18,
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
* illegal, 1
* important, 1
* inherit, definition of, 1
* initial caps, 1
* initial containing block, 1
* initial value, 1
* 'inline', definition of, 1
* inline-level element, 1
* inline-table, 1
* 'inline-table', 1
* inner edge, 1
* 'inset', 1, 2
* <integer>, 1
o definition of, 1
* intelligent font matching, 1
* 'interactive media group, 1
* internal table element, 1
* intrinsic dimensions, 1
* invert, 1
* iso-10646, 1
* Italic, definition of, 1
* katakana, 1
* katakana-iroha, 1
* lang (pseudo-class), 1
* language (human), 1
* language code, 1, 2
* leading, 1
* <left>
o definition of, 1
* 'left', 1
* <length>, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
o definition of, 1
* 'letter-spacing', 1
* ligatures, 1
* line box, 1
* line-box, 1
* 'line-height', 1
* link (pseudo-class), 1, 2
* list properties, 1
* 'list-item', definition of, 1
* 'list-style', 1
* 'list-style-image', 1
* 'list-style-position', 1
* 'list-style-type', 1
* LL(1), 1
* local stacking context, 1
* lower-greek, 1
* lower-latin, 1
* lower-roman, 1
* mapping elements to table parts, 1
* margin edge, 1
* 'margin', 1
* 'margin-bottom', 1
* 'margin-left', 1
* 'margin-right', 1
* 'margin-top', 1
* <margin-width>
o definition of, 1
* margin
o horizontal, 1
o of a box, 1
o vertical, 1
* marker', definition of, 1
* 'marker-offset', 1
* markers, 1
* 'marks', 1
* match, 1
* 'mathline' (descriptor), 1
* 'max-height', 1
* 'max-width', 1
* MAY, 1
* media, 1
* media group, 1
* media type, 1
* media-dependent import, 1
* message entity, 1
* 'min-height', 1
* 'min-width', 1
* monospace, definition of, 1
* multiple declarations, 1
* MUST, 1
* MUST NOT, 1
* name matching, 1
* newline, 1
* no-close-quote, 1, 2
* no-open-quote, 1, 2
* 'none'
o as border style, 1, 2
o as display value, 1
* <number>, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
o definition of, 1
* open-quote, 1, 2
* OPTIONAL, 1
* 'orphans', 1
* outer edge, 1
* outline, 1
* 'outline', 1
* 'outline-color', 1
* 'outline-style', 1
* 'outline-width', 1
* 'outset', 1, 2
* overflow, 1
* 'overflow', 1
* padding edge, 1
* 'padding', 1
* 'padding-bottom', 1
* 'padding-left', 1
* 'padding-right', 1
* 'padding-top', 1
* <padding-width>
o definition of, 1
* padding
o of a box, 1
* page area, 1
* page box, 1
* page model, 1
* page selector, 1
* 'page', 1
* 'page-break-after', 1
* 'page-break-before', 1
* 'page-break-inside', 1
* page-context, 1
* 'paged' media group, 1
* Panose-1, 1
* panose-1, 1
* 'panose-1' (descriptor), 1
* parent, 1
* 'pause', 1
* 'pause-after', 1
* 'pause-before', 1
* <percentage>, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
o definition of, 1
* 'pitch', 1
* 'pitch-range', 1
* pixel, 1
* 'play-during', 1
* 'position', 1
* positioned element/box, 1
* positioning scheme, 1
* preceding element, 1
* principal block box, 1
* progressive rendering, 1
* property, 1
* pseudo-class
o :first, 1
o :left, 1
o :right, 1
* pseudo-classes, 1
o :active, 1, 2
o :focus, 1
o :hover, 1
o :lang, 1
o :link, 1, 2
o :visited, 1, 2
* pseudo-elements, 1
o :after, 1, 2
o :before, 1, 2
o :first-letter, 1
o :first-line, 1, 2
* quad width, 1
* 'quotes', 1
* RECOMMENDED, 1
* reference pixel, 1
* relative positioning, 1
* relative units, 1
* <relative-size>
o definition of, 1
* rendered content, 1
* replaced element, 1
* REQUIRED, 1
* Resource Identifier (URI), 1
* 'richness', 1
* 'ridge', 1, 2
* <right>
o definition of, 1
* 'right', 1
* root, 1
* root stacking context, 1
* rule sets, 1
* run-in, 1
* run-in box, 1
* 'run-in', definition of, 1
* sans-serif, definition of, 1
* scope, 1
* screen reader, 1
* selector, 1, 2, 3, 4
o match, 1
o subject of, 1
* separated borders, 1
* serif, definition of, 1
* SHALL, 1
* SHALL NOT, 1
* <shape>
o definition of, 1
* sheet, 1
* shorthand property, 1, 2, 3
* SHOULD, 1
* SHOULD NOT, 1
* sibling, 1
* simple selector, 1
* 'size', 1
* 'slope' (descriptor), 1
* 'solid', 1, 2
* source document, 1
* space-separated matching, 1
* 'speak', 1
* 'speak-header', 1
* 'speak-numeral', 1
* 'speak-punctuation', 1
* <specific-voice>
o definition of, 1
* specified value, 1
* 'speech-rate', 1
* square, 1
* 'src' (descriptor), 1
* stack level, 1
* stacking context, 1
* statements, 1
* 'static' media group, 1
* 'stemh' (descriptor), 1
* 'stemv' (descriptor), 1
* 'stress', 1
* string, 1
* <string>, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
* <string>, definition of, 1
* style sheet, 1
* subject (of selector), 1
* system fonts, 1
* table, 1
* table element, 1
o internal, 1
* 'table', 1
* table-caption, 1
* 'table-caption', 1
* table-cell, 1
* 'table-cell', 1
* table-column, 1
* 'table-column', 1
* table-column-group, 1
* 'table-column-group', 1
* table-footer-group, 1
* 'table-footer-group', 1
* table-header-group, 1
* 'table-header-group', 1
* 'table-layout', 1
* table-row, 1
* 'table-row', 1
* table-row-group, 1
* 'table-row-group', 1
* tables, 1
* 'tactile' media group, 1
* 'text-align', 1
* 'text-decoration', 1
* 'text-indent', 1
* 'text-shadow', 1
* 'text-transform', 1
* text/css, 1
* <time>, 1
o definition of, 1
* tokenizer, 1
* <top>
o definition of, 1
* 'top', 1
* 'topline' (descriptor), 1
* type selector, 1
* UA, 1
* unicameral, 1, 2
o definition of, 1
* unicode, 1
* 'unicode-bidi', 1
* 'unicode-range' (descriptor), 1
* Uniform Resource Locator (URL), 1
* Uniform Resource Name (URN), 1
* 'units-per-em' (descriptor), 1
* universal selector, 1
* upper-latin, 1
* upper-roman, 1
* <urange>
o definition of, 1
* URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), 1
* <uri>, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
o definition of, 1
* URL (Uniform Resource Locator), 1
* URN (Uniform Resource Name), 1
* user agent, 1
* valid style sheet, 1
* value, 1
* vertical margin, 1
* 'vertical-align', 1
* viewport, 1
* 'visibility', 1
* visited (pseudo-class), 1, 2
* visual formatting model, 1
* 'visual' media group, 1
* 'voice-family', 1
* volume, 1
* 'volume', 1
* 'white-space', 1
* 'widows', 1
* 'width', 1
* 'widths' (descriptor), 1
* 'word-spacing', 1
* x-height, 1
* 'x-height' (descriptor), 1
* 'z-index', 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------