This page contains a list of all completed specifications and drafts by the CSS WG (formerly “CSS & FP WG”). If you want to follow the development of CSS3, this is the place to start. You have ideas? Contributions? See “If you want to help” on this page.
A specification is not a manual. There is no excuse for badly written drafts and please complain if you find one. But specs do target a specific audience. See fantasai's Understanding the CSS Specifications.. J. David Eisenberg has written another useful How to read W3C specs. Or you can read about “modules,” “levels,” “snapshots” and the CSS process.
Ordered from most to least stable:
See also: Jens Meiert's index of properties.
W3C indicates the maturity of specifications by a status code. The CSS working group uses the following, from least to most stable:
| Abbreviation | Full name |
|---|---|
| WD | Working Draft |
| LC | Last Call |
| CR | Candidate Recommendation |
| PR | Proposed Recommendation |
| REC | Recommendation |
The names are defined in sections 7.3 and 7.4 of the W3C process document. A REC is what is normally referred to as a “standard.” W3C encourages everyday use starting from CR.
The informal stability levels used to group the specs are defined in this 2007 description of CSS stability levels.
Everybody can take part in the discussions on the archived mailing list www-style@w3.org. You can subscribe yourself. This is the preferred place for discussions, since the members of the working group will see them. Please, don't use this list for questions of the type How do I… Use comp. infosystems. www. authoring. stylesheets ("ciwas") or see “Learning CSS”.
On the mailing list, you will be talking to many people, many very busy people. Before you post, please, search the archive to see if your great idea has maybe already been discussed. Follow the usual netiquette and W3C's policies on spam, attachments, etc.
If you work for a W3C member organization, you can also join the CSS working group and see drafts before they are published. To participate, you need to commit to (on average) 1 day per week. Contact me or your organization's W3C contact person. The group's minutes are public and posted on the CSS WG blog.
The CSS working group intends to spend a lot of time on developing the CSS test suites along with the CSS specifications. By providing a test suite for each module as soon as the module is published, we hope not only that CSS3 implementations will conform to the specification much earlier, but also that people will have an easier time understanding the formal text of the spec.
The test suites have their own archived mailing list public-css-testsuite@w3.org. Please send error reports, test case submissions, and any other questions and comments about the CSS test suites there. Elika Etemad maintains the CSS Testing Wiki with more info for contributors.
The source mark-up of the specifications follows certain conventions (which is useful for automatic processing).
