CSS Multiple-column Layout Level 1 Working Draft update
Today I have published a new Working Draft of CSS Multiple-column Layout Level 1. This WD includes a number of changes and clarifications based on discussion and resolutions made since the last publication in October 2019.
Significant updates
You can find the significant changes from the October 2019 draft in the changes section of the draft.
What’s next for multicol?
The aim is to transition multicol to Candidate Recommendation (CR) Status, once it has passed the wide review process. Any issues or comments on the specification would therefore be most welcome.
Please review the specification and raise any additional issues on GitHub prefixing your issue title with [css-multicol].
Minutes Telecon 2021-01-27
- There was pushback in issue #5710 (Shielding system colors to avoid fingerprinting?) to not closing the fingerprinting risk with system colors so the group spent time on the call digging into which of the other possible solutions would be best. However, what was discovered is that both possible solutions would cause bad user experience. Chris and TabAtkins will explain the ramifications of fixing the fingerprinting vector and request the original need be reevaluated. They’ll also involve the Accessibility Group in the discussions since they will be the worst impacted.
- Resolved: Add these 6 colors [caret-color, flood-color, lighting-color, stop-color, fill-color, stroke-color] to the list (Issue #5873: Missing forced color properties)
- Resolved: Have the MQ resolve their em against the actual default size which includes minimum — and anything else that might affect it in the future (Issue #5858: Account for minimum font size in relative length media queries)
- Resolved: UAs may use an accent-color outside of form controls at their discretion (Issue #5657: Use of accent color outside of form control elements)
- Resolved: Close no change [the current spec text is correct] (Issue #4227: min/max(%, %) should explicitly evaluate against the % value, not the resolved value)
- There still was no consensus on if the best name for the new property would be levels or layers (Issue #5840: Layers terminology bikeshed). Layers being commonly used in design programs like photoshop was sighted as both and advantage since it could serve as an analogy but a disadvantage because people already associate it with other functionality. Discussion will continue on GitHub.
- The group was split between using a dot or a space in the syntax (Issue #5791: What is the appropriate syntax for appending to nested layers?). The dot was familiar for those using JS and evoked the right kind of nesting, however the space is more CSS-y. Discussion will continue on GitHub.
Full Meeting Minutes
CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 5 First Public Working Draft
The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 5. This CSS module describes how to collate style rules and assign values by way of cascading and inheritance.
Level 5 adds “layers” to the cascade, along with a syntax for defining and sorting those layers. In the same way that cascade origins provide a balance of power between user and author styles, cascade layers provide a structured way to organize and balance concerns within a single origin – such as element defaults, third-party libraries, themes, components, and overrides. Authors are able to re-order the cascade of layers in an explicit way, without altering selectors or specificity within each layer, or relying on source-order to resolve conflicts across layers.
The following features have been added since Level 4:
Please send feedback by either filing an issue in GitHub (preferable) or sending mail to the (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org with the spec code ([css-cascade-5]) and your comment topic in the subject line. (Alternatively, you can email one of the editors and ask them to forward your comment.)
Minutes Telecon 2021-01-20
- Resolved: All new color functions serialize to themselves (Issue #5825: What serialization should be used when using color(lab …) syntax to specify a lab color?)
- Resolved: Make the first parameter in the color function, the color space, required (Issue #5825)
- Resolved: Have the minimum precision raised to 10 bits (Issue #5825)
- Resolved: Add a warning to the section and close this issue but continue work (Issue #4619: Who is currently using CSSPseudoElement and what events can target them?)
- Resolved: Use the existing parent function in css pseudo element as returning first element ancestor and add an immediate parent that could possibly return a pseudo element (Issue #3836: Should CSSPseudoElement have a pseudo() method? Would it be worth considering having two separate properties, Element element and Element|CSSPseudoElement parent)
- Resolved: Fix the draft of cssom so it points to color 4 and then publish (Issue #3827: Link “Applies to”, “Canonical order” in propdef tables)
- Resolved: Publish cascade after resolution of issue #4838 (Issue #3827)
- florian will edit the spec to clarify that overflow:clip extends paint containment (Issue #5800: Clarify when overflow-clip-margin has an effect)
- Resolved: Take TabAtkins’s last comment in GitHub (Issue #5721: Expected size of replaced element with aspect-ratio but width/height auto)
- Comment from GitHub:
- No explicit sizes means it uses the automatic sizes of the element.
- For replaced elements the automatic sizes are the natural sizes.
- When ‘aspect-ratio’ is in play the automatic size in the ratio-dependent axis is instead calculated from the size in the ratio-determining axis + aspect-ratio
- Since both ‘width’ and ‘height’ are using automatic sizes, the ratio-dependent axis is the block axis by default.
Full Meeting Minutes
Minutes Telecon 2021-01-13
- Resolved: Rename @layers to @layer (Issue #5855: Rename @layers to @layer)
- Resolved: Convert at parse time (Issue #5847: Define how “legacy aliases” work on selectors)
- Resolved: Drop caret-color and cursor (Issue #4100: Painting of the cursor and the caret with highlight pseudos)
- Resolved: Exclude word break and no break spaces on either side of the letter (Issue #5830: Fine-tuning ::first-letter punctuation pattern matching)
- Resolved: Exclude dashes and opening punctuation (ps and pd in unicode) from following (Issue #5830)
- Resolved: Include symbols when looking for first-letter (Issue #5099: ::first-letter should include currency)
- Resolved: Align with chromium behavior for ::first-line and line-height (Issue #2282: ::first-line and line-height)
- Resolved: ::first-letter pseudo element is closed at the end of the line even if the content that would otherwise be part of it is wrapped to the next line (Issue #2254: Multi-line ::first-letter)
- Resolved: Align the behavior of auto sizing for size-containment with that of ResizeObserver (Issue #5668: Revisiting auto-sizing when size-containment applies)
- The next step for content-visibility: hidden-matchable property (Issue #5595) will be TAG review to evaluate the group’s questions about if matchable will work with browser settings like reader-mode and if matchable belongs in CSS or in markup.
Full Meeting Minutes
Minutes Telecon 2021-01-06
- There are proposals for Container Queries and Light-DOM Scope available for review prior. Everyone is encouraged to read the proposals and engage on github.
- Resolved: Publish FPWD of L5 of Cascade
- Resolved: Stretch alignment doesn’t disable the aspect ratio. It can distort it if the other axis is constrained (Issue #5713: Note implies losing an aspect-ratio when it shouldn’t?)
- Resolved: Add an :autofill pseudo-class to selectors (Issue #5775: :autofill pseudo-class)
- Resolved: Merge this PR into next level of Shapes (Issue #5674: Allow CSS grammar for path shapes)
- Resolved: Go with Emilio’s naming and Sam’s amendment (Issue #5649: The way CSSStyleDeclaration exposes properties is not ideal)
- Resolved: Close no change but open issues on spec areas where it’s not clear what the intent was for a deprecation (Issue #5644)
- Resolved: Add the box keywords to the overflow-clip-margin (Issue #5801: Add box-edge values to overflow-clip-margin)
- Resolved: Color inherits according to first line inheritance. currentColor keys off value of that fragment per fragment (Issue #1510: currentColor when fragments have different colors)
- Resolved: Have font-relative units key off the font size per fragment (Issue #1510)
Full Meeting Minutes
Updated REC of CSS Containment Module Level 1
The CSS WG has published an updated Recommendation of the CSS Containment Module Level 1.
This CSS module describes the contain property, which indicates that the element’s subtree is independent of the rest of the page. This enables heavy optimizations by user agents when used well.
When a specification is published as a W3C Recommendation, it gives a indication of quality and stability: it has been extensively reviewed (including experts in accessibility, internationalization, security and privacy), reported issues have been addressed, tests have been written and passed by multiple implementations… But it doesn’t mean everything is perfect and flawless. Nothing really ever is.
After the fact, if we find typos, examples or notes whose phrasing can be improved, or other changes that do not impact the normative behavior specified, we can just make these changes. But for text that has an impact on the normative meaning of the specification, more care is needed. Starting with the 2020 revision of the W3C Process, we now have a fairly non intrusive way to work with such changes. The first step is to start by annotating, in the specification, what we would like to change and why. This lets us gather reviews on this provisional text and alert readers the official specification that something may be about to change, while preserving the original text as we wait for the new one to be ratified.
Later on, if and when these changes are confirmed to be the right thing to do, we can fold them in.
The CSS Containment Module Level 1 is the first W3C Recommendation to take advantage of this new process, and to include Candidate Corrections: one for a minor change that should make no difference to users but simplify implementations, and one for a fairly substantial rewrite of one section, which was found in retrospect to be insufficiently precise.
The CSS Working Group invites review of these two changes. More details about these changes and editorial ones can be found in the Changes section.
Please send feedback by either filing an issue in GitHub (preferable) or sending mail to the (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org with the spec code ([css-contain-1]) and your comment topic in the subject line. (Alternatively, you can email one of the editors and ask them to forward your comment.)
CSS Snapshot 2020 Published
The CSS Working Group has published its CSS Snapshot for 2020. Given that the CSS “specification” is over 100 separate documents, the CSS Snapshot is the CSSWG’s attempt to represent the state of CSS by listing together all of the specifications considered essentially completed. (You can always view the latest snapshot at https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS/ and a comprehensive list of everything the CSSWG is working on our current work page.)
We hope this helps people trying to navigate the CSS specifications. Please send any feedback by filing an issue in GitHub (preferably) or by sending mail to the (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org.
Updated CSS Conditional Rules Level 3 Candidate Recommendation
The CSS Working Group has published an updated Candidate Recommendation of CSS Conditional Rules Level 3. This module contains the features of CSS for conditional processing of parts of style sheets, such as @media and the (here-introduced) @supports.
This long-overdue publication changes requirements for spaces around conjunctions to match Media Queries and removes the requirement for parentheses in the simplest supports() queries. It also rewrites the grammar over CSS Syntax Level 3 (as opposed to the CSS2 Appendix G Flex/Yacc notation) and updates some details of the OM interfaces. A changes list and disposition of comments since the previous (2013) Candidate Recommendation are available. (We hope to keep this module more regularly up-to-date going forward.)
As this module is largely implemented and deployed, next steps will be focusing on ensuring test coverage and implementation correctness to prepare for a Recommendation.
Please send feedback by either filing an issue in GitHub (preferable) or sending mail to the (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org with the spec code ([css-conditional-3]) and your comment topic in the subject line. (Alternatively, you can email one of the editors and ask them to forward your comment.)
CSS Text Level 3 Candidate Recommendation!
I am very pleased to announce that the CSS WG has published a Candidate Recommendation of the CSS Text Module Level 3. This module has been a core part of the decades-long collaboration between the CSS Working Group and the Internationalization Working Group to bring internationalized typesetting capabilities to CSS and the Web platform.
Note that the feature set in early drafts of “CSS3 Text” was been split into three parts, with “CSS Writing Modes” and “CSS Text Decoration” having already progressed to CR (and beyond). The remaining typesetting features—focused on text transformation, line breaking, justification, spacing, and alignment—remain as “CSS Text”.
This specification would not have been possible without the contributions of many experts across the W3C, Unicode, IDPF, and Japanese standards communities across the past two decades. As the longest continuing editor, I personally would like to thank my current and former co-editors their hard work, and also our relentless i18nWG reviewers for their knowledge and feedback. We are appreciative also of Microsoft, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera Software, Antenna House, Bloomberg, EAST Japan, Adobe, Hewlett-Packard, and Google for their support of our work in the CSSWG—and no less everyone who contributed to the outstanding W3C Internationalization programme which has continuously guided and informed this work.
As usual, changes since the previous Working Draft are documented in the Changes section. There’s also a Disposition of Comments covering all feedback received since the 2013 Last Call Working Draft.
Please send feedback by either filing an issue in GitHub (preferable) or sending mail to the (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org with the spec code ([css-text-3]) and your comment topic in the subject line. (Alternatively, you can email one of the editors and ask them to forward your comment.)
At this point CSS Text Level 3 is feature-frozen; further work (there is definitely more work) in this area will continue in CSS Text Level 4.
![[Photo: group photo of the CSS working group in San Francisco]](/Style/CSS/csswg-2016.jpg)
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