{"id":1314,"date":"2006-01-20T13:00:29","date_gmt":"2006-01-20T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/Internationaltmp\/2006\/01\/20\/request_for_feedback_usefulness_of_first\/"},"modified":"2011-10-11T14:52:57","modified_gmt":"2011-10-11T14:52:57","slug":"request_for_feedback_usefulness_of_first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/2006\/01\/20\/request_for_feedback_usefulness_of_first\/","title":{"rendered":"Request for feedback: Usefulness of ::first-letter in non-Latin scripts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The W3C i18n Working Group would like to hear from you if you have some knowledge\/thoughts in this area. We would like to gather information about the usefulness, in general, of the ::first-letter pseudo-element in non-Latin scripts, and any particular issues or differences arising from the different characteristics of the scripts.Please send your comments to www-international @ w3.org (Archive and subscription: http:\/\/lists.w3.org\/Archives\/Public\/www-international\/<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

The latest working draft of CSS3 Selectors proposes the ::first-letter pseudo-element.
\nSee http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/2005\/WD-css3-selectors-20051215\/#first-letter<\/a>
\nThe ::first-letter pseudo-element represents the first letter of the first line of a block, if it is not preceded by any other content (such as images or inline tables) on its line.
\nIt allows that first letter to be styled individually, without markup. It may be used for “initial caps” and “drop caps”<\/a>, which are common typographical effects in text in Latin script.
\nWe commented to the CSS Working Group that they need to define ‘letter’ more carefully, and proposed that they specify that ‘letter’ equates to ‘default grapheme cluster’, as described in the Unicode Standard Annex #29.
\nSee http:\/\/www.unicode.org\/reports\/tr29\/#Grapheme_Cluster_Boundaries<\/a>
\n(A rough and ready explanation of this is that base characters and any following combining characters are styled together. So
\n0065: e LATIN SMALL LETTER E + 0301: ́ COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT
\nwould be handled as a single letter.)
\nWe also suggested that implementors should then be encouraged to provide tailored algorithms on a per language basis to cope with anomolies, particularly such as may occur in non-Latin scripts.
\nHere are some initial questions:
\n[1] Are there scripts that would never use this approach?<\/strong>
\n[2] We mention ‘initial caps’ and ‘drop caps’ above. What other types of styling would be commonly applied in other scripts if this feature were available?<\/strong>
\n[3] What script features would cause difficulties, eg syllabic groupings (see the example of indic script example below), ligatures, cursive text (eg. Arabic, Urdu, etc.), and how would the script normally deal with them?<\/strong>
\nPlease send your comments to www-international @ w3.org
\nArchive: http:\/\/lists.w3.org\/Archives\/Public\/www-international\/<\/a>
\n————
\nWhat follows are some examples of questions that spring to mind.
\nSYLLABIC INDIC SCRIPTS
\nIn the Hindi word स्थिति (‘sthiti’) the sequence of characters in the first syllable is as follows in memory:
\n0938: स DEVANAGARI LETTER SA
\n094D: ् DEVANAGARI SIGN VIRAMA
\n0925: थ DEVANAGARI LETTER THA
\n093F: ि DEVANAGARI VOWEL SIGN I
\nThe displayed text, however, is \"The
\nNote how the vowel sign appears to the left of the first character, not the third.
\nThe default grapheme clusters here are, I believe, 0938+094D, then each of the following two characters.
\nWould Devanagari-based languages use special styling for initial syllables? If so, would they actually apply the styling to the vowel sign alone, or to the whole syllable?
\nLIGATURES
\nIf a script styles the ‘first letter’, but that letter is part of a ligature (ie. a single glyph representing more than one underlying character), would it be ok to split the ligature, or should the other characters that compose the ligature also be styled?
\nCURSIVE SCRIPTS
\nSince Arabic and Mongolian letters in a word are normally joined, has first letter styling been used at all in these scripts?
\nCHINESE, JAPANESE, KOREAN
\nDo languages using these scripts do first letter styling?
\nRUSSIAN, GREEK, ARMENIAN, etc.
\nIs first letter styling common practise in these scripts too?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The W3C i18n Working Group would like to hear from you if you have some knowledge\/thoughts in this area. We would like to gather information about the usefulness, in general, of the ::first-letter pseudo-element in non-Latin scripts, and any particular … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,27,3],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-css","category-feedback-request","category-highlight","tag-fr-first-letter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1879,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/blog\/International\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}