Re: [css3-text-decor][css4-background] @pattern for defining filling and decoration patterns

>
> Interesting, but pretty large to be introduced apropos of nothing. ^_^
>
Well, I didn't imagine this to be introduced "apropos of nothing". ;-)
As I mentioned earlier one reason to define a @text-decoration rule is to
avoid the introduction of properties like text-decoration-line and
text-underline-position, which limit future enhancements of the text
decorations spec to lines, before it's too late.


> Let's focus just on the text-decoration part.
>
Ok, I'll create a separate proposal for just the @pattern rule then, so
that can be discussed separately from the @text-decoration rule. I just
thought they would share most of their properties, so they should be
mentioned together.


> Is there evidence that we need something with this much control?
>
Often you can see websites, which use images with texts for logos and
headlines nowadays to overcome the limitation to simple line decorations.
csszengarden.com (while probably not being considered as a real live
example) has many layouts, where text decorations would make it much easier
to achieve certain text stylings[1][2][3][4][5].

Other websites could profit from nice text decorations but obviously
abandon using them because it would be too time consuming creating an image
for each text they want to decorate or create other hacks to reach that.
Examples for this would be game websites like diablo3.com[6].


> From the linked email, it seems like there might be a few more things that
> we can expose (explicit width, offset, painting order).  While the
> additional effects you illustrate are interesting, I'm not sure they're
> necessary.
>
Surely not all properties are needed in the initial definition of the rule.
It mainly needs to cover the existing line decorations by offering general
properties to define them and add the things you mentioned. The big
advantage of this rule is that it allows extending the kinds of decorations
beyond lines.
Though already defining features beyond that gives even more flexibility.
You also defined many different features in your current counter styles
draft[8], which are definitely edge cases, like example 5.

Sebastian

[1] http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/201/201.css
[2] http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/199/199.css
[3] http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/182/182.css
[4] http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/158/158.css
[5] http://www.csszengarden.com/?cssfile=/153/153.css
[6] http://us.battle.net/d3/en/game/guide/items/equipment
[7] http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-text-decor/
[8] http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-counter-styles-3/