W3C CSS3 Recommendations

CSS3 working drafts and candidate recommendations are in progress. You can check out what we can look forward to with the upcoming version of CSS. Some newer browsers even support a few of the features. The W3C also welcomes and invites feedback before these modules become final Recommendations.

As you will also see below, CSS is becoming modularized. There are several reasons: 1) One module can easily be updated, speeding up the turnaround time and allowing greater flexibility; 2) User agents can also choose to support specific modules, such as an aural browser with constraints and only needing aural CSS specifications; and, 3) to help clarify relationships between various parts of the specifications and to reduce the overall size of the document.

• Introduction to CSS3 (Working Draft)
  Still a Working Draft, check out W3C’s Introduction to CSS3. Take a look at what’s being worked on for the next version of CSS.
• CSS3 Module: Backgrounds (Working Draft)
  This new module describes the functionality of backgrounds, such as background colors and background images, extending the functionality of CSS2.
• CSS3 Advanced Layout Module
  Template-based positioning, tabbed (stacked) displays, row and column layouts, more.
• CSS3 Module: Box Model (Working Draft)
  This new module builds on CSS3′s inline text module. Although a typically horizontal flow, CSS3 adds a vertical flow that would be used for ideographic scripts or Uighur script.
• CSS3 Module: Cascading and Inheritance (Working Draft)
  This new module specifies how values are assigned to properties.
• CSS3 Module: Color (Candidate Recommendation)
  This working draft describes the color properties and values that are proposed for CSS level 3, with several new properties and values added.
• CSS3 Module: Fonts (Working Draft)
  This new module for CSS3 allows font specification by a user agent and new font decoration properties.
• CSS3 Module: Line (Working Draft)
  This new module for CSS3 specifies the presentation aspects of line within block elements and inline elements, baseline alignment, drop initials, and related.
• CSS3 Module: Lists (Working Draft)
  This new module for CSS3 proposes changes to the functionality of CSS2 list specifications.
• CSS3 Module: Mobile Profile (Candidate Recommendation)
  This new module for CSS3 defines a subset of CSS2 for the needs and constraints of mobile devices.
• CSS3 Module: Multi-column Layout (Working Draft)
  This new module for CSS3 builds on the CSS3 Box Model module and adds multi-column functionality to the content of an element.
• CSS3 Paged Media Module
  This module “describes the page model that partitions a flow into pages. It builds on the CSS3 Box model module and introduces and defines the page model and paged media. It adds functionality for pagination, page margins, headers and footers, image orientation. Finally it extends generated content for the purpose of cross-references with page numbers.”
• CSS3 Module: Ruby (Candidate Recommendation)
  This new module for CSS3 proposes a set of CSS properties associated with the ‘Ruby‘ elements.
• CSS3 Module: Selectors (Candidate Recommendation)
  This new module for CSS3 proposes new selectors and includes and extends the selectors from CSS1 and CSS2.
• CSS3 Module: Text (Candidate Recommendation)
  This new module for CSS3 specifies text layout such as international writing directions, text alignment, indenting, wrapping, white-space, text overflow, text decoration, and related. Several new CSS properties are added for CSS3.
• CSS TV Profile 1.0 Candidate Recommendation
  A subset of CSS2 and CSS3 Color module, providing specifications for TV devices.
• CSS3 Module: Values and Units (Working Draft)
  This new module describes CSS property values and units and how the specified values are processed into computed values and actual values.

New Cascading Style Sheets Recommendation from W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today issued a Recommendation for Web style sheets. The Recommendation – Cascading Style Sheets, level 1 (CSS1) – gives Web designers a robust set of tools to help them specify Web page presentation properties such as fonts, colors and margins. Through links, CSS1 allows a single style sheet to apply to all Web pages on a site and thereby dramatically simplifying Web site maintenance. Also, a style sheet can be put inside a Web document and in detail specify how the document is presented. W3C Members have reviewed the CSS1 specification and support its adoption by the industry.

Microsoft and other software vendors have products that support CSS1; Netscape, Adobe, SoftQuad and Grif are among the W3C Members who will be adding support for CSS1 in their upcoming software releases.

With Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) content providers do not have the control they have in print media over color, text indentation, positioning, and other aspects of style. Today CSS1 offers a powerful and manageable way for authors, artists and typographers to specify the visual presentation of an HTML document or collection of documents.

“The Web’s main document format, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), was intentionally designed as a simple language that valued document structure over document presentation. However, with the commercialization of the Web, presentation of Web documents is becoming increasingly critical,” said Tim Berners-Lee, Director of the W3C and creator of the World Wide Web. “CSS1 brings HTML authoring to the next level by effectively combining the structure and content of Web pages with powerful presentation capabilities. We look forward to the industry’s further adoption of CSS1.”

“CSS1 is a powerful tool. It can alter the look and feel of an entire web site simply by changing a single style sheet,” said Håkon Lie, co-architect of CSS1. “CSS1 makes it very much easier to maintain a consistent style throughout the entire Web site. At the same time, CSS1 enables rich individual expressions that Web designers will appreciate.”

Creative web designers have tried to bypass HTML’s limitations by using images of text, which look like good typography but result in documents that cannot be searched, fed to speech synthesizers for visually impaired users, and do not print well. They have also used non-portable proprietary HTML extensions to gain control of spacing, and tables to simulate margins and indents. CSS1 allows designers to directly express the appearance they seek while retaining device-indepedent document structure, reusability, searchability and accessibility for the disabled.

“By separating the structure from the visual presentation of documents, we ensure the documents created today can also be displayed on the presentation devices of tomorrow,” said Bert Bos, co-architect of CSS1. “HTML has become a universal storage format that will outlast current computers. CSS1, when used correctly, assures that documents can be preserved without sacrificing aesthetics on the Web.”

It is expected that other specifications will build on CSS1 to provide support for Web fonts, speech style sheets, extended layout and printing capabilities. Also, W3C is actively working with its members to ensure that script-based applications can take advantage of style sheets. For example, a script attached to a Web page may dynamically alter properties, such as color, set in a CSS1 style sheet.

Please see attached fact sheet and testimonials document for additional information on CSS1.