Section 6.4. Style Sheets Language Features

6.4. Style Sheets Language Features

The first version of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) did not include any mechanisms for dealing with anything but standard western, left-to-right languages.

CSS Level 2 introduced a few controls that specifically address multilingualism.

Directionality

The direction and unicode-bidi properties in CSS 2 allow authors to specify text direction, similar to the dir and bdo elements in HTML.

Quotation marks

The quotes property is used to specify quotation marks appropriate to the current language of the text. Generated quotation marks are discussed in Chapter 23.

CSS Level 3 addresses advanced foreign language attributes such as detailed specification of international numbering schemes, vertical text, and language-based text justification. International numbering schemes are published in the CSS 3 Lists Module (www.w3.org/TR/css3-lists/). Text effects that accommodate internationalization efforts are published in the CSS 3 Text Effects Module (www.w3.org/TR/css3-text/).

CSS 3 also includes a module for dealing with Ruby text . Ruby text is a run of text that appears alongside another run of text (the base). It serves as an annotation or pronunciation guide, as in the case of phonetic Japanese characters that run above the pictorial kanji symbols to aid readers who do not understand the symbols. More information can be found at www.w3.org/TR/css3-ruby/.