The orientation which the above symbols assume in the diagrams corresponds to the orientation that the glyphs they represent are intended to assume when rendered by the user agent. Spacing between these characters in the diagrams is incidental, unless intentionally changed to make a point.
What is ruby?
Ruby is the commonly-used name for a run of text that appears alongside another run of text (referred to as the “base”) and serves as an annotation or a pronunciation guide associated with that run of text.
The following figures show two examples of Ruby, a simple case and one with more complicated structure.
In this first example, a single annotation is used to annotate the base text.
Example of ruby used in Japanese (simple case)
In Japanese typography, this case is sometimes called taigo ruby or group-ruby (per-word ruby), because the annotation as a whole is associated with multi-character word (as a whole).
In this second example, two levels of annotations are attached to a base sequence: the hiragana characters on top refer to the pronunciation of each of the base kanji characters, while the words “Keio” and “University” on the bottom are annotations describing the English translation.
Complex ruby with annotation text over and under the base characters
Notice that to allow correct association between the hiragana characters and their corresponding Kanji base characters, the spacing between these Kanji characters is adjusted. (This happens around the fourth Kanji character in the figure above.) To avoid variable spacing between the Kanji characters in the example above the hiragana annotations can be styled as a collapsed annotation, which will look more like the group-ruby example earlier. However because the base-annotation pairings are recorded in the ruby structure, if the text breaks across lines, the annotation characters will stay correctly paired with their respective base characters.
Ruby Formatting Model
The CSS ruby model is based on the HTML Ruby Markup Extension and XHTML Ruby Annotation Recommendation [[RUBY]]. In this model, a ruby structure consists of one or more ruby base elements representing the base (annotated) text, associated with one or more levels of ruby annotation elements representing the annotations. The structure of ruby is similar to that of a table: there are “rows” (the base text level, each annotation level) and “columns” (each ruby base and its corresponding ruby annotations).
Consecutive bases and annotations are grouped together into ruby segments. Within a ruby segment, a ruby annotation may span multiple ruby bases.
In HTML, a single <ruby> element may contain multiple ruby segments.
(In the XHTML Ruby model, a single <ruby> element can only contain one ruby segment.)
Ruby-specific 'display' property values
For document languages (such as XML applications) that do not have pre-defined ruby elements, authors must map document language elements to ruby elements; this is done with the 'display' property.
| Name: | display |
|---|---|
| New Values: | ruby | ruby-base | ruby-text | ruby-base-container | ruby-text-container |
The following new 'display' values assign ruby layout roles to an arbitrary element:
- ''ruby''
- Specifies that an element generates a ruby container box.
(Corresponds to HTML/XHTML
<ruby>elements.) - ''ruby-base''
- Specifies that an element generates a ruby base box.
(Corresponds to HTML/XHTML
<rb>elements.) - ''ruby-text''
- Specifies that an element generates a ruby annotation box.
(Corresponds to HTML/XHTML
<rt>elements.) - ''ruby-base-container''
- Specifies that an element generates a ruby base container box.
(Corresponds to XHTML
<rbc>elements; always implied in HTML.) - ''ruby-text-container''
- Specifies that an element generates a ruby annotation container box.
(Corresponds to HTML/XHTML
<ruby>elements.)
The CSS model does not require that the document language include elements that correspond to each of these components. Missing parts of the structure are implied through the anonymous box generation rules.
The spec needs to address anonymous box generation rules (and to make them compatible with HTML5 ruby markup).
How should box generation rules deal with ruby elements that contain block-level boxes? Turn them into inline blocks? Treat them as 'display: none'? Force them to float? Something else?
Ruby box model
In the following description, the elements specified by Ruby Annotation [[RUBY]] are used to describe the box model. As mentioned earlier, a user agent can obtain the same results by using the Ruby specific 'display' property values.
For a user agent that supports the ruby markup, the ruby structure consists of three or more boxes. The outermost container is the ruby element itself. In the simple case, it is a container for two non-overlapping boxes: the ruby text box (rt element) and the ruby base box (rb element). The positioning of these two boxes relative to each other is controlled by the 'ruby-position' property.
Figure 3.2.1: Ruby box model (simple case)
In the case of complex ruby, the ruby element is a container for two or three non-overlapping boxes: one ruby base collection (rbc element), and one or two ruby text collections (rtc element). The rbc element is itself a container for one or several ruby base box (rb element), while each rtc element is a container for one or several ruby text box (rt element). The position of the rtc element in relation to the related rbc element is controlled by the 'ruby-position' property. The two following figures show examples of these complex ruby.
Figure 3.2.2: Ruby box model (complex ruby with an empty rt element after)
In the example above, the ruby text after (below) the ruby bases contains two rt elements with the first one being empty, the empty rt element corresponds to the first part of the ruby base collection (the first part is identified by the first rb element within the rbc element).
Figure 3.2.3: Ruby box model (complex ruby with a spanning ruby text element)
In the example above, the ruby text before (above) the ruby bases spans the whole ruby base collection. The ruby text after (below) the ruby bases still contain two rt elements, one of which is empty. The spanning behavior of rt text elements is controlled by the rbspan attribute in a way similar to the colspan attribute used for table column.
Issue: The examples above contain the term 'group ruby', which is not used elsewhere in this specification. It appears to be used in a way that is different to the use of the term in JLREQ. I propose to replace it with just 'ruby'.
Note: The visual description of the ruby elements does not refer necessarily to the logical orders of the elements
The width of the ruby box is by default determined by its widest child element, whose width in turn is determined by its content. The width of all direct children of the ruby element is the width of the widest children. In this respect, the ruby box is much like a two or three row table element, with the following exceptions:
- the ruby box is an inline element, like an image, even though it itself, like a table, is a container of other boxes
- the equivalent of the cells: the rb element and the rt text element can only contain inline-level elements.
- the content of each 'cell' is always measured at its maximum width
- unlike a table, a ruby element doesn't have to fit in a line, the ruby box may be split into several boxes at line boundary, depending of the spanning of the ruby texts. This is however only possible for the complex ruby and can only happen at the boundary of non spanning elements.
- both the ruby text and the ruby base boxes may overlap with adjacent text (outside of the ruby element) if an appropriate 'ruby-overhang' parameter is set via CSS. Note however that the actual content of the ruby base cannot overlap with that adjacent text. The distribution of the content of the ruby base within the ruby base box is controlled by the 'ruby-align' property.
If the ruby text is not allowed to overhang, then the ruby behaves like a traditional box, i.e. only its contents are rendered within its boundaries and adjacent elements do not cross the box boundary:
Figure 3.2.4: Simple ruby whose text is not allowed to overhang adjacent text
However, if ruby text is allowed to overhang adjacent elements and it happens to be wider than its base, then the adjacent content is partially rendered within the area of the ruby base box, while the ruby text may be partially overlapping with the upper blank parts of the adjacent content:
Figure 3.2.5: Simple ruby whose text is allowed to overhang adjacent text
The ruby text related to a ruby base can never overhang another ruby base.
The alignment of the contents of the base or the ruby text is not affected by the overhanging behavior. The alignment is achieved the same way regardless of the overhang behavior setting and it is computed before the space available for overlap is determined. It is controlled by the 'ruby-align' property.
The exact circumstances in which the ruby text will overhang other elements, and to what degree it will do so, will be controlled by the 'ruby-overhang' property.
This entire logic applies the same way in vertical ideographic layout, only the dimension in which it works in such a layout is vertical, instead of horizontal.
Note: Because the purpose of the XHTML rp element [[RUBY]] is to allow pre-existing user agents to parenthesize ruby text content, an XHTML user agent should use a styling rule for these elements that avoids rendering them such as rp {display: none}.
Ruby box and line stacking
The interaction of the ruby box and line stacking is controlled by the 'line-stacking-ruby' property described in the CSS3 Line Module. That property takes two values: 'include-ruby' and 'exclude-ruby. Depending on the property value, the ruby box is considered or excluded for line stacking. Even if the ruby box is considered for line stacking, some values of the 'line-stacking-strategy' property (also described in the CSS3 Line module) can still create occurrences where a the ruby box will eventually be ignored (e.g. case where the 'line-stacking-strategy' value is 'block-line-height').
In the following figure, each line box is shown with leading space distributed before and after the two text segments ('Previous line' and 'Ruby base'); the dotted lines show the line box for each line. The 'line-stacking-ruby' property is set to 'exclude-ruby'. The achieved effect is that the ruby box does not affect the line to line spacing. It is however the responsibility of the style author to avoid 'bleeding' effects between the ruby text and the surrounding text of images.
Figure 3.3.1: Excluded Ruby text
In the following figure, the line boxes have no extra leading space. The 'line-stacking-ruby' property is set to 'include-ruby' and the 'line-stacking-strategy' property is set to a value where inline boxes are considered for line stacking. In this case, the line box with the ruby text is affected and has its 'stack-height' increased by the amount necessary to fit the ruby text.
Figure 3.3.2: Ruby text increasing line height
This mechanism allows rendering of evenly spaced lines of text within a block-level element, whether a line contains ruby or not. The authors need only to set for the block-level element a line height value larger than the computed line-height of the largest ruby element within the block.
Ruby box and line breaking
When a ruby falls at the end of a line where there is not sufficient room for the entire ruby to fit on the line, the complex ruby may be broken at locations where boxes of the ruby container align. Some examples are provided below to provide more clarity.
Figure 3.4.1: Complex ruby line breaking opportunity
Figure 3.4.1: "Bopomofo" ruby line breaking opportunity
Issue: Line breaks should only be allowed within ruby if the ruby base text can be broken at that point. E.g. if complex Ruby is used to annotate the two morphemes of "butterfly", the fact that we have added ruby annotations should not cause a line breaking opportunity to be present between "butter" and "fly"
Ruby Properties
Ruby positioning: the 'ruby-position' property
| Name: | ruby-position |
|---|---|
| Value: | [ over | under | inter-character ] && [ right | left ] |
| Initial: | over right |
| Applies to: | the parent of elements with display: ruby-text. |
| Inherited: | yes |
| Percentages: | N/A |
| Media: | visual |
| Computed value: | specified value (except for initial and inherit) |
| Animatable: | no |
| Canonical order: | per grammar |
Issue: We replaced 'right' with 'inter-character', since that was its original intended purpose and such removes potential ambiguity with 'inline' or 'before'. Bopomofo ruby needs special handling by the implementation, if ruby is to always appear to the right. (Note that the user may also choose to position bopomofo ruby before the base, in which case they would use the normal 'before' setting.)
This property is used by the parent of elements with display: ruby-text to control the position of the ruby text with respect to its base. Such parents are typically either the ruby element itself (simple ruby) or the rtc element (complex ruby). This assures that all parts of a rtc element will be displayed in the same position. Possible values:
Issue-107: Roland Steiner has requested the addition of an auto value as default. See this thread and this one.
- ''over''
- The ruby text appears over the base in horizontal text.
This is the most common setting used in ideographic East Asian writing systems.
This is the initial value.
Figure 4.1.1: Top ruby in horizontal layout applied to Japanese text
- ''right''
- The ruby text appears on the right side of the base in vertical text.
Figure 4.1.2: Top ruby in vertical ideographic layout applied to Japanese text
- ''under''
- The ruby text appears under the base in horizontal text.
This is a relatively rare setting used in ideographic East Asian writing systems,
most easily found in educational text.
Figure 4.1.3: Bottom ruby in horizontal layout applied to Japanese text
- ''left''
- The ruby text appears on the left side of the base in vertical text.
Figure 4.1.4: Bottom ruby in vertical ideographic layout applied to Japanese text
- ''inter-character''
-
Issue: We replaced 'right' with 'inter-character', since that was its original intended purpose and such removes potential ambiguity with 'inline' or 'before'. Bopomofo ruby needs special handling by the implementation, if ruby is to always appear to the right. (Note that the user may also choose to position bopomofo ruby before the base, in which case they would use the normal 'before' setting.) See this thread following a request from the i18n WG.
The ruby text appears on the right of the base in horizontal text.
This value is provided for the special case of traditional Chinese as used especially in Taiwan: ruby (made of bopomofo glyphs) in that context appears vertically along the right side of the base glyph, even when the layout of the base characters is horizontal:
Figure 4.1.5: "Bopomofo" ruby in traditional Chinese (ruby text shown in blue for clarity) in horizontal layout
Note: The bopomofo transcription is written in the normal way as part of the ruby text. The user agent is responsible for ensuring the correct relative alignment and positioning of the glyphs, including those corresponding to the tone marks, when displaying. Tone marks are spacing characters that occur in memory at the end of the ruby text for each base character. They are usually displayed in a separate column to the right of the bopomofo characters, and the height of the tone mark depends on the number of characters in the syllable. One tone mark, however, is placed above the bopomofo, not to the right of it.
Note: To make bopomofo annotations appear before or after the base text, like annotations for most other East Asian writing systems, use the 'before' and 'after' values of ruby-position.
It is not defined how a user-agent should handle ruby text that is not bopomofo when the value of ruby-position is set to 'inter-character'.
If two rtc elements are set with the same ruby-position value, (for example both 'before'), the relative position of the two elements is undefined. This setting should not be used.
Ruby merge: the 'ruby-merge' property
| Name: | ruby-merge |
|---|---|
| Value: | separate | collapse | auto |
| Initial: | separate |
| Applies to: | all elements and generated content |
| Inherited: | yes |
| Percentages: | N/A |
| Media: | visual |
| Computed value: | specified value (except for initial and inherit) |
This property controls how ruby annotation boxes should be rendered when there are more than one in a ruby container box.
Possible values:
- ''separate''
-
Each ruby annotation box is rendered in the same column as its corresponding base box. This style is called Mono-ruby in [[JLREQ]].
The following two markups render the same:
<ruby>無<rt>む</ruby><ruby>常<rt>じょlt;/ruby>
and:
<ruby style="ruby-merge:separate"><rb>無<rb>常<rt>む<rt>じょlt;/ruby>
- ''collapse''
-
All ruby annotation boxes are concatenated, and rendered to the concatenated ruby base boxes. This style is called Group-ruby in [[JLREQ]].
The following two markups render the same:
<ruby>無常<rt>むじょlt;/ruby>
and:
<ruby style="ruby-merge:collapse"><rb>無<rb>常<rt>む<rt>じょlt;/ruby>
- ''auto''
-
The user agent may use any algorithm to determine how each ruby annotation box is rendered to its corresponding base box.
One possible algorithm is described as Jukugo-ruby in [[JLREQ]].
Another, more simplified algorithm of Jukugo-ruby is to render as Mono-ruby if all ruby annotation boxes fit within advances of their corresponding base boxes, and render as Group-ruby otherwise.
Ruby alignment: the 'ruby-align' property
| Name: | ruby-align |
|---|---|
| Value: | auto | start | center | distribute-letter | distribute-space |
| Initial: | auto |
| Applies to: | all elements and generated content |
| Inherited: | yes |
| Percentages: | N/A |
| Media: | visual |
| Computed value: | specified value (except for initial and inherit) |
This property can be used on any element to control the text alignment of the ruby text and ruby base contents relative to each other. It applies to all the rubys in the element. For simple ruby, the alignment is applied to the ruby child element whose content is shorter: either the rb element or the rt element [[RUBY]]. For complex ruby, the alignment is also applied to the ruby child elements whose content is shorter: either the rb element and/or one or two rt elements for each related ruby text and ruby base element within the rtc and rbc element.
Possible values:
Issue: Tony Graham has suggested that distribute-letter and distribute-space be values of a ruby-group-distribution property, and line-edge be moved to a ruby-alignment-edge property, and that the rest be gathered under a ruby-alignment property. And that ruby-align become a shorthand.
- ''auto''
-
The user agent determines how the ruby contents are aligned. This is the initial value. The behavior recommended by [[JLREQ]] is for wide-cell ruby to be aligned in the 'distribute-space' mode:
Figure 4.2.1: Wide-cell text in 'auto' ruby alignment is 'distribute-space' justified
The recommended behavior for narrow-cell glyph ruby is to be aligned in the 'center' mode.
Figure 4.2.2: Narrow-width ruby text in 'auto' ruby alignment is centered
- ''start''
- The ruby text content is aligned with the start edge of the base.
Issue: The i18n WG feels that start and left should not be synonymous, and proposed to drop left (there is no left/right in overhang)? See this thread.
Figure 4.2.3: Start ruby alignment
- ''center''
- The ruby text content is centered within the width of the base. If the
length of the base is smaller than the length of the ruby text, then the
base is centered within the width of the ruby text.
Figure 4.2.4: Center ruby alignment
- ''distribute-letter''
- If the width of the ruby text is smaller than that of the base, then
the ruby text contents are evenly distributed across the width of the
base, with the first and last ruby text glyphs lining up with the
corresponding first and last base glyphs. If the width of the ruby text
is at least the width of the base, then the letters of the base are
evenly distributed across the width of the ruby text.
Figure 4.2.6: Distribute-letter ruby alignment
- ''distribute-space''
- If the width of the ruby text is smaller than that of the base, then
the ruby text contents are evenly distributed across the width of the
base, with a certain amount of white space preceding the first and
following the last character in the ruby text. That amount of white
space is normally equal to half the amount of inter-character space of
the ruby text. If the width of the ruby text is at least the width of
the base, then the same type of space distribution applies to the base.
In other words, if the base is shorter than the ruby text, the base is
distribute-space aligned. This type of alignment
is described by [[JLREQ]].
Figure 4.2.7: Distribute-space ruby alignment
For a complex ruby with spanning elements, one additional consideration is required. If the spanning element spans multiple 'rows' (other rbc or rtc elements), and the ruby alignment requires space distribution among the 'spanned' elements, a ratio must be determined among the 'columns' of spanned elements. This ratio is computed by taking into consideration the widest element within each column.
Appendix A: Default Style Sheet
This section is informative.
A.1 Supporting Ruby Layout
The following represents a default UA style sheet for rendering HTML and XHTML ruby markup as ruby layout:
ruby { display: ruby; }
rb { display: ruby-base; white-space: nowrap; }
rt { display: ruby-text; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 50%; }
rbc { display: ruby-base-container; }
rtc { display: ruby-text-container; }
Additional rules for UAs supporting the relevant features of [[CSS3-TEXT-DECOR]] and [[CSS3-FONTS]]:
rt { font-variant-east-asian: ruby; text-emphasis: none; }
Authors should not use the above rules; a UA that supports ruby layout should provide these by default.
A.2 Inlining Ruby Annotations
The following represents a sample style sheet for rendering HTML and XHTML ruby markup as inline annotations:
ruby, rb, rt, rbc, rtc, rp {
display: inline; white-space: inherit;
font-variant-east-asian: inherit; text-emphasis: inherit; }
A.3 Generating Parentheses
Unfortunately, because Selectors cannot match against text nodes,
it's not possible with CSS to express rules that will automatically and correctly
add parentheses to unparenthesized ruby annotations in HTML.
(This is because HTML ruby allows implying the ruby base from raw text, without a corresponding element.)
However, these rules will handle cases where either <rb>
or <rtc> is used rigorously.
/* Parens around <rtc> */
rtc::before { content: "("; }
rtc::after { content: ")"; }
/* Parens before first <rt> not inside <rtc> */
rb + rt::before,
rtc + rt::before { content: "("; }
/* Parens after <rt> not inside <rtc> */
rb ~ rt:last-child::after,
rt + rb::before { content: ")"; }
rt + rtc::before { content: ")("; }
Glossary
- Bopomofo
- 37 characters and 4 tone markings used as phonetics in Chinese, especially standard Mandarin.
- Hanja
- Subset of the Korean writing system that utilizes ideographic characters borrowed or adapted from the Chinese writing system. Also see Kanji.
- Hiragana
- Japanese syllabic script, or character of that script. Rounded and cursive in appearance. Subset of the Japanese writing system, used together with kanji and katakana. In recent times, mostly used to write Japanese words when kanji are not available or appropriate, and word endings and particles. Also see Katakana.
- Ideograph
- A character that is used to represent an idea, word, or word component, in contrast to a character from an alphabetic or syllabic script. The most well-known ideographic script is used (with some variation) in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea,...).
- Kana
- Collective term for hiragana and katakana.
- Kanji
- Japanese term for ideographs; ideographs used in Japanese. Subset of the Japanese writing system, used together with hiragana and katakana. Also see Hanja.
- Katakana
- Japanese syllabic script, or character of that script. Angular in appearance. Subset of the Japanese writing system, used together with kanji and hiragana. In recent times, mainly used to write foreign words. Also see Hiragana.
- Mono-ruby
- In Japanese typography: Ruby associated with a single character of the base text.
- Ruby
- A run of text that appears in the vicinity of another run of text and serves as an annotation or a pronunciation guide for that text.
Conformance
Document conventions
Conformance requirements are expressed with a combination of descriptive assertions and RFC 2119 terminology. The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119. However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification.
All of the text of this specification is normative except sections explicitly marked as non-normative, examples, and notes. [[!RFC2119]]
Examples in this specification are introduced with the words “for example”
or are set apart from the normative text with class="example",
like this:
This is an example of an informative example.
Informative notes begin with the word “Note” and are set apart from the
normative text with class="note", like this:
Note, this is an informative note.
Conformance classes
Conformance to CSS Ruby Module is defined for three conformance classes:
- style sheet
- A CSS style sheet.
- renderer
- A UA that interprets the semantics of a style sheet and renders documents that use them.
- authoring tool
- A UA that writes a style sheet.
A style sheet is conformant to CSS Ruby Module if all of its statements that use syntax defined in this module are valid according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature defined in this module.
A renderer is conformant to CSS Ruby Module if, in addition to interpreting the style sheet as defined by the appropriate specifications, it supports all the features defined by CSS Ruby Module by parsing them correctly and rendering the document accordingly. However, the inability of a UA to correctly render a document due to limitations of the device does not make the UA non-conformant. (For example, a UA is not required to render color on a monochrome monitor.)
An authoring tool is conformant to CSS Ruby Module if it writes style sheets that are syntactically correct according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature in this module, and meet all other conformance requirements of style sheets as described in this module.
Partial implementations
So that authors can exploit the forward-compatible parsing rules to assign fallback values, CSS renderers must treat as invalid (and ignore as appropriate) any at-rules, properties, property values, keywords, and other syntactic constructs for which they have no usable level of support. In particular, user agents must not selectively ignore unsupported component values and honor supported values in a single multi-value property declaration: if any value is considered invalid (as unsupported values must be), CSS requires that the entire declaration be ignored.
Experimental implementations
To avoid clashes with future CSS features, the CSS2.1 specification reserves a prefixed syntax for proprietary and experimental extensions to CSS.
Prior to a specification reaching the Candidate Recommendation stage in the W3C process, all implementations of a CSS feature are considered experimental. The CSS Working Group recommends that implementations use a vendor-prefixed syntax for such features, including those in W3C Working Drafts. This avoids incompatibilities with future changes in the draft.
Non-experimental implementations
Once a specification reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage, non-experimental implementations are possible, and implementors should release an unprefixed implementation of any CR-level feature they can demonstrate to be correctly implemented according to spec.
To establish and maintain the interoperability of CSS across implementations, the CSS Working Group requests that non-experimental CSS renderers submit an implementation report (and, if necessary, the testcases used for that implementation report) to the W3C before releasing an unprefixed implementation of any CSS features. Testcases submitted to W3C are subject to review and correction by the CSS Working Group.
Further information on submitting testcases and implementation reports can be found from on the CSS Working Group's website at http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/. Questions should be directed to the public-css-testsuite@w3.org mailing list.
Acknowledgments
This specification would not have been possible without the help from:
Stephen Deach, Martin Dürst, Hideki Hiura(樋浦 秀樹), Masayasu Ishikawa(石川 雅康), Chris Pratley, Takao Suzuki(鈴木 孝雄), Frank Yung-Fong Tang, Chris Thrasher, Masafumi Yabe家辺 勝文), Steve Zilles.