csswg-drafts/css-writing-modes/Overview.src.html at fc3b89076ee6716ddf5ff864ccc59498443942f7 · w3c/csswg-drafts · GitHub

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<h1>CSS Writing Modes Level 3</h1>

<pre class='metadata'>
Shortname: css-writing-modes
Level: 3
Status: LCWD
Date: 2013-11-21
Deadline: 2013-12-24
Group: csswg
ED: http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-writing-modes-3/
TR: http://www.w3.org/TR/css-writing-modes-3/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-css3-writing-modes-20121115/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-css3-writing-modes-20120501/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-css3-writing-modes-20110901/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-css3-writing-modes-20110531/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-css3-writing-modes-20110428/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-css3-writing-modes-20110201/
Previous Version: http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-css3-writing-modes-20101202/
!Issue Tracking: <a href="http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Tracker/products/30">http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Tracker/products/30</a>
Editor: fantasai, Mozilla, http://fantasai.inkedblade.net/contact/
Editor: Koji Ishii, Invited Expert, kojiishi@gluesoft.co.jp
Former Editor: Shinyu Murakami, <a href="http://www.antenna.co.jp/">Antenna House</a>, murakami@antenna.co.jp
Former Editor: Paul Nelson, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/">Microsoft</a>, paulnel@microsoft.com
Former Editor: Michel Suignard, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/">Microsoft</a>, michelsu@microsoft.com
Test Suite: http://test.csswg.org/suites/css3-writing-modes/nightly-unstable/
Abstract: CSS Writing Modes Level 3 defines CSS support for various international writing modes, such as left-to-right (e.g. Latin or Indic), right-to-left (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic), bidirectional (e.g. mixed Latin and Arabic) and vertical (e.g. Asian scripts).
At Risk: The ''use-glyph-orientation'' of 'text-orientation'
At Risk: The ''digits'' value of 'text-combine-horizontal'.
At Risk: The look-ahead/look-behind sequencing rules for 'text-combine-horizontal'.
Ignored Terms: glyph orientation, *-left, *-right, *-top, *-bottom, block containers, text-combine-mode
Link Defaults: css21 (property) display/min-height/max-height/min-width/max-width/clip, css-text-3 (property) letter-spacing, css-text-decor-3 (property) text-decoration
</pre>

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<h2 id="text-flow">
Introduction to Writing Modes</h2>

  <p>CSS Writing Modes Level 3 defines CSS features to support for various international
    writing modes, such as left-to-right (e.g. Latin or Indic), right-to-left
    (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic), bidirectional (e.g. mixed Latin and Arabic) and
    vertical (e.g. Asian scripts).</p>

  <p>A <dfn export>writing mode</dfn> in CSS is determined by the 'writing-mode',
    'direction', and 'text-orientation' properties. It is defined primarily
    in terms of its <i>inline base direction</i> and <i>block flow direction</i>:

  <div class="sidebar">
    <div class="figure right">
      <a href="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-tb.svg">
        <img src="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-tb.png" class="landscape"
          alt="Latin-based writing mode"></a>
      <p class="caption">Latin-based writing mode
    </div>
    <div class="figure left">
      <a href="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-lr-reverse.svg">
        <img src="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-lr-reverse.png" class="landscape"
          alt="Mongolian-based writing mode"></a>
      <p class="caption">Mongolian-based writing mode
    </div>
    <div class="figure right">
      <a href="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-tb.svg">
        <img src="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-tb.png" class="landscape"
          alt="Han-based writing mode"></a>
      <a href="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-rl.svg">
        <img src="diagrams/text-flow-vectors-rl.png" class="landscape"
          alt="Han-based writing mode"></a>
      <p class="caption">Han-based writing mode
    </div>
  </div>

  <p>The <dfn export>inline base direction</dfn> is the primary direction in which
    content is ordered on a line and defines on which sides the “start”
    and “end” of a line are. The 'direction' property specifies the
    inline base direction of an element and, together with the 'unicode-bidi'
    property and the inherent directionality of any text content, determines
    the ordering of inline-level content within a line.

  <p>The <dfn export>block flow direction</dfn> is the direction in which
    block-level boxes stack  and the direction in which line boxes stack
    within a block container. The 'writing-mode' property determines the
    block flow direction.</p>

  <p>A <dfn export>horizontal writing mode</dfn> is one with horizontal lines of
    text, i.e. a downward or upward block flow.
    A <dfn export>vertical writing mode</dfn> is one with vertical lines of text,
    i.e. a leftward or rightward block flow.

  <p class="note">These terms should not be confused with
    <dfn>vertical block flow</dfn> (which is a downward or
    upward block flow) and <dfn>horizontal block flow</dfn> (which is
    leftward or rightward block flow). To avoid confusion, CSS
    specifications avoid this latter set of terms.</p>

  <p>Writing systems typically have one or two native writing modes. Some
    examples are:
  <ul>
    <li>Latin-based systems are typically written using a left-to-right inline
      direction with a downward (top-to-bottom) block flow direction.
    <li>Arabic-based systems are typically written using a right-to-left
      inline direction with a downward (top-to-bottom) block flow direction.
    <li>Mongolian-based systems are typically written using a top-to-bottom
      inline direction with a rightward (left-to-right) block flow direction.
    <li>Han-based systems are commonly written using a left-to-right inline direction
      with a downward (top-to-bottom) block flow direction, <strong>or</strong>
      a top-to-bottom inline direction with a leftward (right-to-left) block
      flow direction. Many magazines and newspapers will mix these two writing
      modes on the same page.
  </ul>

  <p>The 'text-orientation' component of the writing mode determines the
    <i>line orientation</i>, and controls
    details of text layout such as the <i>glyph orientation</i>.

  <p class="note">See Unicode Technical Note #22 [[UTN22]]
    (<a href="http://fantasai.inkedblade.net/style/discuss/vertical-text/paper">HTML version</a>)
    for a more in-depth introduction to writing modes and vertical text.

<h3 id="placement">
Module Interactions</h3>

  <p>This module replaces and extends the 'unicode-bidi' and 'direction'
  features defined in [[!CSS21]] sections 8.6 and 9.10.

<h3 id="values">
Values</h3>

  <p>This specification follows the
  <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/about.html#property-defs">CSS property
  definition conventions</a> from [[!CSS21]]. Value types not defined in
  this specification are defined in CSS Level 2 Revision 1 [[!CSS21]].
  Other CSS modules may expand the definitions of these value types: for
  example [[CSS3COLOR]], when combined with this module, expands the
  definition of the &lt;color&gt; value type as used in this specification.</p>

  <p>In addition to the property-specific values listed in their definitions,
  all properties defined in this specification also accept the
  <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/cascade.html#value-def-inherit">inherit</a>
  keyword as their property value. For readability it has not been repeated
  explicitly.


<a id="bidi" title=''></a>
<h2 id="text-direction">
Inline Direction and Bidirectionality</h2>

  <p>While the characters in most scripts are written from left to right,
    certain scripts are written from right to left. In some documents,
    in particular those written with the Arabic  or Hebrew script, and in
    some mixed-language contexts, text in a single (visually displayed)
    block may appear with mixed directionality. This phenomenon is called
    <dfn export>bidirectionality</dfn>, or "bidi" for short.</p>

  <div class="figure">
    <p><img src="diagrams/bidi.png"
            alt="An example of bidirectional text is a Latin name in an Arabic
                 sentence. The sentence overall is typeset right-to-left, but
                 the letters in the Latin word in the middle are typeset
                 left-to-right.">
    <p class="caption">Bidirectionality</p>
  </div>

  <p>The Unicode standard (<a href="http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/">Unicode Standard Annex #9</a>) defines a complex
    algorithm for determining the proper ordering of bidirectional text. The
    algorithm consists of an implicit part based on character properties,
    as well as explicit controls for embeddings and overrides. CSS relies
    on this algorithm to achieve proper bidirectional rendering.

  <p>User agents that support bidirectional text must apply the Unicode
    bidirectional algorithm to every sequence of inline-level boxes uninterrupted
    by any block boundary or
    &ldquo;<a href="http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr9/#Bidirectional_Character_Types">bidi type B</a>&rdquo;
    <dfn export>forced paragraph break</dfn>.
    This sequence forms the <dfn export title="bidi paragraph">paragraph</dfn> unit
    in the bidirectional algorithm.
    Additionally, any such sequence forming part or all of the contents of a
    <i>bidi-isolated</i> inline element also forms a <i>bidi paragraph</i>.

  <p>Two CSS properties, 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi',
    provide explicit embedding, isolation, and override controls in the CSS layer.
    Because the base directionality of a text depends on the structure and
    semantics of the document, the 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi' properties
    should in most cases be used only to map bidi information in the markup
    to its corresponding CSS styles.
    <strong>If a document language provides markup features to control
    bidi, authors and users should use those features instead</strong> and not
    specify CSS rules to override them.</p>

  <p>In general, the paragraph embedding level is set according to
    the 'direction' property of the paragraph's containing block
    rather than by the heuristic given in steps P2 and P3 of the Unicode algorithm. [[!UAX9]]
    When the computed 'unicode-bidi' of the paragraph's containing block is ''plaintext'',
    however, the Unicode heuristics (rules P2 and P3) are used instead.

  <p>The HTML specifications ([[HTML401]], section 8.2, and [[HTML5]], section 10.3.5) define
    bidirectionality behavior for HTML elements.</p>

  <p class="note">Because HTML UAs can turn off CSS styling, we advise HTML
    authors to use the HTML <code>dir</code> attribute and &lt;bdo&gt; element to
    ensure correct bidirectional layout in the absence of a style sheet.</p>

<h3 id="direction">
Specifying Directionality: the 'direction' property</h3>

  <pre class='propdef'>
  Name: direction
  Value: ltr | rtl
  Initial: ltr
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: yes
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: specified value
  Animatable: no
  Canonical order: n/a
  </pre>

  <p>This property specifies the inline base direction or directionality
    of any bidi paragraph, embedding, isolate, or override established by the element.
    (See 'unicode-bidi'.) <!-- except plaintext -->
    In addition, it informs the ordering of
    <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/tables.html">table</a> column layout,
    the direction of horizontal <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visufx.html#overflow">overflow</a>,
    and the default alignment of text within a line, and other layout effects
    that depend on the element's inline base direction.</p>

  <p>Values for this property have the following meanings:</p>

  <dl dfn-for=direction dfn-type=value>
   <dt><dfn>ltr</dfn></dt>
   <dd>Left-to-right directionality.</dd>
   <dt><dfn>rtl</dfn></dt>
   <dd>Right-to-left directionality.</dd>
  </dl>

  <p class="note">The 'direction' property has no effect on bidi reordering
    when specified on inline elements whose 'unicode-bidi' property's
    value is ''normal'', because the element does not open an additional level
    of embedding with respect to the bidirectional algorithm.</p>

  <p>The value of the 'direction' property on the root element is also
    propagated to the initial containing block and, together with the
    'writing-mode' property, determines the document's principal writing
    mode. (See <a href="#principal-writing-mode">below</a>.)

  <p class="note">Note that the 'direction' property of the HTML BODY
    element is <em>not</em> propagated to the viewport. That special
    behavior only applies to the background and overflow properties.

  <p class="note">The 'direction'
     property, when specified for table column elements, is not inherited by
     cells in the column since columns are not the ancestors of the cells in
     the document tree. Thus, CSS cannot easily capture the "dir" attribute
     inheritance rules described in [[HTML401]], section 11.3.2.1.

<h3 id="unicode-bidi">
Embeddings and Overrides: the 'unicode-bidi' property</h3>

  <pre class='propdef'>
  Name: unicode-bidi
  Value: normal | embed | isolate | bidi-override | isolate-override | plaintext
  Initial: normal
  Applies to: all elements, but see prose
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: specified value
  </pre>

  <p>Normally (i.e. when 'unicode-bidi' is ''normal'')
    an inline element is transparent to the unicode bidi algorithm;
    content is ordered as if the element's boundaries were not there.
    Other values of the 'unicode-bidi' property cause inline elements
    to create scopes within the algorithm,
    and to override the intrinsic directionality of text.

  <p>The following informative table summarizes the element-internal and
    element-external effects of 'unicode-bidi':

  <table class="data">
    <caption>Effect of non-''normal'' values of 'unicode-bidi' on inline elements</caption>
    <colgroup span=2></colgroup>
    <colgroup span=2></colgroup>
    <thead>
      <tr><th colspan=2 rowspan=2>
          <th colspan=2 scope=rowgroup><abbr title="To surrounding contents, the element behaves as if its boundary were...">Outside</abbr>
      <tr><th><abbr title="a strong character of the element's 'direction'.">strong</abbr>
          <th><abbr title="a neutral character.">neutral</abbr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr><th rowspan=3 scope=colgroup><abbr title="Within the element, content is ordered as if...">Inside</abbr>
          <th><abbr title="the element's boundaries were strong characters of the element's 'direction'.">scoped</abbr>
          <td>''embed''
          <td>''isolate''
      <tr><th><abbr title="all text consisted of strong characters of the element's 'direction'.">override</abbr>
          <td>''bidi-override''
          <td>''isolate-override''
      <tr><th><abbr title="the element were a standalone paragraph ordered using UAX9 heuristics.">plaintext</abbr>
          <td>&mdash;
          <td>''plaintext''
    </tbody>
  </table>

  <p>Values for this property have the following (normative) meanings:</p>

  <dl>
    <dt><dfn value for=unicode-bidi>normal</dfn></dt>
    <dd>The element does not open an additional level of embedding with
      respect to the bidirectional algorithm. For inline elements,
      implicit reordering works across element boundaries.</dd>
    <dt><dfn value for=unicode-bidi>embed</dfn></dt>
    <dd>If the element is inline, this value creates a <dfn export>directional embedding</dfn>
      by opening an additional level of embedding with respect to the bidirectional algorithm.
      The direction of this embedding level is given by the 'direction'
      property. Inside the element, reordering is done implicitly. This
      corresponds to adding a LRE (U+202A), for ''direction: ltr'', or RLE
      (U+202B), for ''direction: rtl'', at the start of the element and a PDF
      (U+202C) at the end of the element.
      <span class="note">This value has no effect on elements that are
      not inline.</span></dd>
    <dt><dfn value for=unicode-bidi>isolate</dfn></dt>
    <dd>On an inline element, this <dfn export id=bidi-isolate title="bidi-isolate|bidi-isolated|bidi isolation|isolation">bidi-isolates</dfn> its contents.
      This is similar to a directional embedding (and increases the embedding level accordingly)
      except that each sequence of inline-level boxes
      uninterrupted by any block boundary or <i>forced paragraph break</i>
      is treated as an <dfn>isolated sequence</dfn>:
      <ul>
        <li>the content within the sequence is ordered
          as if inside an independent paragraph
          with the base directionality specified by the element's 'direction' property.
        <li>for the purpose of bidi resolution in its containing bidi paragraph,
          the sequence is treated as if it were a single Object Replacement Character (U+FFFC).
      </ul>
      In effect, neither is the content inside the element bidi-affected
      by the content surrounding the element,
      nor is the content surrounding the element bidi-affected by the
      content or specified directionality of the element.
      However, <i>forced paragraph breaks</i> within the element still create
      a corresponding break in the containing paragraph.
      <p class="note">In Unicode 6.3 and beyond,
      this will correspond to adding an LRI (U+2066), for ''direction: ltr'',
      or RLI (U+2067), for ''direction: rtl'', at the start of the element,
      and a PDI (U+2069) at the end of the element.
      <p class="note">This value has no effect on elements that are not inline.
    <dt><dfn value for=unicode-bidi>bidi-override</dfn></dt>
    <dd>This value puts the element's immediate content in a <dfn export>directional override</dfn>.
      For an inline, this means that the element acts like a <i>directional embedding</i>
      in the bidirectional algorithm,
      except that reordering within it is strictly in sequence according to the
      'direction' property; the implicit part of the bidirectional algorithm
      is ignored. This corresponds to adding a LRO (U+202D), for ''direction: ltr'',
      or RLO (U+202E), for ''direction: rtl'', at the start of the
      element and a PDF (U+202C) at the end of the element.
      If the element is a block container,
      the override is applied to an anonymous inline element
      that surrounds all of its content.</dd>
    <dt><dfn value for=unicode-bidi>isolate-override</dfn></dt>
    <dd>This combines the <i>isolation</i> behavior of ''isolate'' with the
      <i>directional override</i> behavior of ''bidi-override'': to surrounding content,
      it is equivalent to ''isolate'', but within the element content
      is ordered as if ''bidi-override'' were specified.
    <dt><dfn value for=unicode-bidi>plaintext</dfn></dt>
    <dd><p>This value behaves as ''isolate'' except that for the purposes of
      the Unicode bidirectional algorithm, the base directionality of each
      of the element's <i>bidi paragraphs</i> (if a block container)
      or <i>isolated sequences</i> (if an inline)
      is determined by following the heuristic in rules P2 and P3
      of the Unicode bidirectional algorithm
      (rather than by using the 'direction' property of the element).
      <p class="note">In Unicode 6.3 and beyond, for inline elements
      this will correspond to adding an FSI (U+2068) at the start of the element,
      and a PDI (U+2069) at the end of the element.
  </dl>

  <p class=note>Because the 'unicode-bidi' property does not inherit,
  setting ''bidi-override'' or ''plaintext'' on a block element will
  not affect any descendant blocks. Therefore these values are best
  used on blocks and inlines that do not contain any block-level
  structures.

  <p class=note>Note that 'unicode-bidi' does not affect the 'direction'
    property even in the case of ''plaintext'', and thus does not affect
    'direction'-dependent layout calculations.

  <p>The final order of characters within each <i>bidi paragraph</i> is the
    same as if the bidi control codes had been added as described above,
    markup had been stripped, and the resulting character sequence had
    been passed to an implementation of the Unicode bidirectional
    algorithm for plain text that produced the same line-breaks as the
    styled text.

  <p>In this process, replaced elements with ''display: inline''
    are treated as neutral characters,
    unless their 'unicode-bidi' property is either ''embed'' or ''bidi-override'',
    in which case they are treated as strong characters
    in the 'direction' specified for the element.
    All other atomic inline-level boxes are treated as neutral characters
    always.</p>

  <p>If an inline element is broken around a <i>bidi paragraph</i>
    boundary (e.g. if split by a block or <i>forced paragraph break</i>), then
    the bidi control codes assigned to the end of the element
    are added before the interruption and the codes assigned to the
    start of the element are added after it. (In other words, any embedding
    levels or overrides started by the element are closed at the paragraph
    break and reopened on the other side of it.)

  <div class="example">
    <p>For example, where &lt;BR/&gt; is a <i>forced paragraph break</i>
    the bidi ordering is identical between
    <pre>&lt;para>...&lt;i1>&lt;i2>...&lt;BR/>...&lt;/i2>&lt;/i1>...&lt;/para></pre>
    <p>and
    <pre>&lt;para>...&lt;i1>&lt;i2>...&lt;/i2>&lt;i1>&lt;BR/>&lt;i1>&lt;i2>...&lt;/i2>&lt;/i1>...&lt;/para></pre>
    <p>for all values of 'unicode-bidi' on inline elements &lt;i1&gt; and &lt;i2&gt;.
  </div>

  <p class="note">
    Because the Unicode algorithm has a limit of 125 levels of embedding,
    care should be taken not to use 'unicode-bidi'
    with a value other than ''normal'' unless appropriate.
    In particular, a value of ''inherit''
    should be used with extreme caution. However, for elements that are,
    in general, intended to be displayed as blocks, a setting of
    ''unicode-bidi: isolate'' is preferred to keep the element together
    in case the 'display' is changed to ''inline''
    (see example below).</p>

<h3 id="bidi-example">
Example of Bidirectional Text</h3>

  <p>The following example shows an XML document with bidirectional
    text. It illustrates an important design principle: document language
    designers should take bidi into account both in the language proper
    (elements and attributes) and in any accompanying style sheets. The
    style sheets should be designed so that bidi rules are separate from
    other style rules, and such rules should not be overridden by other
    style sheets so that the document language's bidi behavior is preserved.</p>

  <div class="example">
    <p>In this example, lowercase letters stand for inherently left-to-right
      characters and uppercase letters represent inherently right-to-left
      characters. The text stream is shown in logical backing store order.</p>

    <pre class="xml-example"><code class="xml">
&lt;section dir=rtl&gt;
  &lt;para&gt;HEBREW1 HEBREW2 english3 HEBREW4 HEBREW5&lt;/para&gt;
  &lt;para&gt;HEBREW6 &lt;emphasis&gt;HEBREW7&lt;/emphasis&gt; HEBREW8&lt;/para&gt;
&lt;/section&gt;
&lt;section dir=ltr&gt;
  &lt;para&gt;english9 english10 english11 HEBREW12 HEBREW13&lt;/para&gt;
  &lt;para&gt;english14 english15 english16&lt;/para&gt;
  &lt;para&gt;english17 &lt;quote dir=rtl&gt;HEBREW18 english19 HEBREW20&lt;/quote&gt;&lt;/para&gt;
&lt;/section&gt;
    </code></pre>

    <p>Since this is arbitrary XML, the style sheet is responsible for
      setting the writing direction. This is the style sheet:</p>

    <pre>
/* Rules for bidi */
[dir=ltr] {direction: rtl;}
[dir=rtl] {direction: ltr;}
quote     {unicode-bidi: isolate;}

/* Rules for presentation */
section, para  {display: block;}
emphasis       {font-weight: bold;}
    </pre>

    <p>The first <code>&lt;section></code> element is a block with a right-to-left base direction,
      the second <code>&lt;section></code> element is a block with a left-to-right base direction.
      The <code>&lt;para></code>s are blocks that inherit the base direction from their parents.
      Thus, the first two <code>&lt;para></code>s are read starting at the top right,
      the final three are read starting at the top left.</p>

    <p>The <code>&lt;emphasis></code> element is inline-level,
      and since its value for 'unicode-bidi' is ''normal'' (the initial value),
      it has no effect on the ordering of the text.
      The <code>&lt;quote></code> element, on the other hand,
      creates an <i>isolated sequence</i> with the given internal directionality.

    <p>The formatting of this text might look like this if the line length
      is long:</p>

    <pre class="ascii-art">
               5WERBEH 4WERBEH english3 2WERBEH 1WERBEH

                                8WERBEH <b>7WERBEH</b> 6WERBEH

english9 english10 english11 13WERBEH 12WERBEH

english14 english15 english16

english17 20WERBEH english19 18WERBEH
    </pre>

    <p>Note that the <code>&lt;quote></code> embedding causes
      <samp>HEBREW18</samp> to be to the right of <samp>english19</samp>.

    <p>If lines have to be broken, it might be more like this:</p>

    <pre class="ascii-art">
       2WERBEH 1WERBEH
  -EH 4WERBEH english3
                 5WERB

   -EH <b>7WERBEH</b> 6WERBEH
                 8WERB

english9 english10 en-
glish11 12WERBEH
13WERBEH

english14 english15
english16

english17 18WERBEH
20WERBEH english19
    </pre>

    <p>Because <samp>HEBREW18</samp> must be read before english19,
      it is on the line above <samp>english19</samp>.
      Just breaking the long line from the earlier formatting would not have worked.
      Note also that the first syllable from <samp>english19</samp>
      might have fit on the previous line,
      but hyphenation of left-to-right words in a right-to-left context, and vice versa,
      is usually suppressed to avoid having to display a hyphen in the middle of a line.

  </div><!-- example -->

<h3 id="bidi-box-model">
Box model for inline elements in bidirectional context</h3>

  <p>Since bidi reordering can split apart and reorder text that is
    logically contiguous, bidirectional text can cause an inline box
    to be split and reordered within a line.

  <p class="note">Note that in order to be able to flow inline boxes in a
    uniform direction (either entirely left-to-right or entirely
    right-to-left), anonymous inline boxes may have to be created.</p>

<!-- CSS2.1 8.6 -->
  <p>For each line box, UAs must take the inline boxes generated for each
    element and render the margins, borders and padding in visual order
    (not logical order). The <i>start</i>-most box on the first line box
    in which the element appears has the <i>start</i> edge's margin, border,
    and padding; and the end-most box on the last line box in which the
    element appears has the <i>end</i> edge's margin, border, and padding.
    For example, in the ''horizontal-tb'' writing mode:
    <ul>
      <li>When the parent's 'direction' property is ''ltr'', the left-most
      generated box of the first line box in which the element appears
      has the left margin, left border and left padding, and the right-most
      generated box of the last line box in which the element appears has
      the right padding, right border and right margin.
      <li>When the parent's 'direction' property is ''rtl'', the right-most
      generated box of the first line box in which the element appears has
      the right padding, right border and right margin, and the left-most
      generated box of the last line box in which the element appears has
      the left margin, left border and left padding.
    </ul>
    <p>Analogous rules hold for vertical writing modes.</p>

  <p class="note">The 'box-decoration-break' property can override this
    behavior to draw box decorations on both sides of each box. [[!CSS3BG]] </p>

<h2 id="vertical-intro">
Introduction to Vertical Text</h2>

  <p><em>This subsection is non-normative.</em></p>

  <p>In addition to extensions to CSS2.1&rsquo;s support for bidirectional text,
    this module introduces the rules and properties needed to support vertical
    text layout in CSS.

  <p>Unlike languages that use the Latin script which are primarily laid out
    horizontally, Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese can be laid out
    vertically.  The Japanese example below shows the same text laid out
    horizontally and vertically. In the horizontal case, text is read
    from left to right, top to bottom. For the vertical case, the text is
    read top to bottom, right to left.
    Indentation from the left edge in the left-to-right horizontal case
    translates to indentation from the top edge in the top-to-bottom vertical
    case.

  <div class="figure">
    <p><img src="vert-horiz-comparison.png"
            alt="A comparison of horizontal and vertical Japanese shows that
                 although the lines rotate, the characters remain upright.
                 Some glyphs, however change: a period mark shifts from the
                 bottom left of its glyph box to the top right. Running
                 headers, however, may remain
                 laid out horizontally across the top of the page."></p>
    <p class="caption">Comparison of vertical and horizontal Japanese: iBunko application (iOS)</p>
  </div>

  <p class="note">For Chinese and Japanese lines are ordered either right
    to left or top to bottom, while for Mongolian and Manchu lines are
    ordered left to right.</p>

  <p>The change from horizontal to vertical writing can affect not just the
    layout, but also the typesetting. For example, the position of a punctuation
    mark within its spacing box can change from the horizontal to the
    vertical case, and in some cases alternate glyphs are used.

  <p>Vertical text that includes Latin script text or text from other scripts
    normally displayed horizontally can display that text in a number of
    ways. For example, Latin words can be rotated sideways, or each letter
    can be oriented upright:

  <div class="figure">
    <p><img src="vert-latin-layouts.png"
            alt="A dictionary definition for &#x30F4;&#x30A3;&#x30EB;&#x30B9;
                 might write the English word 'virus' rotated 90&deg; clockwise,
                 but stack the letters of the initialisms 'RNA' and 'DNA' upright."></p>
    <p class="caption">Examples of Latin in vertical Japanese: Daijirin Viewer 1.4 (iOS)
  </div>

  <p>In some special cases such as two-digit numbers in dates, text is fit
    compactly into a single vertical character box:

  <div class="figure" id="fig-mac">
    <p><img src="vert-number-layouts.png"
            alt="An excerpt from MacFan shows several possible vertical layouts
                 for numbers: the two-digit month and day are written as
                 horizontal-in-vertical blocks; the years are written with
                 each character upright; except in the English phrase
                 &ldquo;for Mac 2011&rdquo;, where the date is rotated to
                 match the rotated Latin."></p>
    <p class="caption">Mac Fan, December 2010, p.49</p>
  </div>

  <p>Layouts often involve a mixture of vertical and horizontal elements:

  <div class="figure">
    <p><img src="vert-horiz-combination.png"
            alt="Magazines often mix horizontal and vertical layout; for
                 example, using one orientation for the main article text
                 and a different one for sidebar or illustrative content."></p>
    <p class="caption">Mixture of vertical and horizontal elements</p>
  </div>

  <p>Vertical text layouts also need to handle bidirectional text layout;
    clockwise-rotated Arabic, for example, is laid out bottom-to-top.


<h3 id="writing-mode">
Block Flow Direction: the 'writing-mode' property</h3>

  <pre class='propdef'>
  Name: writing-mode
  Value: horizontal-tb | vertical-rl | vertical-lr
  Initial: horizontal-tb
  Applies to: All elements except table row groups, table column groups, table rows, and table columns
  Inherited: yes
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: specified value
  Animatable: no
  Canonical order: n/a
  </pre>

  <p>This property specifies whether lines of text are laid out horizontally
    or vertically and the direction in which blocks progress. Possible
    values:</p>

  <dl dfn-for=writing-mode dfn-type=value>
    <dt><dfn>horizontal-tb</dfn></dt>
    <dd>Top-to-bottom <i>block flow direction</i>.
        The <i>writing mode</i> is horizontal.</dd>
    <dt><dfn>vertical-rl</dfn></dt>
    <dd>Right-to-left <i>block flow direction</i>.
        The <i>writing mode</i> is vertical.</dd>
    <dt><dfn>vertical-lr</dfn></dt>
    <dd>Left-to-right <i>block flow direction</i>.
        The <i>writing mode</i> is vertical.</dd>
  </dl>

  <p>The 'writing-mode' property specifies the <i>block flow direction</i>,
    which determines the progression of block-level boxes in a block formatting
    context; the progression of line boxes in a block container that contains
    inlines; the progression of rows in a table; etc. By virtue of determining
    the stacking direction of line boxes, the 'writing-mode' property also
    determines whether the line boxes' orientation (and thus the <i>writing mode</i>)
    is horizontal or vertical. The 'text-orientation' property then determines
    how text is laid out within the line box.

  <p>The <dfn export id="principal-writing-mode">principal writing mode</dfn> of the
    document is determined by the 'writing-mode' and 'direction' values
    specified on the root element. This writing mode is used, for example,
    to determine the default page progression direction. (See [[CSS3PAGE]].)
    Like 'direction', the 'writing-mode' value of the root element is also
    propagated to the initial containing block and sets the block flow
    direction of the initial block formatting context.

  <p class="note">Note that the 'writing-mode' property of the HTML BODY
    element is <em>not</em> propagated to the viewport. That special
    behavior only applies to the background and overflow properties.

  <p>If an element has a different block flow direction than its containing
    block:
  <ul>
   <li>If the element has a specified 'display' of ''inline'', its 'display'
     computes to ''inline-block''. [[!CSS21]]
   <li>If the element has a specified 'display' of ''run-in'', its 'display'
     computes to ''block''. [[!CSS21]]
   <li>If the element is a block container, then it establishes a new block
     formatting context.
  </ul>

  <p>The content of replaced elements do not rotate due to the writing mode:
    images, for example, remain upright. However replaced content
    involving text (such as MathML content or form elements) should match
    the replaced element's writing mode and line orientation if the UA
    supports such a vertical writing mode for the replaced content.

  <div class="example">
    <p>In the following example, two block elements (1 and 3) separated
      by an image (2) are presented in various flow writing modes.</p>

    <p>Here is a diagram of horizontal writing mode (<code>writing-mode: horizontal-tb</code>):</p>

    <p><img alt="Diagram of horizontal layout: blocks 1, 2, and 3 are stacked top-to-bottom"
            src="horizontal.png" width="219" height="300" ></p>

    <p>Here is a diagram for the right-to-left vertical writing mode commonly
      used in East Asia (<code>writing-mode: vertical-rl</code>):</p>

    <p><img alt="Diagram of a right-to-left vertical layout: blocks 1, 2,
                  and 3 are arranged side by side from right to left"
              src="vertical-rl.png" height="191" width="297" ></p>

    <p>And finally, here is a diagram for the left-to-right vertical
      writing mode used for Manchu and Mongolian (<code>writing-mode: vertical-lr</code>):</p>

    <p><img alt="Diagram of left-to-right vertical layout: blocks 1, 2,
                  and 3 are arranged side by side from left to right"
            src="vertical-lr.png" height="191" width="300" ></p>
  </div>

  <div class="example">
    <p>In the following example, some form controls are rendered inside
      a block with ''vertical-rl'' writing mode. The form controls are
      rendered to match the writing mode.
    <pre>
<!-- -->&lt;style>
<!-- -->  form { writing-mode: vertical-rl; }
<!-- -->&lt;/style>
<!-- -->...
<!-- -->&lt;form>
<!-- -->&lt;p>&lt;label>姓名&#x3000;&lt;input value="艾俐俐">&lt;/label>
<!-- -->&lt;p>&lt;label>语文&#x3000;&lt;select>&lt;option>English
<!-- -->                       &lt;option>français
<!-- -->                       &lt;option>فارسی
<!-- -->                       &lt;option>中文
<!-- -->                       &lt;option>日本語&lt;/select>&lt;/label>
<!-- -->&lt;/form></pre>

    <p><img alt="Screenshot of vertical layout: the input element is
                laid lengthwise from top to bottom and its contents
                rendered in a vertical writing mode, matching the
                labels outside it. The drop-down selection control
                after it slides out to the side (towards the after
                edge of the block) rather than downward as it would
                in horizontal writing modes."
            src="vertical-form.png"></p>
  </div>

  <div class="example">
    <p>In this example, 'writing-mode' sets the list markers upright
      using the ''::marker'' pseudo-element. Vertical alignment ensures
      that longer numbers will still align with the right of the first
      line of text. [[CSS3LIST]]
    <pre>::marker { writing-mode: horizontal-tb;
<!-- -->            vertical-align: text-top;
<!-- -->            color: blue; }</pre>
    <div class="figure">
      <p><img alt="Diagram showing list markers of '1.', '2.', '3.' sitting
                   upright atop sideways vertical Latin list item text."
              class="example" src="vertical-horizontal-list-markers.png">
      <p class="caption">Example of horizontal list markers in a vertical list</p>
    </div>
  </div>

<h4 id="svg-writing-mode">
SVG1.1 'writing-mode' Values</h4>

  <p>SVG1.1 [[!SVG11]] defines some additional values: ''lr'',
    ''lr-tb'', ''rl'', ''rl-tb'', ''tb'', and ''tb-rl''.

  <p>These values are <em>deprecated</em> in any context except SVG1 documents.
    Implementations that wish to support these values in the context of CSS
    must treat them as follows:

  <table class="data">
    <thead>
      <tr><th>SVG1/Obsolete</th> <th>CSS</th></tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr><td>''lr''</td> <td rowspan=3>''horizontal-tb''</td></tr>
      <tr><td>''lr-tb''</td></tr>
      <tr><td>''rl''</td></tr>
      <tr><td>''tb''</td> <td rowspan=2>''vertical-rl''</td></tr>
      <tr><td>''tb-rl''</td></tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>

  <p class="note">The SVG1.1 values were also present in an older revision
    of the CSS 'writing-mode' specification, which is obsoleted by this
    specification. The additional ''tb-lr'' value of that revision is
    replaced by ''vertical-lr''.

  <p>In SVG1.1, these values set the <dfn>inline progression direction</dfn>,
    in other words, the direction the current text position
    advances each time a glyph is added. This is a geometric process that
    happens <em>after</em> bidi reordering, and thus has no effect on the
    interpretation of the 'direction' property (which is independent of
    'writing-mode'). (See <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/text.html#RelationshipWithBiDirectionality">Relationship
    with bidirectionality</a>. [[!SVG11]])
  <p class="note">There are varying interpretations
    on whether this process causes "writing-mode: rl" to merely shift the
    text string or reverse the order of all glyphs in the text.</p>

<h2 id="inline-alignment">
Inline-level Alignment</h2>

  <p>When different kinds of inline-level content are placed together on a
    line, the baselines of the content and the settings of the 'vertical-align'
    property control how they are aligned in the transverse direction of the
    line box. This section discusses what baselines are, how to find them,
    and how they are used together with the 'vertical-align' property to
    determine the alignment of inline-level content.

<h3 id="intro-baselines">
Introduction to Baselines</h3>

  <p><em>This section is non-normative.</em></p>

  <p>A <dfn>baseline</dfn> is a line along the <i>inline axis</i> of a line box
    along which individual glyphs of text are aligned. Baselines guide the
    design of glyphs in a font (for example, the bottom of most alphabetic
    glyphs typically align with the alphabetic baseline), and they guide
    the alignment of glyphs from different fonts or font sizes when typesetting.

  <div class="figure">
    [Picture of alphabetic text in two font sizes with the baseline and
     emboxes indicated.]
  </div>

  <p>Different writing systems prefer different baseline tables.</p>

  <div class="figure">
    <p><img alt="Latin prefers the alphabetic baseline, on top of which most
                 letters rest, though some have descenders that dangle below it.
                 Indic scripts are sometimes typeset with a hanging baseline,
                 since their glyph shapes appear to be hanging from a
                 horizontal line.
                 Han-based systems, whose glyphs are designed to fill a square,
                 tend to align on their bottoms."
            src="script-preferred-baselines.gif"></p>
    <p class="caption">Preferred baselines in various writing systems</p>
  </div>

  <p>A well-constructed font contains a <dfn>baseline table</dfn>, which
    indicates the position of one or more baselines within the font's
    design coordinate space. (The design coordinate space is scaled with
    the font size.)

  <div class="figure">
    <p><img alt=""
            src="baselines.gif"></p>
    <p class="caption">In a well-designed mixed-script font, the glyphs are
    positioned in the coordinate space to harmonize with one another
    when typeset together. The baseline table is then constructed to
    match the shape of the glyphs, each baseline positioned to match
    the glyphs from its preferred scripts.</p>
  </div>

  <p>The baseline table is a property of the font, and the positions
    of the various baselines apply to all glyphs in the font.

  <p>Different baseline tables can be provided for alignment in
    horizontal and vertical text. UAs should use the vertical
    tables in vertical writing modes and the horizontal tables
    otherwise.

<h3 id="text-baselines">
Text Baselines</h3>

  <p>In this specification, only the following baselines are considered:

  <dl>
    <dt>alphabetic</dt>
    <dd>The <dfn>alphabetic baseline</dfn>, which typically aligns with the
      bottom of uppercase Latin glyphs.

    </dd>
    <dt>central</dt>
    <dd>The <dfn>central baseline</dfn>, which typically crosses the center
      of the em box. If the font is missing this baseline,
      it is assumed to be halfway between the ascender (<i>over</i>)
      and descender (<i>under</i>) edges of the em box.
    </dd>
  </dl>

  <p>In vertical writing mode, the <i>central baseline</i> is used as the
    dominant baseline when 'text-orientation' is ''mixed'' or ''upright''.
    Otherwise the <i>alphabetic baseline</i> is used.

  <p class="note">A future CSS module will deal with baselines in more
    detail and allow the choice of other dominant baselines and alignment
    options.</p>

<h3 id="replaced-baselines">
Atomic Inline Baselines</h3>

  <p>If an <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/visuren.html#inline-boxes">atomic
    inline</a> (such as an inline-block, inline-table, or replaced inline element)
    is not capable of providing its own baseline information, then the
    UA synthesizes a baseline table thus:

  <dl>
    <dt>alphabetic</dt>
    <dd>The alphabetic baseline is assumed to be at the <i>under</i>-margin edge.</dd>
    <dt>central</dt>
    <dd>The central baseline is assumed to be halfway between the
    <i>under</i>- and <i>over</i>-margin edges of the box.
  </dl>

<h3 id="baseline-alignment">
Baseline Alignment</h3>

  <p>The <dfn>dominant baseline</dfn>
    (which <a href="#text-baselines">can change</a> based on the writing mode)
    is used in CSS for alignment in two cases:
  <ul>
    <li><strong>Aligning glyphs from different fonts within the same inline box.</strong>
      The glyphs are aligned by matching up the positions of the dominant
      baseline in their corresponding fonts.
    <li><strong>Aligning a child inline-level box within its parent.</strong>
      For the 'vertical-align' value of ''baseline'', child is aligned to
      the parent by matching the parent's dominant baseline to the same
      baseline in the child. (E.g. if the parent's dominant baseline is
      alphabetic, then the child's alphabetic baseline is matched to the
      parent's alphabetic baseline, even if the child's dominant baseline
      is something else.)
      For values of ''sub'', ''super'', ''&lt;length&gt;'', and
      ''&lt;percentage&gt;'', the baselines are aligned as for ''baseline'',
      but the child is shifted according to the offset given by its
      'vertical-align' value.
      <div class="example">
        <p>Given following sample markup:
        <pre>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span class="outer"&gt;Ap &lt;span class="inner"&gt;<i title=''>ji</i>&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</pre>
        <p>And the following style rule:
        <pre>span.inner { font-size: .75em; }</pre>
        <p>The baseline tables of the parent (<code>.outer</code>) and the child
          (<code>.inner</code>) will not match up due to the font size difference.
          Since the dominant baseline is the alphabetic baseline, the child box
          is aligned to its parent by matching up their alphabetic baselines.
        <div class="figure">
          <p><img alt="" src="baseline-align-sizes.gif">
        </div>
      </div>

    <div class="example">
      <p>If we assign ''vertical-align: super'' to the <code>.inner</code>
        element from the example above, the same rules are used to align
        the <code>.inner</code> child to its parent; the only difference
        is in addition to the baseline alignment, the child is shifted to
        the superscript position.
      <pre>span.inner { vertical-align: super; font-size: .75em; }</pre>
      <div class="figure">
        <p><img alt="In this example, the resulting alignment is equivalent
                     to shifting the parent baseline table upwards by the
                     superscript offset, and then aligning the child's
                     alphabetic baseline to the shifted position of the
                     parent's alphabetic baseline."
                src="baseline-align-super.gif">
      </div>
    </div>
  </ul>

<h2 id="intro-text-layout">