CSS Logical Properties Level 1

Shortname: css-logical-props
Level: 1
Status: ED
Work Status: Exploring
Group: csswg
ED: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-logical-props/
Editor: Rossen Atanassov, Microsoft, ratan@microsoft.com
Editor: Elika J. Etemad / fantasai, Invited Expert, http://fantasai.inkedblade.net/contact
Abstract: This module introduces logical properties and values that provide the author with the ability to control layout through logical, rather than physical, direction and dimension mappings. The module defines logical properties and values for the features defined in [CSS21]. These properties are writing-mode relative equivalents of their corresponding physical properties.
Ignored Terms: div, dl, dfn
Link Defaults: css21 (property) width/height/min-width/min-height/max-width/max-height

Introduction

See [[!CSS3-WRITING-MODES]] Abstract Layout for details on how to map between logical and physical terms. This mapping controls the interpretation of logical keywords and properties.

Logical Directional Values: ''block-start'', ''block-end'', ''inline-start'', ''inline-end''

Properties that accept physical directional keyword values ('top', 'bottom', 'left', or 'right') are redefined to also accept the appropriate logical directional keywords. In such cases, the logical values can be used in place of the corresponding physical values. For properties that take multiple keywords, combinations of logical and physical values are not allowed (unless otherwise specified in a future specification). Properties can be either 1-dimensional or 2-dimensional. When contextually constrained to one dimension, the logical keywords are shortened.

Logical Values for the 'caption-side' Property

    Name: caption-side
    New values: block-start | block-end | inline-start | inline-end

The 'caption-side' property is 1-dimensional in CSS2.1, but was 2-dimensional in CSS2.0, (and presumably will be 2-dimensional again in the next update to CSS tables). It therefore accepts the full set of logical directions. However, the ''inline-start'' and ''inline-end'' properties (which correspond to the behavior of the ''caption-side/left'' and ''caption-side/right'' values in CSS2.0) are only required to be supported by UAs that support ''caption-side/left'' and ''caption-side/right''.

Logical Values for the 'float' and 'clear' Properties

    Name: float, clear
    New values: inline-start | inline-end

Issue: Is this a 2-directional property? Should these just be ''start''/''end''?

Logical Values for the 'text-align' Property

    Name: text-align
    New values: start | end

These values are normatively defined in [[!CSS3TEXT]].

float needs coordination with GCPM where it defines page floats

Logical Values for the 'resize' Property

    Name: resize
    New values: block | inline

Logical Page Classifications

In CSS, all pages are classified by user agents as either left pages or right pages. [[!CSS21]] Which page is first in a spread, however, depends on whether the page progression is left-to-right or right-to-left. To allow control of page breaking to the page that is on the earlier or later side of a spread, rather than to the left or right side of a spread, this module introduces the following additional keywords for the 'page-break-after' and 'page-break-before' properties [[!CSS21]]:

recto: Equivalent to 'right' in left-to-right page progressions and 'left' in right-to-left page progressions.
verso: Equivalent to 'left' in left-to-right page progressions and 'right' in right-to-left page progressions.

These values are further defined in [[!CSS3-BREAK]]. Logical page selectors are also added to support logical page selection. Authors typically place page numbers using physical placements, but the contents of headers often follows conventions depending on which page in the spread is earlier. Following page selectors are added to support this scenario:

:recto: Equivalent to ':right' in left-to-right page progressions and ':left' in right-to-left page progressions.
:verso: Equivalent to ':left' in left-to-right page progressions and ':right' in right-to-left page progressions.

The logical page selectors have specificity equal to the ':left' and ':right' page selectors.

Logical Box Model Properties

This specification introduces new CSS properties that are logical equivalents of physical box model properties. The specified values of these properties are separate from the specified values of the parallel physical properties, but the logical and physical properties share computed values. Which pairs of properties share computed values depends on the computed values of 'writing-mode', 'text-orientation', and 'direction'. For a summary of these dependencies, see Abstract-to-Physical Mappings in [[!CSS3-WRITING-MODES]]. A computed value that has logical and physical properties is determined by applying the CSS cascade to declarations of both. Overriding is not determined by whether a declaration is logical or physical, but only by the rules of the CSS cascade [[!CSS3-CASCADE]].

Note that this requires implementations to maintain relative order of declarations within a CSS declaration block, which was not previously required for CSS cascading.

For example, given the following rule:

p {
  margin-inline-start: 1px;
  margin-left: 2px;
  margin-inline-end: 3px;
}

In a paragraph with computed 'writing-mode' being ''horizontal-tb'' and computed 'direction' being ''ltr'', the computed value of 'margin-left' is ''2px'', since for that 'writing-mode' and 'direction', 'margin-inline-start' and 'margin-left' share a computed value, and the declaration of 'margin-left' is after the declaration of 'margin-inline-start'. However, if the computed 'direction' were instead ''rtl'', the computed value of 'margin-left' is ''3px'', since 'margin-inline-end' and 'margin-left' share a computed value, and the declaration of 'margin-inline-end' is after the declaration of 'margin-left'.

How do computed value APIs, e.g., getComputedStyle() work? Can they be used with either logical or physical properties, or only with the physical ones?

Logical Height and Logical Width: the 'block-size' and 'inline-size' properties

  Name: block-size, inline-size
  Value: <<'width'>>
  Initial: auto
  Applies to: same as 'width' and 'height'
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: block-size/inline-size, respectively, of containing block
  Media: visual
  Computed value: same as 'width' and 'height'

These properties correspond to the 'width' and 'height' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode'.

  Name: min-block-size, min-inline-size
  Value: <<'min-width'>>
  Initial: 0
  Applies to: same as 'width' and 'height'
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: block-size/inline-size, respectively, of containing block
  Media: visual
  Computed value: same as 'min-width' and 'min-height'

These properties correspond to the 'min-width' and 'min-height' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode'.

  Name: max-block-size, max-inline-size
  Value: <<'max-width'>>
  Initial: none
  Applies to: same as 'width' and 'height'
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: block-size/inline-size, respectively, of containing block
  Media: visual
  Computed value: same as 'max-width' and 'max-height'

These properties correspond to the 'max-width' and 'max-height' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode'.

Logical Margins and Offsets: the margin- and offset- block-start/block-end/inline-start/inline-end properties

  Name: margin-block-start, margin-block-end, margin-inline-start, margin-inline-end
  Value: <<'margin-left'>>
  Initial: 0
  Applies to: same as 'margin'
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: depends on layout model
  Media: visual
  Computed value: the percentage as specified or the absolute length or auto (see text)

These properties correspond to the 'margin-top', 'margin-bottom', 'margin-left', and 'margin-right' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

  Name: offset-block-start, offset-block-end, offset-inline-start, offset-inline-end
  Value: <<'left'>>
  Initial: auto
  Applies to: positioned elements
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: logical-width, resp. logical-height of containing block
  Media: visual
  Computed value: same as box offsets: 'top', 'right', 'bottom', 'left' properties except that directions are logical

These properties correspond to the 'top', 'bottom', 'left', and 'right' properties. The mapping depends on the parent element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

Logical Padding and Border: the padding- and border-`*`- block-start/block-end/inline-start/inline-end properties

  Name: padding-block-start, padding-block-end, padding-inline-start, padding-inline-end
  Value: <<'padding-left'>>
  Initial: 0
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: logical-width of containing block
  Media: visual
  Computed value: length (see text)

These properties correspond to the 'padding-top', 'padding-bottom', 'padding-left', and 'padding-right' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

  Name: border-block-start-width, border-block-end-width, border-inline-start-width, border-inline-end-width
  Value: border-width
  Initial: medium
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: logical-width of containing block
  Media: visual
  Computed value: absolute length; 0 if the border style is none or hidden (see text)

These properties correspond to the 'border-top-width', 'border-bottom-width', 'border-left-width', and 'border-right-width' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

  Name: border-block-start-style, border-block-end-style, border-inline-start-style, border-inline-end-style
  Value: border-style
  Initial: none
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: specified value (see text)

These properties correspond to the 'border-top-style', 'border-bottom-style', 'border-left-style', and 'border-right-style' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

  Name: border-block-start-color, border-block-end-color, border-inline-start-color, border-inline-end-color
  Value: color
  Initial: currentcolor
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: computed color (see text)

These properties correspond to the 'border-top-color', 'border-bottom-color', 'border-left-color', and 'border-right-color' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

  Name: border-block-start, border-block-end, border-inline-start, border-inline-end
  Value: border-width || border-style || color
  Initial: (see individual properties)
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: no
  Percentages: see individual properties
  Media: visual
  Computed value: see individual properties

These properties correspond to the 'border-top', 'border-bottom', 'border-left', and 'border-right' properties. The mapping depends on the element's 'writing-mode', 'direction', and 'text-orientation'.

Shorthand Properties with logical Keyword

The shorthand properties for margin, padding, and border set values for physical properties by default. But authors can specify the logical keyword at the beginning of the property value to indicate that the values map to the logical properties instead of the physical ones.

other candidates of the keyword are: ''relative'', ''script'', ''writing-mode'', ''beas'', or the value itself (e.g., ''vertical-lr-ltr'') The following [[!CSS21]] shorthand properties accept the ''margin/logical'' keyword:

'margin'
'padding'
'border-color'
'border-style'
'border-width'

The syntax for these properties is effectively changed by replacing

<value-type>{1,4}

with

logical? <value-type>{1,4}

When the logical keyword is present in the value, the values that follow are assigned to the logical properties as follows:

If only one value is set, the value applies to all four logical sides.
If two values are set, the first is for block-start and block-end, the second is for inline-start and inline-end.
If three values are set, the first is for block-start, the second is for inline-start and inline-end, and the third is for block-end.
If four values are set, they apply to the block-start, inline-end, block-end, and inline-start sides in that order.

Should the shorthand also reset the physical properties to their initial values?

In the following example, the two rules are equivalent:

      blockquote {
        margin: logical 1em 2em 3em 4em;
      }
      blockquote {
        margin-block-start:  1em;
        margin-inline-end:   2em;
        margin-block-end:    3em;
        margin-inline-start: 4em;
      }

Logical Background and Border Images

[[!CSS3BG]] is handled separately because it can fill an area with specified images, and the area to fill can be rotated or flipped depending on the text flow.

Background Image Transform: The ''background-image-transform'' property

  Name: background-image-transform
  Value: logical | physical | rotate
  Initial: physical
  Applies to: all elements
  Inherited: yes
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: as specified

is this the right default? we need to investigate which is more common This property defines whether background images are transformed to match to the value of 'writing-mode' property, and whether 'background-size' widths and heights are logical or physical. Values have the following meanings:

logical: The values for the 'background-size' property are logical. The background images are transformed to match to the logical axis.
physical: The values for the 'background-size' property are physical. The background images remain unchanged.
rotate: Similar to ''background-image-transform/logical'', except that the inline direction is ignored. The result is affected only by the block flow direction.

The 'background-repeat' property

The ''repeat-x'' and ''repeat-y'' values are logical, but in CSS3 this property can also accept double values to specify horizontal and vertical behaviors separately. The double values are considered logical if the ''background-image-transform/logical'' keyword is specified, otherwise physical.

should also add repeat-horizontal and repeat-vertical for the physical value?

Border Image Transform: The 'border-image-transform' property

  Name: border-image-transform
  Value: logical | physical | rotate
  Initial: rotate
  Applies to: All elements, except internal table elements when 'border-collapse' is ''collapse''
  Inherited: yes
  Percentages: n/a
  Media: visual
  Computed value: as specified

is this the right initial default? This property defines whether border images are transformed to match to the value of 'writing-mode' property, with the reference writing mode being ''writing-mode: horizontal-tb; direction: ltr''. Values have the following meanings:

logical: The values for the border-image-* properties are logical. The border images are transformed to match to the logical axis.
physical: The values for the border-image-* properties are physical. The border images remain unchanged.
rotate: Similar to ''border-image-transform/logical'', except that the inline direction is ignored. The result is affected only by the block flow direction.

The following properties use the value of this property to determine how directional mappings are done:

'border-image-slice'
'border-image-width'
'border-image-outset'
'border-image-repeat'
'border-image'