CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 (CSS3 UI)

1. Introduction

This module describes CSS properties which enable authors to style user interface related properties and values.

Section 2.1 of CSS1 [CSS1] and Chapter 18 of CSS2 [CSS21] introduced several user interface related properties and values. User Interface for CSS3 (16 February 2000) introduced several new user interface related features.

This Working Draft incorporates, extends, and supersedes them.

1.1. Purpose

The purpose of this specification is to achieve the following objectives:

• Extend the user interface features in CSS2.1.
• Provide additional CSS mechanisms to augment or replace other dynamic presentation related features in HTML.
• Introduce directional navigation properties to assist in the construction of user interfaces which make use of a directional navigation model.

2. Module Interactions

This document defines new features not present in earlier specifications. In addition, it replaces and supersedes the following:

• Section 18.1, section 18.4, and Information on the stacking of outlines defined in Appendix E of Cascading Style Sheets, level 2, revision 1 [CSS21]
• User Interface for CSS3 (16 February 2000) [CSSUI]

3. Box Model addition

3.1. Changing the Box Model: the box-sizing property

content-box

This is the behavior of width and height as specified by CSS2.1. The specified width and height (and respective min/max properties) apply to the width and height respectively of the content box of the element. The padding and border of the element are laid out and drawn outside the specified width and height.

border-box

Length and percentages values for width and height (and respective min/max properties) on this element determine the border box of the element. That is, any padding or border specified on the element is laid out and drawn inside this specified width and height. The content width and height are calculated by subtracting the border and padding widths of the respective sides from the specified width and height properties. As the content width and height cannot be negative ([CSS21], section 10.2), this computation is floored at 0. Used values, as exposed for instance through getComputedStyle(), also refer to the border box.

Note: This is the behavior of width and height as commonly implemented by legacy HTML user agents for replaced elements and input elements.

Note: In contrast to the length and percentage values, the auto value of the width and height properties (as well as other keyword values introduced by later specifications, unless otherwise specified) is not influenced by the box-sizing property, and always sets the size of the content box.

The following terms, whose definitions vary based on the computed value of box-sizing are introduced:

The Visual formatting model details of [CSS21] are written assuming box-sizing: content-box. The following disambiguations are made to clarify the behavior for all values of box-sizing:

1. In 10.3.3, the second width in the following phrase is to be interpreted as content width: If width is not auto and border-left-width + padding-left + width + [...]
2. In 10.3.7, width is to be interpreted as content width in the following equation: left + margin-left + border-left-width + padding-left + width + [...]
3. In 10.4, width, height, min-width, max-width, min-height and max-height are respectively to be interpreted as content width, content height, min inner width, max inner width, min inner height and max inner height in the following phrases:
   1. The tentative used width is calculated [...]
   2. If the tentative used width is greater than max-width, the rules above are applied again, but this time using the computed value of max-width as the computed value for width.
   3. If the resulting width is smaller than min-width, the rules above are applied again, but this time using the value of min-width as the computed value for width.
   4. Select from the table the resolved height and width values for the appropriate constraint violation. Take the max-width and max-height as max(min, max) so that min ≤ max holds true. In this table w and h stand for the results of the width and height computations [...]
   5. All instances of these words in the table
   6. Then apply the rules under "Calculating widths and margins" above, as if width were computed as this value.
4. In 10.6.4, height is to be interpreted as content height in the following equation: top + margin-top + border-top-width + padding-top + height + [...]
5. In 10.7, width, height, min-height and max-height are respectively to be interpreted as content width, content height, min inner height and max inner height in the following phrases:
   1. The tentative used height is calculated [...]
   2. If this tentative height is greater than max-height, the rules above are applied again, but this time using the value of max-height as the computed value for height.
   3. If the resulting height is smaller than min-height, the rules above are applied again, but this time using the value of min-height as the computed value for height.
   4. [...] use the algorithm under Minimum and maximum widths above to find the used width and height. Then apply the rules under "Computing heights and margins" above, using the resulting width and height as if they were the computed values.

div.container {
  width:38em;
  border:1em solid black;
}

div.split {
  box-sizing:border-box;
  width:50%;
  border:1em silver ridge;
  float:left;
}

<div class="container">
<div class="split">This div occupies the left half.</div>
<div class="split">This div occupies the right half.</div>
</div>

4. Outline properties

At times, style sheet authors may want to create outlines around visual objects such as buttons, active form fields, image maps, etc., to make them stand out. Outlines differ from borders in the following ways:

1. Outlines do not take up space.
2. Outlines may be non-rectangular.
3. UAs often render outlines on elements in the :focus state.

The outline properties control the style of these dynamic outlines.

The stacking of the rendering of these outlines is explicitly left up to implementations to provide a better user experience per platform. This supersedes the stacking of outlines as defined in Appendix E of CSS 2.1 [CSS21].

Keyboard users, in particular people with disabilities who may not be able to interact with the page in any other fashion, depend on the outline being visible on elements in the :focus state, thus authors must not make the outline invisible on such elements without making sure an alternative highlighting mechanism is provided.

The rendering of applying transforms to outlines is left explicitly undefined in CSS3-UI.

4.1. Outlines Shorthand: the outline property

4.2. Outline Thickness: the outline-width property

4.3. Outline Patterns: the outline-style property

4.4. Outline Colors: the outline-color property

The outline created with the outline properties is drawn "over" a box, i.e., the outline is always on top, and doesn’t influence the position or size of the box, or of any other boxes. Therefore, displaying or suppressing outlines does not cause reflow.

Outlines may be non-rectangular. For example, if the element is broken across several lines, the outline should be an outline or minimum set of outlines that encloses all the element’s boxes.

Each part of the outline should be fully connected rather than open on some sides (as borders on inline elements are when lines are broken).

The parts of the outline are not required to be rectangular. To the extent that the outline follows the border edge, it should follow the border-radius curve.

The position of the outline may be affected by descendant boxes.

User agents should use an algorithm for determining the outline that encloses a region appropriate for conveying the concept of focus to the user.

Note: This specification does not define the exact position or shape of the outline, but it is typically drawn immediately outside the border box.

The outline-width property accepts the same values as border-width (CSS Backgrounds 3 §4.3 Line Thickness: the ‘border-width’ properties).

The outline-style property accepts the same values as border-style (CSS Backgrounds 3 §4.2 Line Patterns: the ‘border-style’ properties), except that hidden is not a legal outline style. In addition, in CSS3, outline-style accepts the value auto. The auto value permits the user agent to render a custom outline style, typically a style which is either a user interface default for the platform, or perhaps a style that is richer than can be described in detail in CSS, e.g. a rounded edge outline with semi-translucent outer pixels that appears to glow. As such, this specification does not define how the outline-color is incorporated or used (if at all) when rendering auto style outlines. User agents may treat auto as solid.

The outline-color property accepts all colors, as well as the keyword invert. Invert is expected to perform a color inversion on the pixels on the screen. This is a common trick to ensure the focus border is visible, regardless of color background.

Conformant UAs may ignore the invert value on platforms that do not support color inversion of the pixels on the screen.

If the UA does not support the invert value then it must reject that value at parse-time, and the initial value of the outline-color property is the currentColor keyword.

The outline property is a shorthand property, and sets all three of outline-style, outline-width, and outline-color.

Note: The outline is the same on all sides. In contrast to borders, there are no outline-top or outline-left etc. properties.

This specification does not define how multiple overlapping outlines are drawn, or how outlines are drawn for boxes that are partially obscured behind other elements.

button { outline: thick solid }

Graphical user interfaces may use outlines around elements to tell the user which element on the page has the focus. These outlines are in addition to any borders, and switching outlines on and off should not cause the document to reflow. The focus is the subject of user interaction in a document (e.g. for entering text or selecting a button).

:focus  { outline: thick solid black }
:active { outline: thick solid red }

Note: Since the outline does not affect formatting (i.e., no space is left for it in the box model), it may well overlap other elements on the page.

4.5. Offsetting the Outline: the outline-offset property

By default, the outline is drawn starting just outside the border edge. However, it is possible to offset the outline and draw it beyond the border edge.

If the computed value of outline-offset is anything other than 0, then the outline is outset from the border edge by that amount.

:focus,:active  { outline-offset: 2px }

Negative values must cause the outline to shrink into the border box. Both the height and the width of outside of the shape drawn by the outline should not become smaller than twice the computed value of the outline-width property, to make sure that an outline can be rendered even with large negative values. User Agents should apply this constraint independently in each dimension. If the outline is drawn as multiple disconnected shapes, this constraint applies to each shape separately.

5. Resizing & Overflow

CSS2.1 provides a mechanism for controlling the appearance of a scrolling mechanism (e.g. scrollbars) on block container elements. This specification adds to that a mechanism for controlling user resizability of elements as well as the ability to specify text overflow behavior.

5.1. Resizing Boxes: the resize property

The resize property allows the author to specify whether or not an element is resizable by the user, and if so, along which axis/axes.

none

The UA does not present a resizing mechanism on the element, and the user is given no direct manipulation mechanism to resize the element.

both

The UA presents a bidirectional resizing mechanism to allow the user to adjust both the height and the width of the element.

horizontal

The UA presents a unidirectional horizontal resizing mechanism to allow the user to adjust only the width of the element.

vertical

The UA presents a unidirectional vertical resizing mechanism to allow the user to adjust only the height of the element.

Currently it is possible to control the appearance of the scrolling mechanism (if any) on an element using the overflow property (e.g. overflow: scroll vs. overflow: hidden etc.). The purpose of the resize property is to allow control over the appearance and function of the resizing mechanism (e.g. a resize box or widget) on the element.

Note: The resizing mechanism is NOT the same as the scrolling mechanism. The scrolling mechanism allows the user to determine which portion of the contents of an element is shown. The resizing mechanism allows the user to determine the size of the element.

The resize property applies to elements whose computed overflow value is something other than visible. UAs may also apply it, regardless of the value of the overflow property, to:

• Replaced elements representing images or videos, such as img, video, picture, svg, object, or canvas.
• The iframe element.

The effect of the resize property on generated content is undefined. Implementations should not apply the resize property to generated content.

Note: the resize property may apply to generated content in the future if there is implementation of Interface CSSPseudoElement.

When an element is resized by the user, the user agent sets the width and height properties to px unit length values of the size indicated by the user, in the element’s style attribute DOM, replacing existing property declaration(s), if any, without !important, if any.

If an element is resized in only one dimension, only the corresponding property is set, not both.

The precise direction of resizing (i.e. altering the top left of the element or altering the bottom right) may depend on a number of CSS layout factors including whether the element is absolutely positioned, whether it is positioned using the right and bottom properties, whether the language of the element is right-to-left etc. The UA should consider the direction of resizing (as determined by CSS layout), as well as platform conventions and constraints when deciding how to convey the resizing mechanism to the user.

The user agent must allow the user to resize the element with no other constraints than what is imposed by min-width, max-width, min-height, and max-height. (The "must" is at risk since only Firefox currently supports this, and may be downgraded to a "should".)

Note: There may be situations where user attempts to resize an element appear to be overriden or ignored, e.g. because of !important cascading declarations that supersede that element’s style attribute width and height properties in the DOM.

Changes to the computed value of an element’s resize property do not reset changes to the style attribute made due to user resizing of that element.

iframe,object[type^="text/"],
object[type$="+xml"],object[type="application/xml"]
{
  overflow:auto;
  resize:both;
}

5.2. Overflow Ellipsis: the text-overflow property

This property specifies rendering when inline content overflows its end line box edge in the inline progression direction of its block container element ("the block") that has overflow other than visible.

Text can overflow for example when it is prevented from wrapping (e.g. due to white-space: nowrap or a single word is too long to fit). Values have the following meanings:

clip

Clip inline content that overflows its block container element. Characters may be only partially rendered.

ellipsis

Render an ellipsis character (U+2026) to represent clipped inline content. Implementations may substitute a more language, script, or writing-mode appropriate ellipsis character, or three dots "..." if the ellipsis character is unavailable.

The term "character" is used in this property definition for better readability and means "grapheme cluster" [UAX29] for implementation purposes.

For the ellipsis value implementations must hide characters and atomic inline-level elements at the end edge of the line as necessary to fit the ellipsis, and place the ellipsis immediately adjacent to then end edge of the remaining inline content. The first character or atomic inline-level element on a line must be clipped rather than ellipsed.

ellipsing details

• Ellipsing only affects rendering and must not affect layout nor dispatching of pointer events.
• The ellipsis is styled and baseline-aligned according to the block.
• Ellipsing occurs after relative positioning and other graphical transformations.
• If there is insufficient space for the ellipsis, then clip the rendering of the ellipsis itself (on the same side that neutral characters on the line would have otherwise been clipped with the text-overflow:clip value).

user interaction with ellipsis

• When the user is interacting with content (e.g. editing, selecting, scrolling), the user agent may treat text-overflow: ellipsis as text-overflow: clip.
• Selecting the ellipsis should select the ellipsed text. If all of the ellipsed text is selected, UAs should show selection of the ellipsis. Behavior of partially-selected ellipsed text is up to the UA.

div {  font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height:1.1;
  width:3.1em; padding:.2em; border:solid .1em black; margin:1em 0;
}

<div>
CSS IS AWESOME, YES
</div>

<div style="text-overflow:clip; overflow:hidden">
CSS IS AWESOME, YES
</div>

<div style="text-overflow:ellipsis; overflow:hidden">
CSS IS AWESOME, YES
</div>

<div style="text-overflow:ellipsis; overflow:hidden">
NESTED
 <p>PARAGRAPH</p>
WON’T ELLIPSE.
</div>

Note: the side of the line that the ellipsis is placed depends on the direction of the block. E.g. an overflow hidden right-to-left (direction: rtl) block clips inline content on the left side, thus would place a text-overflow ellipsis on the left to represent that clipped content.

ellipsis interaction with scrolling interfaces

This section applies to elements with text-overflow other than text-overflow:clip (non-clip text-overflow) and overflow:scroll.

When an element with non-clip text-overflow has overflow of scroll in the inline progression dimension of the text, and the browser provides a mechanism for scrolling (e.g. a scrollbar on the element, or a touch interface to swipe-scroll, etc.), there are additional implementation details that provide a better user experience:

When an element is scrolled (e.g. by the user, DOM manipulation), more of the element’s content is shown. The value of text-overflow should not affect whether more of the element’s content is shown or not. If a non-clip text-overflow is set, then as more content is scrolled into view, implementations should show whatever additional content fits, only truncating content which would otherwise be clipped (or is necessary to make room for the ellipsis/string), until the element is scrolled far enough to display the edge of the content at which point that content should be displayed rather than an ellipsis/string.

div.crawlbar {
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
  height: 2em;
  overflow: scroll;
  white-space: nowrap;
  width: 15em;
  border:1em solid black;
}

<div class="crawlbar">
CSS is awesome, especially when you can scroll
to see extra text instead of just
having it overlap other text by default.
</div>

While the content is being scrolled, implementations may adjust their rendering of ellipses (e.g. align to the box edge rather than line edge).

6. Pointing Devices and Keyboards

6.1. Pointer interaction

6.1.1. Styling the Cursor: the cursor property

This property specifies the type of cursor to be displayed for the pointing device when the cursor’s hotspot is within the element’s border edge.

Note: As per CSS Backgrounds 3 §5.1 Curve Radii: the ‘border-radius’ properties, the border edge is affected by border-radius.

In the case of overlapping elements, which element determines the type of cursor is based on hit testing: the element determining the cursor is the one that would receive a click initiated from this position.

Note: The specifics of hit testing are out of scope of this specification. Hit testing will hopefully be defined in a future revision of CSS or HTML.

User agents may ignore the cursor property over native user-agent controls such as scrollbars, resizers, or other native UI widgets e.g. those that may be used inside some user agent specific implementations of form elements.

Values have the following meanings:

image cursors

<url>

The user agent retrieves the cursor from the resource designated by the URI. If the user agent cannot handle the first cursor of a list of cursors, it must attempt to handle the second, etc. If the user agent cannot handle any user-defined cursor, it must use the cursor keyword at the end of the list. Conforming User Agents may, instead of <url>, support <image> which is a superset.

The UA must support the following image file formats:

• PNG, as defined in [PNG]
• SVG, as defined in [SVG11], in secure static mode [SVG-INTEGRATION]
• any other non-animated image file format that they support for <image> in other properties, such as the the background-image property

In addition, the UA should support the following image file formats:

• SVG, as defined in [SVG11], in secure animated mode [SVG-INTEGRATION]
• any other animated image file format that they support for <image> in other properties, such as the the background-image property

The UA may also support additional file formats.

Note: At the time of writing this specification (spring 2015), the only file formats supported for cursors in common desktop browsers are the .ico and .cur file formats, as designed by Microsoft. For compatibility with legacy content, UAs are encouraged to support these, even though the lack of an open specification makes it impossible to have a normative requirement about these formats. Some information on these formats can be found on Wikipedia.

The default object size for cursor images is a UA-defined size that should be based on the size of a typical cursor on the UA’s operating system.

The concrete object size is determined using the default sizing algorithm. If an operating system is incapable of rendering a cursor above a given size, cursors larger than that size must be shrunk to within the OS-supported size bounds, while maintaining the cursor image’s intrinsic ratio, if any.

The optional <x> and <y> coordinates identify the exact position within the image which is the pointer position (i.e., the hotspot).

<x>

<y>

Each is a <number>. The x-coordinate and y-coordinate of the position in the cursor’s coordinate system (left/top relative) which represents the precise position that is being pointed to.

Note: This specification does not define how the coordinate systems of the various types of <image> are established, and defers these definitions to [CSS4-IMAGES].

If the values are unspecified, then the intrinsic hotspot defined inside the image resource itself is used. If both the values are unspecific and the referenced cursor has no defined hotspot, the effect is as if a value of "0 0" were specified.

If the coordinates of the hotspot, as specified either inside the image resource or by <x> and <y> values, fall outside of the cursor image, they must be clamped (independently) to fit.

general purpose cursors

auto

The UA determines the cursor to display based on the current context, specifically: auto behaves as text over text, and default otherwise.

default

The platform-dependent default cursor. Often rendered as an arrow.

none

No cursor is rendered for the element.

links and status cursors

context-menu

A context menu is available for the object under the cursor. Often rendered as an arrow with a small menu-like graphic next to it.

help

Help is available for the object under the cursor. Often rendered as a question mark or a balloon.

pointer

The cursor is a pointer that indicates a link.

progress

A progress indicator. The program is performing some processing, but is different from wait in that the user may still interact with the program. Often rendered as a spinning beach ball, or an arrow with a watch or hourglass.

wait

Indicates that the program is busy and the user should wait. Often rendered as a watch or hourglass.

selection cursors

cell

Indicates that a cell or set of cells may be selected. Often rendered as a thick plus-sign with a dot in the middle.

crosshair

A simple crosshair (e.g., short line segments resembling a "+" sign). Often used to indicate a two dimensional bitmap selection mode.

text

Indicates text that may be selected. Often rendered as a vertical I-beam. User agents may automatically display a horizontal I-beam/cursor (e.g. same as the vertical-text keyword) for vertical text, or for that matter, any angle of I-beam/cursor for text that is rendered at any particular angle.

vertical-text

Indicates vertical-text that may be selected. Often rendered as a horizontal I-beam.

drag and drop cursors

alias

Indicates an alias of/shortcut to something is to be created. Often rendered as an arrow with a small curved arrow next to it.

copy

Indicates something is to be copied. Often rendered as an arrow with a small plus sign next to it.

move

Indicates something is to be moved.

no-drop

Indicates that the dragged item cannot be dropped at the current cursor location. Often rendered as a hand or pointer with a small circle with a line through it.

not-allowed

Indicates that the requested action will not be carried out. Often rendered as a circle with a line through it.

grab

Indicates that something can be grabbed (dragged to be moved). Often rendered as the backside of an open hand.

grabbing

Indicates that something is being grabbed (dragged to be moved). Often rendered as the backside of a hand with fingers closed mostly out of view.

resizing and scrolling cursors

e-resize, n-resize, ne-resize, nw-resize, s-resize, se-resize, sw-resize, w-resize

Indicates that some edge is to be moved. For example, the se-resize cursor is used when the movement starts from the south-east corner of the box.

ew-resize, ns-resize, nesw-resize, nwse-resize

Indicates a bidirectional resize cursor.

col-resize

Indicates that the item/column can be resized horizontally. Often rendered as arrows pointing left and right with a vertical bar separating them.

row-resize

Indicates that the item/row can be resized vertically. Often rendered as arrows pointing up and down with a horizontal bar separating them.

all-scroll

Indicates that the something can be scrolled in any direction. Often rendered as arrows pointing up, down, left, and right with a dot in the middle.

zooming cursors

zoom-in, zoom-out

Indicates that something can be zoomed (magnified) in or out, and often rendered as a magnifying glass with a "+" or "-" in the center of the glass, for zoom-in and zoom-out respectively.

:link,:visited {
    cursor: url(example.svg#linkcursor),
            url(hyper.cur),
            url(hyper.png) 2 3,
            pointer
}

6.1.1.1. Cursor of the canvas

The document canvas is the infinite surface over which the document is rendered [CSS21]. Since no element corresponds to the canvas, in order to allow styling of the cursor when not over any element, the canvas cursor re-uses the root element’s cursor. However, if no boxes are generated for the root element (for example, if the root element has display: none), then the canvas cursor is the platform-dependent default cursor.

Note: An element might be invisible, but still generate boxes. For example, if the element has visibility: hidden but not display: none, boxes are generated for it and its cursor is used for the canvas.

6.2. Insertion caret

6.2.1. Coloring the Insertion Caret: the caret-color property

auto

User agents should use currentColor. User agents may automatically adjust the color of caret to ensure good visibility and contrast with the surrounding content, possibly based on the currentColor, background, shadows, etc.

<color>

The insertion caret is colored with the specified color.

The caret is a visible indicator of the insertion point in an element where text (and potentially other content) is inserted by the user. This property controls the color of that visible indicator.

Note: caret shape and blinking is outside the scope of this feature and thus unspecified.

Note: UAs might have additional things that count as “carets”. For example, some UAs can show a “navigation caret”, which acts similarly to an insertion caret but can be moved around in non-editable text, and is functionally a caret. On the other hand, the cursor image shown when hovering over text when the cursor property is auto, or when hovering over an element where the cursor property is text or vertical-text, though it sometimes resembles a caret, is not a caret (it’s a cursor).

6.3. Keyboard control

6.3.1. Directional Focus Navigation: the nav-up, nav-right, nav-down, nav-left properties

This section is at risk.

auto

The user agent automatically determines which element to navigate the focus to in response to directional navigational input.

<id>

The <id> value is an ID selector [SELECT]. In response to directional navigation input corresponding to the property, the focus is navigated to the first element in tree order matching the selector.

If this refers to the currently focused element, the directional navigation input respective to the nav- property is ignored — there is no need to refocus the same element.

If no element matches the selector, the user agent automatically determines which element to navigate the focus to.

If the focus is navigated to an element that was not otherwise focusable, it becomes focusable only as the result of this directional navigation, and the :focus pseudo-class matches the element while it is focused as such.

Note: there were other options under consideration for such "not otherwise focusable" elements, including focus to the next otherwise focusable element in the document tree (including descendants of such a not otherwise focusable element). Input on such other options is welcome and explicitly solicited, especially from implementation experiences and author experience using the directional navigation properties in their content.

<target-name>

The <target-name> parameter indicates the target frame for the focus navigation. It is a <string> and it MUST NOT start with the underscore "_" character. Error handling: if it does start with an underscore, "_parent" navigates to the parent frame, "_root" is treated as root, and other values navigate to a frame by that name if it exists. If the specified target frame does not exist, the parameter will be treated as the keyword current, which means to simply use the frame that the element is in. The keyword root indicates that the user agent should target the full window.

User agents for devices with directional navigation keys respond by navigating the focus according to four respective nav-* directional navigation properties (nav-up, nav-right, nav-down, nav-left). This specification does not define which keys of a device are directional navigational keys.

Note: Typical personal computers have keyboards with four arrow keys. One possible implementation would be to use those four arrow keys for directional navigation. For accessibility and user convenience, user agents should allow configuration of which keys on a keyboard are used for directional navigation.

button { position:absolute }

button#b1 {
  top:0; left:50%;
  nav-right:#b2; nav-left:#b4;
  nav-down:#b2; nav-up:#b4;
}

button#b2 {
  top:50%; left:100%;
  nav-right:#b3; nav-left:#b1;
  nav-down:#b3; nav-up:#b1;
}

button#b3 {
  top:100%; left:50%;
  nav-right:#b4; nav-left:#b2;
  nav-down:#b4; nav-up:#b2;
}

button#b4 {
  top:50%; left:0;
  nav-right:#b1; nav-left:#b3;
  nav-down:#b1; nav-up:#b3;
}

button#foo { nav-left: #bar "sidebar"; }

6.3.2. Obsolete: the ime-mode property

"ime-mode" is a property somewhat implemented in some browsers, that is problematic and officially obsoleted by this specification.

There is documentation of non-interoperability of these implementations.

User agents should not support the ime-mode property.

Authors must not use the ime-mode property.

Users may use the ime-mode property only for repair use-cases where they have to work around bad sites and legacy implementations, e.g. with a user style sheet rule like:

input[type=password] {    ime-mode: auto !important;
}

This example CSS may be placed into a user style sheet file to force password input fields to behave in a default manner.

This specification deliberately does not attempt to document the functionality of legacy ime-mode implementations nor what they specifically support because it does not make sense to pursue or recommend any such path.

Appendix A. Acknowledgments

This appendix is informative.

This specification was edited and written for the most part by Tantek Çelik from 1999 to the present, first while representing Microsoft, then as an Invited Expert, and most recently while representing Mozilla.

Thanks to Florian Rivoal, working on this specification on behalf of Bloomberg, for his recent work documenting issues from www-style emails, proposing resolutions & changes, and in particular for researching & writing greatly improved details for the box-sizing property.

Thanks to feedback and contributions from Rossen Atanassov, Tab Atkins, L. David Baron, Bert Bos, Matthew Brealey, Rick Byers, Ada Chan, James Craig, Michael Cooper, Axel Dahmen, Michael Day, Micah Dubinko, Elika E., Steve Falkenburg, Andrew Fedoniouk, Al Gilman, Ian Hickson, Bjoern Hoehrmann, Alan Hogan, David Hyatt, Richard Ishida, Sho Kuwamoto, Yves Lafon, Stuart Langridge, Susan Lesch, Peter Linss, Kang-Hao Lu, Masayuki Nakano, Mats Palmgren, Brad Pettit, Chris Rebert, François Remy, Andrey Rybka, Simon Sapin, Alexander Savenkov, Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer, Lea Verou, Etan Wexler, David Woolley, Frank Yan, Boris Zbarsky, and Domel.

Appendix B. Changes

This appendix is informative.

This appendix describes changes from the Candidate Recommendation (CR) of 7 Jul 2015.

• Editorial and markup tweaks
• Clarify that cursor selection is based on hit testing
• Clean-up default style sheet additions for HTML
• Optionally allow the resize property to apply to replaced elements representing images or videos and to iframes, for compatibility with level 4.
• Make the caret-color property apply to all elements, so that it can also influence things like the navigation caret.
• Clarify by reference to [CSS-COLOR-4] how computed values are handled for caret-color and outline-color.
• Mark caret-color as no longer at risk, since there are two implementations.
• Constraints on the shape of the outline when negative values are used for the outline-offset property where changed from being expressed with MUST to SHOULD.
• Marked the Directional focus navigation section at risk.
• The string-value and dual value of the text-overflow property have been defered to level 4.

Appendix C. Considerations for Security and Privacy

This appendix is informative.

The W3C TAG is developing a Self-Review Questionnaire: Security and Privacy for editors of specifications to informatively answer.

Per the Questions to Consider

1. Does this specification deal with personally-identifiable information?

   No.

2. Does this specification deal with high-value data?

   No.

3. Does this specification introduce new state for an origin that persists across browsing sessions?

   No.

4. Does this specification expose persistent, cross-origin state to the web?

   No.

5. Does this specification expose any other data to an origin that it doesn’t currently have access to?

   No.

6. Does this specification enable new script execution/loading mechanisms?

   Yes. The cursor property accepts <image> values which may include URLs to be loaded.

7. Does this specification allow an origin access to a user’s location?

   No.

8. Does this specification allow an origin access to sensors on a user’s device?

   Yes. The directional focus navigation properties indirectly allow access to the device’s keyboard navigation input mechanism such as arrow keys.

9. Does this specification allow an origin access to aspects of a user’s local computing environment?

   No.

10. Does this specification allow an origin access to other devices?

    No.

11. Does this specification allow an origin some measure of control over a user agent’s native UI?

    Yes. The cursor and caret-color properties enable the page to change the display of the cursor and text insertion caret of the user agent’s native UI. In addition the outline-style property’s auto value (and thus outline shorthand) enable the page to potentially display a native focused element outline presentation around any element.

12. Does this specification expose temporary identifiers to the web?

    No.

13. Does this specification distinguish between behavior in first-party and third-party contexts?

    No.

14. How should this specification work in the context of a user agent’s "incognito" mode?

    No differently.

15. Does this specification persist data to a user’s local device?

    No.

16. Does this specification have a "Security Considerations" and "Privacy Considerations" section?

    Yes.

17. Does this specification allow downgrading default security characteristics?

    No.

Appendix D. Default style sheet additions for HTML

This appendix is informative.

Potential additions to the base style sheet to express HTML form controls, and a few dynamic presentation attributes:

:enabled:focus {
 outline: 2px inset;
}

button,
input[type=button],
input[type=reset],
input[type=submit],
input[type=checkbox],
input[type=radio],
textarea,
input,
input[type=text],
input[type=password],
input[type=image]
{
 display: inline-block;
}

input[type=button],
input[type=reset],
input[type=submit],
input[type=checkbox],
input[type=radio],
input,
input[type=text],
input[type=password],
input[type=image]
{
 white-space: nowrap;
}

button
{
/* white space handling of BUTTON tags in particular */
 white-space:normal;
}

input[type=reset]:lang(en)
{
/* default content of HTML input type=reset button, per language */
 content: "Reset";
}

input[type=submit]:lang(en)
{
/* default content of HTML input type=submit button, per language */
 content: "Submit";
}

/* UAs should use language-specific Reset/Submit rules for others. */

input[type=button],
input[type=reset][value],
input[type=submit][value]
{
/* text content/labels of HTML "input" buttons */
 content: attr(value);
}

textarea
{
/* white space handling of TEXTAREA tags in particular */
 white-space:pre-wrap;
 resize: both;
}

input[type=hidden]
{
/* appearance of the HTML hidden text field in particular */
 display: none !important;
}

input[type=image]
{
 content: attr(src,url);
 border: none;
}

select[size]
{
/* HTML4/XHTML1 <select> w/ size more than 1 - appearance of list */
 display: inline-block;
 height: attr(size,em);
}

select,select[size=1]
{
/* HTML4/XHTML1 <select> without size, or size=1 - popup-menu */
 display: inline-block;
 height: 1em;
 overflow: hidden;
}

select[size]:active
{
/* active HTML <select> w/ size more than 1 - appearance of active list */
 display: inline-block;
}

optgroup,option
{
 display: block;
 white-space: nowrap;
}

optgroup[label],option[label]
{
 content: attr(label);
}

option[selected]::before
{
 display: inline;
 content: check;
}

/* Though FRAME resizing is not directly addressed by this specification,
   the following rules may provide an approximation of reasonable behavior. */

/*

frame { resize:both }
frame[noresize] { resize:none }

*/

Appendix E: Test Suite

This appendix is informative.

There is a partial test suite written according to the CSS Test Suite Documentation and following the CSS2.1 Test Case Authoring Guidelines. The test suite shall allow user agents to verify their basic conformance to the specification. This test suite does not pretend to be exhaustive and does not cover all possible combinations of user interface related features. These tests will be made available from the CSS Test Suites home page.