14.2.1 'background-position' - block level only?

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Section 14.2.1 of the CSS2 spec [1] lists the following:

>  'background-position' 
> Value:  [ [<percentage> | <length> ]{1,2} |
>           [ [top | center | bottom] || 
>           [left | center | right] ] ] | inherit  
> Initial:     0% 0%  
> Applies to:  block-level and replaced elements  
> Inherited:   no  
> Percentages: refer to the size of the box itself  
> Media:       visual  

Notice the "Applies to" says it's only for block-level and replaced
elements. However, all the other background properties, in particular
background-repeat, apply to everything. So, how do we get a single image to
appear behind some inline text?

The problem which can come up is what to do with broken line boxes.

WinIE4 supports 'background-position' even with inline elements
(over-support of the spec?!), and gets around the problem by simply not
drawing the background if the line box splits.

I suggest the 'background-position' property be expanded to apply to
everything, with behaviour at line breaks being left up to the UA designer.

For an example of when this issue comes up, look at any of the pages on my
site [2], in WinIE4 with images turned on. Hovering over the links should
display a "fuzz". This is achieved by using this property in the way I
suggest.

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/colors.html#background-properties
[2] http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxieh/internet/ (this page also includes the
www-style past suggestions list, which is actually a bit behind at the
moment...)

- -- 
Ian Hickson - visit web page for geek code
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxieh/
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Received on Wednesday, 2 September 1998 15:24:27 UTC