Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-gaps-1] Insets instead of outsets (#12848)

I think it makes sense to introduce an `auto` keyword and make it the initial value. It would still compute to `0` at the edges and to `-50%` at the intersections, but avoids the awkwardness of negative values for the general use cases.
And I'd argue that use cases for negative percentages are very limited besides the initial value and maybe animations from and to that initial value.

And percentages for the edges might refer to the crossing gap width of the first intersection when going inwards. That means, percentages for the interior and edge values would be reflected.
Alternatively, they could be disallowed for the edge values for the time being.

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I need to get myself up to date again. Though some years ago I [suggested that the lengths of the rules could be defined using percentages](https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/2748#issuecomment-446758887), where the percentages would "refer to the length of the gutters".

Not to derail this discussion, though I wanted to note that there are also use cases for letting percentages refer to the content size instead of the gap width.

Sebastian

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Received on Monday, 13 October 2025 12:48:01 UTC