Re: CSS Printing Extensions

David,

Excellent reply. You are correct in suggesting that a number of  new
attributes would greatly enhance layout control, including keep-together
and widow-orphan control.

David Perrell wrote:

> Greg Kostello wrote:
> > While at first blush, the "page-break-after: never" seems like an
>
> > obvious extension, I would suggest a different, widely accepted
> > stylistic attribute: "keep-with-next" and "keep-with-previous".
> These
> > give you the same functionallity needed for the
> 'page-break-after:
> > never', as well keeping headlines together in a multi-column
> layout.
>
> I wholeheartedly agree that 'keep-with-' is needed and should be
> part
> of the CSS spec. It would be more useful than "page-break -...:
> never".
> But does keep-with preclude 'never' as a page-break value? There may
> be
> times when one element relates to a preceding or succeeding element
> in
> such a way that being in a separate column would not impact the
> relationship, but being on a separate page would.

> Also, this is a
> 'Printing Extensions' spec. Keep-with is wider in scope.

True. My comments might have been slightly "off-subject." I was just
thinking of this in terms of the bigger problem, which is controlling
the presentation of the document. The printed page is just one medium.
My hope is that we can offer control that would be applicable to both
screen and the printed page and have the minimal number of printing
specific extensions.

>
>
> There are other CSS properties that are needed before quality
> printing
> can occur. One is 'keep-together':
>
>     'keep-together'
>
>     Value: auto | column | page
>     Initial: auto
>     Applies to: block level elements
>     Inherited: no
>     Percentage values: N/A
>
>     auto: break as necessary
>     column: keep the entire element in one column if possible
>     page: keep the entire element on one page if possible
>
> You could encompass any number of elements that should be kept
> together
> within a 'keep-together' DIV element. But more importantly,
> keep-together would keep a paragraph or headline from breaking
> across
> columns or pages. For example, what happens when you have
> 'keep-with-next' set on a multi-line heading and only the first line
> of
> the heading fits at the bottom of the page? Answer: you get the
> first
> line at the bottom of one page and remainder at the top of another.
> Setting the keep-together attribute of the heading to 'column' or
> 'page' would avoid this.
>
> Properties are also needed for widow/orphan control. One possibility
> is
> 'orphan-lines' and 'widow-lines':
>
>     'orphan-lines'
>     'widow-lines'
>
>     Value: <lines>
>     Initial: 1
>     Applies to: all elements
>     Inherited: no
>     Percentage values: N/A
>
>     The number of lines at the beginning (orphan-lines)
>     or end (widow-lines) of a block of text that must not break
>     across columns or pages.
>
> Without orphan and widow control, it is possible to have a single
> line
> of a text block at the bottom or top of columns or pages - a very
> ugly
> situation.
> A value of 2 lines is 'normal' for orphan/widow control, but why
> limit
> the property to on | off?

Excellent point.

>
> David Perrell



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Greg Kostello                        mailto://kostello@digitalstyle.com
DigitalStyle Corporation                   http://www.digitalstyle.com/
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Received on Tuesday, 8 April 1997 15:27:15 UTC