Suggestion to add "orphan line control" and "ideal page size" (and/or page break) to Paged Media CSS3 WD; also impacts multi-Columns WD

In the new Paged Media Properties for CSS3 Draft:

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-css3-page-19990928

Suggestions

1. ORPHAN CONTROL: Most modern word processors (page stream metaphor
editors) have features to set the number of lines of paragraph which will
not be left orphaned at bottom or top of page.  Instead, the paragraph is
bumped to next page (and optionally agent may use some extra line spacing
to compensate the gap).

In the extreme case, the importance is for eliminating the case where page
which ends or begins with only 1 line of a paragraph.

This style should also be allowed as block level (e.g. paragraph) style
(e.g. such a no-break) for example to keep a mailing address from being
split between 2 pages, without having to apply a ridiculously large global
orphan constraint.


2. PAGE SIZE: Although I realize the standard should not allow
specification of page size, how is the user agent supposed to handle cases
where no page size exists, yet for example the new Columns Working Draft
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-css3-multicol-20010118/) will in some cases
require a page size be used?  For example, imagine a very long stream
(many, many windows worth) of text in a browser window.  For horizontal
flow languages (or vice versa for vertical such as some Chinese/Japanese),
obviously the browser window width is the ideal page width, but is the
browser window height the ideal page height??  We wouldn't want columns
several windows in length either.  We need suggested column and/or page
break.  IMO, the designer knows best in this case (different ideals for
different design objectives), so I suggest there should be an ideal page
size setting (or page and/or column break) in CSS3, which is only used when
the destination media (or i.e. user) doesn't have a preference.  The page
break (or size) will probably find other uses in the overall page model.

-Shelby Moore

Received on Sunday, 15 December 2002 13:22:30 UTC