Re: [CSS3 Text] Thoughts on hanging-punctuation property

On 2007-10-10, fantasai wrote:
> Daniel Aleksandersen wrote:
> > Hi again list,
> >
> > Here are pros and cons of hanging punctuation:
> >
> > http://www.blueflavor.com/blog/design/thoughts_on_hanging_bullets.php
> > http://web.archive.org/web/20070309101159/http://www.blueflavor.com/blo
> >g/design/thoughts_on_hanging_bullets.php
> >
> > The most important point Kevin makes on the above web page is that the
> > decision should be left to the designer. CSS should offer mechanisms
> > for all kinds of hanging punctuation. Left edge and right edge hanging
> > punctuation. For quotation marks, brackets, and whatnot.
>
> There's a balance between power and complexity. We can add every feature
> ever requested, but then
>    a) it will take forever to get them all specced and implemented
>    b) it is that much harder for someone to understand and use CSS
>
> I see a lot of examples where
>    * punctuation is hung at the beginning or end of the paragraph in
> Western typography
>    * hyphens are partially hung at the end of the line in Western
> typography * Stops are hung at the end of the line in Eastern typography
>
> I haven't seen an equivalent demand for hanging other punctuation at the
> start or end of every line. This could be because I haven't run across
> the right publications, or it could be because it's not as common, and
> therefore not as important for us to add to CSS at this point in time.

When you say ‘Western’ you apparently mean American and British. As I said, 
it is common in Norwegian newspapers and books TODAY.  I know I have seen 
hanging parentheses, brackets, and hyphen and dashes. We use «guillemets» 
for quotation marks and those are almost always hanging. Norwegian 
typography is derived from early 1900 German and French typography.  You 
will probably find left hanging punctuation in those languages as well. 

> So for right now, I'm leaning towards adding a 'hyphens' keyword to
> 'hanging-punctuation', defining 'end-edge' as appropriate for Japanese
> (not Western) layout, defining 'start' and 'end' to apply to all
> punctuation, and not adding anything else.

It makes sense to include both ways—left and right, start and end—of hanging 
punctuation. Why limit the specs to just one direction? ...
-- 
Daniel Aleksandersen

Received on Wednesday, 10 October 2007 00:32:56 UTC