Re: [CSS21] What does 'text-transform: capitalize' mean, exactly?

Les Brown wrote:

> My dictionaries say that capitalize means "put ALL the text in capitals"
> but I guess it's too late to change the spec.


A capitalized text is where the first letter in every word is uppercase,
like this:
The Quick Brown Fox Jumbed Over The Lazy Dog.



> When I Worked with Printed Documents the Term We Used for Putting the
> FIRST Character of Each Word in Uppercase was "initial caps." But the
> Convention Was to Leave Minor Words, such as Prepositions, Articles, and
> Latin Abbreviations like "i.e.", Entirely in Lowercase. I suspect that
> this would be difficult to implement.


I'd say that an abbreviation like i.e. or f.x. should be in uppercase, it
makes more sense since an abbreviation are a shortend word, but if it's
practiacally possible is another questiong. Could some typographer tell what
the normal is to do?


>
> Also, if a future version of the spec introduces a "capitalize-all" text
> transformation, what should happen to camel-case text like "WebKit"?


Now this raises an even bigger question.

<span style="text-transform:lowercase">
   TeX is a typesetting program made by Donald Knuth.
   <span style="text-transform:capitalize">
       Few people write in raw TeX, most do it in LaTeX
   </span>
</span>

What will this render as?
tex is a typesetting program made by donald knuth. Few People Write In Raw
Te?, Most Do It In La?e?

What is the right way?


-- 
Hilsen Henrik Enggaard Hansen