Re: [CSSWG] Minutes and Resolutions 2009-02-04: box-shadow and border-image

On Feb 17, 2009, at 4:03 PM, Robert O'Callahan wrote:

> On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 10:15 AM, fantasai <fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net 
> > wrote:
> Is it possible to intelligently draw a complex shadow for this  
> border-image?
>  http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-background/border.png
>  http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-background/borderresult.png
> Now imagine I said 'space' instead of 'round'.
>
> If you and roc are able to find a way to intelligently draw complex  
> shadows
> for something like that, and are willing to implement it, I'll put  
> it in
> the spec.
>
> The real issue here is that using a box-shadow on an element with  
> transparent padding-box is bizarre, whether or not you're using  
> border-images. I don't know why the spec has us clip the padding-box  
> out of the shadow in the first place, since it can only lead to  
> effects that violate real-world physics.
>
> If your diamond-border example had a solid padding-box background,  
> and the border-image was modified so the inside of the diamond  
> border is filled with the same background color, then drawing a  
> diamond-shaped drop shadow for the border would be easy and look good.
>
> Rob

A long time ago I suggested that shadow actually be broken out into  
separate properties.... I think I proposed:

border-shadow - Shadow the border only
background-shadow - Shadow the background
text-shadow - Shadow foreground text only
shadow - Shadow everything drawn by the element (like opacity)

It's not clear "shadow" would have been all that useful though.

The problem with box-shadow right now is it isn't so much a shadow  
right now as just a decorative effect applied around the edge of  
boxes.  It doesn't necessarily match what was drawn.

Rather than splitting box-shadow into border and background, we could  
give box-shadow an additional parameter that says whether it's  
shadowing border/background/both.

It would be nice if box-shadow could end up matching what was drawn,  
rather than just being this concocted decorative effect.

dave
(hyatt@apple.com)