Re: [css3-page] "odd/even" for "page-break-before|after"?

On Fri, Aug 27, 2010 at 12:46 AM, Ishii Koji <kojiishi@gluesoft.co.jp> wrote:
> I was reading CSS Paged Media Module Level 3
> http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-page/
> and am wondering, is it possible to add "even" and "odd" to the values for "page-break-after" and "page-break-before"?
>
> Maybe this has been discussed before, I'm sorry in advance in that case, but as I understand, when author specifies "page-break-after:right" for example, the original intention is likely to make the next page at the same side of the cover page.
>
> It is "right" for the left-binding books, but it is opposite for the right-binding books.
>
> I think "even/odd" has a few benefits.
> * It can represent the author's original intention better in most cases.
> * It has better abstractions when CSS has properties for binding method in future.
>
> We could have both values allowed in case where the author wants to specify left or right regardless of the how the book is bound.

I don't think I agree.  I've never published a book, but were I to do
so, I think it would be more intuitive to think of the pages in terms
of left/right rather than even/odd.  The latter requires me to
remember exactly which side page 1 starts on - in other words, I'd
just have to use some extra knowledge to map the even/odd back to
left/right!

Is there a common pattern for which side page 1 starts on?  I've read
thousands of books in my life and never really noticed which side was
even and which was odd.  Is this pattern the same for ltr books and
rtl books?

Are you expecting that authors (or perhaps publishing houses) will use
a single common stylesheet for both directions of books?  If there was
a common pattern, and it was shared between both book
directionalities, this still wouldn't help any individual book, as
books are always published with a particular directionality.  You'd
only realize a minor benefit if you're publishing multiple books in
both directions, and have a common base stylesheet that you use for
all of them.

~TJ

Received on Saturday, 28 August 2010 01:30:01 UTC