[css-ui] text-overflow: fade ?

I recently received a request from a Blackberry implementor to look
into specifying a "fade" value for text-overflow.  It would have the
effect of fading overflowing content over the space of 1em, rather
than dropping content and inserting an ellipsis.

This effect is commonly used in Android apps, and currently requires
some difficult hacking around with masking to achieve a bad simulacrum
of the effect.

I like the idea quite a bit - it's familiar to a lot of people,
non-intrusive, and in my opinion rather attractive.

Variants on this idea:

1. Make the amount of fade controllable, by providing an optional
length along with the "fade" keyword.  This defaults to 1em.

2. Make the amount of fade somewhat dynamic, so that a line that just
*barely* overflows won't pop in with a full-power fade.  Basically,
make the fade size the minimum of 1em and the overflow amount.

Thoughts?

~TJ

Received on Tuesday, 1 October 2013 22:55:49 UTC