Bert Bos
Created: 8 July 2004
Last modified: $Date: 2009/10/07 07:51:55 $
Cascading Style Sheets Working Group
This is the short version of the charter. For more history, context and explanations of the technical terms, see the long version.
The CSS WG develops and maintains the CSS language and related technologies. CSS allows both authors and readers to specify the display or other rendering of documents, such as those in HTML or SVG. CSS has several levels, from simple (level 1) to complex (level 3) and several “profiles,” which describe how CSS applies on different media (TV, handheld, etc.). Level 1 is a Recommendation, level 2 is in maintenance, level 3 is currently being developed.
This is the charter for the period 1 July 2006 to 1 July 2008 and covers the revision of CSS level 2 and about half of the development of CSS level 3. It has been approved by the Director on the 28th of June, 2006. The contents are based on the previous charter, discussions in the WG and feedback from the AC review.
The goal of the Cascading Style Sheets Working Group (“CSS WG”) is to develop level 3 of CSS (“CSS3”) and maintain CSS2.
CSS itself is partitioned for different media (screen, speech, print, etc.) and platforms of different capabilities (currently levels 1 & 2, this charter aims to develop level 3).
CSS3 will add new features w.r.t. CSS2 and it will reorganize the specification with the aim to make CSS easier to implement, use and validate.
Some of the challenges for CSS in the next years will very likely be the styling of interactivity and of non-text documents, as well as rendering models for multimedia (or hybrid) devices.
This charter is for the period 1 July 2006 to 1 July 2008.
Development of CSS level 3 is expected to continue until 2011.
The CSS WG develops the following, somewhat independent technologies:
CSS stresses usability. It is declarative, safe and meant both for “hand-coding” and WYSIWYG/Direct-Manipulation.
The CSS WG checks that properties needed by other working groups are compatible with CSS and consistent.
The WG cooperates with various organizations on profiles for specific types of devices.
The WG also develops test suites and maintains errata.
A module is a specification of a set of CSS features with a common theme. A profile lists all the features that an implementation on a particular platform is expected to implement.
The main deliverables of the CSS WG are
but the WG may also publish
The calendar below aims to have about half of CSS3 in Candidate Recommendation or better at the end of the charter period.
| Name | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | … | ID | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May | Jun | Oct | Nov | Dec | |||||
| High priority | |||||||||
| Selectors | TS | · | LC2 | PR | · | · | · | · | css3-selectors |
| CSS 2.1 | · | CR2 | · | · | TS | · | · | · | CSS21 |
| Mobile Profile | · | · | LC2 | TS | CR2 | · | · | · | css-mobile |
| Medium priority | |||||||||
| Color | · | · | · | · | · | TS | · | · | css3-color |
| Media Queries | · | · | · | · | · | TS | · | · | css3-mediaqueries |
| UI | · | · | · | · | · | TS | · | · | css3-ui |
| Paged Media | · | · | · | · | · | TS | · | · | css3-page |
| Print Profile | · | · | · | · | · | TS | · | · | css-print |
| Namespaces | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-namespaces |
| Syntax | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-syntax |
| Values & Units | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-values |
| Cascading | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-cascade |
| Text Effects | · | · | · | · | · | LC2 | · | · | css3-text |
| Text Layout | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | · | css3-text-layout |
| Backgrounds & Borders | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-background |
| Reader | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-reader |
| Columns | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | · | css3-multicol |
| Layout | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | · | css3-layout |
| Low priority | |||||||||
| Scoping | · | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | [TBD] |
| Positioning | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-positioning |
| Speech | · | · | · | · | · | · | CR | · | css3-speech |
| Fonts | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-fonts |
| Generated | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-content |
| Lists | · | · | · | · | · | · | WD | · | css3-lists |
| Box | · | · | · | · | · | · | WD | · | css3-box |
| Line | · | · | · | · | · | · | WD | · | css3-line |
| CSS-OM | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | [TBD] |
| Hyperlinks | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-links |
| Style attribute | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css-style-attr |
| Math | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-math |
| Generated for Paged | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-gcpm |
| Tables | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | · | css3-tables |
| Ruby | · | · | · | · | · | · | WD | · | css3-ruby |
| Not in this charter period | |||||||||
| Selectors (revision) | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | css3-selectors |
| Introduction | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | LC | css3-roadmap |
| Presentation levels | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ? | css3-preslev |
| Audio | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ? | css3-audio |
| Drop | |||||||||
| Grammar appendix | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ? |
| CSS-EOM | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | · | ? |
(TS = test suite; LC2 = new last call for comments; CR2 = new Candidate Recommendation; PR = Proposed Recommendation)
The CSS WG participates in the Hypertext CG and the XML CG. That includes in particular the WAI PF WG and the I18N Core WG.
The CSS3 Math Module will be written either together with or by the Math IG and then reviewed by the CSS WG. The CSS3 Web Fonts Module will be written by the SVG WG and reviewed by the CSS WG. The CSS3 Layout module will be written jointly by the DI and CSS WGs. The CSS Mobile Profile will be written jointly by the CDF and CSS WGs in cooperation with the OMA.
The XSL and CSS WGs will use the same properties where possible.
There are several groups outside W3C with which the CSS group maintains contact:
This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.
The group holds weekly phone meetings and three face-to-face meetings per year.
The Group works by consensus.
Participation is expected to consume 0.2 fte. Bert Bos (estimated 0.4 fte) will be W3C Team contact and chairman for the CSS WG.