Sometimes you may want to be able to control the location of the ruby text. For example, the Ruby Annotation specification says that it is common to place pinyin annotations below horizontal Chinese text, rather than above. CSS3 will provide a property will give you control over the location.

If you specify before, the ruby text will appear above horizontal base text and to the right of vertical text. Specify after, and the ruby text appears below horizontal base text and to the left of vertical text.

A value of 'right' might be useful for dealing with bopomofo annotations in Traditional Chinese text, where the ruby appears in a column to the right of each ideographic character, whether the text is horizontal or vertical.