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The W3C Internationalization (I18n) Activity works with W3C working groups and liaises with other organizations to make it possible to use Web technologies with different languages, scripts, and cultures. From this page you can find articles and other resources about Web internationalization, and information about the groups that make up the Activity. Read also about opportunities to participate and fund work via the new Sponsorship Program.
What the W3C Internationalization Activity does
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New First Public Working Draft: Rules for Simple Placement of Japanese Ruby
The Internationalization Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Rules for Simple Placement of Japanese Ruby. This document provides a simple set of rules for placement of ruby text in Japanese typography that can be used as a minimum baseline for implementers and specification writers. It was developed by the JLReq (Japanese Layout) Task Force as a companion to Requirements for Japanese Text Layout 日本語組版処理の要件(日本語版).
Ruby is the name given to the small annotations in Japanese content that are rendered alongside base text, usually to provide a pronunciation guide, but sometimes to provide other information.
New translations into French, Italian, & Spanish
French
Marquer du texte sans langue (Tagging text with no language)
Création de pages HTML en arabe, hébreu et autres scripts de droite à gauche (Creating HTML Pages in Arabic, Hebrew and Other Right-to-left Scripts)
Tri des options de sélection (Sorting select options)
Italian
Etichettatura del testo senza lingua (Tagging text with no language)
Tipi di dichiarazione linguistica (Types of language declaration)
Cambiare una pagina HTML in Unicode (Changing an HTML page to Unicode)
Spanish
Etiquetado de texto sin idioma (Tagging text with no language)
Tipos de declaración de idioma (Types of language declaration)
Creación de páginas HTML en árabe, hebreo y otros scripts de derecha a izquierda (Creating HTML Pages in Arabic, Hebrew and Other Right-to-left Scripts)
These articles were translated thanks to Ibidem Translations.
Article published: Internationalization tips for linking to headings & figures
If you are linking to headings and figures for a page that will be translated into another language, or for a multilingual page, this article looks at things you need to bear in mind and provides markup templates that will be helpful.
For review: Internationalization tips for linking to headings & figures
The article Internationalization tips for linking to headings & figures is out for wide review. We are looking for comments by Tuesday 6 July.
If you are linking to headings and figures for a page that will be translated into another language, or for a multilingual page, this article looks at things you need to bear in mind and provides markup templates that will be helpful.
Please send any comments as github issues by clicking on this link, or on “Leave a comment” at the bottom of the article. (This will add some useful information to your comment.)
New translations into French
Gestion de l’encodage des caractères en HTML et CSS (Handling character encodings in HTML and CSS)
La taille des textes dans les traductions (Text size in translation)
These articles were translated into French thanks to Jean-Christophe Helary, of K.K. DOUBLET.
New translations into French
En-têtes HTTP, élément meta et informations sur la langue (HTTP headers, meta elements and language information)
Types de déclaration de langues (Types of language declaration)
These articles were translated into French thanks to Jean-Christophe Helary, of K.K. DOUBLET.
First Public Working Draft, “Strings on the Web: Language and Direction Metadata “
A First Public Working Draft of Strings on the Web: Language and Direction Metadata was published.
This document describes practices for identifying language and base direction for strings used on the Web. It was developed as a result of observations by the Internationalization Working Group over a series of specification reviews related to formats based on JSON, WebIDL, and other non-markup data languages. Unlike markup formats, such as XML, these data languages generally do not provide extensible attributes and were not conceived with built-in language or direction metadata.
The concepts in this document are applicable any time strings are used on the Web, either as part of a formalised data structure, but also where they simply originate from JavaScript scripting or any stored list of strings.
Public comments are welcome, please raise them as github issues.
New resource: Short i18n review checklist
The Short i18n review checklist points developers of specifications to various aspects of a spec that may need internationalization review. It can also be used by spec reviewers, to get an idea of what to look for in a spec.
Only 12 items long, it follows the format: if the spec or its implementation does X then check Y, and points to the relevant parts of the detailed checklist for more information.
It’s not exhaustive, but it hits the main topics that regularly arise when spec developers are wondering whether their spec may have internationalization issues. If you have comments or questions, please use the GitHub issue list.
Working Group Note: Character Model for the World Wide Web: String Matching
The Internationalization Working Group at the W3C has published a new Working Group Note. Character Model for the World Wide Web: String Matching provides authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers a common reference on string identity matching on the World Wide Web and thereby increase interoperability.
String identity matching is the process by which a specification or implementation defines whether two string values are the same or different from one another. It describes the ways in which texts that are semantically equivalent can be encoded differently and the impact this has on matching operations important to formal languages. Topics include normalization and case folding.
One new, one updated article published
Types of language declaration describes how ‘metadata’ and ‘text-processing’ language declarations differ.
HTTP headers, meta elements and language information has been updated to read better, and the information that was to become the previously mentioned article was removed.
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Questions or comments? ishida@w3.org