W3C

CSS TV Profile 1.0

W3C Candidate Recommendation 14 May 2003

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/CR-css-tv-20030514
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/css-tv
Previous version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/CR-css-tv-20020807
Authors:
Sean Hayes (Microsoft) <shayes@microsoft.com>
Glenn Adams (invited expert, Extensible Formatting Systems Inc.) <glenn@xfsi.com>
Tantek Çelik (Microsoft) <tantekc@microsoft.com>
Håkon Wium Lie (Opera Software) <howcome@opera.com>

Copyright © 2003 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark, document use and software licensing rules apply.

Abstract

This specification defines a subset of Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 and CSS3 Module: Color specifications tailored to the needs and constraints of TV devices.

Status of This Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. The latest status of this document series is maintained at the W3C.

This specification is being put forth as a W3C Candidate Recommendation by the CSS Working Group (part of the Style Activity, see summary). This document is an editorial revision of the Candidate Recommendation dated 2002-08-07 and has incorporated editorial suggestions made after publication of the previous Candidate Recommendation draft, in addition to updating the supported values for the 'opacity' property in sync with the CSS3 Module: Color Candidate Recommendation draft. The previous draft of this specification, the Candidate Recommendation dated 2002-08-07, was a revision of the Last Call Working Draft dated 2002-05-15, and incorporated suggestions received during Last Call review, comments by implementors, and further deliberations of the W3C CSS Working Group.

All persons are encouraged to review and implement this specification and return comments to the (archived) public mailing list www-style (see instructions). W3C Members can also send comments directly to the CSS Working Group.

For this specification to exit the CR stage, the following conditions shall be met:

  1. There must be at least two interoperable implementations implementing 'all' the features in the TV Profile. An implementation can implement a superset of the features and claim conformance to the profile. For the purposes of this criterion, we define the following terms:

    feature

    a row in the tables of section 3 and section 4 that has not been marked 'No' in the CSS TV column.

    interoperable

    passing the respective test case(s) in the CSS test suite, or, if the implementation is not a web browser, an equivalent test. Every relevant test in the test suite should have an equivalent test created if such a user agent (UA) is to be used to claim interoperability. In addition if such a UA is to be used to claim interoperability, then there must one or more additional UAs which can also pass those equivalent tests in the same way for the purpose of interoperability. The equivalent tests must be made publicly available for the purposes of peer review.

    implementation

    a user agent which:

    1. implements the feature.
    2. is available (i.e. publicly downloadable or available through some other public point of sale mechanism). This is the "show me" requirement.
    3. is shipping (i.e. development, private or unofficial versions are insufficient).
    4. is not experimental (i.e. is intended for a wide audience and could be used on a daily basis.)

  2. A minimum of sixth months of the CR period must have elapsed. This is to ensure that enough time is given for any remaining major errors to be caught.

The CSS Working Group believes this document addresses all last call comments, and can be considered stable. It can still be updated by the Working Group, but only to clarify its meaning. If, unexpectedly, serious problems are found, it will be returned to Working Draft status. The duration of the original six month Candidate Recommendation phase (August 2002 - January 2003) has already passed. Therefore, as soon as the exit criteria are met, it will progress to Proposed Recommendation.

Patent disclosures relevant to CSS may be found on the Working Group's public patent disclosure page.

A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.

Contents

1. Overview

This document specifies a profile of the Cascading Style Sheets level 2 (CSS2) and CSS3 Module: Color specifications appropriate for TV devices such as set top boxes or integrated interactive television sets that display their output on a television screen. Conformance to this profile means that a user agent supports, at minimum, the features defined in this specification. This subject is addressed in Section 2, Conformance, below.

As defined in [CSS2]:

CSS2 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts, spacing, and aural cues) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS2 simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance. CSS2 builds on CSS1 (see [CSS1]) and, with very few exceptions, all valid CSS1 style sheets are valid CSS2 style sheets. CSS2 supports media-specific style sheets so that authors may tailor the presentation of their documents to visual browsers, aural devices, printers, braille devices, handheld devices, etc.

In summary, CSS2 specifies how developers can author style sheets for presenting documents across multiple devices and media types. While this is very important, it is also important that authors have an understanding of what features are supported on these different devices. Likewise, it is important that similar devices operate in a similar manner. Otherwise, authors will need to develop style sheets for each version of each device -- raising the cost of content development and decreasing interoperability.

The CSS TV Profile specifies a conformance profile for TV devices, identifying a minimum set of properties, values, selectors, and cascading rules. The resulting CSS TV Profile includes the vast majority of CSS1, portions of CSS2 and CSS3 Module: Color. The CSS TV Profile is a proper superset of the CSS Mobile Profile, with the use of the 'tv' media type instead of the 'handheld' media type.

2. Conformance

The primary role of a profile is to define a subset of features that provides a minimal guarantee of interoperability. In the case of the CSS TV Profile, this guarantee is that a conforming user agent will support the features defined in this specification following the CSS2 conformance clause ([CSS2] Section 3.2), recast and summarized below:

  1. A CSS TV Profile conforming user agent (TV-UA) MUST support the all and tv CSS2 media types. A TV-UA MAY support other CSS2 media types, as well.
  2. For each source document, a TV-UA MUST attempt to retrieve all associated style sheets that are appropriate for the supported media types.
  3. A TV-UA MUST parse the style sheets according to this specification. In particular, the TV-UA MUST recognize all CSS TV Profile at-rules, blocks, declarations, and selectors. If a TV-UA encounters a property that applies for a supported media type, the TV-UA MUST parse the value according to the property definition. This means that the TV-UA MUST accept all valid values and MUST ignore declarations with invalid values. TV-UA MUST ignore rules that apply to unsupported media types.
  4. For each element in a document tree, the TV-UA MUST assign a value for every applicable property according to the property's definition and the rules of cascading and inheritance.
  5. If the source document comes with alternate style sheets (such as with the "alternate" keyword in HTML 4.01 [HTML401]), the TV-UA SHOULD allow the user to select one from among these style sheets and apply the selected one.

As with CSS2, there are qualifications to this conformance clause:

  1. Values MAY be approximated when required by the TV-UA.
  2. The inability of a TV-UA to implement part of this specification due to the limitations of a particular device (e.g., a TV-UA cannot render colors on a monochrome monitor or page) SHALL NOT imply non-conformance.

It is recommended that authors use this conformance profile to take advantage of forward compatibility. Authors should be able to use style properties with an understanding that the cascading rules are processed correctly and that unknown properties and values are ignored. For example:

  h3 {
    display: inline;
    display: run-in;
  }

A TV-UA that can process the 'run-in' value for the 'display' property will accept the first display declaration and then "write over" that value with the second display declaration. A TV-UA that cannot process the 'run-in' value will process the first display specification and ignore the second display specification.

3. Selectors and at-rules

Selectors

In CSS2, pattern matching rules determine which style rules apply to elements in the document tree [CSS2].

The following table summarizes CSS TV Profile selector syntax. In addition to these selectors, the CSS TV Profile includes the CSS2 grouping mechanism (See [CSS2] Section 5.2.1).

Note. Unsupported selectors are parsed as invalid (which would affect valid selectors in the same group), the same as if a purely CSS1 UA were to encounter selectors new in CSS2. Of course a TV-UA is free to implement more selectors than required by CSS TV.

Pattern Meaning Selector type CSS TV
* Matches any element Universal selector Yes
E Matches any E element (i.e., and element of type E) Type selectors Yes
E F Matches any F element that is a descendent of an E element Descendent selectors Yes
E > F Matches any F element that is a child of an element E Child selectors Yes
E:first-child Matches element E when it is the first child of its parent The :first-child pseudo-class Yes
E:link
E:visited		 Matches element E if E is the source anchor of a hyperlink of which the target is not yet visited (:link) or already visited (:visited). The link pseudo-classes Yes
E:active Matches E during certain user actions. The dynamic pseudo-classes Yes
E:hover Matches E during certain user actions. The dynamic pseudo-classes No
E:focus Matches E during certain user actions. The dynamic pseudo-classes Yes
E:lang(c) Matches element of type E if it is in (human) language c (the document language specifies how language is determined). The :lang() pseudo-class No
E + F Matches any F element immediately preceded by an element E. Adjacent selectors No
E[foo] Matches any E element with the "foo" attribute set (whatever the value). Attribute selectors No
E[foo="bar"] Matches any E element whose "foo" attribute value is exactly equal to "bar". Attribute selectors No
E[foo~="bar"] Matches any E element whose "foo" attribute value is a list of space-separated values, one of which is exactly equal to "bar". Attribute selectors No
E[foo|="bar"] Matches any E element whose "foo" attribute value has a hyphen-separated list of values beginning (from the left) with "bar". Attribute selectors No
E:first-line Matches the first formatted line of an E element. The :first-line pseudo-element Yes
E:first-letter Matches the first formatted letter of an E element. The :first-letter pseudo-element Yes
E:before Matches/creates generated content before an E element. The :before pseudo-element No
E:after Matches/creates generated content after an E element. The :after pseudo-element No
E.bar Matches any E element whose class attribute (as defined by the document language) value is a list of space-separated values, one of which is exactly equal to "bar". Class selectors Yes
E#bar Matches any E element whose ID attribute (as defined by the document language) is equal to "bar". ID selectors Yes

at-rules

The following table summarizes CSS TV Profile at-rule syntax.

at-rule Function CSS TV
@import Imports an external style sheet. Yes
@charset Defines character set for the style sheet. Yes
@media Groups a set of style rules to apply only to one or more particular media. Yes
@font-face Defines a named font-family, including for downloading. No
@page Defines a (optionally named) page formatting context. No
@color-profile Defines a named color-profile. No

4. Properties

The following table summarizes CSS TV Profile properties and property values from CSS2. Refer to [CSS2] for the definition of these properties and values.

Name CSS TV CSS Values Initial value
'azimuth' No <angle> | [ left-side | far-left | left | center-left | center | center-right | right | far-right | right-side ] || behind ] | leftwards | rightwards | inherit center
'background' ['background-color' || 'background-image' || 'background-repeat' || 'background-position'] | inherit ['background-color' || 'background-image' || 'background-repeat' || 'background-attachment' || 'background-position'] | inherit see individual properties
'background-attachment' No scroll | fixed | inherit scroll
'background-color' Yes <color> | transparent | inherit transparent
'background-image' Yes <uri> | none | inherit none
'background-position' Yes [ [ <percentage> | <length> ]{1,2} | [ [top | center | bottom] || [left | center | right] ] ] | inherit 0% 0%
'background-repeat' Yes repeat | repeat-x | repeat-y | no-repeat | inherit repeat
'border' Yes [ <border-width> || <border-style> || <border-color> ] | inherit see individual properties
'border-collapse' No collapse | separate | inherit separate
'border-color' Yes <color>{1,4} | transparent | inherit see individual properties
'border-spacing' No <length> <length>? | inherit 0
'border-style' Yes <border-style>{1,4} | inherit see individual properties
'border-top' 'border-right' 'border-bottom' 'border-left' Yes [ <border-width> || <border-style> || <border-color> ] | inherit see individual properties
'border-top-color' 'border-right-color' 'border-bottom-color' 'border-left-color' Yes <color> | transparent | inherit the value of the 'color' property
'border-top-style' 'border-right-style' 'border-bottom-style' 'border-left-style' Yes <border-style> | inherit none
'border-top-width' 'border-right-width' 'border-bottom-width' 'border-left-width' Yes <border-width> | inherit medium
'border-width' Yes <border-width>{1,4} | inherit see individual properties
'bottom' Yes <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit auto
'caption-side' Yes top | bottom | left | right | inherit top
'clear' Yes none | left | right | both | inherit none
'clip' Yes <shape> | auto | inherit auto
'color' Yes <color> | inherit depends on user agent
'content' No [ <string> | <uri> | <counter> | attr(X) | open-quote | close-quote | no-open-quote | no-close-quote ]+ | inherit empty string
'counter-increment' No [ <identifier> <integer>? ]+ | none | inherit none
'counter-reset' No [ <identifier> <integer>? ]+ | none | inherit none
'cue' No [ 'cue-before' || 'cue-after' ] | inherit see individual properties
'cue-after' No <uri> | none | inherit none
'cue-before' No <uri> | none | inherit none
'cursor' No [ [<uri> ,]* [ auto | crosshair | default | pointer | move | e-resize | ne-resize | nw-resize | n-resize | se-resize | sw-resize | s-resize | w-resize| text | wait | help ] ] | inherit auto
'direction' No ltr | rtl | inherit ltr
'display' inline | block | list-item | none | inherit inline | block | list-item | run-in | compact | marker | table | inline-table | table-row-group | table-header-group | table-footer-group | table-row | table-column-group | table-column | table-cell | table-caption | none | inherit inline
'elevation' No <angle> | below | level | above | higher | lower | inherit level
'empty-cells' No show | hide | inherit show
'float' Yes left | right | none | inherit none
'font' Yes [ [ 'font-style' || 'font-variant' || 'font-weight' ]? 'font-size' [ / 'line-height' ]? 'font-family' ] | caption | icon | menu | message-box | small-caption | status-bar | inherit see individual properties
'font-family' Yes [[ <family-name> | <generic-family> ],]* [ <family-name> | <generic-family> ] | inherit depends on user agent
'font-size' Yes <absolute-size> | <relative-size> | <length> | <percentage> | inherit medium
'font-size-adjust' No <number> | none | inherit none
'font-stretch' No normal | wider | narrower | ultra-condensed | extra-condensed | condensed | semi-condensed | semi-expanded | expanded | extra-expanded | ultra-expanded | inherit normal
'font-style' Yes normal | italic | oblique | inherit normal
'font-variant' Yes normal | small-caps | inherit normal
'font-weight' Yes normal | bold | bolder | lighter | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | inherit normal
'height' Yes <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit auto
'left' Yes <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit auto
'letter-spacing' No normal | <length> | inherit normal
'line-height' Yes normal | <number> | <length> | <percentage> | inherit normal
'list-style' Yes [ 'list-style-type' || 'list-style-position' || 'list-style-image' ] | inherit see individual properties
'list-style-image' Yes <uri> | none | inherit none
'list-style-position' Yes inside | outside | inherit outside
'list-style-type' disc | circle | square | decimal | lower-roman | upper-roman | lower-alpha | lower-latin | upper-alpha | upper-latin | none | inherit disc | circle | square | decimal | decimal-leading-zero | lower-roman | upper-roman | lower-greek | lower-alpha | lower-latin | upper-alpha | upper-latin | hebrew | armenian | georgian | cjk-ideographic | hiragana | katakana | hiragana-iroha | katakana-iroha | none | inherit disc
'margin' Yes <margin-width>{1,4} | inherit see individual properties
'margin-top' 'margin-right' 'margin-bottom' 'margin-left' Yes <margin-width> | inherit 0
'marker-offset' No <length> | auto | inherit auto
'marks' No [ crop || cross ] | none | inherit none
'max-height' No <length> | <percentage> | none | inherit none
'max-width' No <length> | <percentage> | none | inherit none
'min-height' No <length> | <percentage> | inherit 0
'min-width' No <length> | <percentage> | inherit depends on user agent
'orphans' No <integer> | inherit 2
'outline' Yes [ 'outline-color' || 'outline-style' || 'outline-width' ] | inherit see individual properties
'outline-color' Yes <color> | invert | inherit invert
'outline-style' Yes <border-style> | inherit none
'outline-width' Yes <border-width> | inherit medium
'overflow' No visible | hidden | scroll | auto | inherit visible
'padding' Yes <padding-width>{1,4} | inherit see individual properties
'padding-top' 'padding-right' 'padding-bottom' 'padding-left' Yes <padding-width> | inherit 0
'page' No <identifier> | auto auto
'page-break-after' No auto | always | avoid | left | right | inherit auto
'page-break-before' No auto | always | avoid | left | right | inherit auto
'page-break-inside' No avoid | auto | inherit auto
'pause' No [ [<time> | <percentage>]{1,2} ] | inherit depends on user agent
'pause-after' No <time> | <percentage> | inherit depends on user agent
'pause-before' No <time> | <percentage> | inherit depends on user agent
'pitch' No <frequency> | x-low | low | medium | high | x-high | inherit medium
'pitch-range' No <number> | inherit 50
'play-during' No <uri> mix? repeat? | auto | none | inherit auto
'position' static | relative | absolute | inherit static | relative | absolute | fixed | inherit static
'quotes' No [ <string><string>]+ | none | inherit depends on user agent
'richness' No <number> | inherit 50
'right' Yes <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit auto
'size' No <length>{1,2} | auto | portrait | landscape | inherit auto
'speak' No normal | none | spell-out | inherit normal
'speak-header' No once | always | inherit once
'speak-numeral' No digits | continuous | inherit continuous
'speak-punctuation' No code | none | inherit none
'speech-rate' No <number> | x-slow | slow | medium | fast | x-fast | faster | slower | inherit medium
'stress' No <number> | inherit 50
'table-layout' No auto | fixed | inherit auto
'text-align' left | right | center | justify | inherit left | right | center | justify | <string> | inherit depends on user agent and writing direction
'text-decoration' none | [ underline || overline || line-through ] | inherit none | [ underline || overline || line-through || blink ] | inherit none
'text-indent' Yes <length> | <percentage> | inherit 0
'text-shadow' No none | [<color> || <length> <length> <length>? ,]* [ <color> || <length> <length> <length>?] | inherit none
'text-transform' Yes capitalize | uppercase | lowercase | none | inherit none
'top' Yes <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit auto
'unicode-bidi' No normal | embed | bidi-override | inherit normal
'vertical-align' baseline | sub | super | top | middle | bottom | inherit baseline | sub | super | top | text-top | middle | bottom | text-bottom | <percentage> | <length> | inherit baseline
'visibility' Yes visible | hidden | collapse | inherit inherit
'voice-family' No [[ <specific-voice> | <generic-voice> ],]* [ <specific-voice> | <generic-voice> ] | inherit depends on user agent
'volume' No <number> | <percentage> | silent | x-soft | soft | medium | loud | x-loud | inherit medium
'white-space' Yes normal | pre | nowrap | inherit normal
'widows' No <integer> | inherit 2
'width' Yes. Note that a TV UA may implement a UA style sheet rule of *{max-width: 100%} to avoid horizontal scrolling. <length> | <percentage> | auto | inherit auto
'word-spacing' No normal | <length> | inherit normal
'z-index' Yes auto | <integer> | inherit auto

The following table summarizes CSS TV Profile properties and property values from the CSS3 Module: Color. Refer to [CSS3COLOR] for the definition of these properties and values.

Name CSS TV CSS Values Initial value
'color' HTML4 keywords, RGB and RGBA values, transparent, orange, inherit HTML4 keywords, RGB, RGBA, HSL, and HSLA values, transparent, X11 keywords, System Colors, flavor, attr(X,color), inherit depends on user agent
'color-profile' No auto | sRGB | <name> | <uri> | inherit auto
'opacity' Yes <alphavalue> | inherit 1
'rendering-intent' no auto | perceptual | relative-colorimetric | saturation | absolute-colorimetric | inherit auto

5. CSS Syntax

The CSS TV Profile uses the same syntax as specified in [CSS2]. The CSS TV Profile uses a subset of the values used in CSS2. Specifically:

  1. The TV-UA SHALL support integer and real numbers ([CSS2] Section 4.3.1).
  2. The TV-UA SHALL support the following lengths ([CSS2] Section 4.3.2): The TV-UA MAY support other lengths.
  3. The TV-UA SHALL support percentage values ([CSS2] Section 4.3.3).
  4. The TV-UA SHALL support URI values ([CSS2] Section 4.3.4).
  5. The TV-UA MAY support counter values ([CSS2] Section 4.3.5).
  6. The TV-UA SHALL support the following color values ([CSS2] Section 4.3.6): The TV-UA MAY support other color values.

Similarly, the CSS TV Profile requires that conforming user agents support the character encoding mechanisms specified in [CSS2]. Specifically:

  1. The TV-UA SHALL support priorities specified in [CSS2] to determine a document's character encoding.
  2. The TV-UA SHALL support the CSS2 @charset rules.

6. Assigning Property Values, Cascading, and Inheritance

In general, the CSS TV Profile uses the same cascading rules as in CSS2. Specifically:

  1. The TV-UA SHALL assign values as described in CSS2 ([CSS2] Section 6.1).
  2. The TV-UA SHALL support inheritance as described in CSS2 ([CSS2] Section 6.2).
  3. The TV-UA SHALL support the CSS2 @import rules as specified in CSS2 ([CSS2] Section 6.3).
  4. The TV-UA SHALL support author originating style sheets. The TV-UA MAY support user or user-agent originating style sheets ([CSS2] Section 6.4).
  5. The TV-UA SHALL support all CSS2 cascading mechanisms ([CSS2] Sections 6.4.1-6.4.4).

7. Media Types

A CSS TV Profile conforming user agent MUST be able to process media-dependent style sheets as specified in CSS2 ([CSS2] Section 7). Specifically:

  1. The TV-UA SHALL support the CSS2 @media rules as specified in CSS2 ([CSS2] Section 7).
  2. The TV-UA SHALL accept and process style sheets that target the tv media type.
  3. The TV-UA SHALL accept and process style sheets that target the all media type.
  4. The TV-UA SHALL accept style sheets that contain other (non-tv) media-dependent style sheets.
  5. The TV-UA MAY process other media types (such as screen or print).

The TV-UA is not required to satisfy the CSS2 conformance statement pertaining to the tv media type (see [CSS2] Section 7.3.1); the TV-UA need only satisfy the conformance statements in this specification.

8. Acknowledgements

This document derives from the CSS Level 1 and CSS level 2 Recommendations, the CSS3 Module: Color and the CSS Mobile Profile 1.0. We thank all CSS1, CSS2, CSS3 Module: Color and CSS Mobile Profile authors, editors and contributors.

We would like to thank the participants in the CSS Working Group, especially Bert Bos, Chris Lilley, and Tapas Kanti Roy for their direct feedback on the draft.

We would like to thank the contributors on www-style@w3.org. We would like to especially thank ARIB, Akihiko Handa, Joel Zdepski, Etan Wexler, Kynn Bartlett, Björn Höhrmann, fantasai and Susan Lesch for their valuable comments on the drafts of this document.

Appendix A. Normative References

[CSS1]
Cascading Style Sheets, level 1, H.W. Lie and B. Bos, 17 December 1996, revised 11 Jan 1999. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-CSS1-19990111.
[CSS2]
Cascading Style Sheets, level 2, B. Bos, et al., 12 May 1998. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-CSS2-19980512.
[CSS3COLOR]
CSS3 Module: Color, T. Çelik and C. Lilley, 14 May 2003. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/CR-css3-color-20030514.
[HTML401]
HTML 4.01 Specification, D. Raggett, A. Le Hors, I. Jacobs, 24 December 1999. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224.
[RFC2119]
Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels, S. Bradner, March 1997. Available at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.