1 About the CSS2 Specification

This document has been written with two types of readers in mind: CSS authors and CSS implementors. We hope the specification will provide authors with the tools they need to write efficient, attractive, and accessible documents, without overexposing them to CSS's implementation details. Implementors, however, should find all they need to build user agents that interpret CSS correctly.

The specification has been written with two modes of presentation in mind: electronic and printed. Although the two presentations will no doubt be similar, readers will find some differences. For example, links will not work in the printed version (obviously), and page numbers will not appear in the electronic version. In case of a discrepancy, the electronic version is considered the authoritative version of the document.

1.1 How to read the specification

The specification may be approached in several ways:

• Read from beginning to end. The specification begins with a general presentation of CSS and becomes more and more technical and specific towards the end. This is reflected in the specification's main table of contents, which presents topical information, and the indexes, which present lower level information in alphabetical order.

• Quick access to information. In order to get information about syntax and semantics as quickly as possible, the electronic version of the specification includes the following features:
  1. Every reference to an property or value is linked to its definition in the specification.
  2. Every page will include links to the table of contents and to the index, so readers of the electronic version will never be more than two links away from finding the definition of a property or value.

1.2 How the specification is organized

This specification includes the following sections:

Section 2: An introduction CSS2

The introduction begins with a brief tutorial in CSS2. The following section discusses design principles behind CSS2. Finally, we provide a list of suggested practice for style sheet authors.

Sections 3 - 19: CSS2 reference manual.

The bulk of the reference manual is the definition of CSS2, including all properties and their values.

Appendixes:

The appendix contains information about a sample style sheet for HTML 4.0, changes from CSS1 , implementation and performance , the grammar of CSS2, and a list of normative and informative references.

General index:

The general index contains links to key concepts, property and value definitions, and other useful information.

1.3 Acknowledgments

This specification is the product of the W3C Working Group on Cascading Style Sheets and Formatting Properties. In addition to the editors of this specification, the members of the Working Group are: Brad Chase (Bitstream), Chris Wilson (Microsoft), Daniel Glazman (Electricité de France), Dave Raggett (W3C/HP), Ed Tecot (Microsoft), Jared Sorensen (Novell), Lauren Wood (SoftQuad), Laurie Anna Kaplan (Microsoft), Mike Wexler (Adobe), Murray Maloney (Grif), Powell Smith (IBM), Robert Stevahn (HP), Steve Byrne (JavaSoft), Steven Pemberton (CWI), and Thom Phillabaum (Netscape). We thank them for their continued efforts.

A number of invited experts to the Working Group have contributed: George Kersher, Glenn Rippel (Bitstream), Jeff Veen (HotWired), Markku T. Hakkinen (The Productivity Works), Martin Dürst (Universität Zürich), Roy Platon (RAL), Todd Fahrner (Verso) and Vincent Quint (W3C).

The section on Web Fonts was strongly shaped by Brad Chase (Bitstream) David Meltzer (Microsoft Typography) and Steve Zilles (Adobe). The following people have also contributed in various ways to the section pertaining to fonts: Alex Beamon (Apple), Ashok Saxena (Adobe), Ben Bauermeister (HP), Dave Raggett (W3C/HP), David Opstad (Apple), David Goldsmith (Apple), Ed Tecot (Microsoft), Erik van Blokland (LettError), François Yergeau (Alis), Gavin Nicol (Inso), Herbert van Zijl (Elsevier), Liam Quin, Misha Wolf (Reuters), Paul Haeberli (SGI), and the late Phil Karlton (Netscape).

The section on Paged Media was in large parts authored by Robert Stevahn (HP) and Stephen Waters (Microsoft).

Robert Stevahn (HP), along with Scott Furman (Netscape) and Scott Isaacs (Microsoft) were key contributors to CSS Positioning.

Mike Wexler (Adobe) was the editor of the interim Working Draft which described many of the new features of CSS2.

T.V.Raman (Adobe) made pivotal contributions towards Aural Cascading Style Sheets and the concepts of Aural presentation.

Todd Fahrner (Verso) researched contemporary and historical browsers to develop the sample style sheet in the appendix.

Through electronic and physical encounters, the following people have contributed to the development of CSS2: James Clark, Dan Connolly, Douglas Rand, Sho Kuwamoto, Donna Converse, Scott Isaacs, Lou Montulli, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, Jacob Nielsen, Vincent Mallet, Philippe Le Hegaret, William Perry, David Siegel, Al Gilman, Jason White, Daniel Dardailler.

The discussions on www-style@w3.org have been influential in many key issues for CSS. Especially, we would like to thank Bjorn Backlund, Todd Fahrner, MegaZone, Eric Meyer, David Perrell, Liam Quinn and Chris Wilson for their participation.

Special thanks to Arnaud Le Hors, whose engineering contributions made this document work.

Lastly, thanks to Tim Berners-Lee without whom none of this would have been possible.