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This document points to resources for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Latin script. The target audience includes developers of Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode, as well as implementers of web browsers, ebook readers, and other applications that need to render Latin text.
This document points to resources for Latin script layout and text support on the Web and in eBooks. These requirements provide information for Web technologies such as CSS, HTML and digital publications about how to support languages written using the Latin script. The information here is developed in conjunction with a document that summarises gaps where the Web fails to adequately support the Latin script.
The editor's draft of this document is being developed in the GitHub repository European Language Enablement (eurlreq), with contributors from the W3C Internationalization Interest Group. It is published by the Internationalization Working Group. The end target for this document is a Working Group Note.
To make it easier to track comments, please raise separate issues or emails for each comment, and point to the section you are commenting on using a URL.
Some links on this page point to repositories or pages to which information will be added over time. Initially, the link may produce no results, but as issues, tests, etc. are created they will show up.
Links that have a gray color led to no content the last time this document was updated. They are still live, however, since relevant content could be added at any time. When the document is updated, links that now point to results will have their live colour restored.
Introduction
Contributors
The initial version of this document was prepared by Richard Ishida.
See also the GitHub contributors list for the Europe Language Enablement project, and the discussions related to the Latin script.
About this document
This document points to resources for Latin script layout and text support on the Web and in eBooks. These resources provide information for developers of Web technologies such as CSS, HTML and digital publications, and for application developers, about how to support languages written using the Latin script. They include requirements, tests, GitHub discussions, type samples, and more,
Gap analysis
This document should be used alongside a separate document, Latin Script Gap Analysis, which describes gaps in language support for users of the Latin script, and prioritises and describes the impact of those gaps on the user.
Gap reports are brought to the attention of spec and browser implementers, and are tracked via the Gap Analysis Pipeline. (Filter for Latin script items)
Other related resources
The document Language enablement index points to this document and others, and provides a central location for developers and implementers to find information related to various scripts.
The W3C also has a repository with discussion threads related to the Latin script, including requests from developers to the user community for information about how scripts/languages work, and a notification system that tracks issues in W3C working groups related to the Latin script. See a list of unresolved questions for Latin experts. Each section below points to related discussions. See also the repository home page.
Latin Script Overview
The Latin script is an alphabet. It is largely phonetic in nature, where each letter represents a basic sound, and all vowel sounds are written using letters. However, many languages are written using a Latin script orthography, and the correspondences between sounds and letters can vary significantly.
Many languages are written only in the Latin script, whereas others use the Latin script as an alternative to another script. The Latin script is also widely used for romanized and phonetic transcriptions of text in other scripts.
All topics
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
Text direction
Writing mode
Latin script text is written horizontally in rows the progress from top to bottom.
Bidirectional text
Not applicable.
Glyph shaping & positioning
Fonts & font styles
- Requirements
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
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Context-based shaping & positioning
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
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Cursive text
Not applicable.
Letterform slopes, weights, & italics
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Case & other character transforms
- Requirements
-
- r12a blog: Notes on case conversion • Bicameral scripts
- GitHub discussions
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Typographic units
Characters & encoding
- Requirements
- GitHub discussions
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Grapheme/word segmentation & selection
- GitHub discussions
- Tools
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Punctuation & inline features
Phrase & section boundaries
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Punctuation
- GitHub discussions
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Quotations & citations
- Requirements
-
- Wikipedia: Quotation mark
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Emphasis & highlighting
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
- tbd
Inline notes & annotations
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
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Other text decoration & inline features
- Requirements
-
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Line & paragraph layout
Line breaking & hyphenation
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Hyphenation • The Classical Rules of Hyphenation and Pagination
- Approaches to line-breaking
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Text alignment & justification
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Justification
- Approaches to full justification
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Text spacing
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Baselines, line height, etc.
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Baseline grids
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Lists, counters, etc.
- Requirements
-
- Ready-made Counter Styles: Latin
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Styling initials
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Initial capitals
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Page & book layout
General page layout & progression
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Paginating single-column text • Heads • Images • Sidebars
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Grids & tables
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Tables
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Footnotes, endnotes, etc
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Footnotes
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Page headers, footers, etc
- Requirements
-
- Requirements for Latin Text Layout and Pagination: Running headers and footers
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-
Forms & user interaction
- GitHub discussions
- Type samples
- Tests
-
- Exploratory/interactive test results (tbc)
- Exploratory/interactive test repo (tbc)
- Gap analysis
- Specification links
-