[css-inline] better name for initial-letters property · Issue #2950 · w3c/csswg-drafts (original) (raw)

Unless the plan is to extend this property to apply beyond first child or first pseudo-element in a block, I think it is useful to preserve the initial- (or initials-) prefix for the properties.

However, I agree that the suffix -letter (or -letters, as it is currently spec'd) does not make sense for the primary property, which isn't defining a letter to use, it's defining a number of lines to span and to drop.

I would argue against the following suggestions:

• lettrine, versals : obscure terms. I'd have no idea what these words meant if they weren't part of this discussion. I'd probably have a hard time remembering how to spell either, and my browser dictionary tells me that the correct spellings are incorrect.
• -ornaments, -decoration: imply something added to the text, not just text sizing changes.
• dropcap: implies that the "dropping" part is essential. (And maybe isn't very easily translated to languages that don't have capitalization?)
• line-span: would be nice if the property actually applied to any element (like a floated image), but it doesn't communicate the "initial" restrictions in the spec. And line-span-align, line-span-wrap are just confusing.

I think initial(s)-line-span is clear, if long. Or initials-span, with the s required to prevent span from being read as a noun. Alternatives: initials-scale or initials-expansion, but those don't cover the "drop" half of the property as effectively.

The other properties would just be initials-align, initials-wrap.

(Sadly, there is no potential for an initials shorthand so long as the alignment properties are inherited and the sizing one is not. If there was an interest in changing the inheritance to create an overall shorthand, though, then the main property could be decomposed into initial-scale vs initial-drop, where -drop has auto as a default.)