A Touch of Class

CSS and Multi-Script Text

First, an announcement:

I will be presenting on April 7th at the 27th Internationalization and Unicode Conference in Berlin. I've just received confirmation this past week. My topic is Robust Vertical Text Layout: Using the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm to Handle Complexities in Typesetting Multi-Script Vertical Text and it will be the basis of the upcoming CSS3 Text Layout module. The paper is based on Robust Vertical Text Layout, most of which I wrote while at Opera over the summer. (That in turn is based on work I did earlier during and after commenting on the CSS3 Text Last Call.)

Second, a call for help:

I've been asked to include more details on line breaking restrictions in CSS3 Text, in particular the difference between “strict” and non-strict line breaking rules in East Asian languages. I've found some information on Japanese: Japanese Rule Book

I can't read it. Also, I have no information on this topic for Chinese or Korean except Copy MS Word. Any help figuring this issue out would be appreciated.

Third, a request for complaints:

If you write or design in language besides English, and HTML+CSS (as specified, nevermind implementations) does not offer the typographic feature support you need, please post to the www-style mailing list about it. Preferably with a nice explanation so we can do something about it. If you can't be bothered with writing to the W3C list, then at least bitch to me about it so that we (the CSS Working Group) know what CSS lacks outside the Western tongues and who to contact for more information.