Web Platform Wednesdays, Week 4: Visual formatting
For Week Four of Web Platform Wednesday, we focus on the visual formatting model properties: margins, padding, width, height, position, float, clear, display, top, right, bottom, left, z-index, direction, and unicode-bidi. Best practices are scattered all over the place for some of these basic properties:
- Remove defaults on different browsers by resetting margins to 0 – wait a second… that's a lot of rendering!
- To increase accuracy of finger-based events, increase padding and margins.
Folks need explanations and examples that are tried and true, that use best practices, and that follow design principles, such as simplicity, visibility, and reuse. A lot of thought can go into crafting one of these CSS properties pages. Contributing to one of these properties is a great way to deepen your own understanding of the basics. What are the experts saying about using the property now? How are designers and developers creating new uses for new browsers, devices, and workflows?
But first and foremost, the Web Platform Wednesday project is focusing on the basics: ensure the syntax, descriptions, and examples are accurate. You don't need to be an expert to look at a page and make sure the values match the spec, or that it provides basic facts or solid examples. That's why we're here: to get the facts down and to provide clear, usable information about these properties. Join us this week as we form the foundations of this dynamic resource.