Accessible Name and Description Computation 1.1 is a W3C Recommendation

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group has published Accessible Name and Description Computation 1.1 (Accname) as a W3C Recommendation. Accname describes how user agents determine the names and descriptions of accessible objects from web content languages. The name is a simple label for the object, and the description provides additional information. These are both standard features of accessibility APIs, which allow assistive technologies to identify these objects and present their names or descriptions to users. Documenting the algorithm through which names and descriptions are to be determined promotes interoperable exposure of these properties among different accessibility APIs and helps to ensure that this information appears in a manner consistent with author intent. Separate accessibility API mapping (AAM) specifications define the actual way these features are exposed to accessibility APIs; Accname just describes how the name and description are computed using a variety of content features that may be present at the same time. Read about the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

First Public Working Drafts: The Profiles Ontology; Content Negotiation by Profile

The Dataset Exchange Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts today:

• The Profiles Ontology is an RDF vocabulary to describe profiles of (one or more) standards for information resources. It describes the general pattern of narrowing the scope of a specification with additional, but consistent, constraints, and is particularly relevant to data exchange situations where conformance to such profiles is expected and carries additional context. The Profiles Ontology enables profile descriptions to specify the role of resources related to data exchange such as schemas, ontologies, rules about use of controlled vocabularies, validation tools, and guidelines. The ontology may however be used to describe the role of artifacts in any situation where constraints are made on a the usage of more general specifications.
• Content Negotiation by Profile describes how Internet clients may negotiate for content provided by servers according to profiles. This is distinct from negotiating by Media Type or Language: the profile is expected to specify the content of information returned, which may be a subset of the information the responding server has about the requested resource, and may be structured in a specific way to meet interoperability requirements of a community of practice.

First Public Working Draft: CSS Fragmentation Module Level 4

18 December 2018

The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Fragmentation Module Level 4. This module describes the fragmentation model that partitions a flow into pages, columns, or regions. It builds on the Page model module and introduces and defines the fragmentation model. It adds functionality for pagination, breaking variable fragment size and orientation, widows and orphans.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

W3C Invites Implementations of Geometry Interfaces Module Level 1; CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3

4 December 2018

The CSS Working Group invites implementations of two updated Candidate Recommendations:

• Geometry Interfaces Module Level 1 provides basic geometric interfaces to represent points, rectangles, quadrilaterals and transformation matrices that can be used by other modules or specifications.
• CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3 describes the fragmentation model that partitions a flow into pages, columns, or regions. It builds on the Page model module and introduces and defines the fragmentation model. It adds functionality for pagination, breaking variable fragment size and orientation, widows and orphans.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.

New Resource: Developing an Accessibility Statement

30 November 2018

The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has published Developing an Accessibility Statement.

The resource helps you create an accessibility statement for your website, mobile app, or other digital content. It includes guidance, examples, and a free generator tool. The tool helps you collect and enter relevant information to create an accessibility statement for your particular content and situation. See more information in How to Create Accessibility Statements blog post.

Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

First Public Working Draft: Extensions to the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology

22 November 2018

The Spatial Data on the Web Interest Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Extensions to the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology. This specification describes some extensions to the Semantic Sensor Network Ontology, published as a W3C Recommendation in 2017, to enable linking to the ultimate feature-of-interest for an observation, act of sampling, or actuation, and homogeneous collections of observations, in which one or more of the properties may be shared by all members of the collection.

First Public Working Draft: CSS Shadow Parts

15 November 2018

The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Shadow Parts. This specification defines the ‘::part()’ pseudo-element on shadow hosts, allowing shadow hosts to selectively expose chosen elements from their shadow tree to the outside page for styling purposes.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.

New Resource: The Business Case for Digital Accessibility

9 November 2018

The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has published The Business Case for Digital Accessibility.

It describes how accessibility can drive innovation, enhance your brand, extend market reach, and minimize legal risk. It includes direct and indirect benefits of accessibility and the risks of not addressing accessibility adequately. It provides case studies and examples that demonstrate how investment in accessibility is good for your organization.

Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

First Public Working Drafts: Personalization Tools 1.0; Personalization Help and Support 1.0

18 October 2018

The Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts today:

• Personalization Tools 1.0 document list examples of the tools defined values, this is an extension of Personalization Explainer 1.0.
• Personalization Help and Support 1.0 document lists examples of the personalized help and support properties. This is an extension of Personalization Explainer 1.0. including the properties of literal, numberfree, easylang, alternative, explain, feedback, moreinfo,extrahelp, helptype.

Read more about the Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Call for Review: Accessible Name and Description Computation 1.1 is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

18 October 2018

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Accessible Name and Description Computation 1.1. This document describes how user agents determine the names and descriptions of accessible objects from web content languages. This information is in turn exposed through accessibility APIs so that assistive technologies can identify these objects and present their names or descriptions to users. Documenting the algorithm through which names and descriptions are to be determined promotes interoperable exposure of these properties among different accessibility APIs and helps to ensure that this information appears in a manner consistent with author intent. Read about the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Call for Review: Pointer Events Level 2 is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

16 October 2018

The Pointer Events Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Pointer Events Level 2. The features in this specification extend or modify those found in Pointer Events, a W3C Recommendation that describes events and related interfaces for handling hardware agnostic pointer input from devices including a mouse, pen, touchscreen, etc. For compatibility with existing mouse based content, this specification also describes a mapping to fire Mouse Events for other pointer device types.

Upcoming Workshop: Web Standardization for Graph Data

W3C announced today a Workshop on Web Standardization for Graph Data, 4-6 March 2019, in Berlin, Germany. The event is hosted by Neo4J.

This workshop brings together people with an interest in the future of standards relating to graph data, and its ever growing importance in relation to the Internet of Things, smart enterprises, smart cities, etc., open markets of services, and synergies with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML).

The scope includes:

Harmonising different perspectives on database management systems:

• The role of annotations, e.g. spatial, temporal, provenance, data quality, trust, etc. and opportunities for extending RDF to better support them;
• the relationship between RDF and other related approaches, e.g. Labelled Property Graphs and work by ETSI ISG CIM;
• requirements for graph query and update languages and
• requirements for rule languages for graph data.

Managing the silos, big data, AI and machine learning:

• Techniques for dealing with incomplete, uncertain and inconsistent knowledge;
• different kinds of reasoning, e.g. deductive, inductive, abductive, analogical, spatial, temporal, causal, social, and emotional and
• challenges for Big Data, AI/ML, and enterprise knowledge-graphs.

Scalability, security, trust, APIs and vocabulary development:

• Techniques for mapping data between vocabularies with overlapping semantics, as a basis for scaling across different communities;
• digital signatures for RDF and Property graphs, e.g. to verify that the graph hasn’t been tampered with;
• what’s next for remote access to data and information services;
• whether it is timely and appropriate to standardise a JavaScript API for Linked Data and
• how to make W3C a more attractive venue for work on vocabularies.

We aim to share experiences, use case studies, new directions and insights on what’s needed for the next generation of Web data standards.

For more information on the workshop, please see details and submission instructions, and further background information. Expression of Interest and position statements are due by 15 December 2018.

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 is now a W3C Recommendation

The CSS Working Group has published CSS Fonts Module Level 3 as a W3C Recommendation. This CSS Module describes how to specify fonts used in CSS, including Web Fonts downloaded on demand. It also describes how to access advanced typographic features in fonts, and how to control font loading. This specification is implemented in all modern browsers. More information is available in the blog post: CSS Fonts 3 is a W3C Recommendation.

W3C Invites Implementations of Web Audio API

18 September 2018

The Audio Working Group invites implementations of Web Audio API Candidate Recommendation. Web Audio is a high-level Web API for processing and synthesizing audio in web applications. The primary paradigm is of an audio routing graph, where a number of AudioNode objects are connected together to define the overall audio rendering. The actual processing will primarily take place in the underlying implementation, but using AudioWorklet, direct script processing and synthesis from JavaScript or WebAssembly is also supported.

Authorized Translation of WCAG 2.1 in Italian

Today the World Wide Web Consortium released the Authorized Italian Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, Linee guida per l’accessibilità dei contenuti Web (WCAG) 2.1, contributed by International Web Association (IWA). This translation of WCAG 2.1 coincides with the adoption of the EU Web Accessibility Directive and the related European Standard EN 301 549, which refers to WCAG 2.1. You may read W3C Blog post to learn more about the Adoption of WCAG 2.1 in Europe. Roberto Scano from IWA, who coordinated the translation, published a blog post in Italian.

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) encourages the development of W3C Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.1 in all languages. Read about the Policy for W3C Authorized Translations.

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS Display Module Level 3

The CSS Working Group invites implementations of CSS Display Module Level 3 Candidate Recommendation. This module describes how the CSS formatting box tree is generated from the document element tree and defines the ‘display’ property that controls it.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 3; Level 4

The CSS Working Group invites implementations of two updated Candidate Recommendations of CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 3 and CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 4. The CSS module defined in these documents describes how to collate style rules and assign values to all properties on all elements. By way of cascading and inheritance, values are propagated for all properties on all elements. New in the Level 4 are the ‘revert’ keyword and <supports-condition> for the ‘@import’ rule.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS Painting API Level 1

The CSS Working Group invites implementations of a Candidate Recommendation of CSS Painting API Level 1, an API for allowing web developers to define a custom CSS <image> with javascript, which will respond to style and size changes. See EXPLAINER.

W3C Invites Implementations of Timed Text Markup Language 1 (TTML1) (Third Edition)

The Timed Text Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of Timed Text Markup Language 1 (TTML1) (Third Edition). This document specifies Timed Text Markup Language (TTML), Version 1, also known as TTML1, in terms of a vocabulary and semantics thereof.

The Timed Text Markup Language is a content type that represents timed text media for the purpose of interchange among authoring systems. Timed text is textual information that is intrinsically or extrinsically associated with timing information.

It is intended to be used for the purpose of transcoding or exchanging timed text information among legacy distribution content formats presently in use for subtitling and captioning functions.

In addition to being used for interchange among legacy distribution content formats, TTML Content may be used directly as a distribution format, for example, providing a standard content format to reference from a <track> element in an HTML5 document, or a <text> or <textstream> media element in a [SMIL 2.1] document.

New version of the Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile

W3C has published a new version of its Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile, an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the capabilities of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context.

The contents of the roadmap have been updated to follow the evolution of the Web platform since April 2018. See the Change history for details. Most of these updates focused on mechanisms that allow mobile web applications to tweak performance settings and gain finer-grained control over the browser’s default behavior. In particular, new exploratory work and technologies in progress mentioned in the Performance and Tuningpage include:

• the CSS Animation Worklet API to create scripted animations in a dedicated thread,
• the CSS contain property to indicate that an element’s subtree is independent of the rest of the page,
• the proposed CSS overscroll-behavior property to control the behavior of a scroll container when its scrollport reaches the boundary of its scroll box,
• the Event Timing Web Perf API to measure the latency of events triggered by user interaction,
• the Identifiers for WebRTC’s Statistics API to monitor the performance of the network and media pipeline in peer-to-peer scenarios, and
• Priority Hints to let developers signal the priority of each resource they need to download.

The roadmap did not mention WebDriver, recently published as a W3C Recommendation, a key technology for mobile web developers as it enables automated testing across browsers and devices. This was an oversight, fixed in this new version.

The implementation info rendered in tables now also embeds information from the MDN Browser Compatibility Dataproject. A new “partial” badge also indicates that an implementation may be incomplete, either because it is, or because implementation data is not complete enough to assess support of the entire specification.

Sponsored by Beihang University, this project is part of a set of roadmaps under development in a GitHub repository to document existing standards, highlight ongoing standardization efforts, point out topics under incubation, and discuss technical gaps that may need to be addressed in the future. New versions will be published on a quarterly basis, or as needed depending on progress of key technologies of the Web platform. We encourage the community to review them and raise comments, or suggest new ones, in the repository’s issue tracker.

First Public Working Drafts: WAI-ARIA 1.2, Core-AAM 1.2, and ARIA Practices 1.2

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group has published First Public Working Drafts of Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.2 (WAI-ARIA), Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.2 (Core-AAM), and WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices 1.2 (ARIA APG). WAI-ARIA 1.2 continues development of the technology after ARIA 1.1 was completed in December 2017. This version focuses primarily on providing roles to match features of HTML, which is needed by technologies such as Web Components and Accessible Object Model. Core-AAM 1.2 provides accessibility API mappings for these new roles, and ARIA Practices 1.2 describes recommended authoring patterns for these new roles. For more information, see the blog post Accessible Rich Internet Applications 1.2. Read about the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Workshop Report: Web5G: Aligning evolutions of network and Web technologies

W3C published today the report of the W3C Workshop on Web5G: Aligning evolutions of network and Web technologies, which was held on 10-11 May 2018, in London.

The report contains a summary of each session with links to the presentation slides. More detailed meeting minutes are also available[1][2].

Network Operators, vendors, application developers, content provider and standard makers participated in this event which was designed to explore how the Open Web Platform could help drive the adoption of 5G innovations from the applications layer to the network level.

During the two days, participants reviewed opportunities that new emerging innovations and capabilities at the application layers can bring to the 5G network. The workshop concluded with the proposed creation of a task force of participants to explore how the 5G and Web communities might work in a productive and cohesive manner.

In particular, there was wide agreement on the benefit of developing compelling business and technical reasons and objectives to incentivize and drive a close collaboration among the W3C, 5G standard organizations (e.g. 3GPP), browser vendors, developers, equipment vendors and network operators. The goal is to create an environment conducive to the development and deployment of technologies that are supported by all the stakeholders in the ecosystem.

We thank our host, GSMA, and the Program Committee for making this event possible.

Upcoming W3C Workshop on Permissions and User Consent

12 July 2018

W3C announced today a W3C Workshop on Permissions and User Consent, September 18-19, 2018, in San Diego, California, USA. The event is hosted by Qualcomm.

The primary goal of the workshop is to bring together security and privacy experts, UI/UX researchers, browser vendors, mobile OS developers, API authors, Web publishers and users to address the privacy, security and usability challenges presented by a complex and overlapping variety of permissions and consent systems available for hardware sensors, device capabilities and applications on the Web.

The scope includes:

• user consent;
• bundling of permissions;
• lifetime/duration of permissions;
• permission inheritance to iframes and other embedded elements;
• relation to same origin policy;
• UIs and controls;
• interaction with private browsing modes;
• implicit permission grants;
• progressive permission grants;
• cross-stack permissions: how OS, browser, and web app permissions interact;
• permission transparency;
• relation to regulatory requirements;
• special considerations for systems that use the browser as a pass-through
• permissions/transparency/UI as it relates to display-less devices that connect to the Internet.

For more information on the workshop, please see the workshop details and submission instructions. Expression of Interest and position statements are due by August 17, 2018.

W3C Invites Implementations of Payment Request API

10 July 2018

The Web Payments Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of Payment Request API. This specification standardizes an API to allow merchants (i.e. web sites selling physical or digital goods) to utilize one or more payment methods with minimal integration. User agents (e.g., browsers) facilitate the payment flow between merchant and user.

W3C Invites Implementations of User Timing Level 2

9 July 2018

The Web Performance Working Group invites implementations of User Timing Level 2 Candidate Recommendation. This specification defines an interface to help web developers measure the performance of their applications by giving them access to high precision timestamps.

W3C launches Internationalization Initiative

9 July 2018

The World Wide Web Consortium today launched the Internationalization Initiative to expand core work in further internationalizing the Web. “Supporting the W3C Internationalization Initiative with funding or expertise is a vital way that our Web community creates the future of the global Web,” said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. W3C thanks Alibaba, Apple, Advanced Publishing Lab (Keio University), Monotype, and The Paciello Group who have stepped up as Founding Sponsors. Read about W3C Internationalization and its Sponsorship Program and the press release and testimonials.

W3C Invites Implementations of the Timed Text Markup Language 2 (TTML2)

The Timed Text Working Group invites implementations of an updated Timed Text Markup Language 2 (TTML2)Candidate Recommendation. This document specifies the Timed Text Markup Language (TTML), Version 2, also known as TTML2, in terms of a vocabulary and semantics thereof.

The Timed Text Markup Language is a content type that represents timed text media for the purpose of interchange among authoring systems. Timed text is textual information that is intrinsically or extrinsically associated with timing information.

Upcoming Workshop: Digital Publication Layout and Presentation (from Manga to Magazines)

26 June 2018

W3C announced today a W3C Workshop on Digital Publication Layout and Presentation (from Manga to Magazines), September 18-19 2018, in Tokyo, Japan. The event is hosted by the Advanced Publishing Laboratory, at the historic Mita Campus of Keio University.

The primary goal of the workshop is to bring together experts to evaluate the current status and explore future directions of visually-rich long-form digital publications based on Web Technologies (particularly CSS, the formatting language of the Web), encompassing both fixed and dynamic layouts.

Expected topics of discussion include:

• Advanced layout using recent and upcoming CSS innovations, particularly for mobile and other devices (CSS grid, viewport units, media queries, css-shapes, etc.)
• “Smart transitions” for manga/comics including “Turbo Media” and other new forms
• Analysis of proprietary platforms in comics, magazines, and other verticals
• Comparison of image-dominated and text-dominated fixed-layout (and considerations for choosing reflowable vs. fixed representations, such as accessibility)
• Differences between rendering of fixed-layout EPUB in dedicated EPUB reading systems and typical browser rendering of HTML-SVG-CSS, and considerations for convergence
• Accessibility for high-design digital publications
• Innovative and interactive high-design digital publications
• Use of interactive features (e.g., scroll snap) of CSS for sequential art
• Programmatic (JavaScript) vs. declarative (HTML/CSS, SVG) representations
• Lessons learned from IDPF efforts on advanced hybrid layout and page templates
• Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques as applied to content production (such as inferring CSS layouts from images) and accessibility (such as inferring reading order and other accessibility characteristics)
• Internationalization of high-design digital publications
• Print formatting of high-design publications via CSS
• Responsive design for long-form publications
• Possibilities afforded by emerging Web Fonts capabilities (chromatic fonts, variable fonts, etc.)
• Color management

For more information on the workshop, please see the workshop details and submission instructions. Expression of Interest and position statements are due by 20 July 2018.

Call for Review: Graphics-ARIA and Graphics-AAM are W3C Proposed Recommendations

26 June 2018

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group has published two Proposed Recommendations:

• WAI-ARIA Graphics Module (Graphics-ARIA): Assistive technologies need semantic information about the structures and expected behaviors of a document in order to convey appropriate information to persons with disabilities. This specification defines a WAI-ARIA 1.1 [WAI-ARIA-1.1] module of core roles specific to web graphics. These semantics allow an author to express the logical structure of the graphic to assistive technologies in order improve accessibility of graphics. Assistive technologies could then enable semantic navigation and adapt styling and interactive features, to provide an optimal experience for the audience. These features complement the graphics and document structure elements defined by HTML [HTML52] and SVG [SVG2].
• Graphics Accessibility API Mappings (Graphics-AAM): This specification defines how user agents map the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0] markup to platform accessibility APIs. It is intended for user agent developers responsible for accessibility in their user agent so that they can support the accessibility of graphics such as that created for [SVG] or [HTML52]. The implementation of this specification in user agents enables authors to produce more accessible graphics by conveying common graphics semantics to assistive technologies. It provides Accessibility API Mapping guidance for the roles defined in the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0].

These documents are part of the WAI-ARIA suite described in the WAI-ARIA Overview. Comments are welcome through 

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS Fonts Module Level 3

26 June 2018

The CSS Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of CSS Fonts Module Level 3. This CSS3 module describes how font properties are specified and how font resources are loaded dynamically. The contents of this specification are a consolidation of content previously divided into CSS3 Fonts and CSS3 Web Fonts modules. The description of font load events was moved into the CSS Font Loading module.

CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 (CSS3 UI) is now a W3C Recommendation

21 June 2018

The CSS Working Group has published CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 (CSS3 UI) as a W3C Recommendation. This specification describes user interface related properties and values that are proposed for CSS level 3 to style HTML and XML (including XHTML). It includes and extends user interface related features from the properties and values of CSS level 2 revision 1. It uses various properties and values to style basic user interface elements in a document. This specification is implemented in all modern browsers.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc.

W3C Invites Implementations of WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers

21 June 2018

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers. The WebRTC 1.0 specification defines JavaScript APIs to enable real-time audio, video and data exchange on the Web. Since the previous publication as Candidate Recommendation, the specification was updated with a number of bug fixes and clarifications in its algorithms. The following new APIs were added as part of these improvements: RTCRtpSender.setStreams(), RTCRtpTransceiver.currentDirection, RTCSctpTransport.maxChannels, RTCPeerConnection.onstatsended, and the RTCStatsEventinterface.

W3C Staff Kaz Ashimura wins TTC award for Information Communication Technology

20 June 2018

W3C announced today it was offering Diversity Scholarships. The announcement was made as part of the publication of W3C top-level diversity statistics.

The lack of diversity in tech is a longstanding issue. We would like W3C to be a model of supporting diversity. As an international organization we can see the immense value we gain from having expertise from across multiple countries and cultures. Soon 50% of the world will be on the Web. We know we will need to reflect the diversity of the whole of our world as more and more people begin to access, use and continue to create the Web in all its full potential.

During the Spring W3C Advisory Committee Meeting, a panel on diversity focused on progress we have made and how much more is required. W3C has established a modest fund for TPAC Diversity Scholarships, sponsored by W3C Members Samsung Electronics, The Paciello Group, Consensus System and Microsoft.

Applicants must be from a traditionally underrepresented and/or marginalized group in the Web community, including but not limited to: persons identifying as LGBTQ, women, persons of color, and/or persons with disabilities; and be unable to attend without some financial assistance. Please submit or share with friends who qualify and might be interested, by 15 July.

If your organization or yourself wishes to become a sponsor, please e-mail us!

CSS Color Module Level 3 is a W3C Edited Recommendation

19 June 2018

The CSS Working Group has published CSS Color Module Level 3 as a W3C Edited Recommendation. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language for describing the rendering of HTML and XML documents on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. It uses color-related properties and values to color the text, backgrounds, borders, and other parts of elements in a document. This specification describes color values and properties for foreground color and group opacity. These include properties and values from CSS level 2 and new values. This specification incorporates errata raised against the previous W3C Recommendation for CSS Color 3. This specification is fully implemented in all modern browsers.