Intent to Prototype: SVG textPath side attribute

[Chromestatus]

Contact emails

hyo...@igalia.com

Specification

https://w3c.github.io/svgwg/svg2-draft/text.html#TextPathElementSideAttribute

Summary

The side attribute on the SVG <textPath> element places text on the opposite side of the path, equivalent to reversing the path direction. This lets authors label a shape's interior or exterior (e.g. text inside vs. outside a circular path) without duplicating or manually reversing path data.

Blink component

Blink>SVG

Web Feature ID

No information provided

Motivation

Authors placing text along a path have no way to flip which side of the path the text appears on. The side attribute lets authors write side="right" to place text on the opposite side of the path, without duplicating or reversing the path data. This helps label both the inside and outside of a shape, such as a circular path, with different text on each side.

Initial public proposal

No information provided

Goals for experimentation

None

Requires code in //chrome?

False

Tracking bug

https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40362379

Estimated milestones

No milestones specified

Anticipated spec changes

Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of the API in a non-backward-compatible way).

The SVG WG resolved to add IDL constants for side, but this hasn't yet been reflected in the published Editor's Draft text - an editorial gap, not an open design question (https://github.com/w3c/svgwg/issues/1086).

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5422782593761280?gate=6237644022480896

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.