Summary

Documents with “text-align: justify” are not interoperable today, so any specs involves some costs. We need to make a choice which costs to take and which not to.

Following criteria are out of scope of this discussion:

Options

Expand CJ : Expand ideograph (i.e., between ideograph and any), but not Hangul

Solid CJK : Not expand ideograph nor Hangul

Compromise : A compromised algorithm, spacing varies by the content of line

Reintroduce inter-ideograph : Add text-justify: inter-ideograph back

Current Behavior

Table of expansions:

Test Gecko Expands Trident Webkit Blink      
::: ::: ::: ::: Mac [[http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/3fda60f8b95314f648a1baf75c6a882896e73a3d Win]]/Android/Opera  
[[http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/?%3C!DOCTYPE%20html%3E%0A%3Cp%20%20style%3D%22width%3A%2010em%3B%20border%3A%20solid%3B%20text-align%3A%20justify%22%3E%0A%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%ED%8A%B9%EB%B3%84%EC%8B%9C%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5supercalifragilisticexpialidocious%3C%2Fp%3E untagged default]] ([[http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/ef8a83c8c36c1999b919a6896dc9c8eda98984e9 screenshots]]) None None +Han +Kana -Hangul   None
[[http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/?%3C!DOCTYPE%20html%3E%0A%3Cp%20%20lang%3Dja%20style%3D%22width%3A%2010em%3B%20border%3A%20solid%3B%20text-align%3A%20justify%22%3E%0A%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%ED%8A%B9%EB%B3%84%EC%8B%9C%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5supercalifragilisticexpialidocious%3C%2Fp%3E Japanese default]] ([[http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/377813b111b48d80a6f6fb609540706896c2d638 screenshots]]) +Han +Kana -Hangul ::: ::: ::: :::
[[http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/?%3C!DOCTYPE%20html%3E%0A%3Cp%20%20lang%3Dko%20style%3D%22width%3A%2010em%3B%20border%3A%20solid%3B%20text-align%3A%20justify%22%3E%0A%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%ED%8A%B9%EB%B3%84%EC%8B%9C%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5supercalifragilisticexpialidocious%3C%2Fp%3E Korean default ]] ([[http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/95a35f86a1813a18f52541a1e21d209aceaa15b8 screenshots]]) None ::: :::   :::
[[http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/?%3C!DOCTYPE%20html%3E%0A%3Cp%20style%3D%22width%3A%2010em%3B%20border%3A%20solid%3B%20text-align%3A%20justify%3B%20text-justify%3A%20inter-ideographic%3B%22%3E%0A%EC%84%9C%EC%9A%B8%ED%8A%B9%EB%B3%84%EC%8B%9C%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5supercalifragilisticexpialidocious%3C%2Fp%3E untagged inter-ideographic]] ([[http://www.browserstack.com/screenshots/8d1cc9ba0566c221e88b7e5280b293eac78d1740 screenshots]]) None +Han +Kana +Hangul ::: ::: :::

Future Possibilities

Document Type Expand CJ not K Solid CJK Compromise
text-justify: inter-ideograph (for IE5+) A D* B*
Chinese/Japanese (100%) A D B
Korean (Hangul only, 70-80%) A A B
Korean (Hangul+Han, 20-30%) C A B
Korean (Han only, 1-10%) A D B

Letters represent quality of results

Regressions

Document Type Engine Expand CJ not K Solid CJK Compromise
text-justify: inter-ideograph (for IE5+) Webkit o -* -*
::: Trident o -* -*
::: Blink o/+ -*/o -*/+
::: Gecko + o +
Chinese/Japanese (100%) Webkit o - -
::: Trident + o +
::: Blink o/+ -/o -/+
::: Gecko + o +
Korean (Hangul only, 70-80%) Webkit o o -
::: Trident o o -
::: Blink o o -
::: Gecko o o -
Korean (Hangul+Han, 20-30%) Webkit o + + and -
::: Trident - o -
::: Blink o/- +/o + and -/-
::: Gecko - o -
Korean (Han only, 1-10%) Webkit o - -
::: Trident + o +
::: Blink o/+ -/o -/+
::: Gecko + o +