W3C

Digital Comics TF

09 October 2025

Attendees

Present
CharlesL, duga, Hadrien, LaurentLM, MasakazuKitahara, shiestyle
Regrets
-
Chair
Hadrien, shiestyle
Scribe
duga

Meeting minutes

PR for Support for roll in layout

<shiestyle> w3c/epub-specs#2788

CharlesL1: One question, we have a new rendition layout role, comics used to be fixed, right?
… what do we now expect with this change?
… what will reading systems do differently?

Hadrien: pre-paginated is the current value, the expectation is you may find one or the other
… in pre-paginated every resource is a page, maybe with layout hints
… similar to print comics
… with roll, you will fit to the width of the viewport, and you can scroll through with no gaps
… looks like a single image to the user
… There are some open issues, like direction
… and direction may change how fit works (e.g. left-to-right might fit height)
… There may be some publications that have multiple rolls (e.g. a collection of web comics)
… this is an open issue
… the idea is instead of rendering controls, we would provide semantics that identify chapters or episodes, then leave it the RS to decide display

shiestyle: Roll will not have spread

LaurentLM: In the PR, it says "fixed dimensions", but in our case it is 1 fixed dimension

Hadrien: But you are confusing viewport and images

LaurentLM: I am not sure if I am speaking about images

Hadrien: Which is why I am not pushing the PR at the moment, since a lot changes with images in spine

LaurentLM: So why is it fixed dimensions?

Hadrien: It doesn't matter, we will probably discard a lot of it
… we originally grouped FL and roll, but we may not need to if we allow images in spine
… I don't think this will get much work or discussion until TPAC where we decide on images in spine

shiestyle: We still have time before TPAC, we should finalize there
… but we can still discuss now

Hadrien: Looks like we only have the week before TPAC given schedules, do you really want to discuss images in spine then?

shiestyle: we will have another meeting before tpac

Hadrien: So you want to discuss images in spine during that call? It will take the entire call

shiestyle: We can arrange it

Topics of Digital Comics to be discussed at TPAC

shiestyle: We are just starting TPAC planning in the WG
… Tuesday morning is for the BG, so really only 1.5 days for WG
… we can propose which of the remaining slots we want to use
… I heard some a11y people will not be there in person
… I was thinking afternoon, any ideas?

Hadrien: I am not sure about who from Europe will be remote who is interested in these topics?
… so remotely just Romain and Ivan from Europe

shiestyle: There are bunch of remotes (Sue, Dale, Matt)
… so maybe early morning is fine

CharlesL1: 9am jst is 5pm or 8pm for those people
… so maybe that is the best time

shiestyle: Maybe day 1 first slot

duga: Kind of doesn't matter, since many of these people must attend all sessions

Hadrien: Good point, what about you CharlesL1? What is good?

CharlesL1: Earlier is better

Hadrien: So comics and a11y early are best for you?

CharlesL1: Yes

CharlesL1: why is the first slot at 11 on day 2?

shiestyle: Business group will meet first

Hadrien: I have a list of things to discuss
… images in spine is biggest, we should discuss then
… also default behavior for spreads
… there is a disconnect between the spec and reality, it is important to clarify
… Also pr 2759

<Hadrien> Images in spine

<Hadrien> * w3c/epub-specs#2792

<Hadrien> Default behavior when drawing spreads

<Hadrien> * w3c/epub-specs#2755

<Hadrien> Deprecating rendition properties

<Hadrien> * Layout overrides: w3c/epub-specs#2749

<Hadrien> * Flow as metadata: w3c/epub-specs#2754

<Hadrien> * Flow overrides: w3c/epub-specs#2750

<Hadrien> * Orientation: w3c/epub-specs#2751

<Hadrien> * Spreads: w3c/epub-specs#2753

<Hadrien> New document division terms for comics

<Hadrien> * w3c/epub-specs#2759

Hadrien: Any other issues specific to comics?
… there is nothing about accessible comics here since that is experimental
… So maybe a breakout session for that. CharlesL1 would you be interested?

CharlesL1: Yes, definitely. E.g. people from the APA may have ideas

Hadrien: We have until Oct 22 to propose sessions

<duga> +1

<duga> +1 to a breakout

LaurentLM: I agree with a breakout, not too long though

Hadrien: Ok, we have some votes for that

Hadrien: avif is important for us, but not much to say
… but not controversial
… so I didn't put it on the list

shiestyle: I just started to inform people in Japan about it

duga: Maybe pull rendition properties to a separate slot?

Hadrien: I agree, it is not just for comics

Hadrien: PR for roll should be right after images in spine

shiestyle: Other topics?
… what do we want to discuss before tpac?

Hadrien: We need to discuss images in spine, but that should probably be in the WG
… so do we really need a call for the TF in addition?

CharlesL1: Don't forget the APA meeting, which may take a full meeting slot before TPAC

Hadrien: Maybe see what the WG can handle, but if we can get to images in spine we can just cancel the next TF meeting

shiestyle: Ok, I will raise that in the chairs call
… I think we should also skip the Nov 6 meeting, since it is so close to tpac

Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 246 (Wed Oct 1 15:02:24 2025 UTC).