The generated text is the value of the innermost counter of the given
name in scope at this pseudo-element; it is formatted in the indicated
style
('decimal' by default). The latter
function also has two forms: 'counters(
name
string
)' or 'counters(
name
string
style
)'. The generated text is the value of all counters
with the given name in scope at this pseudo-element, from outermost to
innermost separated by the specified string. The counters are rendered
in the indicated
style
('decimal' by
default). See the section on
automatic counters
and numbering
for more information.

The name must not be 'none', 'inherit' or 'initial'. Such a name
causes the declaration to be ignored.
open-quote
and
close-quote
These values are replaced by the appropriate string
from the
'quotes'
property.
no-open-quote
and
no-close-quote
Introduces no content, but increments (decrements) the level of nesting for quotes.
attr(X)
This function returns as a string the value of attribute X
for the subject of the selector. The
string is not parsed by the CSS processor. If the subject of the selector
does not have an attribute X, an empty string is returned. The
case-sensitivity of attribute names depends on the document language.
Note.
In CSS 2.1, it is not possible to refer to
attribute values for other elements than the subject of the selector.
The
'display'
property
controls whether the content is placed in a block or inline box.
Example(s):
The following rule causes the string "Chapter: " to be generated before each H1 element:
H1:before {
content: "Chapter: ";
display: inline;
Authors may include newlines in the generated content by writing
the "\A" escape sequence in one of the strings after the
'content'
property. This inserted line
break is still subject to the
'white-space'
property. See
"Strings"
and
"Characters and case"
for
more information on the "\A" escape sequence.
Example(s):
h1:before {
display: block;
text-align: center;
white-space: pre;
content: "chapter\A hoofdstuk\A chapitre"
Generated content does not alter the document tree. In particular, it
is not fed back to the document language processor (e.g., for
reparsing).
12.3
Quotation marks
In CSS 2.1, authors may specify, in a style-sensitive and
context-dependent manner, how user agents should render quotation
marks. The
'quotes'
property
specifies pairs of quotation marks for each level of embedded
quotation. The
'content'
property gives access to those quotation marks and causes them to be
inserted before and after a quotation.
12.3.1
Specifying quotes
with the
'quotes'
property
'quotes'
Value:


]+ | none |
inherit
Initial:
depends on user agent
Applies to:
all elements
Inherited:
yes
Percentages:
N/A
Media:
visual
Computed value:
as specified
This property specifies quotation marks for any number of embedded
quotations. Values have the following meanings:
none
The 'open-quote' and 'close-quote' values of the
'content'
property
produce no quotation marks.


]+
Values for the 'open-quote' and 'close-quote' values of the
'content'
property are taken
from this list of pairs of quotation marks (opening and
closing). The first (leftmost) pair represents the outermost level of
quotation, the second pair the first level of embedding, etc. The user
agent must apply the appropriate pair of quotation marks according to
the level of embedding.
Example(s):
For example, applying the following style sheet:
/* Specify pairs of quotes for two levels in two languages */
q:lang(en) { quotes: '"' '"' "'" "'" }
q:lang(no) { quotes: "«" "»" '"' '"' }

/* Insert quotes before and after Q element content */
q:before { content: open-quote }
q:after { content: close-quote }
to the following HTML fragment:

Quote me!


would allow a user agent to produce:
"Quote me!"
while this HTML fragment:

Trøndere gråter når Vinsjan på kaia blir deklamert.


would produce:
«Trøndere gråter når "Vinsjan på kaia" blir deklamert.»
Note.
While the quotation marks specified by
'quotes'
in the previous examples are
conveniently located on computer keyboards, high quality typesetting
would require different ISO 10646 characters. The following
informative table lists some of the ISO 10646 quotation
mark characters:
Character
Approximate rendering
ISO 10646 code (hex)
Description
0022
QUOTATION MARK [the ASCII double quotation mark]
0027
APOSTROPHE [the ASCII single quotation mark]
2039
SINGLE LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
203A
SINGLE RIGHT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
00AB
LEFT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
00BB
RIGHT-POINTING DOUBLE ANGLE QUOTATION MARK
2018
LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK [single high-6]
2019
RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK [single high-9]
``
201C
LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK [double high-6]
''
201D
RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK [double high-9]
,,
201E
DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK [double low-9]
12.3.2
Inserting quotes
with the
'content'
property
Quotation marks are inserted in appropriate places in a document
with the
'open-quote'
and
'close-quote'
values of the
'content'
property. Each
occurrence of 'open-quote' or 'close-quote' is replaced by one of the
strings from the value of
'quotes'
, based on the depth of
nesting.
'Open-quote' refers to the first of a pair of quotes, 'close-quote'
refers to the second. Which pair of quotes is used depends on the
nesting level of quotes: the number of occurrences of 'open-quote' in
all generated text before the current occurrence, minus the number of
occurrences of 'close-quote'. If the depth is 0, the first pair is
used, if the depth is 1, the second pair is used, etc. If the depth is
greater than the number of pairs, the last pair is repeated. A 'close-quote'
or 'no-close-quote' that would make the depth negative is in error and is
ignored (at rendering time): the depth stays at 0 and no quote mark is
rendered (although the rest of the 'content' property's value is still
inserted).
Note.
The quoting depth is independent of the nesting
of the source document or the formatting structure.
Some typographic styles require open quotation marks to be repeated
before every paragraph of a quote spanning several paragraphs, but
only the last paragraph ends with a closing quotation mark. In CSS,
this can be achieved by inserting "phantom" closing quotes. The
keyword
'no-close-quote'
decrements
the quoting level, but does not insert a quotation mark.
Example(s):
The following style sheet puts opening quotation marks on every
paragraph in a BLOCKQUOTE, and inserts a single closing quote at the
end:
blockquote p:before { content: open-quote }
blockquote p:after { content: no-close-quote }
blockquote p.last:after { content: close-quote }
This relies on the last paragraph being marked with a class "last".
For symmetry, there is also a
'no-open-quote'
keyword,
which inserts nothing, but increments the quotation depth by one.
12.4 Automatic
counters
and numbering
Automatic numbering in CSS 2.1 is controlled with two properties,
'counter-increment'
and
'counter-reset'
. The
counters defined by these properties are used with the counter() and
counters() functions of the the
'content'
property.
'counter-reset'
Value:


? ]+ | none |
inherit
Initial:
none
Applies to:
all elements
Inherited:
no
Percentages:
N/A
Media:
all
Computed value:
as specified
'counter-increment'
Value:


? ]+ | none |
inherit
Initial:
none
Applies to:
all elements
Inherited:
no
Percentages:
N/A
Media:
all
Computed value:
as specified
The
'counter-increment'
property
accepts one or more names of counters (identifiers), each one
optionally followed by an integer. The integer indicates by how much the
counter is incremented for every occurrence of the element. The
default increment is 1. Zero and negative integers are allowed.
The
'counter-reset'
property also contains a list of one or more names of counters, each
one optionally followed by an integer. The integer gives the value that
the counter is set to on each occurrence of the element. The default
is 0.
The keywords 'none', 'inherit' and 'initial' must not be used as
counter names. A value of 'none' on its own means no counters are
reset, resp. incremented. 'Inherit' on its own has its usual meaning
(see
6.2.1
). 'Initial' is
reserved for future use.
Example(s):
This example shows a way to number chapters and sections with
"Chapter 1", "1.1", "1.2", etc.
BODY {
counter-reset: chapter; /* Create a chapter counter scope */
H1:before {
content: "Chapter " counter(chapter) ". ";
counter-increment: chapter; /* Add 1 to chapter */
H1 {
counter-reset: section; /* Set section to 0 */
H2:before {
content: counter(chapter) "." counter(section) " ";
counter-increment: section;
If an element increments/resets a counter and also uses it (in the
'content'
property of its
:before or :after pseudo-element), the counter is used
after
being incremented/reset.
If an element both resets and increments a counter, the counter is
reset first and then incremented.
If the same counter is specified more than once in the value of the
'counter-reset'
and
'counter-increment'
properties, each reset/increment of the counter is processed in the order
specified.
Example(s):
The following example will reset the 'section' counter to 0:
H1 { counter-reset: section 2 section }
The following example will increment the 'chapter' counter by 3:
H1 { counter-increment: chapter chapter 2 }
The
'counter-reset'
property follows the cascading rules. Thus, due to cascading, the
following style sheet:
H1 { counter-reset: section -1 }
H1 { counter-reset: imagenum 99 }
will only reset 'imagenum'. To reset both counters, they have to be
specified together:
H1 { counter-reset: section -1 imagenum 99 }
12.4.1
Nested counters and scope
Counters are "self-nesting", in the sense that resetting a counter
in a descendant element or pseudo-element automatically creates a new
instance of the counter. This is important for situations like lists
in HTML, where elements can be nested inside themselves to arbitrary
depth. It would be impossible to define uniquely named counters for
each level.
Example(s):
Thus, the following suffices to number nested list items. The
result is very similar to that of setting 'display:list-item' and
'list-style: inside' on the LI element:
OL { counter-reset: item }
LI { display: block }
LI:before { content: counter(item) ". "; counter-increment: item }
The
scope
of a counter starts at the first element in the document that has a
'counter-reset'
for that
counter and includes the element's descendants and its following
siblings with their descendants. However, it does not include any
elements in the scope of a counter with the same name created by a 'counter-reset' on a
later sibling of the element or by a later 'counter-reset' on the same
element.
If
'counter-increment'
or
'content'
on an element or
pseudo-element refers to a counter that is not in the scope of any
'counter-reset'
implementations should behave as though a
'counter-reset'
had reset the
counter to 0 on that element or pseudo-element.
In the example above, an OL will create a counter, and all children
of the OL will refer to that counter.
If we denote by item[n] the
th
instance of the "item"
counter, and by "{" and "}" the beginning and end of a
scope, then the following HTML fragment will use the indicated
counters. (We assume the style sheet as given in the example above).

1. item


2. item
   
   
   
   1. item
   
   
   2. item
   
   
   3. item
      
      
      
      1. item
      
      
      
      
      
      
      1. item
      
      
      
      
   
   
   4. item
   
   
   
   


3. item


4. item

1. item


2. item

About CSS

CSS 2

CSS 2.1

Style

1. This is the first item.
   
2. This is the second item.
   
3. This is the third item.