The W3C has released an initial draft of Media Queries and a revised working draft of Introduction to CSS3.

The non-normative Introduction, which also serves as the CSS Roadmap document, includes an updated schedule and adds a section on the media queries work.

The media queries work describes infrastructure support for:

"media-dependent style sheets tailored for different media types. For example, a document may use sans-serif fonts when displayed on a screen and serif fonts when printed."

Media queries make it possible to use those media types more constructively:

"To describe in more detail what type of devices a style sheet applies to, this document proposes media queries. A media query consists of a media type and one or more expressions to limit the scope of a certain style sheet. Among the proposed media features that can be used in expressions are 'width', 'height', and 'color'. By using media queries, content presentations can be tailored to a range of devices without changing the content itself."

Although the draft repeatedly refers to HTML 4 and CSS 2, it seems quite clear that the techniques employed here would apply to CSS 3 style sheets and XML or XHTML documents as well. It also describes the relationship of such queries to CC/PP.

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