TL;DR please update to match the existing spec and file standards positions requests with the other implementations.
I researched the feature and think it should ship with the default of "start end" as specified in the spec. Current tests are here <https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-text-decor?label=master&label=experimental&aligned&q=text-decoration-skip-spaces-001.html%20or%20text-decoration-skip-spaces-002.html%20or%20text-decoration-skip-spaces-003.html%20or%20text-decoration-skip-spaces-004.html%20or%20text-decoration-skip-spaces-005.html> . The compat risk is only for the beginning and end of lines. I think it's unlikely developers will dislike no longer underlining extra space at the beginning or end of some text. I also think this situation is uncommon in existing sites; developers have to go out of their way to cause extra spaces to appear next to a run of text. (Also note: the default does *not* skip spaces in the middle of text.) I did notice that there don't seem to be any tests for the default (i.e. a test that doesn't set text-decoration-skip-spaces at all in the CSS), please add that. On Wed, Aug 19, 2026 at 8:22 AM 'Dan Clark' via blink-dev < [email protected]> wrote: > (Re-sending since the theading got messed up, sorry for any double-send). > > A concrete first step would be to file engine standards positions per the > instructions in > https://www.chromium.org/blink/launching-features/wide-review/#standards-positions > to > concretely ask Gecko and WebKit whether they plan to support this. In those > threads you could ask that if they do plan to support this, whether they’d > ship with ‘start end’ per the spec, or ‘end’ which is closer to their > current behavior per https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/4653, or > something else. > > If no one else has plans to ship this then I’m less concerned about > diverging from what the spec has, so ‘none’ would be fine. We should then > push to have the spec reflect reality rather than the other way round. > > On Monday, August 17, 2026 at 8:45:39 AM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote: > >> Thanks Dan. >> >> My plan is to ship with 'none' as the default, because I think such >> compatibility is less risky, but it will lead to inconsistency with the >> specification. >> >> It seems that Firefox and Safari do not support it so far. Maybe I missed >> something. >> >> I'm not sure how to continue. Could you give me some advice? Thanks. >> >> 在2026年8月13日星期四 UTC+8 00:19:19<[email protected]> 写道： >> >> We talked about this during the API Owners call today and something that >> came up was this Issue 6 in the spec: >> https://drafts.csswg.org/css-text-decor-4/#issue-4229bfce >> Is your plan to ship with 'none' as the default, or try 'end' to more >> closely align with the Firefox and Safari behavior noted in >> https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/4653? >> API Owners may be open to taking on some compatibility risk here if we >> think it'd mean shipping a better behavior, as long as we go into it with >> both eyes open and are ready to activate the kill-switch if there are >> issues. >> >> And can you request signals on this from Gecko and Webkit? Are there >> developer signals we can point at to see that people need this feature? >> >> Thanks, >> Dan >> >> On Tuesday, August 11, 2026 at 6:02:56 AM UTC-7 Chromestatus wrote: >> >> *Contact emails* >> [email protected] >> >> *Specification* >> >> https://drafts.csswg.org/css-text-decor-4/#text-decoration-skip-spaces-property >> >> *Summary* >> The text-decoration-skip-spaces CSS property controls whether text >> decoration lines (underlines, overlines, line-throughs, etc.) skip over >> whitespace characters. This allows authors to prevent decorations from >> being drawn under spaces, which is often more visually appealing. >> >> *Blink component* >> Blink>CSS >> <https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3ECSS%22> >> >> *Web Feature ID* >> text-decoration <https://webstatus.dev/features/text-decoration> >> >> *Motivation* >> Currently there is no web standard way to control whether text >> decorations (underlines, overlines, line-throughs) appear over whitespace >> characters. Authors commonly want to suppress the underline under >> leading/trailing spaces in inline elements, but CSS provides no mechanism >> for this. The `text-decoration-skip-spaces` property fills this gap, >> allowing precise control over decoration rendering around whitespace. This >> is useful for navigation menus, links, and any text where the decoration >> should visually attach only to non-space characters. >> >> *Initial public proposal* >> *No information provided* >> >> *TAG review* >> *No information provided* >> >> *TAG review status* >> Not applicable >> >> *Goals for experimentation* >> None >> >> *Risks* >> >> >> *Interoperability and Compatibility* >> Minimal risks; this feature is purely additive. >> >> *Gecko*: No signal >> >> *WebKit*: No signal >> >> *Web developers*: No signals >> >> *Other signals*: >> >> *WebView application risks* >> >> Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that >> it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? >> *No information provided* >> >> >> *Debuggability* >> *No information provided* >> >> *Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, >> Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?* >> Yes >> >> *Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests >> <https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?* >> Yes >> >> https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-text-decor?sha=249e1eb8e6&label=master&max-count=1&view=subtest&q=css%2Fcss-text-decor%2Ftext-decoration-skip-spaces >> >> *Flag name on about://flags* >> enable-experimental-web-platform-features >> >> *Finch feature name* >> CSSTextDecorationSkipSpaces >> >> *Rollout plan* >> Will ship enabled for all users >> >> *Requires code in //chrome?* >> False >> >> *Tracking bug* >> https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40862777 >> >> *Estimated milestones* >> >> Shipping on desktop154 DevTrial on desktop150 Shipping on Android154 DevTrial >> on Android150 Shipping on WebView154 >> >> *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). >> *No information provided* >> >> *Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status* >> https://chromestatus.com/feature/4832783806627840?gate=6279878547734528 >> >> *Links to previous Intent discussions* >> Intent to Prototype: >> https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/69d8f543.050a0220.1c79a0.1352.GAE%40google.com >> >> >> This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status >> <https://chromestatus.com>. >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "blink-dev" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion visit > https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/976d683a-1865-40a3-8880-e0f3147ca667n%40chromium.org > <https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/976d683a-1865-40a3-8880-e0f3147ca667n%40chromium.org?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. 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