Ruby Makeup中文社区好像翻译为旁注标记，差不多准确说明了其常见用途，不过一直好奇为什么这类文字标识叫Ruby，刚从wikipedia上 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_character 找到如下答案，归功于日本：
In British typography, *ruby* was originally the name for type<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_(typography)#Traditional_point-size_names> with a height of 5.5 points, which printers used for interlinear annotations in printed documents. In Japanese, rather than referring to a font size, the word became the name for typeset*furigana*. When transliterated back into English, some texts rendered the word as *rubi*, (a typical romanization<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization> of the Japanese word ルビ). However, the spelling "ruby" has become more common since the W3C <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W3C> published a recommendation for *ruby markup <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language>*. In the US, the font size had been called "agate<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agate_(typography)>", at least before the 1950s: 另外有朋友测试过读屏软件对ruby的支持情况吗？ 图来自wikipedia 2013/10/17 John Hax <[email protected]> > 古书的注疏之类的有用到。 > > 另外如董兄所言，正好适合轻小说的这种写法，且这种写法似乎已经在中文互联网上流行开来了。 > > > 2013/10/14 Yuan Chao <[email protected]> > >> 2013/10/14 董福�d Bobby Tung <[email protected]> >> >>> Ruby本�硎���用於日文��中�h字�俗⒆x音，但是用途不�H於此。 >>> >>> 本�淼�Ruby Annotation�o��HTML�@����是CSS�@��，好像都放置了一段�r�g�]�幼鳌Ｗ罱�因�殡�子��上 >>> >>> 有所需求，所以重新�恿似��恚� >>> >>> CSS Ruby Module Level 1： >>> http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-css3-ruby-20130919/ >>> >>> Ruby Annotation： >>> http://www.w3.org/TR/ruby/ >>> >>> Ruby的��用呢，大致上分�橐韵��煞N： >>> >>> 1，�Z言�W��： >>> 如日文的�h字�x音、台�车淖⒁舴���、台�Z�_�R拼音，�h�Z拼音。 >>> >> 其��Ruby�俗⒌闹黧w，也不��得非得是�h字。 >> >> >> 2，行�扰栽]： >>> 作���巫值脑]解，例如「世界�Q易�M��」可用Ruby�顺�WTO。在日文�p小�f的��用更是不�倜杜e，最有名的例子是�h字��作「��士」，Ruby�顺伞缸��B」。 >>> >> 感�x董兄提供�@��好��例！ >> >> >> �@份文件是把各�Nruby使用形�B的�俗⒎绞揭园咐�提出。 >>> >>> 也就是�f：Ruby�@�N�耍�要怎�N呈�F（像是注音符��的四��），就是CSS�cUser Agent的事了。 >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Best regards, >> Yuan Chao >> > > -- 元彦
