The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced the publication of two W3C Recommendations: XHTML 1.1 and Ruby Annotation. XHTML 1.1 defines a new XHTML document type that is based upon the modularization framework and modules defined in Modularization of XHTML, and serves as the basis for future extended XHTML ‘family’ document types. Ruby Annotation provides an XHTML module for expressing short runs of text alongside base text, typically used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or to provide a short annotation. The modules are defined in Modularization of XHTML. XHTML Basic is an example of fairly minimal build of these modules and is targeted at mobile applications. XHTML 1.1 is an example of a larger build of the modules, avoiding many of the presentation features. XHTML 1.1 defines a new XHTML document type that is designed to be portable to a broad collection of client devices, and applicable to the majority of Internet content. Content developers who base their content upon XHTML 1.1 can trust that it will be consistently portable across user agents which support XHTML. In Japanese and Chinese, it is common practice to put annotations in a very small font next to printed text to aid readers in pronunciation of rarer ideographic characters. These annotations are called “ruby,” from the name British printers used to describe a 5.5 point typeface. Ruby annotations regularly appear in Japanese magazines, as well as Chinese and Japanese textbooks. While many international typography needs can be fulfilled through the use of style sheet languages such as CSS or XSL, additional markup is needed to define the relationship between the base text and its annotation. Ruby Annotation delivers this functionality to the Web in the form of an XHTML module, thus allowing ruby to be correctly rendered along with the basic text without using special workarounds or graphics. www.w3.org