The Voice of the World Wide Web (Consortium)

Check out this sweet composition of aural styles discovered in the stylesheet for the W3C’s website:

/* AURAL STYLES (via W3C) */

@media aural {
   h1, h2, h3,
   h4, h5, h6    { voice-family: paul, male; stress: 20; richness: 90 }
   h1            { pitch: x-low; pitch-range: 90 }
   h2            { pitch: x-low; pitch-range: 80 }
   h3            { pitch: low; pitch-range: 70 }
   h4            { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60 }
   h5            { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 50 }
   h6            { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 40 }
   li, dt, dd    { pitch: medium; richness: 60 }
   dt            { stress: 80 }
   pre, code, tt { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 0; stress: 0; richness: 80 }
   em            { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 60; richness: 50 }
   strong        { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 90; richness: 90 }
   dfn           { pitch: high; pitch-range: 60; stress: 60 }
   s, strike     { richness: 0 }
   i             { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 60; richness: 50 }
   b             { pitch: medium; pitch-range: 60; stress: 90; richness: 90 }
   u             { richness: 0 }
   a:link        { voice-family: harry, male }
   a:visited     { voice-family: betty, female }
   a:active      { voice-family: betty, female; pitch-range: 80; pitch: x-high }
}

Not bad. Listening to this cascading orchestra, I would imagine the sound of a relaxed-yet-formal standards-compliance gentleman carefully articulating the contents of the page.

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Designer. Developer. Producer. Writer. Editor. Etc.