Cursors Missing from the Theme

Oct 13, 2025 by wbrum.org 116 views

As a developer, it's essential to stay up-to-date with the latest specifications and guidelines to ensure that our work is compliant and meets the required standards. Recently, I took a closer look at the KDE Plasma scalable cursor spec and realized that they want KDE Plasma cursors to follow the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification. This realization led me to re-evaluate our current theme and identify areas where it falls short of the specification.

Understanding the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification

The W3C's CSS Cursors Specification is a set of guidelines that outline the requirements for cursor designs. Unlike the Freedesktop Cursor Specification, which considers some cursors optional, the W3C's specification requires all cursors to be available. This means that we need to create new cursors to ensure our theme is fully compliant with the specification.

Identifying the Issues

Upon reviewing our current theme, I realized that most of the issues revolve around the naming of cursors. While I'm confident that I got most of the aliases correct, there are still some that need to be fixed with simple aliasing in metadata files. Additionally, there are new cursors that need to be created to meet the requirements of the W3C's specification.

Cursors Missing from the Theme

The following cursors do not have available designs and need to be made:

cell: This cursor is required by the W3C's specification and needs to be designed.
grab: This cursor is also required and needs to be created.
grabbing: Another required cursor that needs to be designed.
zoom-in: This cursor is necessary for zooming in functionality.
zoom-out: Similarly, this cursor is required for zooming out functionality.

Making Standalone Arrow Cursors

When creating the Freedesktop issue, I didn't consider standalone resize arrows to be a requirement. However, I will make it optional for this issue to allow for individualization. The following standalone arrow cursors need to be created:

up-arrow: A standalone up arrow cursor.
left-arrow: A standalone left arrow cursor.
right-arrow: A standalone right arrow cursor.
down-arrow: A standalone down arrow cursor.
NW-arrow: A standalone northwest arrow cursor.
NE-arrow: A standalone northeast arrow cursor.
SW-arrow: A standalone southwest arrow cursor.
SE-arrow: A standalone southeast arrow cursor.

Utilizing the Mozilla Docs Page

Unlike the Freedesktop spec, we can utilize the Mozilla docs page as a test bed to ensure our theme is conforming to the W3C's specification. This will help us identify any issues and make the necessary changes to meet the requirements.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our theme is not fully conformant to the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification. To address this, we need to create new cursors and make changes to our existing designs to meet the requirements of the specification. By following the guidelines outlined in this article, we can ensure that our theme is compliant and meets the required standards.

Future Work

To ensure that our theme is fully compliant with the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification, we need to:

Create new cursors for the required cursors listed above.
Make changes to our existing designs to meet the requirements of the specification.
Utilize the Mozilla docs page as a test bed to ensure our theme is conforming to the specification.

As we discussed in the previous article, our theme is not fully conformant to the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification. In this article, we'll answer some frequently asked questions about the specification and how to address the issues.

Q: What is the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification?

A: The W3C's CSS Cursors Specification is a set of guidelines that outline the requirements for cursor designs. It's a standard that ensures consistency and compatibility across different browsers and platforms.

Q: Why is our theme not conformant to the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification?

A: Our theme is not conformant because it doesn't meet the requirements of the specification. Specifically, it lacks some required cursors and has some naming issues.

Q: What are the required cursors that are missing from our theme?

A: The required cursors that are missing from our theme are:

cell: This cursor is required by the W3C's specification and needs to be designed.
grab: This cursor is also required and needs to be created.
grabbing: Another required cursor that needs to be designed.
zoom-in: This cursor is necessary for zooming in functionality.
zoom-out: Similarly, this cursor is required for zooming out functionality.

Q: What about standalone arrow cursors? Do we need to create those too?

A: Yes, we need to create standalone arrow cursors. The following standalone arrow cursors need to be created:

up-arrow: A standalone up arrow cursor.
left-arrow: A standalone left arrow cursor.
right-arrow: A standalone right arrow cursor.
down-arrow: A standalone down arrow cursor.
NW-arrow: A standalone northwest arrow cursor.
NE-arrow: A standalone northeast arrow cursor.
SW-arrow: A standalone southwest arrow cursor.
SE-arrow: A standalone southeast arrow cursor.

Q: How can we ensure that our theme is conformant to the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification?

A: To ensure that our theme is conformant, we need to:

Create new cursors for the required cursors listed above.
Make changes to our existing designs to meet the requirements of the specification.
Utilize the Mozilla docs page as a test bed to ensure our theme is conforming to the specification.

Q: What resources are available to help us create conformant cursors?

A: There are several resources available to help us create conformant cursors. Some of these resources include:

The W3C's CSS Cursors Specification documentation.
The Mozilla docs page, which can be used as a test bed to ensure our theme is conformant.
Online tutorials and guides that provide step-by-step instructions on how to create conformant cursors.

Q: How long will it take to create conformant cursors?

A: The time it takes to create conformant cursors will depend on several factors, including the complexity of the cursors and the resources available to us. However, with a clear plan and a dedicated team, we can create conformant cursors in a relatively short period of time.

Q: What are the benefits of creating conformant cursors?

A: The benefits of creating conformant cursors include:

Improved consistency and compatibility across different browsers and platforms.
Enhanced user experience, as users will be able to interact with our theme in a more intuitive and consistent way.
Increased confidence in our theme's design and functionality.

By answering these frequently asked questions, we can better understand the W3C's CSS Cursors Specification and how to address the issues in our theme.