12.6.18. Box Flow Object Class

The box flow object may be used to put a box around a sequence of flow objects. The box flow object is either displayed or inlined depending on the value of the display?: characteristic. The box flow object has a single principal port. If the box is displayed, then the port shall accept any displayed flow objects. If the box is inlined, then the port shall accept any inlined flow objects.

The box flow object may result in more than one area. In this case, the border of the box adjacent to the break may be omitted if the box-open-end?: characteristic is true.

If the box is inlined, then this border shall be perpendicular to the writing-mode. If the box is displayed, then this border shall be parallel to the writing-mode.

When the box is displayed, the size of the box (that is, the distance between the positions of the borders) in the direction determined by the writing-mode shall be equal to the display-size of the box less the start and end indents. The display-size for the content of the box shall be equal to the size of the box.

NOTE 97: Thus, the start-indent: and end-indent: characteristics for the content of the box shall be set to give the desired separation between the border of the box and its content. There is no automatic separation to take account of the thickness of border.

The applicable characteristics are: