CSS pause

The CSS pause property is a shorthand property for adding a prosodic boundary (a pause) in speech media.

The pause property is shorthand for the pause-after and pause-before properties. These properties allow you to define a pause before and after a given element when working with speech media.

The pause property accepts two values. The first value provided is for pause-before and the second is for pause-after. If only one value is provide it applies to both properties.

Syntax

Possible Values

pause-before: This value provides the value for pause-before.
pause-after: This value provides the value for pause-after.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial: Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit: Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset: This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

General Information

Initial Value: Depends on the value of the individual properties (i.e. pause-after and pause-before). Their initial value is none.
Applies To: All elements.
Inherited?: No
Media: Speech

Example Code

Official Specifications

CSS Speech Module Level 1 (Editor's Draft)
CSS Speech Module Level 1 (W3C Candidate Recommendation)
CSS Level 2.1 (W3C Recommendation 07 June 2011)

"Pause" vs "Rest"

CSS3 includes "pause" properties and "rest" properties. Pauses are defined with the pause, pause-after, and pause-before properties. Rests are defined with rest, rest-after, and rest-before.

These "pause" and "rest" properties work in a similar way, however, they differ in where they're inserted.

The "pause" properties are placed outside of any cues that have been specified (i.e. using the cue, cue-before, or cue-after properties). So for example, any "pause before" is inserted between the preceding content and any "cue before". Likewise, any "pause after" is inserted between any "cue after" and the content that follows.

The "rest" properties are placed inside any cues. Therefore, a "rest before" will be inserted between any "cue before" and its subsequent content (and vice-versa for any "rest after").

CSS2

Note that in CSS2, the "pause" properties were placed inside any cues (like the CSS3 "rest" properties), however, this was changed in CSS3 to the placement mentioned above.

Browser Support

Browser support for CSS properties can vary, particularly for newer or experimental features. Check current browser compatibility before using a property in production, especially when supporting older browsers.

Initial Value

CSS properties have an initial value that applies when the property has not been explicitly set. The initial value is different from the value inherited from a parent element and may vary between properties.

Inheritance

Some CSS properties inherit their computed value from their parent element by default, while others do not. The inherit, initial, unset, and revert keywords can also be used to control how a property gets its value.

Vendor Prefixes

Most modern CSS properties use the standard, unprefixed syntax. Vendor-prefixed properties such as -webkit- are mainly relevant to older browser versions or specific features and should only be used when required by your browser support targets.