Microsoft Edge browser

Microsoft recently recreated Edge browser on Chromium-platform to offer better interoperability, including cross-platform support and faster updates. Microsoft is working on a number of new features and improvements for Chromium which should benefit Edge, Chrome and other browsers built on this open-source project.

New PDF features

The accessibility support on PDF is currently limited to only reading text and users do not have the ability to read and invoke links on PDF. Users can also not identify images in PDF documents while reading text.

In a new commit, Microsoft has proposed a change that would allow PDF accessibility to send data for links and images.

“This change modifies the existing PDF interfaces to send data for links and images. This extends the existing pipeline to accommodate links and images which is part of the larger effort to make links and images accessible in PDF,” the commit reads.

Microsoft says the data will be also populated in the structures for links and images.

Microsoft has also revealed how this feature is being implemented in Chromium:

  • Setting up inline reading order for links and images along with text.
  • Identifying links and passing link information to the AxTree in the browser process.
  • Passing invoke actions on links down to the plugin process.
  • Identifying images and passing image information to the AxTree in the browser process.
  • Providing alternate text for images for the ones where it is present.
  • Implement scrolling of text and controls to take care of scroll alignment.

New colour picker

Microsoft added a new modern colour picker to Edge Canary and Chrome Canary last month. Previously, colour picker only supported the HEX and RGB colour formats, but Microsoft is now adding a new feature that should allow users to view and manually change the selected colour in the HSL colour format.

As Microsoft explains, you can switch between the HEX, RGB and HSL by clicking on the format toggler.

“To make it easier to translate values from one format to another, additional helper functions like rgbToHSL and hslToHex are being added to the Color class. Update hex format toggle test and add hsl format toggle test,” the commit reads.

New Colour Picker

The HSL colour format is already available for colour picker in Edge, while Chrome Canary’s colour picker is currently limited to the HEX and RGB colour formats.

High contrast mode improvements for web publishers

For website owners, Microsoft is adding support for LinkText and VisitedText system colour keywords. It should allow web publishers to customize their sites with the relevant link colours when Windows is switched to high contrast mode.

Microsoft is also bringing OpenXR Gamepad Support to Chromium on Windows. The company says developers can test this feature by installing Mixed Reality OpenXR Developer Preview app from the Microsoft Store and building a customized build of Chromium.

About The Author

Mayank Parmar

Mayank Parmar is Windows Latest's owner, Editor-in-Chief and entrepreneur. Mayank has been in tech journalism for over seven years and has written on various topics, but he is mostly known for his well-researched work on Microsoft's Windows. His articles and research works have been referred to by CNN, Business Insiders, Forbes, Fortune, CBS Interactive, Microsoft and many others over the years.