Scenario

Blur and focus during IME composition (CJK and Japanese Safari)

Moving focus away from the editor while composing text (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) can cancel composition, commit partial text, or leave the IME candidate window out of sync. Safari often shows distinct behavior for Japanese; Chrome behavior for Chinese/Korean is covered in related cases.

ime

Scenario ID

scenario-ime-composition-focus-blur

Edit on GitHub

Details

Moving focus away from the editor while composing text (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) can cancel composition, commit partial text, or leave the IME candidate window out of sync. Safari often shows distinct behavior for Japanese; Chrome behavior for Chinese/Korean is covered in related cases.

Problem Overview

This overlaps partially with scenario-ime-composition-focus-change but emphasizes language-specific blur handling (Japanese on Safari vs Korean/Chinese on Chrome) rather than only cross-browser Chrome/Firefox/Safari for one language.

Observed Behavior

Japanese IME on Safari: composition may end abruptly on blur.
Chinese IME on Chrome: partial Pinyin may remain or flush.

Impact

Orphan composing ranges, inconsistent undo points, and mismatch between visible candidate UI and DOM text.

References

UI Events

Scenario flow

Visual view of how this scenario connects to its concrete cases and environments. Nodes can be dragged and clicked.

Variants

Each row is a concrete case for this scenario, with a dedicated document and playground.

Case	OS	Device	Browser	Keyboard	Status
ce-0188-japanese-ime-focus-blur-safari	macOS 14.0	Desktop or Laptop Any	Safari 17.0	Japanese (IME)	draft
ce-0201-chinese-ime-focus-blur-chrome	Windows 11	Desktop or Laptop Any	Chrome 120.0	Chinese (IME - Pinyin)	draft

Browser compatibility

This matrix shows which browser and OS combinations have documented cases for this scenario. Click on a cell to view the specific case.

Browser	Windows	macOS
Chrome	ce-0201-chinese-ime-focus-blur-chrome 120.0	—
Safari	—	ce-0188-japanese-ime-focus-blur-safari 17.0

Confirmed

Draft

— No case documented

Cases

This scenario affects multiple languages. Cases are grouped by language/input method below.

Chinese

1 case

Chinese IME composition lost when focus changes in Chrome

OS: Windows 11 · Device: Desktop or Laptop Any · Browser: Chrome 120.0

Open case →

Japanese

1 case

Japanese IME composition lost when focus changes in Safari

OS: macOS 14.0 · Device: Desktop or Laptop Any · Browser: Safari 17.0

Open case →

Related Scenarios

Other scenarios that share similar tags or category.

Tags: ime, composition, focus, blur, korean, safari, chrome

IME composition when focus moves between elements (Korean and others)

If the user switches focus to another field, button, or nested contenteditable while Korean (or other) IME composition is active, browsers differ on whether composition is committed, cancelled, or leaves orphan state. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox do not agree; mobile adds more variance.

3 cases

Tags: ime, chinese, japanese, safari, chrome

IME candidate list timing and conversion (kanji, hanzi)

Japanese kanji conversion and Chinese character selection depend on the IME candidate window. Delays, wrong ordering, or Safari-specific lag can cause users to commit the wrong character or see candidates that do not match the underlying buffer—especially under load or in complex layouts.

2 cases

Tags: ime, chinese, japanese, safari, chrome

Number keys for IME candidate selection (Japanese and Chinese)

Many IMEs let users pick candidates with number keys 1–9. In contenteditable, those keys may be consumed by the IME, intercepted by the page for shortcuts, or mis-handled by Safari—causing wrong selection or cancelled composition.

2 cases

Tags: ime, composition, korean, chrome

Paste during IME composition cancels or corrupts composition

Pasting from the clipboard while IME composition is active may cancel the composition session, replace the wrong range, or interleave pasted text with unfinished syllables—Firefox and Chrome show different behavior for Korean and Hindi IME paths.

2 cases

Tags: ime, composition, chinese, japanese

Scrolling cancels or disrupts IME composition

User scrolling the page or scrollable editor while the IME candidate window is open may cancel composition or move the caret out of sync—reported on iOS Safari with Japanese IME and Android Chrome with Chinese IME when scroll containers move the editing context.

2 cases

Comments & Discussion

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