Fonts

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Note: Several sections of this specification have been updated by other specifications. Please, see “Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) — The Official Definition” in the latest CSS Snapshot for a list of specifications and the sections they replace.

The CSS Working Group is also developing CSS level 2 revision 2 (CSS 2.2).

Setting font properties will be among the most common uses of style
sheets. Unfortunately, there exists no well-defined and universally
accepted taxonomy for classifying fonts, and terms that apply to one
font family may not be appropriate for others. E.g., ‘italic’ is
commonly used to label slanted text, but slanted text may also be
labeled as being Oblique, Slanted, Incline, Cursive or
Kursiv. Therefore it is not a simple problem to map typical
font selection properties to a specific font.

Because there is no accepted, universal taxonomy of font
properties, matching of properties to font faces must be done
carefully. The properties are matched in a well-defined order to
insure that the results of this matching process are as consistent as
possible across UAs (assuming that the same library of font faces is
presented to each of them).

1. The User Agent makes (or accesses) a database of relevant CSS 2.1
   properties of all the fonts of which the UA is aware.
   If there are two fonts with exactly the same properties, the user
   agent selects one of them.
2. At a given element and for each character in that element, the UA
   assembles the font properties applicable to that element. Using the
   complete set of properties, the UA uses the ‘font-family’ property to
   choose a tentative font family. The remaining properties are tested
   against the family according to the matching criteria described with
   each property. If there are matches for all the remaining properties,
   then that is the matching font face for the given element or character.
3. If there is no matching font face within the ‘font-family’ being
   processed by step 2, and if there is a next alternative ‘font-family’
   in the font set, then repeat step 2 with the next alternative
   ‘font-family’.
4. If there is a matching font face, but it does not contain a glyph
   for the current character, and if there is a next alternative
   ‘font-family’ in the font sets, then repeat step 2 with the next
   alternative ‘font-family’.
5. If there is no font within the family selected in 2, then use a
   UA-dependent default ‘font-family’ and repeat step 2, using the best
   match that can be obtained within the default font. If a particular
   character cannot be displayed using this font, then the UA may use other
   means to determine a suitable font for that character. The UA should map
   each character for which it has no suitable font to a visible symbol
   chosen by the UA, preferably a “missing character” glyph from one of the
   font faces available to the UA.

(The above algorithm can be optimized to avoid having to revisit
the CSS 2.1 properties for each character.)

The per-property matching rules from (2) above are as follows:

1. ‘font-style’

   is tried first. ‘Italic’
   will be satisfied if there is either a face in the UA’s font database
   labeled with the CSS keyword ‘italic’ (preferred) or ‘oblique’.
   Otherwise the values must be matched exactly or font-style will fail.

2. ‘font-variant’

   is tried next. ‘Small-caps’ matches (1) a
   font labeled as ‘small-caps’, (2) a font in which the small caps are
   synthesized, or (3) a font where all lowercase letters are replaced by
   upper case letters. A small-caps font may be synthesized by
   electronically scaling uppercase letters from a normal font.
   ‘normal’ matches a font’s normal (non-small-caps) variant. A font cannot fail to have a normal variant. A font
   that is only available as small-caps shall be selectable as either a ‘normal’ face or a ‘small-caps’ face.

3. ‘font-weight’

   is matched next, it will
   never fail. (See ‘font-weight’ below.)

4. ‘font-size’

   must be matched within a
   UA-dependent margin of tolerance. (Typically, sizes for scalable fonts
   are rounded to the nearest whole pixel, while the tolerance for
   bitmapped fonts could be as large as 20%.) Further computations, e.g.,
   by ’em’ values in other properties, are based on
   the computed value of ‘font-size’.

‘font-family’

Value:  [[

<family-name>

|

<generic-family>

] [,

<family-name>

|

<generic-family>

]* ] |

inherit

Initial:  depends on user agent
Applies to:  all elements
Inherited:  yes
Percentages:  N/A
Media:  visual
Computed value:  as specified

The property value is a prioritized list of font family names
and/or generic family names.
Unlike most other CSS properties, component values are separated
by a comma to indicate that they are alternatives:

body { font-family: Gill, Helvetica, sans-serif }

Although many fonts provide the “missing character” glyph,
typically an open box, as its name implies this should not be
considered a match
for characters that cannot be found in the font. (It should,
however, be considered a match for U+FFFD, the “missing character”
character’s code point).

There are two types of font family names:

<family-name>

The name of a font family of choice. In the last example, “Gill”
and “Helvetica” are font families.

<generic-family>

In the example above, the last value is a generic family name. The
following generic families are defined:

• ‘serif’ (e.g., Times)
• ‘sans-serif’ (e.g., Helvetica)
• ‘cursive’ (e.g., Zapf-Chancery)
• ‘fantasy’ (e.g., Western)
• ‘monospace’ (e.g., Courier)

Style sheet designers are encouraged to offer a generic font family
as a last alternative. Generic font family names are keywords and must NOT be quoted.

Font family names must either be given quoted as strings, or unquoted as a sequence of
one or more identifiers. This means
most punctuation characters and digits at the start of each token must
be escaped in unquoted font family names.

For example, the following declarations are invalid:

font-family: Red/Black, sans-serif;
font-family: "Lucida" Grande, sans-serif;
font-family: Ahem!, sans-serif;
font-family: test@foo, sans-serif;
font-family: #POUND, sans-serif;
font-family: Hawaii 5-0, sans-serif;

If a sequence of identifiers is given as a font family name, the
computed value is the name converted to a string by joining all the
identifiers in the sequence by single spaces.

To avoid mistakes in escaping, it is recommended to quote font
family names that contain white space, digits, or punctuation
characters other than hyphens:

body { font-family: "New Century Schoolbook", serif }

<BODY STYLE="font-family: '21st Century', fantasy">

Font family names that happen to be the same as a keyword
value (‘inherit’, ‘serif’, ‘sans-serif’, ‘monospace’, ‘fantasy’, and
‘cursive’) must be quoted to prevent confusion with the keywords with
the same names. The keywords ‘initial’ and ‘default’ are reserved for
future use and must also be quoted when used as font names. UAs must
not consider these keywords as matching the ‘<family-name>’
type.

Generic font families are a fallback mechanism, a means of
preserving some of the style sheet author’s intent in the worst case
when none of the specified fonts can be selected. For optimum
typographic control, particular named fonts should be used in
style sheets.

All five generic font families are defined to exist in all
CSS implementations (they need not necessarily map to five distinct
actual fonts). User agents should provide reasonable
default choices for the generic font families, which express the
characteristics of each family as well as possible within the limits
allowed by the underlying technology.

User agents are encouraged to allow users to select alternative
choices for the generic fonts.

Glyphs of serif fonts, as the term is used in CSS, tend to have finishing
strokes, flared or tapering ends, or have actual serifed endings
(including slab serifs). Serif fonts are typically
proportionately-spaced. They often display a greater variation between
thick and thin strokes than fonts from the ‘sans-serif’ generic font
family. CSS uses the term ‘serif’ to apply to a font for any script,
although other names may be more familiar for particular scripts, such
as Mincho (Japanese), Sung or Song (Chinese), Totum or Kodig (Korean).
Any font that is so described may be used to represent the
generic ‘serif’ family.

Examples of fonts that fit this description include:

Latin fonts
Times New Roman, Bodoni,
Garamond, Minion Web, ITC Stone Serif, MS Georgia, Bitstream Cyberbit
Greek fonts
Bitstream Cyberbit
Cyrillic fonts
Adobe Minion Cyrillic, Excelsior Cyrillic Upright,
Monotype Albion 70, Bitstream Cyberbit, ER Bukinist
Hebrew fonts
New Peninim, Raanana, Bitstream Cyberbit
Japanese fonts
Ryumin Light-KL, Kyokasho ICA, Futo Min A101
Arabic fonts
Bitstream Cyberbit
Cherokee fonts
Lo Cicero Cherokee

Glyphs in sans-serif fonts, as the term is used in CSS, tend to have stroke
endings that are plain — with little or no flaring, cross stroke, or other
ornamentation. Sans-serif fonts are typically
proportionately-spaced. They often have little variation between thick
and thin strokes, compared to fonts from the ‘serif’ family. CSS uses
the term ‘sans-serif’ to apply to a font for any script, although
other names may be more familiar for particular scripts, such as
Gothic (Japanese), Kai (Chinese), or Pathang (Korean). Any font that
is so described may be used to represent the generic ‘sans-serif’
family.

Examples of fonts that fit this description include:

Latin fonts
MS Trebuchet, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, MS Arial, MS Verdana, Univers,
Futura, ITC Stone Sans, Gill Sans, Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica
Greek fonts
Attika, Typiko New Era, MS Tahoma, Monotype Gill Sans 571, Helvetica Greek
Cyrillic fonts
Helvetica Cyrillic, ER Univers, Lucida Sans Unicode, Bastion
Hebrew fonts
Arial Hebrew, MS Tahoma
Japanese fonts
Shin Go, Heisei Kaku Gothic W5
Arabic fonts
MS Tahoma

Glyphs in cursive fonts, as the term is used in CSS, generally have
either joining strokes or other cursive characteristics beyond those
of italic typefaces. The glyphs are partially or completely
connected, and the result looks more like handwritten pen or brush
writing than printed letterwork. Fonts for some scripts, such as
Arabic, are almost always cursive. CSS uses the term ‘cursive’ to
apply to a font for any script, although other names such as Chancery,
Brush, Swing and Script are also used in font names.

Examples of fonts that fit this description include:

Latin fonts
Caflisch Script, Adobe Poetica, Sanvito, Ex Ponto, Snell Roundhand,
Zapf-Chancery
Cyrillic fonts
ER Architekt
Hebrew fonts
Corsiva
Arabic fonts
DecoType Naskh, Monotype Urdu 507

Fantasy fonts, as used in CSS, are primarily decorative while
still containing representations of characters (as opposed to Pi or
Picture fonts, which do not represent characters). Examples include:

Latin fonts
Alpha Geometrique, Critter, Cottonwood, FB Reactor, Studz

The sole criterion of a monospace font is that all glyphs have the same fixed width. (This can make some scripts,
such as Arabic, look most peculiar.) The effect is similar to a manual
typewriter, and is often used to set samples of computer code.

Examples of fonts which fit this description include:

Latin fonts
Courier, MS Courier New, Prestige, Everson Mono
Greek Fonts
MS Courier New, Everson Mono
Cyrillic fonts
ER Kurier, Everson Mono
Japanese fonts
Osaka Monospaced
Cherokee fonts
Everson Mono

‘font-style’

Value:  normal | italic | oblique |

inherit

Initial:  normal
Applies to:  all elements
Inherited:  yes
Percentages:  N/A
Media:  visual
Computed value:  as specified

The ‘font-style’ property selects between normal (sometimes
referred to as “roman” or “upright”), italic and oblique faces within
a font family.

A value of ‘normal’ selects a font that is classified as ‘normal’
in the UA’s font database, while ‘oblique’ selects a font that is
labeled ‘oblique’. A value of ‘italic’ selects a font that is labeled
‘italic’, or, if that is not available, one labeled ‘oblique’.

The font that is labeled ‘oblique’ in the UA’s font database may
actually have been generated by electronically slanting a normal font.

Fonts with Oblique, Slanted or Incline in their names will
typically be labeled ‘oblique’ in the UA’s font database. Fonts with
Italic, Cursive or Kursiv in their names will
typically be labeled ‘italic’.

h1, h2, h3 { font-style: italic }
h1 em { font-style: normal }

In the example above, emphasized text within ‘H1’ will appear in a
normal face.

‘font-variant’

Value:  normal | small-caps |

inherit

Initial:  normal
Applies to:  all elements
Inherited:  yes
Percentages:  N/A
Media:  visual
Computed value:  as specified

Another type of variation within a font family is the small-caps.
In a small-caps font the lower case letters look similar to the
uppercase ones, but in a smaller size and with slightly different
proportions. The ‘font-variant’ property selects that font.

A value of ‘normal’ selects a font that is not a small-caps font,
‘small-caps’ selects a small-caps font. It is acceptable (but not
required) in CSS 2.1 if the small-caps font is a created by taking a
normal font and replacing the lower case letters by scaled uppercase
characters. As a last resort, uppercase letters will be used as
replacement for a small-caps font.

The following example results in an ‘H3’ element in small-caps,
with any emphasized words in oblique, and any emphasized words within
an ‘H3’ oblique small-caps:

h3 { font-variant: small-caps }
em { font-style: oblique }

There may be other variants in the font family as well, such as
fonts with old-style numerals, small-caps numerals, condensed or
expanded letters, etc. CSS 2.1 has no properties that select those.

Note: insofar as this property causes text to be
transformed to uppercase, the same considerations as for ‘text-transform’ apply.

‘font-weight’

Value:  normal | bold | bolder | lighter | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 |
600 | 700 | 800 | 900 |

inherit

Initial:  normal
Applies to:  all elements
Inherited:  yes
Percentages:  N/A
Media:  visual
Computed value:  see text

The ‘font-weight’ property selects the weight of the font. The
values ‘100’ to ‘900’ form an ordered sequence, where each number
indicates a weight that is at least as dark as its predecessor. The
keyword ‘normal’ is synonymous with ‘400’, and ‘bold’ is synonymous
with ‘700’. Keywords other than ‘normal’ and ‘bold’ have been shown to
be often confused with font names and a numerical scale was therefore
chosen for the 9-value list.

p { font-weight: normal }   /* 400 */
h1 { font-weight: 700 }     /* bold */

The ‘bolder’ and ‘lighter’ values select font weights that are
relative to the weight inherited from the parent:

strong { font-weight: bolder }

Fonts (the font data) typically have one or more properties whose
values are names that are descriptive of the “weight” of a font. There
is no accepted, universal meaning to these weight names. Their primary
role is to distinguish faces of differing darkness within a single
font family. Usage across font families is quite variant; for example,
a font that one might think of as being bold might be described as
being Regular, Roman, Book, Medium, Semi- or DemiBold,
Bold, or Black, depending on how black the “normal” face
of the font is within the design. Because there is no standard usage
of names, the weight property values in CSS 2.1 are given on a numerical
scale in which the value ‘400’ (or ‘normal’) corresponds to the
“normal” text face for that family. The weight name associated with
that face will typically be Book, Regular, Roman, Normal or
sometimes Medium.

The association of other weights within a family to the numerical
weight values is intended only to preserve the ordering of darkness
within that family. However, the following heuristics tell how the
assignment is done in this case:

• If the font family already uses a numerical scale with nine values
  (like e.g., OpenType does), the font weights should be mapped
  directly.

• If there is both a face labeled Medium and one labeled
  Book, Regular, Roman or Normal, then the
  Medium is normally assigned to the ‘500’.

• The font labeled “Bold” will often correspond to the weight value ‘700’.

Once the font family’s weights are mapped onto the CSS scale,
missing weights are selected as follows:

• If the desired weight is less than 400, weights below the desired
  weight are checked in descending order followed by weights above the
  desired weight in ascending order until a match is found.

• If the desired weight is greater than 500, weights above desired
  weight are checked in ascending order followed by weights below the
  desired weight in descending order until a match is found.

• If the desired weight is 400, 500 is checked first and then the
  rule for desired weights less than 400 is used.

• If the desired weight is 500, 400 is checked first and then the
  rule for desired weights less than 400 is used.

The following two examples show typical mappings.

Assume four weights in the “Rattlesnake” family, from lightest to
darkest: Regular, Medium, Bold, Heavy.

First example of font-weight mapping

Available faces Assignments Filling the holes

“Rattlesnake Regular” 400 100, 200, 300
“Rattlesnake Medium” 500  
“Rattlesnake Bold” 700 600
“Rattlesnake Heavy” 800 900

Assume six weights in the
“Ice Prawn” family: Book, Medium, Bold, Heavy, Black,
ExtraBlack. Note that in this instance the user agent
has decided not to assign a numeric
value to “Ice Prawn ExtraBlack”.

Second example of font-weight mapping

Available faces Assignments Filling the holes

“Ice Prawn Book” 400 100, 200, 300
“Ice Prawn Medium” 500  
“Ice Prawn Bold” 700 600
“Ice Prawn Heavy” 800  
“Ice Prawn Black” 900  
“Ice Prawn ExtraBlack” (none)  

Values of ‘bolder’ and ‘lighter’ indicate values relative to the
weight of the parent element. Based on the inherited weight value,
the weight used is calculated using the chart below. Child elements
inherit the calculated weight, not a value of ‘bolder’ or ‘lighter’.

The meaning of ‘bolder’ and ‘lighter’

Inherited value bolder lighter

100 400 100
200 400 100
300 400 100
400 700 100
500 700 100
600 900 400
700 900 400
800 900 700
900 900 700

The table above is equivalent to selecting the next relative bolder
or lighter face, given a font family containing normal and bold faces
along with a thin and a heavy face. Authors who desire finer control
over the exact weight values used for a given element should use
numerical values instead of relative weights.

There is no guarantee that there will be a darker face for each of
the ‘font-weight’ values; for example, some fonts may have only a
normal and a bold face, while others may have eight face weights.
There is no guarantee on how a UA will map font faces within a family
to weight values. The only guarantee is that a face of a given value
will be no less dark than the faces of lighter values.

‘font-size’

Value:  

<absolute-size>

|

<relative-size>

|

<length>

|

<percentage>

|

inherit

Initial:  medium
Applies to:  all elements
Inherited:  yes
Percentages:  refer to inherited font size
Media:  visual
Computed value:  absolute length

The font size corresponds to the em square, a concept used in typography.
Note that certain glyphs may bleed outside their em squares. Values
have the following meanings:

<absolute-size>

An <absolute-size> keyword is an index to a table of font
sizes computed and kept by the UA. Possible values are:

[ xx-small | x-small | small | medium | large | x-large | xx-large ]

The following table provides user agent guidelines for the absolute-size
mapping to HTML heading and absolute font-sizes. The ‘medium’ value is
the user’s preferred font size and is used as the reference middle value.

CSS absolute-size values
xx-small
x-small
small
medium
large
x-large
xx-large
 

HTML font sizes
1
 
2
3
4
5
6
7

Implementors should build a table of scaling factors for absolute-size keywords relative to the ‘medium’ font size and the particular device and its characteristics (e.g., the resolution of the device).

Different media may need different scaling factors. Also, the UA
should take the quality and availability of fonts into account when
computing the table. The table may be different from one font family
to another.

Note 1. To preserve readability, a UA applying
these guidelines should nevertheless avoid creating font-size resulting
in less than 9 pixels per EM unit on a computer display.

Note 2. In CSS1, the suggested
scaling factor between adjacent indexes was 1.5, which user experience
proved to be too large. In CSS2, the suggested scaling factor for a
computer screen between adjacent indexes was 1.2, which still created
issues for the small sizes. Implementation experience has demonstrated
that a fixed ratio between adjacent absolute-size keywords is
problematic, and this specification does not recommend such a
fixed ratio.

<relative-size>

A <relative-size> keyword is interpreted relative to the
table of font sizes and the font size of the parent element. Possible
values are: [ larger | smaller ]. For example, if the parent element
has a font size of ‘medium’, a value of ‘larger’ will make the font
size of the current element be ‘large’. If the parent element’s size
is not close to a table entry, the UA is free to interpolate between
table entries or round off to the closest one. The UA may have to
extrapolate table values if the numerical value goes beyond the
keywords.

Length and percentage values should not take the font size table
into account when calculating the font size of the element.

Negative values are not allowed.

On all other properties, ’em’ and ‘ex’ length values refer to the
computed font size of the current element. On the ‘font-size’ property, these
length units refer to the computed font size of the parent element.

Note that an application may reinterpret an explicit size,
depending on the context. E.g., inside a VR scene a font may get a
different size because of perspective distortion.

Examples:

p { font-size: 16px; }
@media print {
	p { font-size: 12pt; }
}
blockquote { font-size: larger }
em { font-size: 150% }
em { font-size: 1.5em }

‘font’

Value:  [ [

<‘font-style’>

||

<‘font-variant’>

||

<‘font-weight’>

]?

<‘font-size’>

[ /

<‘line-height’>

]?

<‘font-family’>

] | caption | icon | menu | message-box | small-caption | status-bar |

inherit

Initial:  see individual properties
Applies to:  all elements
Inherited:  yes
Percentages:  see individual properties
Media:  visual
Computed value:  see individual properties

The ‘font’ property is,
except as described below, a shorthand property for
setting
‘font-style’,
‘font-variant’,
‘font-weight’,
‘font-size’,
‘line-height’ and
‘font-family’ at the same
place in the style
sheet. The syntax of this property is based on a traditional
typographical shorthand notation to set multiple properties related to
fonts.

All font-related properties are first reset to their initial values,
including those listed in the preceding paragraph.
Then, those properties that are given explicit values in the
‘font’ shorthand are set to those values.
For a definition of allowed and initial values, see the previously defined properties.

p { font: 12px/14px sans-serif }
p { font: 80% sans-serif }
p { font: x-large/110% "New Century Schoolbook", serif }
p { font: bold italic large Palatino, serif }
p { font: normal small-caps 120%/120% fantasy }

In the second rule, the font size percentage value (‘80%’) refers
to the font size of the parent element. In the third rule, the line
height percentage refers to the font size of the element itself.

In the first three rules above, the ‘font-style’, ‘font-variant’
and ‘font-weight’ are not explicitly mentioned, which means they are
all three set to their initial value (‘normal’). The fourth rule sets
the ‘font-weight’ to ‘bold’, the ‘font-style’ to ‘italic’ and
implicitly sets ‘font-variant’ to ‘normal’.

The fifth rule sets the ‘font-variant’ (‘small-caps’), the
‘font-size’ (120% of the parent’s font), the ‘line-height’ (120% times
the font size) and the ‘font-family’ (‘fantasy’). It follows that the
keyword ‘normal’ applies to the two remaining properties: ‘font-style’
and ‘font-weight’.

The following values refer to system fonts:

caption

The font used for captioned controls (e.g., buttons, drop-downs, etc.).

icon

The font used to label icons.

menu

The font used in menus (e.g., dropdown menus and menu lists).

message-box

The font used in dialog boxes.

small-caption

The font used for labeling small controls.

status-bar

The font used in window status bars.

System fonts may only be set as a whole; that is, the font
family, size, weight, style, etc. are all set at the same time.
These values may then be altered individually if desired. If no
font with the indicated characteristics exists on a given platform,
the user agent should either intelligently substitute (e.g., a smaller
version of the ‘caption’ font might be used for the ‘small-caption’
font), or substitute a user agent default font. As for regular fonts,
if, for a system font, any of the individual properties are not part
of the operating system’s available user preferences, those properties
should be set to their initial values.

That is why this property is “almost” a shorthand property: system
fonts can only be specified with this property, not with ‘font-family’ itself, so ‘font’ allows authors to do more than the
sum of its subproperties. However, the individual properties such as ‘font-weight’ are still given values taken from the system font, which can be independently varied.

Example(s):

button { font: 300 italic 1.3em/1.7em "FB Armada", sans-serif }
button p { font: menu }
button p em { font-weight: bolder }

If the font used for dropdown menus on a particular system
happened to be, for example, 9-point Charcoal, with a weight of 600, then P
elements that were descendants of BUTTON would be displayed as if
this rule were in effect:

button p { font: 600 9px Charcoal }

Because the ‘font’ shorthand
property resets any property not explicitly given a value
to its initial value, this has the same effect as this declaration:

button p {
  font-family: Charcoal;
  font-style: normal;
  font-variant: normal;
  font-weight: 600;
  font-size: 9px;
  line-height: normal;
}