font-variant-alternates

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The font-variant-alternates CSS property controls the usage of alternate glyphs. These alternate glyphs may be referenced by alternative names defined in {{cssxref("@font-feature-values")}} .

The {{cssxref("@font-feature-values")}} at-rule can be used to associate, for a given font face, a human-readable name with a numeric index that controls a particular OpenType font feature. For features that select alternative glyphs (stylistic, styleset, character-variant, swash, ornament or annotation), the font-variant-alternates property can then reference the human-readable name in order to apply the associated feature.

This allows CSS rules to enable alternative glyphs without needing to know the specific index values that a particular font uses to control them.

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
font-variant-alternates: normal;
font-variant-alternates: historical-forms;

/* Functional notation values */
font-variant-alternates: stylistic(user-defined-ident);
font-variant-alternates: styleset(user-defined-ident);
font-variant-alternates: character-variant(user-defined-ident);
font-variant-alternates: swash(user-defined-ident);
font-variant-alternates: ornaments(user-defined-ident);
font-variant-alternates: annotation(user-defined-ident);
font-variant-alternates: swash(ident1) annotation(ident2);

/* Global values */
font-variant-alternates: inherit;
font-variant-alternates: initial;
font-variant-alternates: revert;
font-variant-alternates: revert-layer;
font-variant-alternates: unset;

This property may take one of two forms:

either the keyword normal
or one or more of the other keywords and functions listed below, space-separated, in any order.

Values

normal
- : This keyword deactivates alternate glyphs.
historical-forms
- : This keyword enables historical forms — glyphs that were common in the past but not today. It corresponds to the OpenType value hist.
stylistic()
- : This function enables stylistic alternates for individual characters. The parameter is a font-specific name mapped to a number. It corresponds to the OpenType value salt, like salt 2.
styleset()
- : This function enables stylistic alternatives for sets of characters. The parameter is a font-specific name mapped to a number. It corresponds to the OpenType value ssXY, like ss02.
character-variant()
- : This function enables specific stylistic alternatives for characters. It is similar to styleset(), but doesn’t create coherent glyphs for a set of characters; individual characters will have independent and not necessarily coherent styles. The parameter is a font-specific name mapped to a number. It corresponds to the OpenType value cvXY, like cv02.
swash()
- : This function enables swash glyphs. The parameter is a font-specific name mapped to a number. It corresponds to the OpenType values swsh and cswh, like swsh 2 and cswh 2.
ornaments()
- : This function enables ornaments, like fleurons and other dingbat glyphs. The parameter is a font-specific name mapped to a number. It corresponds to the OpenType value ornm, like ornm 2.
  
  [!NOTE] In order to preserve text semantics, font designers should include ornaments that don’t match Unicode dingbat characters as ornamental variants of the bullet character (U+2022). Be aware that some existing fonts don’t follow this advice.
annotation()
- : This function enables annotations, like circled digits or inverted characters. The parameter is a font-specific name mapped to a number. It corresponds to the OpenType value nalt, like nalt 2.

Formal definition

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Formal syntax

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Examples

Enabling swash glyphs

In this example, we use the @font-feature-values at-rule to define a name for the swash feature of the MonteCarlo font. The rule maps the name "fancy" to the index value 1.

We can then use that name inside font-variant-alternates to switch on swashes for that font. This is the equivalent of a line like font-feature-settings: "swsh" 1, except that the CSS applying the feature does not need to include, or even know, the index value needed for this particular font.

HTML

<p>A Fancy Swash</p>
<p class="variant">A Fancy Swash</p>

CSS

@font-face {
  font-family: MonteCarlo;
  src: url("montecarlo-regular.woff2");
}

@font-feature-values "MonteCarlo" {
  @swash {
    fancy: 1;
  }
}

p {
  font-family: "MonteCarlo";
  font-size: 3rem;
  margin: 0.7rem 3rem;
}

.variant {
  font-variant-alternates: swash(fancy);
}

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample("Enabling swash glyphs", 0, 230)}}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

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