text-emphasis

The text-emphasis CSS property applies emphasis marks to text (except spaces and control characters). It is a shorthand for text-emphasis-style and text-emphasis-color.

The text-emphasis property is quite different from text-decoration. The text-decoration property does not inherit, and the decoration specified is applied across the whole element. However, text-emphasis does inherit, which means it is possible to change emphasis marks for descendants.

The size of the emphasis symbol, like ruby symbols, is about 50% of the size of the font, and text-emphasis may affect line height when the current leading is not enough for the marks.

text-emphasis doesn't reset the value of text-emphasis-position. This is because if the style and the color of emphasis marks may vary in a text, it is extremely unlikely that their position will. In the very rare cases when this is needed, the property text-emphasis-position.

Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

Syntax

/* Initial value */
text-emphasis: none; /* No emphasis marks */

/* <string> value */
text-emphasis: 'x';
text-emphasis: '点';
text-emphasis: '\25B2';
text-emphasis: '*' #555;
text-emphasis: 'foo'; /* Should NOT use. It may be computed to or rendered as 'f' only */

/* Keywords value */
text-emphasis: filled;
text-emphasis: open;
text-emphasis: filled sesame;
text-emphasis: open sesame;

/* Keywords value combined with a color */
text-emphasis: filled sesame #555;

/* Global values */
text-emphasis: inherit;
text-emphasis: initial;
text-emphasis: unset;

Values

none
No emphasis marks.
filled
The shape is filled with solid color. If neither filled nor open is present, this is the default.
open
The shape is hollow.
dot
Display small circles as marks. The filled dot is '•' (U+2022), and the open dot is '◦' (U+25E6).
circle
Display large circles as marks. The filled circle is '●' (U+25CF), and the open circle is '○' (U+25CB). This is the default shape in horizontal writing modes when no other shape is given.
double-circle
Display double circles as marks. The filled double-circle is '◉' (U+25C9), and the open double-circle is '◎' (U+25CE).
triangle
Display triangles as marks. The filled triangle is '▲' (U+25B2), and the open triangle is '△' (U+25B3).
sesame
Display sesames as marks. The filled sesame is '﹅' (U+FE45), and the open sesame is '﹆' (U+FE46). This is the default shape in vertical writing modes when no other shape is given.
<string>
Display the given string as marks. Authors should not specify more than one character in <string>. The UA may truncate or ignore strings consisting of more than one grapheme cluster.
<color>
Defines the color of the mark. If no color is present, it defaults to currentcolor.

Formal definition

Initial valueas each of the properties of the shorthand:
Applies toall elements
Inheritedno
Computed valueas each of the properties of the shorthand:
Animation typeas each of the properties of the shorthand:

Formal syntax

<'text-emphasis-style'> || <'text-emphasis-color'>

Examples

A heading with emphasis shape and color

This example draws a heading with triangles used to emphasize each character.

CSS

h2 {
  text-emphasis: triangle #D55;
}

HTML

<h2>This is important!</h2>

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
CSS Text Decoration Module Level 3
The definition of 'text-emphasis' in that specification.		 Candidate Recommendation Initial definition

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also