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 source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.
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
noropen
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 value | as each of the properties of the shorthand:
|
---|---|
Applies to | all elements |
Inherited | no |
Computed value | as each of the properties of the shorthand:
|
Animation type | as 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
The compatibility table on this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.
See also
- The longhand properties
text-emphasis-style
,text-emphasis-color
. - The
text-emphasis-position
property allowing to define the position of the emphasis marks.