CSS font-language-override

The font-language-override property allows you to control the use of language-specific glyph substitutions and positioning.

The font-language-override property is one of the properties introduced in CSS3 for enabling various font related features that can improve the appearance of the text on the page. The font-language-override property deals specifically with language-specific glyph substitutions and positioning. It allows you to override the language system used by the content language.

This property can be useful in certain cases because, many languages share a common script, but the shape of certain letters can vary across those languages, depending on their context. For example, in Latin text, many fonts render "fi" with an explicit fi-ligature that joins the two glphs into one, and removes the dot from the "i" (example. However, in languages such as Turkish a dotted-i has a different meaning to a dotless-i. So generating such a ligature is not a good option in this case. Therefore, you would either want to use a specialized ligature that maintains the dot over the "i", or avoid the ligature altogether.

Syntax

The syntax of the font-language-override property is:

Possible Values

normal

Specifies that when rendering with OpenType fonts, the content language of the element is used to infer the OpenType language system.

string

This value is a single three-letter case-sensitive OpenType language system tag that specifies the OpenType language system to be used instead of the language system implied by the language of the element.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial

Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.

inherit

Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.

unset

This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

General Information

Example Code

An HTML document might use the following code to indicate that the language is Macedonian:

However, the font might not support the typographic conventions of this language. Therefore, you could use the font-language-override property to specify a language that the font does support.

So if the font supports Serbian for example, you could do this in your CSS:

Official Specifications

• CSS Fonts Module Level 4
• CSS Fonts Module Level 3 (W3C Recommendation 20 September 2018)

Browser Support

Browser support for CSS properties can vary, particularly for newer or experimental features. Check current browser compatibility before using a property in production, especially when supporting older browsers.

Initial Value

CSS properties have an initial value that applies when the property has not been explicitly set. The initial value is different from the value inherited from a parent element and may vary between properties.

Inheritance

Some CSS properties inherit their computed value from their parent element by default, while others do not. The inherit, initial, unset, and revert keywords can also be used to control how a property gets its value.

Vendor Prefixes

Most modern CSS properties use the standard, unprefixed syntax. Vendor-prefixed properties such as -webkit- are mainly relevant to older browser versions or specific features and should only be used when required by your browser support targets.