CSS font-variant-alternates

The font-variant-alternates property allows you to control the selection of alternate glyphs for a given character within a font.

The font-variant-alternates 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-variant-alternates property deals specifically with selecting alternate glyphs.

For any given character, fonts can provide a variety of alternate glyphs in addition to the default glyph for that character. The font-variant-alternates property allows you to select which specific glyph you require for a given situation.

Syntax

The syntax of the font-variant-alternates property is:

These values are explained in more detail below.

Possible Values

Most of the possible values are font-specific. Therefore, the @font-feature-values rule can be used to define values for a specific font family or set of families that associate a font-specific numeric feature-index with a custom feature-value-name.

normal: Specifies that none of the features below are enabled.
stylistic(feature-value-name): Enables display of stylistic alternates (font specific, OpenType feature: salt feature-index).
historical-forms: Enables display of historical forms (OpenType feature: hist).
styleset(feature-value-name #): Enables display with stylistic sets (font specific, OpenType feature: ssfeature-index). For example, ss01, ss02, ss03, etc
character-variant(feature-value-name #): Enables display of specific character variants (font specific, OpenType feature: cvfeature-index). For example, cv01, cv02, cv03, etc
swash(feature-value-name): Enables display of swash glyphs (font specific, OpenType feature: swsh feature-index, cswh feature-index).
ornaments(feature-value-name): Enables replacement of default glyphs with ornaments, if provided in the font (font specific, OpenType feature: ornm feature-index).
annotation(feature-value-name): Enables display of alternate annotation forms (font specific, OpenType feature: nalt feature-index).

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

Initial Value: normal
Applies To: All elements
Inherited?: Yes
Media: Visual
Animatable?: No

Example Code

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.