CSS text-emphasis

The CSS text-emphasis property is a shorthand that sets both the style and the color of emphasis marks on text in a single declaration.

Emphasis marks are small symbols drawn above or below each character to draw attention to specific text. They are common in East Asian typography (Chinese and Japanese) as an alternative to italic or bold, since those scripts do not use italics for emphasis in the same way Latin scripts do.

Using the shorthand is the most concise way to apply emphasis marks. You can also set the style and color independently using text-emphasis-style and text-emphasis-color.

Syntax

Both components are optional. You may specify either one alone or both together in any order. If a component is omitted, it resets to its initial value (none for style, currentColor for color).

Possible Values

<text-emphasis-style>

Any value valid for the text-emphasis-style property: none, a fill keyword (filled or open), a shape keyword (dot, circle, double-circle, triangle, sesame), or a quoted string character. A fill and shape keyword may be combined.

<text-emphasis-color>

Any valid CSS color value for the emphasis marks. Defaults to currentColor (inherits the element's text color) if omitted.

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.

Basic Property Information

Example Code

Working Example

CSS Specifications

• The text-emphasis shorthand is defined in CSS Text Decoration Module Level 3 (W3C Candidate Recommendation).

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.

The following table provided by Caniuse.com shows the level of browser support for this feature.

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.