Typography

CSS font-feature-settings Property

Controls advanced typographic features in OpenType fonts

Syntax

CSS
font-feature-settings: normal | <feature-tag-value>;

Values

ValueDescription
normalNo feature overrides
"liga" 1Enable standard ligatures
"smcp"Enable small caps
"tnum"Enable tabular numbers
"kern" 1Enable kerning

Example

CSS
.tabular-nums {
  font-feature-settings: "tnum";
}
.no-ligatures {
  font-feature-settings: "liga" 0;
}

Understanding CSS font-feature-settings

The CSS font-feature-settings property controls advanced typographic features in OpenType fonts. As part of the Typography module in CSS, it is one of the most commonly used properties for controlling the visual presentation of web pages.

You can set font-feature-settings to values such as normal, "liga" 1, "smcp", "tnum", among others. Each value changes how the browser renders the affected element, giving you fine-grained control over your page layout and design. Choosing the right value depends on the specific design requirements of your project.

Common use cases for the font-feature-settings property include responsive web design, component-based layouts, and creating visually consistent interfaces across devices. It works closely with related properties like font-variant, font-variant-ligatures, font-variant-numeric to achieve complex styling effects. Understanding how these properties interact helps you write cleaner, more maintainable stylesheets.

Browser support for font-feature-settings is excellent across all modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. For older browsers, consider using fallback values or progressive enhancement strategies. The property can also be set dynamically via JavaScript using element.style.fontFeatureSettings or the CSS custom properties (variables) approach for theming.

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