font-variant

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The font-variant CSS shorthand property allows you to set all the font variants for a font.

You can also set the <font-variant-css2> values of font-variant defined in CSS Level 2.1, (that is, normal or small-caps), by using the font shorthand.

Try it

font-variant: normal;

font-variant: no-common-ligatures proportional-nums;

font-variant: common-ligatures tabular-nums;

font-variant: small-caps slashed-zero;

<section id="default-example">
  <div id="example-element">
    <p>Difficult waffles</p>
    <table>
      <tr>
        <td><span class="tabular">0O</span></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td><span class="tabular">3.14</span></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td><span class="tabular">2.71</span></td>
      </tr>
    </table>
  </div>
</section>

@font-face {
  font-family: "Fira Sans";
  src:
    local("FiraSans-Regular"),
    url("/shared-assets/fonts/FiraSans-Regular.woff2") format("woff2");
  font-weight: normal;
  font-style: normal;
}

section {
  font-family: "Fira Sans", sans-serif;
  margin-top: 10px;
  font-size: 1.5em;
}

#example-element table {
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

.tabular {
  border: 1px solid;
}

Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

Syntax

css

font-variant: small-caps;
font-variant: common-ligatures small-caps;

/* Global values */
font-variant: inherit;
font-variant: initial;
font-variant: revert;
font-variant: revert-layer;
font-variant: unset;

Values

normal: Specifies a normal font face. Each longhand property has an initial value of normal.
none: Sets the value of the font-variant-ligatures as none and the values of the other longhand properties as normal, their initial value.
<common-lig-values>, <discretionary-lig-values>, <historical-lig-values>, <contextual-alt-values>: Specifies the keywords related to the font-variant-ligatures longhand property. The possible values are common-ligatures, no-common-ligatures, discretionary-ligatures, no-discretionary-ligatures, historical-ligatures, no-historical-ligatures, contextual, and no-contextual.
stylistic(), historical-forms, styleset(), character-variant(), swash(), ornaments(), annotation(): Specifies the keywords and functions related to the font-variant-ligatures longhand property.
small-caps, all-small-caps, petite-caps, all-petite-caps, unicase, titling-caps: Specifies the keywords and functions related to the font-variant-caps longhand property. The small-caps value is the only non-normal font variant valid within the font shorthand property.
<numeric-figure-values>, <numeric-spacing-values>, <numeric-fraction-values>, ordinal, slashed-zero: Specifies the keywords related to the font-variant-numeric longhand property. The possible values are lining-nums, oldstyle-nums, proportional-nums, tabular-nums, diagonal-fractions, stacked-fractions, ordinal, and slashed-zero.
<east-asian-variant-values>, <east-asian-width-values>, ruby: Specifies the keywords related to the font-variant-east-asian longhand property. The possible values are jis78, jis83, jis90, jis04, simplified, traditional, full-width, proportional-width, and ruby.
sub, super: Specifies the keywords and functions related to the font-variant-position longhand property.
text, emoji, unicode: Specifies the keywords and functions related to the font-variant-emoji longhand property.

Formal definition

Initial value	`normal`
Applies to	all elements and text. It also applies to `::first-letter` and `::first-line`.
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

font-variant = 
  normal                                              |
  none                                                |
  [ [ <common-lig-values> || <discretionary-lig-values> || <historical-lig-values> || <contextual-alt-values> ] || [ small-caps | all-small-caps | petite-caps | all-petite-caps | unicase | titling-caps ] || [ stylistic( <feature-value-name> ) || historical-forms || styleset( <feature-value-name># ) || character-variant( <feature-value-name># ) || swash( <feature-value-name> ) || ornaments( <feature-value-name> ) || annotation( <feature-value-name> ) ] || [ <numeric-figure-values> || <numeric-spacing-values> || <numeric-fraction-values> || ordinal || slashed-zero ] || [ <east-asian-variant-values> || <east-asian-width-values> || ruby ] || [ sub | super ] || [ text | emoji | unicode ] ]  

<common-lig-values> = 
  common-ligatures     |
  no-common-ligatures  

<discretionary-lig-values> = 
  discretionary-ligatures     |
  no-discretionary-ligatures  

<historical-lig-values> = 
  historical-ligatures     |
  no-historical-ligatures  

<contextual-alt-values> = 
  contextual     |
  no-contextual  

<feature-value-name> = 
  <ident>  

<numeric-figure-values> = 
  lining-nums    |
  oldstyle-nums  

<numeric-spacing-values> = 
  proportional-nums  |
  tabular-nums       

<numeric-fraction-values> = 
  diagonal-fractions  |
  stacked-fractions   

<east-asian-variant-values> = 
  jis78        |
  jis83        |
  jis90        |
  jis04        |
  simplified   |
  traditional  

<east-asian-width-values> = 
  full-width          |
  proportional-width

Examples

Setting the small-caps font variant

HTML

html

<p class="normal">Firefox rocks!</p>
<p class="small">Firefox rocks!</p>

CSS

css

p.normal {
  font-variant: normal;
}
p.small {
  font-variant: small-caps;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Fonts Module Level 4 # font-variant-prop
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 2 # FontVariantProperty

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Oct 30, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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