font-kerning

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since January 2020.

The font-kerning CSS property sets the use of the kerning information stored in a font.

Try it

Kerning defines how letters are spaced. In well-kerned fonts, this feature makes character spacing more uniform and pleasant to read than it would otherwise be.

In the image below, for instance, the examples on the left do not use kerning, while the ones on the right do:

Example of font-kerning

Syntax

css
font-kerning: auto;
font-kerning: normal;
font-kerning: none;

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

Values

auto

The browser determines whether font kerning should be used or not. For example, some browsers will disable kerning on small fonts, since applying it could harm the readability of text.

normal

Font kerning information stored in the font must be applied.

none

Font kerning information stored in the font is disabled.

Formal definition

Initial valueauto
Applies toall elements and text. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line.
Inheritedyes
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete

Formal syntax

font-kerning = 
  auto    |
  normal  |
  none

Examples

Enabling and disabling kerning

HTML

html
<div id="kern"></div>
<div id="no-kern"></div>
<textarea id="input">AV T. ij</textarea>

CSS

css
div {
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-family: serif;
}

#no-kern {
  font-kerning: none;
}

#kern {
  font-kerning: normal;
}

JavaScript

js
const input = document.getElementById("input");
const kern = document.getElementById("kern");
const noKern = document.getElementById("no-kern");

input.addEventListener("keyup", () => {
  kern.textContent = input.value; /* Update content */
  noKern.textContent = input.value;
});

kern.textContent = input.value; /* Initialize content */
noKern.textContent = input.value;

Specifications

Specification
CSS Fonts Module Level 4
# font-kerning-prop

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also