`text-emphasis` CSS property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It's been available across browsers since March 2022.

The text-emphasis CSS shorthand property applies emphasis marks to text (except spaces and control characters).

Try it

text-emphasis: none;

text-emphasis: filled red;

text-emphasis: "x";

text-emphasis: filled double-circle #ffb703;

<section id="default-example">
  <p>
    I'd far rather be
    <span class="transition-all" id="example-element">happy than right</span>
    any day.
  </p>
</section>

p {
  font: 1.5em sans-serif;
}

The text-emphasis property is quite different from text-decoration. The text-decoration property does not inherit, and the decoration specified is applied across the whole element. However, text-emphasis does inherit, which means it is possible to change emphasis marks for descendants.

The size of the emphasis symbol, like ruby symbols, is about 50% of the size of the font, and text-emphasis may affect line height when the current leading is not enough for the marks.

Note: text-emphasis doesn't reset the value of text-emphasis-position. This is because if the style and the color of emphasis marks may vary in a text, it is extremely unlikely that their position will. In the very rare cases when this is needed, use the property text-emphasis-position.

Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

Syntax

/* Initial value */
text-emphasis: none; /* No emphasis marks */

/* <string> value */
text-emphasis: "x";
text-emphasis: "点";
text-emphasis: "\25B2";
text-emphasis: "*" #555555;
text-emphasis: "foo"; /* Should NOT use. It may be computed to or rendered as 'f' only */

/* Keywords value */
text-emphasis: filled;
text-emphasis: open;
text-emphasis: filled sesame;
text-emphasis: open sesame;

/* Keywords value combined with a color */
text-emphasis: filled sesame #555555;

/* Global values */
text-emphasis: inherit;
text-emphasis: initial;
text-emphasis: revert;
text-emphasis: revert-layer;
text-emphasis: unset;

Values

none: No emphasis marks.
filled: The shape is filled with solid color. If neither filled nor open is present, this is the default.
open: The shape is hollow.
dot: Display small circles as marks. The filled dot is '•' (U+2022), and the open dot is '◦' (U+25E6).
circle: Display large circles as marks. The filled circle is '●' (U+25CF), and the open circle is '○' (U+25CB). This is the default shape in horizontal writing modes when no other shape is given.
double-circle: Display double circles as marks. The filled double-circle is '◉' (U+25C9), and the open double-circle is '◎' (U+25CE).
triangle: Display triangles as marks. The filled triangle is '▲' (U+25B2), and the open triangle is '△' (U+25B3).
sesame: Display sesames as marks. The filled sesame is '﹅' (U+FE45), and the open sesame is '﹆' (U+FE46). This is the default shape in vertical writing modes when no other shape is given.
<string>: Display the given string as marks. Authors should not specify more than one character in <string>. The UA may truncate or ignore strings consisting of more than one grapheme cluster.
<color>: Defines the color of the mark. If no color is present, it defaults to currentColor.

Formal definition

Initial value	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `text-emphasis-style` `text-emphasis-color`
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `text-emphasis-style` `text-emphasis-color`
Animation type	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `text-emphasis-color` `text-emphasis-style`

Formal syntax

text-emphasis = 
  <'text-emphasis-style'> ||
  <'text-emphasis-color'>

Examples

A heading with emphasis shape and color

This example draws a heading with triangles used to emphasize each character.

CSS

h2 {
  text-emphasis: triangle #dd5555;
}

HTML

<h2>This is important!</h2>

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Text Decoration Module Level 3 # text-emphasis-property

Browser compatibility

	Desktop					Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`text-emphasis`	99 25	99 79	46	85 15	7 7	99 25	46	68 14	7 7	18.0 1.5	99 4.4	7 7
`circle`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`currentColor`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`dot`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`double-circle`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`filled`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`none`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`open`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`sesame`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`transparent`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7
`triangle`	25	79	46	15	7	25	46	14	7	1.5	4.4	7