font-language-override

The font-language-override CSS property controls the usage of language-specific glyphs in a typeface.

By default, browsers use the HTML global attribute lang to determine the language of the text contained in an element; with this information, they use special glyphs designed for that language. For example, a lot of font have a special character for the digraph fi, making the dot on the i merge with the previous character. This ligature should not be used when displaying turkic language as they have two i (i and ı), one with a dot and one dotless: using the ligature would transform a dotted i in a dotless i.

Sometimes the author want to override this language: like if the typeface doesn't know about the azeri language, that, like the turkish one, has a dotless i. In that case, the font-language-override can be used to force the use of the turkish glyphs, better suited for azeri than the default one.

Initial value	normal
Applies to	all elements. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line.
Inherited	yes
Media	visual
Computed value	as specified
Animatable	no
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

font-language-override: normal
font-language-override: "TRK"

/* Global values */
font-language-override: initial
font-language-override: inherit
font-language-override: unset

Values

normal

This keyword forces the browser to use glyphs defined for the given language in the font.

<string>

This keyword forces the browser to use the language defined by the string. The values are the OpenType language system strings.

Formal syntax

normal | <string>

Example

HTML

<p class="para1"> Default language setting.</p>
<p class="para2">This is a string with the <code>font-language-override</code> set to Danish</p>

CSS

p.para1 {
    font-language-override: none;
}
p.para2 {
    font-language-override: "DAN";
}

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Fonts Module Level 3 The definition of 'font-language-override' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser Compatibility

[1] Experimental unprefixed implementation was available since Gecko 24. It was governed by the preference layout.css.font-features.enabled defaulting to true on Nightly and Aurora only.

See also

• font-variant, font-variant-position, font-variant-east-asian, font-variant-caps, font-variant-ligatures, font-variant-numeric, font-variant-alternates, font-synthesis, font-kerning.