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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

font-kerning: auto;

font-kerning: normal;

font-kerning: none;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    “We took Tracy to see ‘THE WATERFALL’ in W. Virginia.”
  </div>
</section>

section {
  font-family: serif;
}

Kerning affects how letters are spaced. In well-kerned fonts, this feature makes character spacing more uniform and pleasant to read by reducing white space between certain character combinations.

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

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 value	`auto`
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-kerning = 
  auto    |
  normal  |
  none

Examples

Enabling and disabling kerning

HTML

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

CSS

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

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

#kern {
  font-kerning: normal;
}

JavaScript

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

	Desktop					Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on IOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`font-kerning`	3329–33	79	32	2016–20	96	3329–33	32	2016–20	96	2.01.0–2.0	4.4.34.4–4.4.3	96
`auto`	33	79	32	20	9	33	32	20	9	2.0	4.4.3	9
`none`	33	79	32	20	9	33	32	20	9	2.0	4.4.3	9
`normal`	33	79	32	20	9	33	32	20	9	2.0	4.4.3	9