CanvasRenderingContext2D: fontVariantCaps property

The CanvasRenderingContext2D.fontVariantCaps property of the Canvas API specifies an alternative capitalization of the rendered text.

This corresponds to the CSS font-variant-caps property.

Value

The font alternative capitalization value, which is one of:

normal (default)

Deactivates of the use of alternate glyphs.

small-caps

Enables display of small capitals (OpenType feature: smcp). Small-caps glyphs typically use the form of uppercase letters but are reduced to the size of lowercase letters.

all-small-caps

Enables display of small capitals for both upper and lowercase letters (OpenType features: c2sc, smcp).

petite-caps

Enables display of petite capitals (OpenType feature: pcap).

all-petite-caps

Enables display of petite capitals for both upper and lowercase letters (OpenType features: c2pc, pcap).

unicase

Enables display of mixture of small capitals for uppercase letters with normal lowercase letters (OpenType feature: unic).

titling-caps

Enables display of titling capitals (OpenType feature: titl). Uppercase letter glyphs are often designed for use with lowercase letters. When used in all uppercase titling sequences they can appear too strong. Titling capitals are designed specifically for this situation.

The property can be used to get or set the font capitalization value.

Note that there are accessibility concerns with some of these, which are outlined in the corresponding font-variant-caps topic.

Examples

In this example we display the text "Hello World" using each of the supported values of the fontVariantCaps property. The value is also displayed for each case by reading the property.

HTML

<canvas id="canvas" width="700" height="220"></canvas>

JavaScript

const canvas = document.getElementById("canvas");
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.font = "20px serif";

// Default (normal)
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (default: ${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 20);

// Capitalization: small-caps
ctx.fontVariantCaps = "small-caps";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 50);

// Capitalization: all-small-caps
ctx.fontVariantCaps = "all-small-caps";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 80);

// Capitalization: petite-caps
ctx.fontVariantCaps = "petite-caps";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 110);

// Capitalization: all-petite-caps
ctx.fontVariantCaps = "all-petite-caps";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 140);

// Capitalization: unicase
ctx.fontVariantCaps = "unicase";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 170);

// Capitalization: titling-caps
ctx.fontVariantCaps = "titling-caps";
ctx.fillText(`Hello world (${ctx.fontVariantCaps})`, 5, 200);

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility