@font-face

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2016.

The @font-face CSS at-rule specifies a custom font with which to display text; the font can be loaded from either a remote server or a locally-installed font on the user's own computer.

Syntax

css
@font-face {
  font-family: "Trickster";
  src:
    local("Trickster"),
    url("trickster-COLRv1.otf") format("opentype") tech(color-COLRv1),
    url("trickster-outline.otf") format("opentype"),
    url("trickster-outline.woff") format("woff");
}

Descriptors

ascent-override

Defines the ascent metric for the font.

descent-override

Defines the descent metric for the font.

font-display

Determines how a font face is displayed based on whether and when it is downloaded and ready to use.

font-family

Specifies a name that will be used as the font face value for font properties.

font-stretch

A font-stretch value. Accepts two values to specify a range that is supported by a font-face, for example font-stretch: 50% 200%;

font-style

A font-style value. Accepts two values to specify a range that is supported by a font-face, for example font-style: oblique 20deg 50deg;

font-weight

A font-weight value. Accepts two values to specify a range that is supported by a font-face, for example font-weight: 100 400;

Note: The font-variant descriptor was removed from the specification in 2018. The font-variant value property is supported, but there is no descriptor equivalent.

font-feature-settings

Allows control over advanced typographic features in OpenType fonts.

font-variation-settings

Allows low-level control over OpenType or TrueType font variations, by specifying the four letter axis names of the features to vary, along with their variation values.

line-gap-override

Defines the line gap metric for the font.

size-adjust

Defines a multiplier for glyph outlines and metrics associated with this font. This makes it easier to harmonize the designs of various fonts when rendered at the same font size.

src

Specifies references to font resources including hints about the font format and technology. It is required for the @font-face rule to be valid.

unicode-range

The range of Unicode code points to be used from the font.

Description

It's common to use both url() and local() together, so that the user's installed copy of the font is used if available, falling back to downloading a copy of the font if it's not found on the user's device.

If the local() function is provided, specifying a font name to look for on the user's device, and if the user agent finds a match, that local font is used. Otherwise, the font resource specified using the url() function is downloaded and used.

Browsers attempt to load resources in their list declaration order, so usually local() should be written before url(). Both functions are optional, so a rule block containing only one or more local() without url() is possible. If a more specific fonts with format() or tech() values are desired, these should be listed before versions that don't have these values, as the less-specific variant would otherwise be tried and used first.

By allowing authors to provide their own fonts, @font-face makes it possible to design content without being limited to the so-called "web-safe" fonts (that is, the fonts which are so common that they're considered to be universally available). The ability to specify the name of a locally-installed font to look for and use makes it possible to customize the font beyond the basics while making it possible to do so without relying on an internet connection.

Note: Fallback strategies for loading fonts on older browsers are described in the src descriptor page.

The @font-face at-rule may be used not only at the top level of a CSS, but also inside any CSS conditional-group at-rule.

Font MIME Types

Format MIME type
TrueType font/ttf
OpenType font/otf
Web Open Font Format font/woff
Web Open Font Format 2 font/woff2

Notes

  • Web fonts are subject to the same domain restriction (font files must be on the same domain as the page using them), unless HTTP access controls are used to relax this restriction.

  • @font-face cannot be declared within a CSS selector. For example, the following will not work:

    css
    .className {
  @font-face {
    font-family: "MyHelvetica";
    src: local("Helvetica Neue Bold"), local("HelveticaNeue-Bold"),
      url("MgOpenModernaBold.ttf");
    font-weight: bold;
  }
}

Formal syntax

@font-face = 
  @font-face { <declaration-list> }

Examples

Specifying a downloadable font

This example specifies a downloadable font to use, applying it to the entire body of the document:

html
<body>
  This is Bitstream Vera Serif Bold.
</body>
css
@font-face {
  font-family: "Bitstream Vera Serif Bold";
  src: url("https://mdn.github.io/shared-assets/fonts/VeraSeBd.ttf");
}

body {
  font-family: "Bitstream Vera Serif Bold", serif;
}

Specifying local font alternatives

In this example, the user's local copy of "Helvetica Neue Bold" is used; if the user does not have that font installed (both the full font name and the Postscript name are tried), then the downloadable font named "MgOpenModernaBold.ttf" is used instead:

css
@font-face {
  font-family: "MyHelvetica";
  src: local("Helvetica Neue Bold"), local("HelveticaNeue-Bold"),
    url("MgOpenModernaBold.ttf");
  font-weight: bold;
}

Specifications

Specification
CSS Fonts Module Level 4
# font-face-rule

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also