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letter-spacing

The letter-spacing CSS property sets the spacing behavior between text characters.

Syntax

/* Keyword value */
letter-spacing: normal;

/* <length> values */
letter-spacing: 0.3em;
letter-spacing: 3px;
letter-spacing: .3px;

/* Global values */
letter-spacing: inherit;
letter-spacing: initial;
letter-spacing: unset;

Values

normal: The normal letter spacing for the current font. Unlike a value of 0, this keyword allows the user agent to alter the space between characters in order to justify text.
<length>: Specifies extra inter-character space in addition to the default space between characters. Values may be negative, but there may be implementation-specific limits. User agents may not further increase or decrease the inter-character space in order to justify text.

Formal syntax

normal | <length>

Examples

HTML

<p class="normal">letter spacing</p>
<p class="em-wide">letter spacing</p>
<p class="em-wider">letter spacing</p>
<p class="em-tight">letter spacing</p>
<p class="px-wide">letter spacing</p>

CSS

.normal   { letter-spacing: normal; }
.em-wide  { letter-spacing: 0.4em; }
.em-wider { letter-spacing: 1em; }
.em-tight { letter-spacing: -0.05em; }
.px-wide  { letter-spacing: 6px; }

Result

Accessibility concerns

A large positive or negative letter-spacing value will make the word(s) the styling is applied to unreadable. For text styled with a very large positive value, the letters will be so far apart that the word(s) will appear like a series of individual, unconnected letters. For text styled with a very large negative value, the letters will overlap each other to the point where the word(s) may be unrecognizable.

Legible letter-spacing must be determined on a case-by-case basis, as different font families have different character widths. There is no one value that can ensure all font families automatically maintain their legibility.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Text Module Level 3 The definition of 'letter-spacing' in that specification.	Working Draft	No change.
CSS Transitions The definition of 'letter-spacing' in that specification.	Working Draft	Defines `letter-spacing` as animatable.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'letter-spacing' in that specification.	Recommendation	No change.
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) The definition of 'letter-spacing' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial SVG definition.
CSS Level 1 The definition of 'letter-spacing' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Initial value	`normal`
Applies to	all elements. It also applies to `::first-letter` and `::first-line`.
Inherited	yes
Media	visual
Computed value	an optimum value consisting of either an absolute length or the keyword `normal`
Animation type	a length
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	1	12	1	4	3.5	1
SVG support	Yes	?	No	?	Yes	Yes

	Mobile
	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Edge Mobile	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	iOS Safari	Samsung Internet
Basic support	?	?	Yes	4	?	?	?
SVG support	?	?	?	?	?	?	?