text-emphasis-position

The text-emphasis-position CSS property sets where emphasis marks are drawn. Like ruby text, if there isn't enough room for emphasis marks, the line height is increased.

Syntax

css

/* Initial value */
text-emphasis-position: over right;

/* Keywords value */
text-emphasis-position: over left;
text-emphasis-position: under right;
text-emphasis-position: under left;

text-emphasis-position: left over;
text-emphasis-position: right under;
text-emphasis-position: left under;

/* Global values */
text-emphasis-position: inherit;
text-emphasis-position: initial;
text-emphasis-position: revert;
text-emphasis-position: revert-layer;
text-emphasis-position: unset;

Values

over: Draws marks over the text in horizontal writing mode.
under: Draws marks under the text in horizontal writing mode.
right: Draws marks to the right of the text in vertical writing mode.
left: Draws marks to the left of the text in vertical writing mode.

The preferred position of emphasis marks depends on the language. In Japanese for example, the preferred position is over right. In Chinese, on the other hand, the preferred position is under right. The informative table below summarizes the preferred emphasis mark positions for Chinese, Mongolian and Japanese:

Emphasis marks appear over each emphasized character in horizontal Japanese text.

Emphasis marks appear on the right of each emphasized character in vertical Japanese text.

Preferred emphasis mark and ruby position
Language	Preferred position	Illustration
Japanese	over	right
Korean
Mongolian
Chinese	under	right

Note: The text-emphasis-position cannot be set, and therefore are not reset either, using the text-emphasis shorthand property.

Formal definition

Initial value	`over right`
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

text-emphasis-position = 
  [ over | under ]   &&
  [ right | left ]?

Examples

Preferring ruby over emphasis marks

Some editors prefer to hide emphasis marks when they conflict with ruby. In HTML, this can be done with the following style rule:

css

ruby {
  text-emphasis: none;
}

Preferring emphasis marks over ruby

Some other editors prefer to hide ruby when they conflict with emphasis marks. In HTML, this can be done with the following pattern:

css

em {
  text-emphasis: dot; /* Set text-emphasis for <em> elements */
}

em rt {
  display: none; /* Hide ruby inside <em> elements */
}

Specifications

Specification
CSS Text Decoration Module Level 3 # text-emphasis-position-property

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser