Web/CSS/@font-face/unicode-range

The unicode-range CSS descriptor sets the specific range of characters to be used from a font defined by @font-face and made available for use on the current page. If the page doesn't use any character in this range, the font is not downloaded; if it uses at least one, the whole font is downloaded.

Syntax

/* <unicode-range> values */
unicode-range: U+26;               /* single codepoint */
unicode-range: U+0-7F;
unicode-range: U+0025-00FF;        /* codepoint range */
unicode-range: U+4??;              /* wildcard range */
unicode-range: U+0025-00FF, U+4??; /* multiple values */

Values

single codepoint: A single Unicode character code point, for example U+26.
codepoint range: A range of Unicode code points. So for example, U+0025-00FF means include all characters in the range U+0025 to U+00FF.
wildcard range: A range of Unicode code points containing wildcard characters, that is using the '?' character, so for example U+4?? means include all characters in the range U+400 to U+4FF.

Description

The purpose of this descriptor is to allow the font resources to be segmented so that a browser only needs to download the font resource needed for the text content of a particular page. For example, a site with many localizations could provide separate font resources for English, Greek and Japanese. For users viewing the English version of a page, the font resources for Greek and Japanese fonts wouldn't need to be downloaded, saving bandwidth.

Formal definition

Related at-rule	`@font-face`
Initial value	`U+0-10FFFF`
Computed value	as specified

Formal syntax

<unicode-range>#

Examples

Using a different font for a single character

In this example we create a simple HTML containing a single <div> element, including an ampersand, that we want to style with a different font. To make it obvious, we will use a sans-serif font, Helvetica, for the text, and a serif font, Times New Roman, for the ampersand.

In the CSS we are in effect defining a completely separate @font-face that only includes a single character in it, meaning that only this character will be styled with this font. We could also have done this by wrapping the ampersand in a <span> and applying a different font just to that, but that is an extra element and rule set.

HTML

<div>Me & You = Us</div>

CSS

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Ampersand';
  src: local('Times New Roman');
  unicode-range: U+26;
}

div {
  font-size: 4em;
  font-family: Ampersand, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Fonts Module Level 3The definition of 'unicode-range' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation	Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`unicode-range`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 36	IE Full support 9	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 3.2	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 36	Opera Android Full support 14	Safari iOS Full support 3	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support