Web/CSS/text-transform

The text-transform CSS property specifies how to capitalize an element's text. It can be used to make text appear in all-uppercase or all-lowercase, or with each word capitalized. It also can help improve legibility for ruby.

The text-transform property takes into account language-specific case mapping rules such as the following:

In Turkic languages, like Turkish (tr), Azerbaijani (az), Crimean Tatar (crh), Volga Tatar (tt), and Bashkir (ba), there are two kinds of i, with and without the dot, and two case pairings: i/İ and ı/I.
In German (de), the ß becomes SS in uppercase.
In Dutch (nl), the ij digraph becomes IJ, even with text-transform: capitalize, which only puts the first letter of a word in uppercase.
In Greek (el), vowels lose their accent when the whole word is in uppercase (ά/Α), except for the disjunctive eta (ή/Ή). Also, diphthongs with an accent on the first vowel lose the accent and gain a diaeresis on the second vowel (άι/ΑΪ).
In Greek (el), the lowercase sigma character has two forms: σ and ς. ς is used only when sigma terminates a word. When applying text-transform: lowercase to an uppercase sigma (Σ), the browser needs to choose the right lowercase form based on context.
in Irish (ga), certain prefixed letters remain in lowercase when the base initial is capitalized, so for example text-transform: uppercase will change ar aon tslí to AR AON tSLÍ and not, as one might expect, AR AON TSLÍ (Firefox only). In some cases, a hyphen is also removed upon uppercasing: an t-uisce transforms to AN tUISCE (and the hyphen is correctly reinserted by text-transform: lowercase).

The language is defined by the lang HTML attribute or the xml:lang XML attribute.

Note: Support for language-specific cases varies between browsers, so check the browser compatibility table.

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
text-transform: none;
text-transform: capitalize;
text-transform: uppercase;
text-transform: lowercase;
text-transform: full-width;
text-transform: full-size-kana;

/* Global values */
text-transform: inherit;
text-transform: initial;
text-transform: unset;

capitalize: Is a keyword that converts the first letter of each word to uppercase. Other characters remain unchanged (they retain their original case as written in the element's text). A letter is defined as a character that is part of Unicode's Letter or Number general categories ' ; thus, any punctuation marks or symbols at the beginning of a word are ignored.

Authors should not expect capitalize to follow language-specific title casing conventions (such as skipping articles in English).

The capitalize keyword was under-specified in CSS 1 and CSS 2.1. This resulted in differences between browsers in the way the first letter was calculated (Firefox considered - and _ as letters, but other browsers did not. Both Webkit and Gecko incorrectly considered letter-based symbols like ⓐ to be real letters. Internet Explorer 9 was the closest to the CSS 2 definition, but with some weird cases.) By precisely defining the correct behavior, CSS Text Level 3 cleans this mess up. The capitalize line in the browser compatibility table contains the version the different engines started to support this now precisely-defined behavior.
uppercase: Is a keyword that converts all characters to uppercase.
lowercase: Is a keyword that converts all characters to lowercase.
none: Is a keyword that prevents the case of all characters from being changed.
full-width: Is a keyword that forces the writing of a character — mainly ideograms and Latin scripts — inside a square, allowing them to be aligned in the usual East Asian scripts (like Chinese or Japanese).
full-size-kana: Generally used for <ruby> annotation text, the keyword converts all small Kana characters to the equivalent full-size Kana, to compensate for legibility issues at the small font sizes typically used in ruby.

Accessibility concerns

Large sections of text set with a text-transform value of uppercase may be difficult for people with cognitive concerns such as Dyslexia to read.

Formal definition

Initial value	`none`
Applies to	all elements. It also applies to `::first-letter` and `::first-line`.
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

none | capitalize | uppercase | lowercase | full-width | full-size-kana

Examples

`none`

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: none
  <strong><span>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: none;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates no text transformation.

capitalize (General)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: capitalize
  <strong><span>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: capitalize;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates text capitalization.

capitalize (Punctuation)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>(this) “is” [a] –short– -test- «for» *the* _css_ ¿capitalize? ?¡transform!</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: capitalize
  <strong><span>(this) “is” [a] –short– -test- «for» *the* _css_ ¿capitalize? ?¡transform!</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: capitalize;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demostrates how initial punctuations of a word are ignored. The keyword target the first letter, that is the first Unicode character part of the Letter or Number general category.

capitalize (Symbols)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>ⓐⓑⓒ (ⓓⓔⓕ) —ⓖⓗⓘ— ⓙkl</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: capitalize
  <strong><span>ⓐⓑⓒ (ⓓⓔⓕ) —ⓖⓗⓘ— ⓙkl</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: capitalize;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates how initial symbols are ignored. The keyword target the first letter, that is the first Unicode character part of the Letter or Number general category.

capitalize (Dutch ij digraph)

<p>Initial String
  <strong lang="nl">The Dutch word: "ijsland" starts with a digraph.</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: capitalize
  <strong><span lang="nl">The Dutch word: "ijsland" starts with a digraph.</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: capitalize;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates how the Dutch ij digraph must be handled like one single letter.

uppercase (General)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: uppercase
  <strong><span>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: uppercase;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates transforming the text to uppercase.

uppercase (Greek Vowels)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Θα πάμε στο "Θεϊκό φαΐ" ή στη "Νεράιδα"</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: uppercase
  <strong><span>Θα πάμε στο "Θεϊκό φαΐ" ή στη "Νεράιδα"</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: uppercase;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates how Greek vowels except disjunctive eta should have no accent, and the accent on the first vowel of a vowel pair becomes a diaeresis on the second vowel.

lowercase (General)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: lowercase
  <strong><span>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, ...</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: lowercase;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates transforming the text to lowercase.

lowercase (Greek Σ)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Σ IS A greek LETTER that appears SEVERAL TIMES IN ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥΣ.</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: lowercase
  <strong><span>Σ IS A greek LETTER that appears SEVERAL TIMES IN ΟΔΥΣΣΕΥΣ.</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: lowercase;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates how the Greek character sigma (Σ) is transformed into the regular lowercase sigma (σ) or the word-final variant (ς), according the context.

lowercase (Lithuanian)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>Ĩ is a Lithuanian LETTER as is J́</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: lowercase
  <strong><span lang="lt">Ĩ is a Lithuanian LETTER as is J́</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: lowercase;
}
strong { float: right; }

This demonstrates how the Lithuanian letters Ĩ and J́ retain their dot when transformed to lowercase.

full-width (General)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!"#$%&()*+,-./:;<=>?@{|}~</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: full-width
  <strong><span>0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ!"#$%&()*+,-./:;<=>?@{|}~</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: full-width;
}
strong { width: 100%; float: right; }

Some characters exists in two formats, normal width and a full-width, with different Unicode code points. The full-width version is used to mix them smoothly with Asian ideographic characters.

full-width (Japanese half-width katakana)

<p>Initial String
  <strong>ｳｪﾌﾞﾌﾟﾛｸﾞﾗﾐﾝｸﾞの勉強</strong>
</p>
<p>text-transform: full-width
  <strong><span>ｳｪﾌﾞﾌﾟﾛｸﾞﾗﾐﾝｸﾞの勉強</span></strong>
</p>

span {
  text-transform: full-width;
}
strong { width: 100%; float: right; }

The Japanese half-width katakana was used to represent katakana in 8-bit character codes. Unlike regular (full-width) katakana characters, a letter with dakuten (voiced sound mark) is represented as two code points, the body of letter and dakuten. The full-width combines these into a single code point when converting these characters into full-width.

full-size-kana

<p>ァィゥェ ォヵㇰヶ ㇱㇲッㇳ ㇴㇵㇶㇷ ㇸㇹㇺャ ュョㇻㇼ ㇽㇾㇿヮ</p>
<p>ァィゥェ ォヵㇰヶ ㇱㇲッㇳ ㇴㇵㇶㇷ ㇸㇹㇺャ ュョㇻㇼ ㇽㇾㇿヮ</p>
</p>

p:nth-of-type(2) {
  text-transform: full-size-kana;
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Text Module Level 3The definition of 'text-transform' in that specification.	Working Draft	From CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)The definition of 'text-transform' in that specification., extends letters to any Unicode character in the Number or Letter general category. Modifies the behavior of `capitalize` to apply to the first letter of the word, ignoring initial punctuations or symbols. Adds the `full-width` and `full-size-kana` keywords.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)The definition of 'text-transform' in that specification.	Recommendation	From CSS Level 1The definition of 'text-transform' in that specification., extends letters to non-latin bi-cameral scripts
CSS Level 1The definition of 'text-transform' in that specification.	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
`text-transform`	Chrome Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' The `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (nor for the one-colon syntax). See Chromium bug 129669.	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support 4	Opera Full support 7 Notes' Full support 7 Notes' Notes' Since Opera 15, the `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (nor for the one-colon syntax). See Chromium bug 129669.	Safari Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' The `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (also not for the old one-colon syntax). See WebKit bug 3409.	WebView Android Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' The `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (nor for the one-colon syntax). See Chromium bug 129669.	Chrome Android Full support 18 Notes' Full support 18 Notes' Notes' The `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (nor for the one-colon syntax). See Chromium bug 129669.	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 11	Safari iOS Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' The `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (also not for the old one-colon syntax). See WebKit bug 3409.	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 Notes' Full support 1.0 Notes' Notes' The `text-transform` property does not work for `::first-line` pseudo-elements (nor for the one-colon syntax). See Chromium bug 129669.
`capitalize`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 14, some punctuation characters could interfere with correct capitalization. See bug 731536.	IE Full support 4	Opera Full support 7	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 14, some punctuation characters could interfere with correct capitalization. See bug 731536.	Opera Android Full support 11	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
Dutch `IJ` digraph	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 14	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 14	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
`full-size-kana`	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 64	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 64	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
`full-width`	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 19	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 19	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
Greek accented letters	Chrome Full support 34	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 15	IE No support No	Opera Full support 21	Safari No support No	WebView Android Full support 4.4	Chrome Android Full support 34	Firefox Android Full support 15	Opera Android Full support 21	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android Full support 2.0
`Σ` → `σ` or word-final `ς`	Chrome Full support 30	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 14	IE Full support 4	Opera Full support 17	Safari Full support 6	WebView Android Full support 4.4	Chrome Android Full support 30	Firefox Android Full support 14	Opera Android Full support 18	Safari iOS Full support 6	Samsung Internet Android Full support 2.0
`i` → `İ` and `ı` → `I`	Chrome Full support 31	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 14	IE Full support 4	Opera Full support 18	Safari Full support 8	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 31	Firefox Android Full support 14	Opera Android Full support 18	Safari iOS Full support 8	Samsung Internet Android Full support 2.0
`ß` → `SS`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 18	Firefox Full support 1	IE No support No	Opera Full support 7	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 1	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 11	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.