text-combine-upright

This is an experimental technology
Because this technology's specification has not stabilized, check the compatibility table for usage in various browsers. Also note that the syntax and behavior of an experimental technology is subject to change in future versions of browsers as the specification changes.

Summary

The text-combine-upright CSS property specifies the combination of multiple characters into the space of a single character. If the combined text is wider than 1em, the user agent must fit the contents within 1em. The resulting composition is treated as a single upright glyph for layout and decoration. This property only has an effect in vertical writing modes.

This is used to produce an effect that is known as tate-chū-yoko (縦中横) in Japanese, or as 直書橫向 in Chinese.

Initial valuenone
Applies tonon-replaced inline elements
Inheritedyes
Mediavisual
Computed valuespecified keyword, plus integer if 'digits'
Animatableno
Canonical orderthe unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
text-combine-upright: none;
text-combine-upright: all;

/* Digits values */
text-combine-upright: digits;     /* fits 2 consecutive digits horizontally inside vertical text */
text-combine-upright: digits 4;   /* fits up to 4 consecutive digits horizontally inside vertical text */

/* Global values */
text-combine-upright: inherit;
text-combine-upright: initial;
text-combine-upright: unset;

Values

none
There is no special processing.
all
Attempts to typeset all consecutive characters within the box horizontally, such that they take up the space of a single character within the vertical line of the box.
digits <integer>?
Attempts to display a sequence of consecutive ASCII digits (U+0030–U+0039) that has as many or fewer characters than the specified integer, such that it takes up the space of a single character within the vertical line box. If the integer is omitted, it computes to 2. Integers outside the range of 2-4 are invalid.

Formal syntax

none | all | [ digits <integer>? ]

Example (digits)

The digits value requires less markup than the all value when digits are being combined, but it is currently not very widely supported by browsers.

<p lang="ja" class="exampleText">平成20年4月16日に</p>
.exampleText {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
  text-combine-upright: digits 2;
  font: 36px serif;
}

ScreenshotLive sample

Example (all)

The all value requires markup around every piece of horizontal text, but it is currently supported by more browsers than the digits value.

<p lang="zh-Hant">民國<span class="num">105</span
>年<span class="num">4</span
>月<span class="num">29</span>日</p>
html { writing-mode: vertical-rl; font: 24px serif }
.num { text-combine-upright: all }

ScreenshotLive sample

Specification

Specification Status Comment
CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3
The definition of 'text-combine-upright' in that specification.
Candidate Recommendation Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support (Yes)-webkit[1]
48.0
48.0 (48.0)[2] 11.0-ms[3] (Yes)-webkit[1]
(Yes)
(Yes)-webkit[1]
digits No support No support[4] 11.0-ms[3] No support ?
Feature Android Android Webview Chrome for Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Phone Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support No support 48.0 48.0 48.0 (48.0)[2] No support No support No support
digits ? ? No support[4] ? ? ? ?

[1] In WebKit and Blink the property was initially named -webkit-text-combine according to an old version(2011) of the CSS3 Writing Modes specification, supporting the values none and horizontal (without number).

[2] According to an old version(2013) of the CSS3 Writing Modes specification Gecko 26.0 (Firefox 26.0 / Thunderbird 26.0 / SeaMonkey 2.23) initially implemented this property as text-combine-horizontal,behind the preference layout.css.vertical-text.enabled, defaulting to false (see bug 875250). In Gecko 31.0 (Firefox 31.0 / Thunderbird 31.0 / SeaMonkey 2.28) it was renamed to text-combine-upright (see bug 997006. In Gecko 41.0 (Firefox 41.0 / Thunderbird 41.0 / SeaMonkey 2.38) a new preference layout.css.text-combine-upright.enabled was added, defaulting to false, though Gecko didn't implement layout support (tate-chu-yoko) for it until Gecko 48.0 (Firefox 48.0 / Thunderbird 48.0 / SeaMonkey 2.45) (see bug 1097499), which also enables the property by default.

[3] In Internet Explorer the property is named -ms-text-combine-horizontal.

[4] Gecko supports this value since Gecko 48.0 (geckoRelease("48.0")}} behind the preference layout.css.text-combine-upright-digits.enabled and in previous versions via the preference layout.css.text-combine-upright.enabled, defaulting to false , though it doesn't implement layout support (tate-chu-yoko) for it yet (see bug 1258635).

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: DBaron,