Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

Name

letter-spacing — NN n/a IE 4 CSS 1

Synopsis

Inherited: Yes

Defines the spacing between characters within an element. Browsers normally define the character spacing based on font definitions and operating system font rendering. To override those settings, assign a length value to the letter-spacing attribute. A negative value tightens up the spacing, but be sure to test the effect on the selected font for readability on different operating systems.

CSS Syntax

letter-spacing: normal | length | auto

Value

See the discussion at the beginning of this chapter about length values. The best results use units that are based on the rendered font size (em and ex). A setting of normal is how the browser sets the letters without any intervention. A setting of auto (CSS2) is intended for use with single-line elements (such as H1 and the like) to space the letters such that the element content appears on a single line given the current width of the containing box.

Initial Value

normal

Example

.tight {letter-spacing: -0.03em}
BLOCKQUOTE {letter-spacing: 1.1em}

Applies To

All elements.

Object Model Reference

IE

[window.]document.all.elementID.style.letterSpacing