Comparison of web browser engines (typography support)

This article compares web typography support for several web browser engines.

Explanation of the tables[edit]

Engine	Status	Embedded in
WebKit	Active	Safari browser, plus all browsers hosted on the iOS App Store
Blink	Active	Google Chrome and all other Chromium-based browsers like Opera and Microsoft Edge
Gecko	Active	Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client, plus forks like SeaMonkey and Waterfox
KHTML	Discontinued	Konqueror browser
Presto	Discontinued	formerly in the Opera browser
EdgeHTML	Discontinued	formerly in the Microsoft Edge browser
Trident	Discontinued	Internet Explorer browser and Microsoft Outlook email client

Values[edit]

These indicate the level of support for the given item in each engine. By default, the most recent version of the engine is implied. However, a specific version number can be listed; when this indicates full support, it's the initial version of the engine fully supporting the item.

Value	Meaning
Yes	Fully supported
No	Has never been supported
Partial	Only some values are supported
Incorrect	Not implemented correctly in all cases
Experimental	May be incomplete or buggy
Nightly build	Currently in development; full support is expected
Depends	Only supported for the specified conditions
Dropped	No longer supported

Support for CSS font resources[edit]

CSS3 specified a mechanism for downloading and displaying fonts within a web page.^{[spec 1]} This table compare support for that mechanism. Note that Embedded OpenType (EOT)^{[spec 2]} font download does not bring in the entire OpenType font and therefore, the most prominent feature of Open Type, ligature support, does not come with EOT. Trident before version 5.0 supports only EOT. EOT is not sufficient for smartfonts that rely on ligatures.

		Trident^{[t 1]}	Gecko^{[g 1]}	WebKit^{[w 1]}	Presto^{[p 1]}^{[p 2]}
Grammar and rules
CSS3	`@font-face`	<3.1^{[IE 4.0]}	1.9.1	525^{[note 1]}	2.2
Descriptors
CSS3	`font-family`	<3.1^{[IE 4.0]}	1.9.1	525	2.2
	`src`	Partial^{[note 2]}
	`font-style`	<3.1^{[IE 4.0]}
	`font-weight`	<3.1^{[IE 4.0]}
	`font-stretch`	5.0^{[t 3]}	9.0^{[g 2]}	No^{[w 6]}	No
	`unicode-range`	5.0^{[t 3]}	Experimental^{[g 3]}	Partial^{[note 3]}	No
	`font-variant`	No	24.0^{[g 4]}	No	No
	`font-feature-settings`	6.0^{[t 4]}	Experimental^{[g 5]}	No	No

Support in HTML and XML documents[edit]

This table compares support for font formats applied with the @font-face rule in HTML and XML documents.

Format	Trident	Gecko	WebKit	Presto
Embedded OpenType (EOT)^{[spec 2]}	<3.1^{[IE 4.0]}	No^{[g 6]}	No^{[w 8]}	No
TrueType (TTF)^{[spec 3]}	5.0^{[t 3]}	1.9.1	525	2.2
OpenType (OTF)^{[spec 4]}	5.0^{[t 3]}	1.9.1
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)^{[spec 5]}	No	No^{[g 7]}
Web Open Font Format (WOFF)^{[spec 6]}^{[spec 7]}	5.0^{[t 5]}	1.9.2	533^{[w 9]}^{[w 10]}^{[w 11]}	2.7

Support in SVG documents[edit]

This table compares support for font formats applied with the @font-face rule in SVG documents.

Format	Trident	Gecko^{[g 8]}	WebKit	Presto
Embedded OpenType (EOT)^{[spec 2]}	No	No^{[g 6]}	No^{[w 8]}	No
TrueType (TTF)^{[spec 3]}		Yes	Yes	2.2
OpenType (OTF)^{[spec 4]}		18.0	No
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)^{[spec 5]}		No^{[g 7]}	525
Web Open Font Format (WOFF)^{[spec 6]}^{[spec 7]}		No	No^{[w 9]}	2.7.81

Smart font features support[edit]

Format	Trident	Gecko	WebKit	Presto
OpenType `liga` ligatures^{[spec 8]}	No	2.0	Partial^{[w 12]}	No
OpenType `rlig` ligatures^{[spec 9]}	No		No	No
ZWNJ and ZWJ (Unicode characters used for ligature control)	Yes		Yes	No^{[p 3]}

Notes[edit]

↑ Prior to version 4.0, Google Chrome had font support disabled.^{[w 2]}^{[w 3]}^{[w 4]}^{[w 5]}
↑ Doesn't understand the format() or local() identifiers.^{[t 2]}
↑ Doesn't understand multiple, comma-separated ranges.^{[w 7]}

References[edit]

Specifications

↑ CSS Fonts Module Level 3 - Font resources, W3C
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Nelson, Paul (2008-03-05), Embedded OpenType (EOT) File Format, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 TrueType Reference Manual, Apple
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 OpenType specification, Microsoft
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification - Fonts, W3C
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Kew, Jonathan; Leming, Tal; van Blokland, Erik (2010-04-08), WOFF File Format 1.0, W3C, Mozilla, Type Supply, LettError
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 Kew, Jonathan; Leming, Tal; van Blokland, Erik (2009-10-23), WOFF File Format, Mozilla, Type Supply, LettError
↑ OpenType Layout tag registry, Tag: 'liga', Microsoft
↑ OpenType Layout tag registry, Tag: 'rlig', Microsoft

Trident

↑ About Font Embedding, Microsoft
↑ @font-face support in Internet Explorer, archived from the original on 2010-07-19
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Internet Explorer Platform Preview Guide for Developers, Microsoft
↑ "font-feature-settings property". Microsoft. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
↑ Galineau, Sylvain (2010-04-23), Meet WOFF, The Standard Web Font Format, Microsoft

Gecko

↑ @font-face, Mozilla
↑ Bug 3512 - (font-stretch) Implement font-stretch property, Mozilla
↑ Bug 475891 - implement unicode-range support in user font set, Mozilla
↑ Bug 549861 - (font-variant) implement parsing of font feature properties, Mozilla
↑ Bug 511339 - implement experimental support for -moz-font-feature-settings, Mozilla
↑ ^6.0 ^6.1 Bug 520357 - support new web font format (EOT Lite) in @font-face, Mozilla
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 Bug 119490 - Implement SVG fonts, Mozilla
↑ Bug 468237 - SVG image using a font specified via @font-face doesn't use the font after it loads, Mozilla

WebKit

↑ Hyatt, Dave (2007-10-03), Downloadable Fonts, Apple
↑ Issue 9633: Disable web fonts by default, Google, 2009-04-01
↑ Full pass of acid3 - Chromium-dev, Google, 2009-07-03
↑ Issue 17818: Enabled dynamic / web font support in a secure manner, Google, 2009-07-27
↑ Irish, Paul (2010-01-25), Chrome and @font-face: It's here!
↑ Bug 12530 - CSS3: Support the font-stretch property, WebKit
↑ @font-face support in Safari
↑ ^8.0 ^8.1 Bug 20542 - Adding EOT Font Rendering capability, WebKit
↑ ^9.0 ^9.1 Bug 31302 - Add WOFF support for @font-face, WebKit
↑ Bug 38217 - [chromium] Add WOFF support, WebKit
↑ Irish, Paul (2010-08-02), Quick Guide to Implement Webfonts via @font-face, HTML5Rocks
↑ On Safari, ligatures may be switched on with the CSS setting text-rendering, but then, they are used indiscriminately even when letter-spacing is increased (see Fraktur letterspacing); on Google Chrome, ligatures do not work.

Presto

↑ Mills, Chris (2008-12-04), Opera Presto 2.2 and Opera 10 — a first look, Opera
↑ Seven Web Fonts showcases, Opera, 2009-09-01
↑ When letter-spacing is increased, these characters are spacing.

This article "Comparison of web browser engines (typography support)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Comparison of web browser engines (typography support). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

[12] Prior to version 4.0, Google Chrome had font support disabled.^{[w 2]}^{[w 3]}^{[w 4]}^{[w 5]}

[14] Doesn't understand the format() or local() identifiers.^{[t 2]}

[20] Doesn't understand multiple, comma-separated ranges.^{[w 7]}

[1] CSS Fonts Module Level 3 - Font resources, W3C

[eot-spec-2] 2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 Nelson, Paul (2008-03-05), Embedded OpenType (EOT) File Format, Microsoft, Monotype Imaging

[ttf-spec-26] 3.0 ^3.1 TrueType Reference Manual, Apple

[otf-spec-27] 4.0 ^4.1 OpenType specification, Microsoft

[svg-spec-28] 5.0 ^5.1 Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 Specification - Fonts, W3C

[w3c-woff-30] 6.0 ^6.1 Kew, Jonathan; Leming, Tal; van Blokland, Erik (2010-04-08), WOFF File Format 1.0, W3C, Mozilla, Type Supply, LettError

[woff-spec-31] 7.0 ^7.1 Kew, Jonathan; Leming, Tal; van Blokland, Erik (2009-10-23), WOFF File Format, Mozilla, Type Supply, LettError

[37] OpenType Layout tag registry, Tag: 'liga', Microsoft

[39] OpenType Layout tag registry, Tag: 'rlig', Microsoft

[trident-font-face-3] About Font Embedding, Microsoft

[13] @font-face support in Internet Explorer, archived from the original on 2010-07-19

[ie9-preview-15] 3.0 ^3.1 Internet Explorer Platform Preview Guide for Developers, Microsoft

[22] "font-feature-settings property". Microsoft. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

[32] Galineau, Sylvain (2010-04-23), Meet WOFF, The Standard Web Font Format, Microsoft

[4] @font-face, Mozilla

[16] Bug 3512 - (font-stretch) Implement font-stretch property, Mozilla

[18] Bug 475891 - implement unicode-range support in user font set, Mozilla

[21] Bug 549861 - (font-variant) implement parsing of font feature properties, Mozilla

[23] Bug 511339 - implement experimental support for -moz-font-feature-settings, Mozilla

[moz-eot-24] 6.0 ^6.1 Bug 520357 - support new web font format (EOT Lite) in @font-face, Mozilla

[moz-svg-29] 7.0 ^7.1 Bug 119490 - Implement SVG fonts, Mozilla

[36] Bug 468237 - SVG image using a font specified via @font-face doesn't use the font after it loads, Mozilla

[5] Hyatt, Dave (2007-10-03), Downloadable Fonts, Apple

[8] Issue 9633: Disable web fonts by default, Google, 2009-04-01

[9] Full pass of acid3 - Chromium-dev, Google, 2009-07-03

[10] Issue 17818: Enabled dynamic / web font support in a secure manner, Google, 2009-07-27

[11] Irish, Paul (2010-01-25), Chrome and @font-face: It's here!

[17] Bug 12530 - CSS3: Support the font-stretch property, WebKit

[19] @font-face support in Safari

[webkit-eot-25] 8.0 ^8.1 Bug 20542 - Adding EOT Font Rendering capability, WebKit

[webkit-woff-33] 9.0 ^9.1 Bug 31302 - Add WOFF support for @font-face, WebKit

[34] Bug 38217 - [chromium] Add WOFF support, WebKit

[35] Irish, Paul (2010-08-02), Quick Guide to Implement Webfonts via @font-face, HTML5Rocks

[38] On Safari, ligatures may be switched on with the CSS setting text-rendering, but then, they are used indiscriminately even when letter-spacing is increased (see Fraktur letterspacing); on Google Chrome, ligatures do not work.

[6] Mills, Chris (2008-12-04), Opera Presto 2.2 and Opera 10 — a first look, Opera

[7] Seven Web Fonts showcases, Opera, 2009-09-01

[40] When letter-spacing is increased, these characters are spacing.

[spec 1]

[spec 2]

[t 1]

[g 1]

[w 1]

[p 1]

[p 2]

[note 1]

[note 2]

[t 3]

[g 2]

[w 6]

[g 3]

[note 3]

[g 4]

[t 4]

[g 5]

[g 6]

[w 8]

[spec 3]

[spec 4]

[spec 5]

[g 7]

[spec 6]

[spec 7]

[t 5]

[w 9]

[w 10]

[w 11]

[g 8]

[spec 8]

[w 12]

[spec 9]

[p 3]

[w 2]

[w 3]

[w 4]

[w 5]

[t 2]

[w 7]

v t e Web browser engines
Active	Blink EdgeHTML Gecko Goanna Servo WebKit
Discontinued	KHTML Mariner Presto Tasman Tkhtml Trident
Comparisons	General info Support HTML CSS graphics