Font-style property
Last updated: 2026-09-13
font-style Font-style property
The font-style CSS property sets whether text is rendered in an italic or oblique style. It accepts three values — normal, italic, and oblique — and is often used for quotations, emphasis, and special typography.
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Initial Value | normal |
| Inherited | Yes |
| Applies To | all |
| Animation Type | discrete |
| CSS Version | CSS1 |
| Status | Standard |
📝 Syntax
font-style: normal | italic | oblique <angle>?;⚙️ Values
| Value | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
normal | italic | oblique | Keyword | Font style: normal, italic, or oblique |
▶ Example
Edit the code below and see the live result in the playground:
🌐 Browser Support
| Browser |  Chrome |
 Edge |
 Firefox |
 Safari |
 Opera |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| font-style | ✓ v1 | ✓ v12 | ✓ v1 | ✓ v1 | ✓ v1 |
| Supported in all major browsers | |||||
Tip： italic uses the font's own italic faces, while oblique artificially slants the glyphs; when a font has no italic version the two behave almost identically.
❓ FAQ
QWhat is the difference between the italic and oblique font styles?
Aitalic uses the font's specially designed italic glyphs, while oblique mechanically slants the normal glyphs to create a pseudo-italic look. If a font has no italic version, browsers substitute oblique for italic, making the two look similar. CSS also lets you specify an angle, for example oblique 10deg.
QHow do I make text italic using the font-style property in CSS?
ASet font-style: italic (nicer result, recommended) or font-style: oblique (forced slanting). This is often applied to book titles, foreign words, and emphasis. Note that em and i elements are italic by default; use font-style: normal to remove italics.
QHow does font-style: italic differ from using transform: skew in CSS?
Afont-style is a typographic setting that selects italic glyphs or slants them slightly without affecting the element's box; transform: skew() geometrically distorts the whole element, including its background and border. Use font-style for regular italics and avoid skew as a substitute.
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