hanging-punctuation

The hanging-punctuation CSS property specifies whether a punctuation mark should hang at the start or end of a line of text. Hanging punctuation may be placed outside the line box.

css

/* Keyword values */
hanging-punctuation: none;
hanging-punctuation: first;
hanging-punctuation: last;
hanging-punctuation: force-end;
hanging-punctuation: allow-end;

/* Two keywords */
hanging-punctuation: first force-end;
hanging-punctuation: first allow-end;
hanging-punctuation: first last;
hanging-punctuation: last force-end;
hanging-punctuation: last allow-end;

/* Three keywords */
hanging-punctuation: first force-end last;
hanging-punctuation: first allow-end last;

/* Global values */
hanging-punctuation: inherit;
hanging-punctuation: initial;
hanging-punctuation: revert;
hanging-punctuation: revert-layer;
hanging-punctuation: unset;

Syntax

The hanging-punctuation property may be specified with one, two, or three space-separated values.

  • One-value syntax uses any one of the keyword values in the list below.
  • Two-value syntax uses one of the following:
    • first together with any one of last, allow-end, or force-end
    • last together with any one of first, allow-end, or force-end
  • Three-value syntax uses one of the following:
    • first, allow-end, and last
    • first, force-end, and last

Values

none

No character hangs.

first

An opening bracket or quote at the start of the first formatted line of an element hangs. This applies to:

  • all characters in the Unicode categories Ps, Pf, Pi
  • the quote marks U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') and U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (").
last

A closing bracket or quote at the end of the last formatted line of an element hangs. This applies to:

  • all characters in the Unicode categories Pe, Pf, Pi
  • the quote marks U+0027 APOSTROPHE (') and U+0022 QUOTATION MARK (").
force-end

A stop or comma at the end of a line hangs.

allow-end

A stop or comma at the end of a line hangs if it does not otherwise fit prior to justification.

Stops and commas that are allowed to hang include:

  • U+002C, COMMA
  • U+002E, FULL STOP
  • U+060C, ARABIC COMMA
  • U+06D4, ARABIC FULL STOP
  • U+3001, IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA
  • U+3002, IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP
  • U+FF0C, FULLWIDTH COMMA
  • U+FF0E, FULLWIDTH FULL STOP
  • U+FE50, SMALL COMMA
  • U+FE51, SMALL IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA
  • U+FE52, SMALL FULL STOP
  • U+FF61, HALFWIDTH IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP
  • U+FF64, HALFWIDTH IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA

User agents may include additional characters.

Formal definition

Initial valuenone
Applies toall elements
Inheritedyes
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete

Formal syntax

hanging-punctuation = 
  none                                            |
  [ first || [ force-end | allow-end ] || last ]

Examples

Setting opening and closing quotes to hang

HTML

html

<p>
  «For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued
  to happen.»
</p>

<p class="hanging">
  «For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued
  to happen.»
</p>

<p class="hanging right">
  «For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued
  to happen.»
</p>

CSS

css

p {
  width: 15em;
  border: 1px solid #cccccc;
  font-size: 2rem;
  font-style: italic;
  margin: 1em;
}

p.hanging {
  hanging-punctuation: first last;
}

p.right {
  text-align: right;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Text Module Level 3
# hanging-punctuation-property

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also