CSS font-stretch Property

The font-stretch property makes the text wider or narrower.

This property is one of the CSS3 properties.

The font-stretch property does not work on any font! It only works if the font-family has width-variant faces. The font-stretch property alone does not stretch a font.

This property has the following values:

font-stretch:
ultra-condensed
extra-condensed
condensed
semi-condensed
normal
semi-expanded
expanded
extra-expanded
ultra-expanded

Initial Value	normal
Applies to	All elements. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line.
Inherited	Yes.
Animatable	Yes.
Version	CSS3
DOM Syntax	object.style.fontStretch = "expanded";

Syntax

font-stretch: ultra-condensed | extra-condensed | condensed | semi-condensed | normal | semi-expanded | expanded | extra-expanded | ultra-expanded | initial | inherit;

Example of the font-stretch property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      p {
        font-size: 4em;
        font-family: 'Myriad Pro';
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>
      <span style="font-stretch: ultra-condensed">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: extra-condensed">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: condensed">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: semi-condensed">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: normal">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: semi-expanded">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: expanded">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: extra-expanded">A</span>
      <span style="font-stretch: ultra-expanded">A</span>
    </p>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Selection of the font face

The face which is selected for the value of the font-stretch property relies on the faces that the font in question supports. If there is no face provided by the font, that matches the given value, the values that are less than 100% map to a narrower face, and the values that are greater or equal to 100 % map to a wider one.

Values

Value	Description
ultra-condensed	Makes the text as narrow as it gets.
extra-condensed	Makes the text narrower but not as narrower as ultra-condesed value.
condensed	Makes the text narrower but not as narrower as ultra-condesed value.
semi-condensed	Makes the text narrower but not as narrower as extra-condensed value.
normal	There is no font stretching. This is the default value of this property.
semi-expanded	Makes the text wider than normal.
expanded	Makes the text wider than semi-expanded.
extra-expanded	Makes the text wider than expanded.
ultra-expanded	Makes the text as wide as it gets.
initial	It makes the property use its default value.
inherit	It inherits the property from its parents element.