[csswg-drafts] [css-fonts-4] `<family-name>` syntax disallows CSS-wide keywords entirely instead of just as whole value (#13692)

Calme1709 has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts:

== [css-fonts-4] `<family-name>` syntax disallows CSS-wide keywords entirely instead of just as whole value ==
[CSS Fonts 4](https://drafts.csswg.org/css-fonts-4/#family-name-syntax) defines `<family-name> = <string> | <custom-ident>+` which the prose further limits by stating:
> Font family names that happen to be the same as a font-family keyword value (e.g. CSS-wide keywords such as inherit, or <generic-family> keywords such as serif) must be quoted to prevent confusion with the keywords of the same names. UAs must not consider these keywords as matching the `<family-name>` type.

The issue is the use of `<custom-ident>` in the syntax when we should allow CSS-wide keywords as long as they are not the whole value - for instance `simple default` is a valid `<family-name>` value and is [tested by WPT](https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/blob/76e59b89d3c3114adc7f5a449dd909d339637e7f/css/css-fonts/test_font_family_parsing.html#L126) despite containing an `<ident>` which doesn't match `<custom-ident>` (`default`)

Perhaps a more accurate grammar for `<family-name>` is `<string> | <custom-ident> | <ident>+` - however this raises the issue of disallowing `ident()` functions within `<ident>+` since according to  [CSS Values 5](https://drafts.csswg.org/css-values-5/#ident) 
> The ident() function can be used as a value for any property or function argument that accepts a `<custom-ident>`.

Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13692 using your GitHub account


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Received on Friday, 20 March 2026 11:29:30 UTC