Design Atlas
한국어
Aa Typography

Text emphasis marks

강조점 (방점)

An East Asian tradition of marking emphasis with small dots or circles beside or above characters — CSS `text-emphasis` implements it directly.

Also known as: 방점圈点Emphasis dots
···
html
<div class="stage">
  <p class="line" id="line">중요한 부분</p>
  <div class="readout">text-emphasis-style: <span id="style">dot</span></div>
</div>
css
.stage{display:grid;justify-items:center;gap:16px}
.line{margin:0;font:700 clamp(20px,7vmin,34px)/2.4 -apple-system,system-ui,"Apple SD Gothic Neo",sans-serif;color:var(--fg);text-emphasis-color:var(--accent);-webkit-text-emphasis-color:var(--accent)}
.readout{font:11px ui-monospace,Menlo,monospace;color:var(--muted)}
#style{color:var(--accent);font-weight:700}
js
const line = document.getElementById('line');
const label = document.getElementById('style');
const styles = ['dot', 'circle', 'double-circle', 'triangle', 'sesame'];
let i = 0;
function apply(){
  const s = styles[i % styles.length];
  line.style.textEmphasisStyle = s;
  line.style.webkitTextEmphasisStyle = s;
  label.textContent = s;
  i++;
}
apply();
setInterval(apply, 1300);

Old Hunminjeongeum-era texts marked a syllable's tone by placing a dot beside it — called bangjeom (방점). Chinese and Japanese texts had a similar practice of placing a dot (圈点) beside a phrase to flag it as important. Where Western typography reaches for italics or bold, the East Asian vertical-writing tradition reached for a dot placed beside the character instead.

Underlines feel natural in Western text; emphasis dots feel natural in East Asian typesetting for a structural reason — an underline tends to visually collide with the dense strokes and descenders of Hangul or Hanzi, while a dot above the character interferes far less.

CSS `text-emphasis-style` supports values like `dot` (●), `circle` (○), `double-circle`, `triangle` (▲), and `sesame` (closest to the historical bangjeom mark); `text-emphasis-position` sets whether marks sit above or below (left/right in vertical writing); `text-emphasis-color` can give the dots their own color. `text-emphasis` is the shorthand for all three.

When to use

Use in place of underlines to emphasize a short Hangul or Hanzi phrase. For Latin text, italics and bold remain the more familiar emphasis tools.