JavaScript is a multi-paradigm, dynamic language with types and operators, standard built-in objects, and methods. Its syntax is based on the Java and C languages — many structures from those languages apply to JavaScript as well. JavaScript supports object-oriented programming with object prototypes and classes. It also supports functional programming since functions are first-class objects that can be easily created via expressions and passed around like any other object.

The font-style attribute specifies whether the text is to be rendered using a normal, italic, or oblique face.

The alignment-baseline attribute specifies how an object is aligned with respect to its parent. This property specifies which baseline of this element is to be aligned with the corresponding baseline of the parent. For example, this allows alphabetic baselines in Roman text to stay aligned across font size changes. It defaults to the baseline with the same name as the computed value of the alignment-baseline property.

The display attribute lets you control the rendering of graphical or container elements.

The exponent attribute defines the exponent of the gamma function.

The font-family attribute indicates which font family will be used to render the text, specified as a prioritized list of font family names and/or generic family names.

The bias attribute shifts the range of the filter. After applying the kernelMatrix of the <feConvolveMatrix> element to the input image to yield a number and applied the divisor attribute, the bias attribute is added to each component. This allows representation of values that would otherwise be clamped to 0 or 1.

The bbox attribute defines the maximal bounding box of a font.

There are situations where basic shapes do not provide the flexibility you need to achieve a certain effect. Drop shadows, to provide a popular example, cannot be created reasonably with a combination of gradients. Filters are SVG's mechanism to create sophisticated effects.

The <font-face> SVG element corresponds to the CSS @font-face rule. It defines a font's outer properties.