w:w (Character Width Scaling)

Description

w:w applies a horizontal scaling factor to all characters in a run, without changing the font size. A value of 100 means normal (unscaled) width. Values less than 100 produce condensed text; values greater than 100 produce expanded text.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.3.2.43.

Note: this element has the same local name as the width attribute used on w:tblInd, w:tblW, etc. In w:rPr context, w:w is always the character-scaling element.

Attributes

Examples

<!-- Condensed text at 80% width -->
<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:w w:val="80"/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>Condensed text</w:t>
</w:r>

<!-- Expanded text at 150% width -->
<w:r>
  <w:rPr>
    <w:w w:val="150"/>
  </w:rPr>
  <w:t>Expanded text</w:t>
</w:r>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

// 80% condensed
var condensed = new Run(
    new RunProperties(new CharacterScale { Val = 80 }),
    new Text("Condensed text")
);

// 150% expanded
var expanded = new Run(
    new RunProperties(new CharacterScale { Val = 150 }),
    new Text("Expanded text")
);

Notes

• The scaling is applied to glyph widths only; it does not affect font metrics like ascent or descent.
• Condensing below about 60–70% or expanding beyond 200% generally degrades readability.
• w:w is distinct from w:kern (which adjusts space between character pairs) and w:spacing (which adds uniform space between all characters in the run).