font-feature-settings attribute

Type:various
Inherited:no
Used By:All text elements
Default:none

This attribute can be used to turn on or off low-level features in the font, and really only applies to OpenType font layout. The list of features depends on the font but at the most basic the "opentype" feature can be used to turn on the OpenType layout engine, which is much slower but required for some languages like Hindi. Other examples might be "opentype.dlig" to turn on discretionary ligatures.

to display text in Hindi or other indic languages:

<p>
Hindi is written <span lang="hi" style="font-family:myfont; font-feature-settings:opentype">हिन्दी</span>.
</p>

to use discretionary ligatures

<p>
This text has <span font-feature-settings="opentype.dlig">discretionary ligatures</a>
</p>