Using Less as a CSS preprocessor in your project? No problemo, Font Awesome has a Less version if you'd prefer to import our styling into your workflow.
We’ll cover the basics of getting all the files you’ll need from the directory, adding Font Awesome to your compile, tools for referencing icons with ease, and more!
Grab the Files
You'll find everything you need in the fontawesome6
directory of the Font Awesome download. Below is the list of files made specifically for Less. You can add them all to your project or pick just the ones you need.
Files | What They Do |
---|---|
fontawesome.less | Main Font Awesome compile |
brands.less | Brand icon styles |
solid.less | Solid icon styles |
regular.less | Regular icon styles |
light.less | Light icon styles |
thin.less | Thin icon styles |
sharp-solid.less | Sharp Solid icon styles |
sharp-regular.less | Sharp Regular icon styles |
sharp-light.less | Sharp Light icon styles |
duotone.less | Duotone icon styles |
_variables.less | Where variables are defined that are used throughout styling |
_mixins.less | Utilities used throughout styling/icon definitions |
_core.less | Base icon reference class syntax and definitions |
_duotone-icons.less | Duotone icon classes |
_sizing.less | icon sizing support styling |
_fixed-width.less | fixed-width icon support styling |
_list.less | icons in a list support styling |
_bordered-pulled.less | bordered + pulled icon support styling |
_animated.less | animated icon support styling |
_rotated-flipped.less | rotating icons support styling |
_stacked.less | stacking icons support styling |
_icons.less | All icon definitions |
_screen-reader.less | screen-reader specific and accessibility support styling |
_custom-icons.less | includes Custom Icons in a Kit Download (if you're using one) |
Adding Font Awesome to Your Compile
Copy the less
folder into your project. Then copy the entire webfonts
folder into your project, where your static files get served.
Open your project's less/variables.less
and edit the @fa-font-path
variable to point to where you placed the webfonts
folder.
@fa-font-path: "../webfonts";
In your main Less compile file, import Font Awesome by adding the core styles file, @import "less/fontawesome.less"
. Then import one or more styles.
// importing core styling file
@import "./fontawesome/less/fontawesome.less";
@import "./fontawesome/less/solid.less";
@import "./fontawesome/less/brands.less";
If you wanted to use more styles, add more style imports:
// importing core styling file
@import "./fontawesome/less/fontawesome.less";
// our project needs Classic Solid, Brands, and Sharp Solid
@import "./fontawesome/less/solid.less";
@import "./fontawesome/less/brands.less";
@import "./fontawesome/less/sharp-solid.less";
Using Duotone Icons
If a project uses Duotone icons, you'll need to @import
two separate files.
// importing core styling file
@import "./fontawesome/less/fontawesome.less";
// our project needs Duotone - which requires both of the following files
@import "./fontawesome/less/duotone.less";
@import "./fontawesome/less/_duotone-icons.less";
Using a Downloaded Kit
Starting with version 6.4, you can now download a Kit to compile and host yourself just like you do with Font Awesome! To download your Kit, make sure the Kit's version in Settings is set to "Latest 6.x" or if you selected a specific version, it needs to be at least 6.4. Then from the Set Up tab in your Kit, you'll see the options for downloading. Your kit download will contain all of the Less files noted above.
Custom Icons in Downloaded Kits
If you have custom icons in your Kit, they will be included as an additional files in your Kit download.
Path to the files | What the files do |
---|---|
/webfonts/custom-icons.woff /webfonts/custom-icons.ttf | Custom icon font in WOFF2 and TTF formats |
/less/custom-icons.less | Less Preprocessor partial that handles the display of custom icons using Web Fonts |
Here's a simple example that follows the compile steps above along with custom icons:
// importing core styling file
@import "./fontawesome/less/fontawesome.less";
// importing Font Awesome styles
@import "./fontawesome/less/solid.less";
@import "./fontawesome/less/brands.less";
// importing a kit's custom icons
@import "./fontawesome/less/custom-icons.less";
Adding Icons
Once you've added the imports above and have your compiled CSS that includes Font Awesome set up and referenced in your project, you can add icons to your project's HTML.
Here's an example of how to reference icons with your compiled and hosted CSS:
<head>
<!--load your compiled CSS (including Font Awesome) -->
<link href="/your-path-to-your-compiled-css-including-fontawesome/file.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
<!-- This example uses <i> element with:
1. the `fa-solid` style class for solid style
2. the `user` icon with the `fa-` prefix -->
<i class="fa-solid fa-user"></i>
<!-- Or you can use a <span> element, with classes applied in the same way -->
<span class="fa-solid fa-user"></span>
</body>
Custom Less-based CSS Rules
If you want to use any of our Less mixins or utilities, you can leverage our CSS Pseudo-elements method of adding icons to your project to do. This method is also useful when changing the HTML on your project is not an option.
Using our .fa-icon-
and .fa-family-
style mixins, you can easily generate custom CSS Pseudo-element rules with CSS selectors specific to your project.
// Solid style of user
.user {
.fa-icon-solid(@fa-var-user);
}
// Regular style of triangle-exclamation
.triangle-exclamation {
.fa-icon-regular(@fa-var-triangle-exclamation);
}
// Light style of newspaper
.newspaper {
.fa-icon-light(@fa-var-newspaper);
}
// Thin style of paintbrush-fine
.paintbrush-fine {
.fa-icon-thin(@fa-var-paintbrush-fine);
}
// Duotone style of camera-retro
.camera-retro {
.fa-icon-duotone(@fa-var-camera-retro);
}
// Twitter brand icon
.twitter {
.fa-icon-brands(@fa-var-twitter);
}
// Sharp Solid style of trash
.trash {
.fa-icon-solid(@fa-var-trash);
.fa-family-sharp(); // define Sharp family
}
// Sharp Regular style of trash
.trash {
.fa-icon-regular(@fa-var-trash);
.fa-family-sharp(); // define Sharp family
}
// Classic Solid style of trash
.trash {
.fa-icon-solid(@fa-var-trash);
.fa-family-classic(); // explicity setting Classic family (optional since this is Font Awesome's default)
}
Style Mixins
To use the style mixins, you'll want to:
- Choose the right mixin for your desired style style.
- Pass in the Less variable for the icon you want to display.
Style Mixin | Availability | What Style Renders |
---|---|---|
fa-icon-brands() | Free Plan | Brands |
fa-icon-solid() | Free Plan | Solid |
fa-icon-regular() | Pro only | [Regular |
fa-icon-light() | Pro only | Light |
fa-icon-thin() | Pro only | Thin |
fa-icon-duotone() | Pro only | Duotone |
Family Mixins
If you're using our mixins to render an icon in a specific family, like our Sharp family of styles, you'll need to reference the right family mixin (e.g. .fa-family-sharp
). Classic is our default family of styles, so there's no need to set it with a family mixin unless you're trying to explicitly set to override a previous family.
Family Mixin | Availability | What Style Renders |
---|---|---|
fa-family-classic() | Free Plan | Classic when used with other style mixins |
fa-family-sharp() | Pro only | Sharp when used with other style mixins |
A More Manual Custom CSS Approach
If you'd rather a more customizable approach when right your styling rules, we've made the utilties used in the style mixins available to get the same rendering results.
To write manual rules, you'll want to:
- Get the core set up styling of icons by adding
.fa-icon;
- Use
.fa-solid;
to include the styling to render the icon in the Solid style (similar syntax for other styles) - Use
.fa-classic;
or.fa-sharp;
to include the styling to render the icon in a specific family (Classic is set by default) - In a
::before
pseudo-element rule, use icon variable names to make including an icon's Unicode values a little easier. This is similar in syntax to adding icons via pseudo-elements
// Solid style of user
.user {
.fa-icon;
.fa-solid;
&::before {
content: @fa-var-user;
}
}
// Regular style of triangle-exclamation
.triangle-exclamation {
.fa-icon;
.fa-regular;
&::before {
content: @fa-var-triangle-exclamation;
}
}
// Light style of newspaper
.newspaper {
.fa-icon;
.fa-light;
&::before {
content: @fa-var-newspaper;
}
}
// Thin style of paintbrush-fine
.paintbrush-fine {
.fa-icon;
.fa-thin;
&::before {
content: @fa-var-paintbrush-fine;
}
}
// Duotone style of camera-retro
.camera-retro {
.fa-icon;
.fa-duotone;
&::before {
content: @fa-var-camera-retro;
}
}
// Twitter brand icon
.twitter {
.fa-icon;
.fa-brands;
&::before {
content: @fa-var-twitter;
}
}
// Sharp Solid style of trash
.trash {
.fa-icon;
.fa-solid;
.fa-sharp; // define Sharp family
&::before {
content: @fa-var-trash;
}
}
// Classic Solid style of trash
.trash {
.fa-icon;
.fa-solid;
.fa-classic; // explicity setting Classic family (optional since this is Font Awesome's default)
&::before {
content: @fa-var-trash;
}
}
Included Mixins
Utilities | What It Does |
---|---|
.fa-icon() | A mixin that contains all of the base style set up for an icon (minus an icon's style and specific name/unicode) compile |
.fa-icon-solid() .fa-icon-regular() .fa-icon-light() .fa-icon-thin() .fa-icon-duotone() .fa-icon-brands() | Mixins that contain all of the base style set up for an icon along with a specific style to render the icon in |
.fa-family-sharp() .fa-family-classic() | Mixins that, when combined with .fa-icon- style mixins, define the family of styles to be used. |
.fa-size() | A mixin that calculates font size and vertical alignment for the relative sizing scale |
.fa-sr-only() | A mixin that visually hides an element containing a text-equivalent for an icon while keeping it accessible to assistive technologies |
.fa-sr-only-focusable() | A mixin that is used alongside .fa-sr-only() to show the element again when it’s focused (e.g. by a keyboard-only user) |
Variables
Font Awesome's Less version also leverages several Less variables (opens new window) that allow for easier set-up and customization of our styling toolkit.
Variable | What It Does |
---|---|
@fa-css-prefix | Sets the prefix (default set to fa ) used on all styling toolkit CSS rules (e.g. fa-lg ) + icon reference classes (e.g. fa-user ) |
@fa-style | Sets the default icon style (using @font-face weight) |
@fa-style-family | Sets the default font-family used |
@fa-display | Sets the display (opens new window) property (default set to inline-block ) for rendered icons |
@fa-font-display | Sets the font-display (opens new window) property for Font Awesome's icon fonts |
@fa-fw-width | Sets the width (opens new window) property for all fixed-width icons |
@fa-inverse | Sets the color (opens new window) property of .fa-inverse |
@fa-border-color | Sets the border-color (opens new window) property used in bordered icons |
@fa-border-padding | Sets the padding (opens new window) property used in bordered icons |
@fa-border-radius | Sets the border-radius (opens new window) property used in bordered icons |
@fa-border-style | Sets the border-style (opens new window) property used in bordered icons |
@fa-border-width | Sets the border-width (opens new window) property used in bordered icons |
@fa-li-width | Sets the width (opens new window) property for fa-li elements when styling icons in a list icons |
@fa-li-margin | Sets the margin-right (opens new window) property for fa-li elements when styling icons in a list icons |
@fa-pull-margin | Sets the margin-left /margin-right (opens new window) property for pulled icons icons |
@fa-primary-opacity | Sets the opacity (opens new window) of a duotone icon's primary layer |
@fa-secondary-opacity | Sets the opacity (opens new window) of a duotone icon's secondary layer |
@fa-size-scale-base | Sets the base step size that all other relative sizing steps are based on |
@fa-size-scale-2xs | Sets the size of step used when relatively sizing icons with .fa-2xs |
@fa-size-scale-xs | Sets the size of step used when relatively sizing icons with .fa-xs |
@fa-size-scale-sm | Sets the size of step used when relatively sizing icons with .fa-sm |
@fa-size-scale-lg | Sets the size of step used when relatively sizing icons with .fa-lg |
@fa-size-scale-xl | Sets the size of step used when relatively sizing icons with .fa-xl |
@fa-size-scale-2xl | Sets the size of step used when relatively sizing icons with .fa-2xl |
@fa-stack-vertical-align | Sets the vertical-align (opens new window) property of stacked icons |
@fa-stack-width | Sets the width (opens new window) property of stacked icons |
@fa-stack-z-index | Sets the z-index (opens new window) property of stacked icons |
@fa-font-path | Sets the location of Font Awesome's webfonts folder and assets. |