The<mi>MathML element indicates that the content should be rendered as anidentifier, such as a function name, variable or symbolic constant.

By default<mi> elements that contain multiple characters are a rendered as normal text, while single character characters are rendered as italic: the same formatting behavior as the CSStext-transform property with a value ofmath-auto.Themathvariant attribute with a value ofnormal can be used to reset a single character to the normal font.

In order to use a particular form of a character such as bold/italic, serif, sans-serif, script/calligraphy, monospaced, double-struck, and so on, you should use the appropriateMathematical Alphanumeric Symbols.

Attributes

mathvariant

The only value allowed in the current specification isnormal (case insensitive):

normal

Use default/normal rendering, removing automatic styling of single characters to italic.

Deprecated legacy values are:

boldDeprecated

Try and use bold characters e.g., "𝐀".

italicDeprecated

Try and use italic characters e.g., "𝐴".

bold-italicDeprecated

Try and use bold-italic characters e.g., "𝑨".

double-struckDeprecated

Try and use double-struck characters e.g., "𝔸".

bold-frakturDeprecated

Try and use bold-fraktur characters e.g., "𝕬".

scriptDeprecated

Try and use script characters e.g., "𝒜".

bold-scriptDeprecated

Try and use bold-script characters e.g., "𝓐".

frakturDeprecated

Try and use fraktur characters e.g., "𝔄".

sans-serifDeprecated

Try and use sans-serif characters e.g., "𝖠".

bold-sans-serifDeprecated

Try and use bold-sans-serif characters e.g., "𝗔".

sans-serif-italicDeprecated

Try and use sans-serif-italic characters e.g., "𝘈".

sans-serif-bold-italicDeprecated

Try and use sans-serif-bold-italic characters e.g., "𝘼".

monospaceDeprecated

Try and use monospace characters e.g., "𝙰".

initialDeprecated

Try and use initial characters e.g., "𞸢".

tailedDeprecated

Try and use tailed characters e.g., "𞹂".

loopedDeprecated

Try and use looped characters e.g., "𞺂".

stretchedDeprecated

Try and use stretched characters e.g., "𞹢".

This element also accepts theglobal MathML attributes.

Examples

<math display="block">  <!-- Multiple characters render as "normal" text -->  <mi>sin</mi></math><hr /><math display="block">  <!-- Single characters render as italic by default (i.e. "A" renders as "𝐴") -->  <mi>A</mi></math><hr /><math display="block">  <!-- Use mathvariant="normal" to make single character render as normal text -->  <mi mathvariant="normal">F</mi></math><hr /><math display="block">  <!-- To use a specific variant, such as "B" in Fraktur -->  <mi>𝔅</mi></math>

Technical summary

Specifications

Browser compatibility