README

The FontAwesome extension to MediaWiki provides parser functions to insert Font Awesome Free icons into the wiki text.

Currently Font Awesome Free version 7.2.0 is included.

Requirements

• PHP 8.1.0 or later
• MediaWiki 1.43 or later

Installation

Using Composer

Using Composer is the recommended way to install this extension.

Run the following commands from the MediaWiki installation directory:

1. COMPOSER=composer.local.json php composer.phar require --no-update mediawiki/font-awesome ^4.0
2. php composer.phar update --no-dev mediawiki/font-awesome

To update the extension, run the last command again.

Using a download from GitHub

1. Download a tar ball or zip file from GitHub
2. Extract it into the extensions directory of your MediaWiki installation
3. Rename the folder FontAwesome-... to FontAwesome

To update the extension delete the FontAwesome folder completely and re-install.

Activation

Add the following line to your LocalSettings.php:

wfLoadExtension( 'FontAwesome' );

Configuration

There are two render modes available for FontAwesome icons:

• Web Fonts with CSS: This implementation uses web fonts as the file format and relies on the browser to render icons as it would any custom font.
• SVG with JavaScript: This implementation encodes icon data and the mechanism to display them in the browser in JavaScript code that the browser executes.

The render mode can be selected by setting the variable $wgFaRenderMode in LocalSettings.php. Allowed values are: webfonts (default) and javascript.

Example: $wgFaRenderMode = 'javascript';

For a discussion of the advantages and drawbacks of the render modes see Performance & Font Awesome on fontawesome.com.

Usage

This extension defines three parser functions:

• {{#far:...}} to insert an icon from the FontAwesome Regular font
• {{#fas:...}} to insert an icon from the FontAwesome Solid font
• {{#fab:...}} to insert an icon from the FontAwesome Brands font

Example: {{#fab:wikipedia-w}} will insert the Wikipedia-W

For valid icon names see https://fontawesome.com/v7/search.

Styling

• {{#far:... ...}} to insert an icon from the FontAwesome Regular font with additional classes
• {{#fas:... ...}} to insert an icon from the FontAwesome Solid font with additional classes
• {{#fab:... ...}} to insert an icon from the FontAwesome Brands font with additional classes

Example: {{#fab:wikipedia-w fa-spin}} will insert a spinning Wikipedia-W

For valid Font Awesome class names see https://docs.fontawesome.com/web/style/styling.

Professional Support

The FontAwesome extension is maintained by Professional Wiki. You can contract us to help you with installation or customization of FontAwesome. We also do development work.

License

GNU General Public License, Version 3 or later.

The Font Awesome Free package is included in the extension. See its license file for details.

Release notes

Version 4.1.0

Released on June 12, 2026.

• Updated FontAwesome to 7.2.0

Version 4.0.0

Released on July 25, 2025.

• Raised the minimum PHP version from 7.4.3 to 8.1.0
• Raised the minimum MediaWiki version from 1.39 to 1.43
• Updated FontAwesome to 7.0.0

Version 3.0.0

Released on March 15, 2025.

• Raised the minimum MediaWiki version from 1.35 to 1.39
• Updated FontAwesome to 6.7.2

Version 2.0.0

Released on January 27, 2023.

• Raised the minimum PHP version from 7.0 to 7.4.3
• Raised the minimum MediaWiki version from 1.31 to 1.35
• Updated to FontAwesome 6

Version 1.1.0

Released on January 25, 2023.

• Updated FontAwesome to 5.15.4

Version 1.0.0

Released on October 20, 2019.

• Initial release