diff --git a/cloudinary-core/src/main/java/com/cloudinary/transformation/TextLayer.java b/cloudinary-core/src/main/java/com/cloudinary/transformation/TextLayer.java
index df2986c4..55380df3 100644
--- a/cloudinary-core/src/main/java/com/cloudinary/transformation/TextLayer.java
+++ b/cloudinary-core/src/main/java/com/cloudinary/transformation/TextLayer.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ public class TextLayer extends AbstractLayer<TextLayer> {
     protected String letterSpacing = null;
     protected Integer lineSpacing = null;
     protected String text = null;
+    protected Object textStyle = null;
 
     @Override
     TextLayer getThis() {
@@ -118,6 +119,28 @@ public TextLayer text(String text) {
         return getThis();
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Sets a text style identifier,
+     * Note: If this is used, all other style attributes are ignored in favor of this identifier
+     * @param textStyleIdentifier A variable string or an explicit style (e.g. "Arial_17_bold_antialias_best")
+     * @return Itself for chaining
+     */
+    public TextLayer textStyle(String textStyleIdentifier) {
+        this.textStyle = textStyleIdentifier;
+        return getThis();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Sets a text style identifier using an expression.
+     * Note: If this is used, all other style attributes are ignored in favor of this identifier
+     * @param textStyleIdentifier An expression instance referencing the style.
+     * @return Itself for chaining
+     */
+    public TextLayer textStyle(Expression textStyleIdentifier) {
+        this.textStyle = textStyleIdentifier;
+        return getThis();
+    }
+
     @Override
     public String toString() {
         if (this.publicId == null && this.text == null) {
@@ -144,6 +167,11 @@ public String toString() {
     }
 
     protected String textStyleIdentifier() {
+        // Note: if a text-style argument is provided as a whole, it overrides everything else, no mix and match.
+        if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(this.textStyle)) {
+            return textStyle.toString();
+        }
+
         ArrayList<String> components = new ArrayList<String>();
 
         if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(this.fontWeight) && !this.fontWeight.equals("normal"))
@@ -181,6 +209,5 @@ protected String textStyleIdentifier() {
         components.add(0, this.fontFamily);
 
         return StringUtils.join(components, "_");
-
     }
 }
diff --git a/cloudinary-core/src/test/java/com/cloudinary/test/CloudinaryTest.java b/cloudinary-core/src/test/java/com/cloudinary/test/CloudinaryTest.java
index 7202e993..e0875980 100644
--- a/cloudinary-core/src/test/java/com/cloudinary/test/CloudinaryTest.java
+++ b/cloudinary-core/src/test/java/com/cloudinary/test/CloudinaryTest.java
@@ -101,6 +101,30 @@ public void testSecureDistribution() {
         assertEquals("https://res.cloudinary.com/test123/image/upload/test", result);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testTextLayerStyleIdentifierVariables() {
+        String url = cloudinary.url().transformation(
+                new Transformation()
+                        .variable("$style", "!Arial_12!")
+                        .chain()
+                        .overlay(
+                                new TextLayer().text("hello-world").textStyle("$style")
+                        )).generate("sample");
+
+        assertEquals("http://res.cloudinary.com/test123/image/upload/$style_!Arial_12!/l_text:$style:hello-world/sample", url);
+
+        url = cloudinary.url().transformation(
+                new Transformation()
+                        .variable("$style", "!Arial_12!")
+                        .chain()
+                        .overlay(
+                                new TextLayer().text("hello-world").textStyle(new Expression("$style"))
+                        )).generate("sample");
+
+        assertEquals("http://res.cloudinary.com/test123/image/upload/$style_!Arial_12!/l_text:$style:hello-world/sample", url);
+    }
+
+
     @Test
     public void testSecureDistributionOverwrite() {
         // should allow overwriting secure distribution if secure=TRUE