CSS GUIDE VERTICAL ALIGN

This document is a work in progress and is subject to change.

Summary

The vertical-align property affects the vertical inside a line box of the boxes generated by an inline-level element. The following values only affect a parent inline-level element, or to a parent block-level element. If that element generates anonymous inline boxes (refer to this), they have no effect if no such parent exists.

Vertical-align attribute only considers the alignment within the current line, not within the containing box.

Applicability:	The vertical-align property can be used for all CSS elements.
Media Group:	Visual
Inherited:	No

Syntax

Vertical aligning

element

• Mozilla cannot do vertical-align for a
  element.
• The only way to get mozilla to put something in the middle of a containing box vertically is to use a table cell or set the padding top and bottom to be equal or to make the line-height equal to the height of the containing box and then use vertical-align: middle (this last way required the content to be only a single line).
• The reason for this is that the vertical-align attribute only considers the alignment within the current line, not within the containing box.

Vertical aligning images

• Mozilla aligns images differently then old browsers, in order to be in compliance with the W3C specifications. When placing an image inside of a box, padding appears below the image. The gap you're seeing is space that's reserved for the descenders in text.
• Mozilla places images on the baseline, so the descender space is visible as a few-pixel gap underneath the image.
• Mozilla recommends that you use this CSS rule:

img { vertical-align: text-bottom; }

General usage

See usage examples section for more details.

Legal Values

The following units are valid for defining vertical-align:

• baseline
• sub
• super
• top
• text-top
• middle
• bottom
• text-bottom
• length
• %

See usage examples section for more details.

Usage Examples

img{vertical-align:baseline}  	/*The element is placed on the baseline of the parent element*/

img{vertical-align:sub} 	/*Aligns the element as it was subscript*/

img{vertical-align:super}	/*Aligns the element as it was superscript*/

img{vertical-align:top} 	/*The top of the element is aligned with the top of the tallest element on the line*/

img{vertical-align:text-top} 	/*The top of the element is aligned with the top of the parent element's font*/

img{vertical-align:middle} 	/*The element is placed in the middle of the parent element*/

img{vertical-align:bottom} 	/*The bottom of the element is aligned with the lowest element on the line*/

img{vertical-align:text-bottom} 	/*The bottom of the element is aligned with the bottom of the parent element's font*/

img{vertical-align:length} 	

img{vertical-align:% }	/*Aligns the element in a % value of the "line-height" property. Negative values are allowed*/

Notes

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides a free online CSS validation service.

Specification Conformance

• CSS 1
• CSS 2
• CSS 3 (specification not yet published)

Browser Compatibility

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Opera

See Also

• CSS Vertical-align Property