CSS GUIDE DIRECTION

Summary

The direction property should be set to match the direction of the text: rtl for Hebrew or Arabic text and ltr for other scripts. This should normally be done as part of the document (e.g., using the dir attribute in HTML) rather than through direct use of CSS.

The property sets the base text direction of block-level elements and the direction of embeddings created by the unicode-bidi property. It also sets the default alignment of text and block-level elements and the direction that cells flow within a table row.

• Initial value: ltr
• Applies to: all elements
• Inherited: yes
• Percentages: n/a
• Media: visual

Syntax

direction: [ 'ltr' | 'rtl' | inherit ] ;

Legal Values

ltr

• The default value of direction. Text and other elements go from left to right

rtl

• Text and other elements go from right to left

Note: For the direction property to have any effect on inline-level elements, the unicode-bidi property's value must be 'embed' or 'override'.

Usage Examples

blockquote {
  direction : rtl ;
}

Notes

Unlike the dir attribute in HTML, the direction property is not inherited from table columns into table cells, since CSS inheritance follows the document tree, and table cells are inside of the rows but not inside of the columns.

Specification Conformance

• CSS 2.1
• CSS 3 Text Module

See Also

unicode-bidi