CSS Text Alignment and Text Direction
In this chapter you will learn about the following properties:
- text-align
- text-align-last
- vertical-align
- direction
- unicode-bidi
Text Alignment
The text-align property is used to set the horizontal alignment of a text.
This property can have one of the following values:
- left - Aligns the text to the left
- right - Aligns the text to the right
- center - Centers the text
- justify - Stretches the lines so that each line has equal width
The following example shows left, right and center aligned text (left is default if text direction is left-to-right, and right is default if text direction is right-to-left):
Example
h1 {
text-align: center;
}
h2 {
text-align: left;
}
h3 {
text-align: right;
}Live preview
When the text-align property is set to "justify", each line is stretched so that every line has equal width, and the left and right margins are straight (like in magazines and newspapers):
Example
div {
text-align: justify;
}Live preview
Text Align Last
The text-align-last property specifies how to align the last line of a text.
This property can have one of the following values:
- auto - Default value. The last line is justified and aligned left
- left - The last line is aligned to the left
- right - The last line is aligned to the right
- center - The last line is center-aligned
- justify - The last line is justified as the rest of the lines
- start - The last line is aligned at the start of the line
- end - The last line is aligned at the end of the line
Example
p.a {
text-align-last: right;
}
p.b {
text-align-last: center;
}
p.c {
text-align-last: justify;
}Live preview
Vertical Alignment
The vertical-align property sets the vertical alignment of an element.
This property can have one of the following values:
- baseline - Default value. The element is aligned with the baseline of the parent
- length/% - Raises or lower an element by the specified length or percent
- sub - The element is aligned with the subscript baseline of the parent
- super - The element is aligned with the superscript baseline of the parent
- top - The element is aligned with the top of the tallest element on the line
- text-top - The element is aligned with the top of the parent element's font
- middle - The element is placed in the middle of the parent element
- bottom - The element is aligned with the lowest element on the line
- text-bottom - The element is aligned with the bottom of the parent element's font
Example
img.a {
vertical-align: baseline;
}
img.b {
vertical-align: text-top;
}
img.c {
vertical-align: text-bottom;
}
img.d {
vertical-align: sub;
}
img.e {
vertical-align: super;
}Live preview
Text Direction
The direction property specifies the text direction/writing direction within a block-level element.
Tip
Use this property together with the unicode-bidi property to set or return whether the text should be overridden to support multiple languages in the same document.
Example
p {
direction: rtl;
unicode-bidi: bidi-override;
}Live preview
The CSS Text Alignment/Direction Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| direction | Specifies the text direction/writing direction |
| text-align | Specifies the horizontal alignment of text |
| text-align-last | Specifies how to align the last line of a text |
| unicode-bidi | Used together with the direction property to set or return whether the text should be overridden to support multiple languages in the same document |
| vertical-align | Sets the vertical alignment of an element |