vertical-align

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

The vertical-align CSS property sets vertical alignment of an inline, inline-block or table-cell box.

Try it

vertical-align: baseline;

vertical-align: top;

vertical-align: middle;

vertical-align: bottom;

vertical-align: sub;

vertical-align: text-top;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <p>
    Align the star:
    <img id="example-element" src="/shared-assets/images/examples/star2.png" />
  </p>
</section>

#default-example > p {
  line-height: 3em;
  font-family: monospace;
  font-size: 1.2em;
  text-decoration: underline overline;
}

The vertical-align property can be used in two contexts:

To vertically align an inline-level element's box inside its containing line box. For example, it could be used to vertically position an image in a line of text.
To vertically align the content of a cell in a table.

Note that vertical-align only applies to inline, inline-block and table-cell elements: you can't use it to vertically align block-level elements.

Syntax

css

/* Keyword values */
vertical-align: baseline;
vertical-align: sub;
vertical-align: super;
vertical-align: text-top;
vertical-align: text-bottom;
vertical-align: middle;
vertical-align: top;
vertical-align: bottom;

/* <length> values */
vertical-align: 10em;
vertical-align: 4px;

/* <percentage> values */
vertical-align: 20%;

/* Global values */
vertical-align: inherit;
vertical-align: initial;
vertical-align: revert;
vertical-align: revert-layer;
vertical-align: unset;

The vertical-align property is specified as one of the values listed below.

Values for inline elements

Parent-relative values

These values vertically align the element relative to its parent element:

baseline: Aligns the baseline of the element with the baseline of its parent. The baseline of some replaced elements, like <textarea>, is not specified by the HTML specification, meaning that their behavior with this keyword may vary between browsers.
sub: Aligns the baseline of the element with the subscript-baseline of its parent.
super: Aligns the baseline of the element with the superscript-baseline of its parent.
text-top: Aligns the top of the element with the top of the parent element's font.
text-bottom: Aligns the bottom of the element with the bottom of the parent element's font.
middle: Aligns the middle of the element with the baseline plus half the x-height of the parent.
<length>: Aligns the baseline of the element to the given length above the baseline of its parent. A negative value is allowed.
<percentage>: Aligns the baseline of the element to the given percentage above the baseline of its parent, with the value being a percentage of the line-height property. A negative value is allowed.

Line-relative values

The following values vertically align the element relative to the entire line:

top: Aligns the top of the element and its descendants with the top of the entire line.
bottom: Aligns the bottom of the element and its descendants with the bottom of the entire line.

For elements that do not have a baseline, the bottom margin edge is used instead.

Values for table cells

baseline (and sub, super, text-top, text-bottom, <length>, and <percentage>): Aligns the baseline of the cell with the baseline of all other cells in the row that are baseline-aligned.
top: Aligns the top padding edge of the cell with the top of the row.
middle: Centers the padding box of the cell within the row.
bottom: Aligns the bottom padding edge of the cell with the bottom of the row.

Negative values are allowed.

Formal definition

Initial value	`baseline`
Applies to	inline-level and table-cell elements. It also applies to `::first-letter` and `::first-line`.
Inherited	no
Percentages	refer to the `line-height` of the element itself
Computed value	for percentage and length values, the absolute length, otherwise the keyword as specified
Animation type	a length

Formal syntax

vertical-align = 
  [ first | last ]        ||
  <'alignment-baseline'>  ||
  <'baseline-shift'>      

<alignment-baseline> = 
  baseline      |
  text-bottom   |
  alphabetic    |
  ideographic   |
  middle        |
  central       |
  mathematical  |
  text-top      

<baseline-shift> = 
  <length-percentage>  |
  sub                  |
  super                |
  top                  |
  center               |
  bottom               

<length-percentage> = 
  <length>      |
  <percentage>

Examples

Basic example

HTML

html

<div>
  An <img src="frame_image.svg" alt="link" width="32" height="32" /> image with
  a default alignment.
</div>
<div>
  An
  <img class="top" src="frame_image.svg" alt="link" width="32" height="32" />
  image with a text-top alignment.
</div>
<div>
  An
  <img class="bottom" src="frame_image.svg" alt="link" width="32" height="32" />
  image with a text-bottom alignment.
</div>
<div>
  An
  <img class="middle" src="frame_image.svg" alt="link" width="32" height="32" />
  image with a middle alignment.
</div>

CSS

css

img.top {
  vertical-align: text-top;
}
img.bottom {
  vertical-align: text-bottom;
}
img.middle {
  vertical-align: middle;
}

Result

Vertical alignment in a line box

HTML

html

<p>
top:         <img style="vertical-align: top" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
middle:      <img style="vertical-align: middle" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
bottom:      <img style="vertical-align: bottom" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
super:       <img style="vertical-align: super" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
sub:         <img style="vertical-align: sub" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
</p>

<p>
text-top:    <img style="vertical-align: text-top" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
text-bottom: <img style="vertical-align: text-bottom" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
0.2em:       <img style="vertical-align: 0.2em" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
-1em:        <img style="vertical-align: -1em" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
20%:         <img style="vertical-align: 20%" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
-100%:       <img style="vertical-align: -100%" src="star.png" alt="star"/>
</p>

#* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

img {
  margin-right: 0.5em;
}

p {
  height: 3em;
  padding: 0 0.5em;
  font-family: monospace;
  text-decoration: underline overline;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  width: 80%;
}

Result

Vertical alignment in a table cell

In this example, we have a table with a single row containing six cells. The row sets vertical-align to bottom as the default value.

The first four cells each set their own vertical-align values, and these override the row's value.
The fifth cell does not set any vertical-align value, so inherits the row's value.

The sixth cell is only used to ensure that the cells are tall enough to see the effect.

HTML

html

<table>
  <tr class="bottom">
    <td class="baseline">baseline</td>
    <td class="top">top</td>
    <td class="middle">middle</td>
    <td>bottom</td>
    <td>Row's style</td>
    <td>
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse
      pretium felis eu sem mattis vulputate.
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

CSS

css

table {
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  width: 80%;
}

table,
th,
td {
  border: 1px solid black;
}

td {
  padding: 0.5em;
  font-family: monospace;
}

.bottom {
  vertical-align: bottom;
}

.baseline {
  vertical-align: baseline;
}

.top {
  vertical-align: top;
}

.middle {
  vertical-align: middle;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3 # propdef-vertical-align

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Oct 30, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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