inset-block

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2021.

The inset-block CSS property defines the logical block start and end offsets of an element, which maps to physical offsets depending on the element's writing mode, directionality, and text orientation. It corresponds to the top and bottom, or right and left properties depending on the values defined for writing-mode, direction, and text-orientation.

This inset property has no effect on non-positioned elements.

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Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

Syntax

css
/* <length> values */
inset-block: 3px 10px;
inset-block: 2.4em 3em;
inset-block: 10px; /* value applied to start and end */
inset-block: auto anchor(start);
inset-block: calc(anchor(--myAnchor 50%) + 10px) auto;

/* <percentage>s of the width or height of the containing block */
inset-block: 10% 5%;

/* Keyword value */
inset-block: auto;

/* Global values */
inset-block: inherit;
inset-block: initial;
inset-block: revert;
inset-block: revert-layer;
inset-block: unset;

Values

The inset-block property takes the same values as the left property.

Formal definition

Initial valueas each of the properties of the shorthand:
Applies topositioned elements
Inheritedno
Percentageslogical-height of containing block
Computed valueas each of the properties of the shorthand:
Animation typea length, percentage or calc();

Formal syntax

inset-block = 
  <'top'>{1,2}  

<top> = 
  auto                 |
  <length-percentage>  |
  <anchor()>           |
  <anchor-size()>      

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

<anchor()> = 
  anchor( <anchor-name>?                  &&
  <anchor-side> , <length-percentage>? )  

<anchor-size()> = 
  anchor-size( [ <anchor-name> || <anchor-size> ]? , <length-percentage>? )  

<anchor-name> = 
  <dashed-ident>  

<anchor-side> = 
  inside        |
  outside       |
  top           |
  left          |
  right         |
  bottom        |
  start         |
  end           |
  self-start    |
  self-end      |
  <percentage>  |
  center        

<anchor-size> = 
  width        |
  height       |
  block        |
  inline       |
  self-block   |
  self-inline

Examples

Setting block start and end offsets

HTML

html
<div>
  <p class="exampleText">Example text</p>
</div>

CSS

css
div {
  background-color: yellow;
  width: 120px;
  height: 120px;
}

.exampleText {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
  position: relative;
  inset-block: 20px 50px;
  background-color: #c8c800;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Logical Properties and Values Level 1
# propdef-inset-block

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also