The writing-mode
CSS property sets whether lines of text are laid out horizontally or vertically, as well as the direction in which blocks progress. When set for an entire document, it should be set on the root element (html
element for HTML documents).
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This property specifies the block flow direction, which is the direction in which block-level containers are stacked, and the direction in which inline-level content flows within a block container. Thus, it also determines the ordering of block-level content.
Syntax
/* Keyword values */ writing-mode: horizontal-tb; writing-mode: vertical-rl; writing-mode: vertical-lr; /* Global values */ writing-mode: inherit; writing-mode: initial; writing-mode: unset;
The writing-mode
property is specified as one of the values listed below.
Values
horizontal-tb
- Content flows horizontally from left to right, vertically from top to bottom. The next horizontal line is positioned below the previous line.
vertical-rl
- Content flows vertically from top to bottom, horizontally from right to left. The next vertical line is positioned to the left of the previous line.
vertical-lr
- Content flows vertically from top to bottom, horizontally from left to right. The next vertical line is positioned to the right of the previous line.
sideways-rl
- Content flows vertically from top to bottom and all the glyphs, even those in vertical scripts, are set sideways toward the right.
sideways-lr
- Content flows vertically from top to bottom and all the glyphs, even those in vertical scripts, are set sideways toward the left.
lr
- Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use
horizontal-tb
instead. lr-tb
- Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use
horizontal-tb
instead. rl
- Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use
horizontal-tb
instead. tb
- Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use
vertical-lr
instead. tb-rl
- Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use
vertical-rl
instead.
Formal syntax
horizontal-tb | vertical-rl | vertical-lr | sideways-rl | sideways-lr
Example
This example demonstrates all of the writing modes, showing each with text in various languages.
HTML
The HTML is simply a <table>
with each writing mode in a row with a column showing text in various scripts using that writing mode.
<table> <tr> <th>Value</th> <th>Vertical script</th> <th>Horizontal script</th> <th>Mixed script</th> </tr> <tr> <td>horizontal-tb</td> <td class="example Text1"><span>我家没有电脑。</span></td> <td class="example Text1"><span>Example text</span></td> <td class="example Text1"><span>1994年に至っては</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td>vertical-lr</td> <td class="example Text2"><span>我家没有电脑。</span></td> <td class="example Text2"><span>Example text</span></td> <td class="example Text2"><span>1994年に至っては</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td>vertical-rl</td> <td class="example Text3"><span>我家没有电脑。</span></td> <td class="example Text3"><span>Example text</span></td> <td class="example Text3"><span>1994年に至っては</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td>sideways-lr</td> <td class="example Text4"><span>我家没有电脑。</span></td> <td class="example Text4"><span>Example text</span></td> <td class="example Text4"><span>1994年に至っては</span></td> </tr> <tr> <td>sideways-rl</td> <td class="example Text5"><span>我家没有电脑。</span></td> <td class="example Text5"><span>Example text</span></td> <td class="example Text5"><span>1994年に至っては</span></td> </tr> </table>
CSS
Some preparatory CSS just to make things look a little better:
table { border-collapse:collapse; } td, th { border: 1px black solid; padding: 3px; } th { background-color: lightgray; } .example { height:75px; width:75px; }
The CSS that adjusts the directionality of the content looks like this:
.example.Text1 span, .example.Text1 { writing-mode: horizontal-tb; -webkit-writing-mode: horizontal-tb; -ms-writing-mode: horizontal-tb; } .example.Text2 span, .example.Text2 { writing-mode: vertical-lr; -webkit-writing-mode: vertical-lr; -ms-writing-mode: vertical-lr; } .example.Text3 span, .example.Text3 { writing-mode: vertical-rl; -webkit-writing-mode: vertical-rl; -ms-writing-mode: vertical-rl; } .example.Text4 span, .example.Text4 { writing-mode: sideways-lr; -webkit-writing-mode: sideways-lr; -ms-writing-mode: sideways-lr; } .example.Text5 span, .example.Text5 { writing-mode: sideways-rl; -webkit-writing-mode: sideways-rl; -ms-writing-mode: sideways-rl; }
Result
This image shows what the output should look like, in case your browser's support for writing-mode
is incomplete:
Specification
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3 The definition of 'writing-mode' in that specification. |
Proposed Recommendation | Initial definition |
CSS Writing Modes Level 4 The definition of 'writing-mode' in that specification. |
Candidate Recommendation | Add sideways-lr and sideways-rl |
Initial value | horizontal-tb |
---|---|
Applies to | all elements except table row groups, table column groups, table rows, and table columns |
Inherited | yes |
Media | visual |
Computed value | as specified |
Animation type | discrete |
Canonical order | the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar |
Browser compatibility
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
writing-mode | Chrome
Full support
48
| Edge
Full support
12
| Firefox
Full support
41
| IE
Full support
9
| Opera
Full support
35
| Safari
Full support
10.1
| WebView Android
Full support
48
| Chrome Android
Full support
48
| Firefox Android
Full support
41
| Opera Android
Full support
35
| Safari iOS
Full support
10.3
| Samsung Internet Android
Full support
5.0
|
horizontal-tb , vertical-lr , and vertical-rl | Chrome Full support 48 | Edge No support No | Firefox Full support 43 | IE No support No | Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support 9 | WebView Android Full support 48 | Chrome Android Full support 48 | Firefox Android Full support 43 | Opera Android ? | Safari iOS Full support 9 | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
sideways-lr and sideways-rl | Chrome No support No | Edge No support No | Firefox Full support 43 | IE No support No | Opera No support No | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android Full support 43 | Opera Android ? | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
lr , lr-tb , rl , rl-tb , tb , and tb-rl | Chrome Full support 48 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 43 | IE
Full support
9
| Opera Full support Yes | Safari Full support 10.1 | WebView Android Full support 48 | Chrome Android Full support 48 | Firefox Android Full support 43 | Opera Android ? | Safari iOS Full support 10.3 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0 |
Legend
- Full support
- Full support
- No support
- No support
- Compatibility unknown
- Compatibility unknown
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
- See implementation notes.
- See implementation notes.
- User must explicitly enable this feature.
- User must explicitly enable this feature.
- Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
- Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
See also
- SVG
writing-mode
attribute direction
unicode-bidi
text-orientation
text-combine-upright
- CSS Logical properties
- Styling vertical text (Chinse, Japanese, Korean and Mongolian)
- Extensive browsers support test results: https://w3c.github.io/i18n-tests/results/writing-mode-vertical