CSS Text

« Previous Next Chapter » text formatting This text is styled with some of the text formatting properties. The heading uses the text-align, text-transform, and color properties. The paragraph is indented, aligned, and the space between characters is specified. The underline is removed from the "Try it yourself" link. Text Color The color property is used to set the color of the text. The color can be specified by: name - a color name, like "red" RGB - an RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)" Hex - a hex value, like "#ff0000" The default color for a page is defined in the body selector. Example body {color:blue;} h1 {color:#00ff00;} h2 {color:rgb(255,0,0);} Try it yourself » For W3C compliant CSS: If you define the color property, you must also define the background-color property. Text Alignment The text-align property is used to set the horizontal alignment of a text. Text can be centered, or aligned to the left or right, or justified. When text-align 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 h1 {text-align:center;} p.date {text-align:right;} p.main {text-align:justify;} Try it yourself » Text Decoration The text-decoration property is used to set or remove decorations from text. The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links for design purposes: Example a {text-decoration:none;} Try it yourself » It can also be used to decorate text: Example h1 {text-decoration:overline;} h2 {text-decoration:line-through;} h3 {text-decoration:underline;} h4 {text-decoration:blink;} Try it yourself » It is not recommended to underline text that is not a link, as this often confuses users. Text Transformation The text-transform property is used to specify uppercase and lowercase letters in a text. It can be used to turn everything into uppercase or lowercase letters, or capitalize the first letter of each word. Example p.uppercase {text-transform:uppercase;} p.lowercase {text-transform:lowercase;} p.capitalize {text-transform:capitalize;} Try it yourself » Text Indentation The text-indentation property is used to specify the indentation of the first line of a text. Example p {text-indent:50px;} Try it yourself » More Examples Specify the space between characters This example demonstrates how to increase or decrease the space between characters. Specify the space between lines This example demonstrates how to specify the space between the lines in a paragraph. Set the text direction of an element This example demonstrates how to change the text direction of an element. Increase the white space between words This example demonstrates how to increase the white space between words in a paragraph. Disable text wrapping inside an element This example demonstrates how to disable text wrapping inside an element. Vertical alignment of an image This example demonstrates how to set the vertical align of an image in a text. All CSS Text Properties The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2). Property Description Values CSS color Sets the color of a text color 1 direction Sets the text direction ltr rtl 2 line-height Sets the distance between lines normal number length % 1 letter-spacing Increase or decrease the space between characters normal length 1 text-align Aligns the text in an element left right center justify 1 text-decoration Adds decoration to text none underline overline line-through blink 1 text-indent Indents the first line of text in an element length % 1 text-shadow   none color length   text-transform Controls the letters in an element none capitalize uppercase lowercase 1 unicode-bidi   normal embed bidi-override 2 vertical-align Sets the vertical alignment of an element baseline sub super top text-top middle bottom text-bottom length % 1 white-space Sets how white space inside an element is handled normal pre nowrap 1 word-spacing Increase or decrease the space between words normal length