initial-letter-align

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The initial-letter-align CSS property specifies the alignment of initial letters within a paragraph.

css

/* Keyword values */
initial-letter-align: auto;
initial-letter-align: alphabetic;
initial-letter-align: hanging;
initial-letter-align: ideographic;

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

Syntax

One of the keyword values listed below.

Values

auto

The user agent selects the value which corresponds to the language of the text. Western languages would default to alphabetic, CJK languages to ideographic, and some Indic languages to hanging.

alphabetic

As described above, the cap height of the initial letter aligns with the cap height of the first line of text. The baseline of the initial letter aligns with the baseline of the Nth text baseline.

hanging

The hanging baseline of the initial letter aligns with the hanging baseline of the first line of text.

ideographic

The initial letter is centered in the N-line area.

Formal definition

Initial valueauto
Applies to::first-letter pseudo-elements and inline-level first child of a block container
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete

Formal syntax

initial-letter-align = 
  [ border-box? [ alphabetic | ideographic | hanging | leading ]? ]!

Examples

Aligning initial letter

HTML

html

<p class="auto ">Initial letter - auto</p>
<p class="alphabetic">Initial letter - alphabetic</p>
<p class="hanging">Initial letter - hanging</p>
<p class="ideographic">Initial letter - ideographic</p>

CSS

css

.auto::first-letter {
  -webkit-initial-letter-align: auto;
  initial-letter-align: auto;
}

.alphabetic::first-letter {
  -webkit-initial-letter-align: alphabetic;
  initial-letter-align: alphabetic;
}

.hanging::first-letter {
  -webkit-initial-letter-align: hanging;
  initial-letter-align: hanging;
}

.ideographic::first-letter {
  -webkit-initial-letter-align: ideographic;
  initial-letter-align: ideographic;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3
# aligning-initial-letter

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also