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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.

/* 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 value auto
Applies to ::first-letter pseudo-elements and inline-level first child of a block container
Inherited no
Computed value as specified
Animation type discrete

Formal syntax

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

Examples

Aligning initial letter

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

.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

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
initial-letter-align No No
NoSee bug 1273021.
No No No No No
NoSee bug 1273021.
No No No

See also

© 2005–2023 MDN contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/initial-letter-align