CSS Text

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 this colored "Try it Yourself" link.

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Text Color

The color property is used to set the color of the text. The color is specified by:

• a color name - like "red"
• a HEX value - like "#ff0000"
• an RGB value - like "rgb(255,0,0)"

Look at CSS Color Values for a complete list of possible color values.

The default text color for a page is defined in the body selector.

Example

body {
    color: blue;}

h1 {
    color: green;}

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Note: For W3C compliant CSS: If you define the color property, you must also define the background-color.

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Text Alignment

The text-align property is used to set the horizontal alignment of a text.

A text can be left or right aligned, centered, or justified.

The following example shows center aligned, and left and right aligned text (left alignment is default if text direction is left-to-right, and right alignment is default if text direction is right-to-left):

Example

h1 {
    text-align: center;}

h2 {
    text-align: left;}

h3 {
    text-align: right;}

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When the text-align property 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

div {
    text-align: justify;}

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Text Decoration

The text-decoration property is used to set or remove decorations from text.

The value text-decoration: none; is often used to remove underlines from links:

Example

a {
    text-decoration: none;}

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The other text-decoration values are used to decorate text:

Example

h1 {
    text-decoration: overline;}

h2 {
    text-decoration: line-through;}

h3 {
    text-decoration: underline;}

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Note: It is not recommended to underline text that is not a link, as this often confuses the reader.

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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;}

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Text Indentation

The text-indent property is used to specify the indentation of the first line of a text:

Example

p {
    text-indent: 50px;}

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Letter Spacing

The letter-spacing property is used to specify the space between the characters in a text.

The following example demonstrates how to increase or decrease the space between characters:

Example

h1 {
    letter-spacing: 3px;}

h2 {
    letter-spacing: -3px;}

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Line Height

The line-height property is used to specify the space between lines:

Example

p.small {
    line-height: 0.8;}

p.big {
    line-height: 1.8;}

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Text Direction

The direction property is used to change the text direction of an element:

Example

p {
    direction: rtl;}

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Word Spacing

The word-spacing property is used to specify the space between the words in a text.

The following example demonstrates how to increase or decrease the space between words: 

Example

h1 {
    word-spacing: 10px;}

h2 {
    word-spacing: -5px;}

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Text Shadow

The text-shadow property adds shadow to text.

The following example specifies the position of the horizontal shadow (3px), the position of the vertical shadow (2px) and the color of the shadow (red):

Example

h1 {
    text-shadow: 3px 2px red;}

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More Examples

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.

Tip: Go to our CSS Fonts chapter to learn about how to change fonts, text size and the style of a text.

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Test Yourself with Exercises!

Exercise 1 »Exercise 2 »Exercise 3 »Exercise 4 »Exercise 5 »