text-orientation

This is an experimental technology
Because this technology's specification has not stabilized, check the compatibility table for the proper prefixes to use in various browsers. Also note that the syntax and behavior of an experimental technology is subject to change in future versions of browsers as the spec changes.

Summary

The text-orientation CSS property defines the orientation of the text in a line. This property only has an effect in vertical mode, that is when writing-mode is not horizontal-tb. It is useful to control the display of writing in languages using vertical script, but also to deal with vertical table headers.

Initial value	`mixed`
Applies to	all elements, except table row groups, rows, column groups, and columns
Inherited	yes
Media	visual
Computed value	as specified
Animatable	no
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
text-orientation: mixed;
text-orientation: upright;
text-orientation: sideways-right;
text-orientation: sideways-left;
text-orientation: sideways;
text-orientation: use-glyph-orientation;

/* Global values */
text-orientation: inherit;
text-orientation: initial;
text-orientation: unset;

Values

mixed: This keyword leads to have characters for horizontal-only scripts being turned 90°, while the glyphs for vertical scripts are laid out naturally.
upright: This keyword leads to have characters for horizontal-only scripts to be laid out naturally (upright), as well as the glyphs for vertical scripts. Note that this keyword lead all characters to be considered as ltr: the used value of direction is ltr, whatever the user could try to set it to.
sideways: This keyword leads to have characters laid out like if they were laid out horizontally, but with the whole line rotated 90° to the right if writing-mode is vertical-rl or to the left, if it is vertical-lr.
sideways-right: An alias to sideways that is kept for compatibility purpose.
use-glyph-orientation: On SVG elements, this keyword leads to use the value of the deprecated SVG properties glyph-orientation-vertical and glyph-orientation-horizontal.

Formal syntax

mixed | upright | sideways

Examples

.myText {
  writing-mode: vertical-rl;
  text-orientation: sideways-right;
}

Specification

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3 The definition of 'text-orientation' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation	Initial definition

Feature	Chrome	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari (WebKit)
Basic support	(Yes) -webkit 48.0 (unprefixed)	41 (41)	Not supported	(Yes) -webkit	Not supported
`sideways`	Not supported	44 (44)[1]	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported

Feature	Android	Android Webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	IE Phone	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile
Basic support	Not supported	48.0 (unprefixed)	48.0 (unprefixed)	41.0 (41)	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported
`sideways`	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported	44.0 (44)[1]	Not supported	Not supported	Not supported

[1] sideways-right has been made an alias of sideways.

text-orientation

Summary

Syntax

Values

Formal syntax

Examples

Specification

Browser compatibility

See also

Document Tags and Contributors