writing-mode

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since March 2017.

The writing-mode CSS property sets whether lines of text are laid out horizontally or vertically, as well as the direction in which blocks progress. When set for an entire document, it should be set on the root element (html element for HTML documents).

Try it

This property specifies the block flow direction, which is the direction in which block-level containers are stacked, and the direction in which inline-level content flows within a block container. Thus, it also determines the ordering of block-level content.

Syntax

css

/* Keyword values */
writing-mode: horizontal-tb;
writing-mode: vertical-rl;
writing-mode: vertical-lr;

/* Global values */
writing-mode: inherit;
writing-mode: initial;
writing-mode: revert;
writing-mode: revert-layer;
writing-mode: unset;

The writing-mode property is specified as one of the values listed below. The flow direction in horizontal scripts is also affected by the directionality of that script, either left-to-right (ltr, like English and most other languages) or right-to-left (rtl, like Hebrew or Arabic).

Values

horizontal-tb: For ltr scripts, content flows horizontally from left to right. For rtl scripts, content flows horizontally from right to left. The next horizontal line is positioned below the previous line.
vertical-rl: For ltr scripts, content flows vertically from top to bottom, and the next vertical line is positioned to the left of the previous line. For rtl scripts, content flows vertically from bottom to top, and the next vertical line is positioned to the right of the previous line.
vertical-lr: For ltr scripts, content flows vertically from top to bottom, and the next vertical line is positioned to the right of the previous line. For rtl scripts, content flows vertically from bottom to top, and the next vertical line is positioned to the left of the previous line.
sideways-rl: For ltr scripts, content flows vertically from top to bottom. For rtl scripts, content flows vertically from bottom to top. All the glyphs, even those in vertical scripts, are set sideways toward the right.
sideways-lr: For ltr scripts, content flows vertically from bottom to top. For rtl scripts, content flows vertically from top to bottom. All the glyphs, even those in vertical scripts, are set sideways toward the left.
lr: Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use horizontal-tb instead.
lr-tb: Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use horizontal-tb instead.
rl: Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use horizontal-tb instead.
tb: Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use vertical-lr instead.
tb-lr: Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use vertical-lr instead.
tb-rl: Deprecated except for SVG1 documents. For CSS, use vertical-rl instead.

Formal definition

Initial value	`horizontal-tb`
Applies to	all elements except table row groups, table column groups, table rows, and table columns
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	Not animatable

Formal syntax

writing-mode = 
  horizontal-tb  |
  vertical-rl    |
  vertical-lr    |
  sideways-rl    |
  sideways-lr

Examples

Using multiple writing modes

This example demonstrates all of the writing modes, showing each with text in various languages.

HTML

The HTML is a <table> with each writing mode in a row with a column showing text in various scripts using that writing mode.

html

<table>
  <caption>
    Using multiple writing modes
  </caption>
  <tr>
    <th>Value</th>
    <th>Vertical script</th>
    <th>Horizontal (LTR) script</th>
    <th>Horizontal (RTL) script</th>
    <th>Mixed script</th>
  </tr>
  <tr class="text1">
    <th>horizontal-tb</th>
    <td>我家没有电脑。</td>
    <td>Example text</td>
    <td>מלל ארוך לדוגמא</td>
    <td>1994年に至っては</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="text2">
    <th>vertical-lr</th>
    <td>我家没有电脑。</td>
    <td>Example text</td>
    <td>מלל ארוך לדוגמא</td>
    <td>1994年に至っては</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="text3">
    <th>vertical-rl</th>
    <td>我家没有电脑。</td>
    <td>Example text</td>
    <td>מלל ארוך לדוגמא</td>
    <td>1994年に至っては</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="experimental text4">
    <th>sideways-lr</th>
    <td>我家没有电脑。</td>
    <td>Example text</td>
    <td>מלל ארוך לדוגמא</td>
    <td>1994年に至っては</td>
  </tr>
  <tr class="experimental text5">
    <th>sideways-rl</th>
    <td>我家没有电脑。</td>
    <td>Example text</td>
    <td>מלל ארוך לדוגמא</td>
    <td>1994年に至っては</td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p class="notice">
  Your browser does not support the <code>sideways-lr</code> or
  <code>sideways-rl</code> values.
</p>

CSS

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}
td,
th {
  border: 2px black solid;
  padding: 4px;
}
th {
  background-color: lightgray;
}

.experimental {
  display: none;
}

.notice {
  display: table-row;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-align: center;
}

@supports (writing-mode: sideways-lr) {
  .experimental {
    display: table-row;
  }
  .notice {
    display: none;
  }
}

The CSS that adjusts the directionality of the content looks like this:

css

.text1 td {
  writing-mode: horizontal-tb;
}

.text2 td {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
}

.text3 td {
  writing-mode: vertical-rl;
}

.text4 td {
  writing-mode: sideways-lr;
}

.text5 td {
  writing-mode: sideways-rl;
}

Result

Using writing-mode with transforms

If your browser doesn't support sideways-lr, a workaround is to use transform to achieve a similar effect depending on the script direction. The effect of vertical-rl is the same as with sideways-lr, so no transformation is required for left-to-right scripts. In some cases, rotating the text 180 degrees is sufficient to achieve the effect of sideways-lr, but font glyphs may not be designed to be rotated, so this may produce unexpected positioning or rendering.

HTML

html

<table>
  <caption>
    Using writing-mode with transforms
  </caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Vertical LR</th>
      <th>Vertical LR with transform</th>
      <th>Sideways LR</th>
      <th>Only rotate</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>
        <span class="vertical-lr">我家没有电脑。</span>
        <span class="vertical-lr">Example text</span>
      </td>
      <td>
        <span class="vertical-lr rotated">我家没有电脑。</span>
        <span class="vertical-lr rotated">Example text</span>
      </td>
      <td>
        <span class="sideways-lr">我家没有电脑。</span>
        <span class="sideways-lr">Example text</span>
      </td>
      <td>
        <span class="only-rotate">我家没有电脑。</span>
        <span class="only-rotate">Example text</span>
      </td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

css

.vertical-lr {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
}

.rotated {
  transform: rotate(180deg);
}

.sideways-lr {
  writing-mode: sideways-lr;
}

.only-rotate {
  inline-size: fit-content;
  transform: rotate(-90deg);
}

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}
td,
th {
  border: 2px black solid;
  padding: 4px;
}
th {
  background-color: lightgray;
}
span {
  display: inline-block;
  width: 1.5em;
  text-align: center;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Writing Modes Level 4 # block-flow

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser