CSS text-align-last
The text-align-last
property defines how the last line of justified text is aligned before a forced line break.
A line break is where inline-level content breaks over into a new line. It can be either a soft wrap break, where it occurs due to wrapping, or a forced line break where it occurs due to explicit line-breaking controls, or due to the start or end of a block.
The text-align-last
property only affects inline-level content before a forced line break, as it is only concerned with the last line of text.
Syntax
Possible Values
auto
- Specifies that the text is aligned as per
text-align
unlesstext-align
is set tojustify
. In this case, content is justified iftext-align
isdistribute
and start-aligned otherwise. start
- The last line is aligned to the start edge of the line box. This is the left side for left-to-right content, and the right side on right-to-left content.
end
- The last line is aligned to the end edge of the line box. This is the right side for left-to-right content, and the left side on right-to-left content.
left
- The last line is aligned to the left of the box.
right
- The last line is aligned to the right of the box.
center
- The last line is aligned to the center of the box.
justify
- The last line is justified across the box — the text is aligned to both edges of the box.
match-parent
- This value behaves the same as
inherit
(computes to its parent's computed value) except that an inheritedstart
orend
keyword is interpreted against its parent'sdirection
value and results in a computed value of eitherleft
orright
.
In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:
initial
- Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit
- Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset
- This value acts as either
inherit
orinitial
, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.
Basic Property Information
- Initial Value
auto
- Applies To
- Block containers.
- Inherited?
- Yes
- Animatable
- Discrete (see example)
Example Code
Basic CSS
Working Example within an HTML Document
CSS Specifications
- The
text-align-last
property is defined in CSS Text Module Level 3 (W3C Working Draft, 29 April 2020).
Browser Support
The following table provided by Caniuse.com shows the level of browser support for this feature.
Vendor Prefixes
For maximum browser compatibility many web developers add browser-specific properties by using extensions such as -webkit-
for Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera (newer versions), -ms-
for Internet Explorer, -moz-
for Firefox, -o-
for older versions of Opera etc. As with any CSS property, if a browser doesn't support a proprietary extension, it will simply ignore it.
This practice is not recommended by the W3C, however in many cases, the only way you can test a property is to include the CSS extension that is compatible with your browser.
The major browser manufacturers generally strive to adhere to the W3C specifications, and when they support a non-prefixed property, they typically remove the prefixed version. Also, W3C advises vendors to remove their prefixes for properties that reach Candidate Recommendation status.
Many developers use Autoprefixer, which is a postprocessor for CSS. Autoprefixer automatically adds vendor prefixes to your CSS so that you don't need to. It also removes old, unnecessary prefixes from your CSS.
You can also use Autoprefixer with preprocessors such as Less and Sass.