How to align a label to the "BOTTOM" of a div in CSS?

Question

DEMO can be found at:

http://www.bootply.com/VZ7gvA7ndE#

I set the height of div to 100px and want to show the label at the bottom of the div. I use

#contain-word-lab {
  vertical-align: bottom;
  margin-bottom: 5px;
}

However, this doesn't work at all. The label still align to the top of the div.

Does anyone have any ideas about this? Why vertical-align doesn't work here? Thanks!

Solution 1

Why vertical-align: bottom is not working alone

Since the height of the parent element is greater than the computed height of the label, Using vertical-align: bottom won't move that (inline) element to the bottom of the parent.

Because in an inline flow, vertical-align determines how the elements are positioned based on their parent's baseline; And using that property on the label won't alter the position of baseline of its parent.

Inline level elements (inline, inline-block) are sitting in their baseline by default. And if they have different heights, the tallest element will determine where the others whould be placed.

I.e. In an inline flow, the tallest element will affect/move the baseline of the parent:

Looking for a solution

Hence in cases where the parent has an explicit height, if we could have an inline child which has the exact same height as the parent (a full-height child), it would affect the inline flow and move the baseline down:

And in order to keep elements (including letters having descenders) within the parent, we should align them vertically by vertical-align: bottom; declaration.

10.8 Line height calculations: 'vertical-align' property

baseline
Align the baseline of the box with the baseline of the parent box. If the box does not have a baseline, align the bottom margin edge with the parent's baseline.

bottom
Align the bottom of the aligned subtree with the bottom of the line box.

Putting it all together

Therefore you could create a full-height element (Personally I'd rather go with pseudo-elements) within the parent to align the label at the bottom.

EXAMPLE HERE

#contain-word-div:after {
  content: "";
  display: inline-block;
  height: 100%;            /* Let it be as height as the parent */
  vertical-align: bottom;  /* Align the element at the bottom   */
}

#contain-word-lab {
  display: inline-block;
  vertical-align: bottom;  /* Align the element at the bottom   */
}

Solution 2

quick example

http://jsfiddle.net/oa2gmuq3/

if you add

position:absolute;
bottom:0px;

to the label it likes to keep it at the bottom

Solution 3

Apply position:relative to the parent div and make your label as position:absolute.

 #contain-word-div {
 height: 100px;
 position:relative;
 }
 #contain-word-lab {
  position:absolute;
  bottom:5px;
 }

DEMO

Solution 4

set it as position:absolute;

#contain-word-lab {
  position:absolute;
  bottom:5px;
}

Solution 5

vertical-align tends to work best when the containers are table/table-like elements (eg. table, tr, td, th) or inline text elements (eg span). However, because table elements for layout are not a good idea. We can make other elements function like them using the display:table; and display:table-cell; css properties.

Try applying the following css:

#contain-word-div {
  height: 100px;
  border: 1px solid black; /* added just for visualising position */
  display:table;
}
#contain-word-lab {
  display:table-cell;
  vertical-align: bottom;
  padding-bottom: 5px; /* use padding to give the label more height rather than trying to push the "cell" upwards */
}

DEMO

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