CSS Writing Mode

— 3 minute read

The other day I came across the CSS writing-mode property and must admit I've never used it, so I decided to see what we can do with it.

It's a fantastic property that tells us how text should flow, horizontal or vertical.

HTML Structure

We are testing the three values we can use and a default benchmark text:

<p>This text is your basic pharagraph and flows naturally</p>
<p class="vertical-rl">This text goes Vertical from Right to Left</p>
<p class="vertical-lr">This text goes Vertical from Left to Right</p>
<p class="horizontal-tb">This text goes Horizontal from Top to Bottom</p>

CSS Writing Mode

As mentioned, CSS writing-mode can be used to define how a text should flow.

It comes with three possible options:

  • vertical-rl: Goes Vertical from Right to Left
  • vertical-lr: Goes Vertical from Left to Right
  • horizontal-tb: Goes Horizontal from Top to Bottom (Default)

The horizontal is the default, and what the common value is.

.vertical-rl {
  writing-mode: vertical-rl;
}
.vertical-lr {
  writing-mode: vertical-lr;
}
.horizontal-tb {
  writing-mode: horizontal-tb;
}

This results in the following Codepen.

See the Pen wvMjvKL by Chris Bongers (@rebelchris) on CodePen.

Browser Support

Writing mode comes with relatively good support. It's missing some IE features and Opera Mini (as many cool features).

CSS Writing Mode support

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