The battle of line-height versus padding for achieving vertical centering with one-lined text

One-lined text can be vertically centered using either the line-height property or by adding padding-top and padding-bottom.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method?

body {
    font-size: 12px;
    font-family: sans-serif;
}

div {
    border: 1px solid #333;
    padding-left: 10px;
    padding-right: 10px;
    display: inline-block;
}

.vcenter1 {
    line-height: 50px;
}

.vcenter2 {
    padding-top: 19px;
    padding-bottom: 19px;
}
<div class="vcenter1">Lorem ipsum line-height...</div>

<div class="vcenter2">Lorem ipsum padding...</div>

htmlcsscentering

Answer №1

Both methods are suitable for instances where a single line of text is guaranteed to stay within its container (either due to fixed container width or CSS manipulation), but the choice between them depends on your specific intention:

  1. If you prefer the element's height to remain constant regardless of font size changes, using line-height is recommended since it won't affect the container's height unless the font exceeds it in height.

  2. On the other hand, if the container's height is not fixed and maintaining white space around the font is crucial, padding is a more suitable option.

There are various ways to vertically center text within an element. You can find more information on this topic in the following Stack Overflow question: How do I vertically center text with CSS?.

Answer №2

When it comes to aligning content vertically, the specific details don't make much of a difference. However, it's worth noting that in the second scenario, you're adding padding around a line box that is dependent on the font size. Various browsers have slightly different default proportions, leading to variations in the size of the bordered box across different browser platforms. This inconsistency is not present in the first scenario.

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