CSS line-height Property

The line-height property defines the line-height. There are three situations:

On block level elements, the line-height property specifies the minimal line-height of line boxes in the element.
On non-replaced inline elements, the line-height property specifies the height which is used in the calculation of the line box height.
On replaced inline elements just like buttons or other input elements, the line-height property does not affect.

Negative values are valid.

The default line-height is about 110% to 120% for the majority of the browsers.

The line-height property sets the leading of lines of a text. If the line-height value is greater than the font-size value of an element, the difference will be the leading of text.

The line-height property has no effect when applying to inline elements: such as images, buttons, etc.

Initial Value	normal
Applies to	List items.
Inherited	Yes.
Animatable	Yes. Height of the lines is animatable.
Version	CSS1
DOM Syntax	object.style.lineHeight = "40px";

Syntax

line-height: normal | number | length | initial | inherit;

Example of the line-height property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div {
        line-height: normal;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Line-height property example</h2>
    <h3>line-height: normal (default)</h3>
    <div>This is a paragraph with a standard line-height.
      <br> The standard line height in most browsers is about 110% to 120%.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

Example of the line-height property with the "length" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div {
        line-height: 10px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Line-height property example</h2>
    <h3>line-height: 10px</h3>
    <div>This is a paragraph with a specified line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 10 pixels.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the line-height property with the "percentage" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div {
        line-height: 200%;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Line-height property example</h2>
    <h2>line-height: 200%</h2>
    <div>This is a paragraph with a bigger line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 200%.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Example of the line-height property with all the values:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.a {
        line-height: 1;
      }
      div.b {
        line-height: 50px;
      }
      div.c {
        line-height: 0.5cm;
      }
      div.d {
        line-height: 1cm;
      }
      div.e {
        line-height: 200%;
      }
      div.f {
        line-height: normal;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Line-height property example</h2>
    <h3>line-height: 1</h3>
    <div class="a">This is a paragraph with a specified line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 1.
    </div>
    <h3>line-height: 50px</h3>
    <div class="b">This is a paragraph with a specified line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 50 pixels.
    </div>
    <h3>line-height: 0.5cm</h3>
    <div class="c">This is a paragraph with a specified line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 0.5 centimeter.
    </div>
    <h3>line-height: 1cm</h3>
    <div class="d">This is a paragraph with a specified line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 1 centimeter.
    </div>
    <h3>line-height: 200%</h3>
    <div class="e">This is a paragraph with a bigger line-height.
      <br> The line height here is set to 200%.
    </div>
    <h3>line-height: normal</h3>
    <div class="f">This is a paragraph with a standard line-height.
      <br> The standard line height in most browsers is about 110% to 120%.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Line-height property for different purposes

The line-height property can be used for creating different interesting styles. For example, you can use the line-height property to give each line of the text a different color. Here you may use a linear-gradient () with color-stops. Or you can use this property for putting lines between texts with the help of repeating-linear-gradient().

Values

Value	Description	Play it
normal	Defines a normal line height. It is the default value of this property.	Play it »
length	Defines a fixed line height in px, cm etc.	Play it »
number	Defines a number which is multiplied with the current font size to set the line height.	Play it »
%	Defines a line height in percent of current font size.	Play it »
initial	Makes the property use its default value.	Play it »
inherit	Inherits the property from its parents element.