caption-side

The caption-side CSS property puts the content of a table's <caption> on the specified side. The values are relative to the writing-mode of the table.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

Syntax

/* Directional values */
caption-side: top;
caption-side: bottom;

/* Warning: non-standard values */
caption-side: left;
caption-side: right;
caption-side: top-outside;
caption-side: bottom-outside;

/* Global values */
caption-side: inherit;
caption-side: initial;
caption-side: unset;

The caption-side property is specified as one of the keyword values listed below.

Values

top

The caption box should be positioned above the table.

bottom

The caption box should be positioned below the table.

left

The caption box should be positioned on the left side of the table.

This value was proposed for CSS 2, but removed from the final CSS 2.1 specification. It is non-standard.

right

The caption box should be positioned on the right side of the table.

This value was proposed for CSS 2, but removed from the final CSS 2.1 specification. It is non-standard.

top-outside

The caption box should be positioned above the table, while the width and horizontal alignment behavior are not bound to the table's horizontal layout.

The CSS 2.1 specification notes that the CSS 2 specification described a different behavior for the top value, which will be reintroduced by this value in a future specification.

bottom-outside

The caption box should be positioned below the table, while the width and horizontal alignment behavior are not bound to the table's horizontal layout.

The CSS 2.1 specification notes that the CSS 2 specification described a different behavior for the bottom value, which will be reintroduced by this value in a future specification.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

top | bottom | block-start | block-end | inline-start | inline-end

Examples

Setting captions above and below

HTML

<table class="top">
  <caption>Caption ABOVE the table</caption>
  <tr>
    <td>Some data</td>
    <td>Some more data</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<br>

<table class="bottom">
  <caption>Caption BELOW the table</caption>
  <tr>
    <td>Some data</td>
    <td>Some more data</td>
  </tr>
</table>

CSS

.top caption {
  caption-side: top;
}

.bottom caption {
  caption-side: bottom;
}

table {
  border: 1px solid red;
}

td {
  border: 1px solid blue;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility