116

I have a form with radio buttons that are on the same line as their labels. The radio buttons are however not aligned vertically with their labels as shown in the screenshot below.

The radio buttons.

How can I vertically align the radio buttons with their labels?

Edit:

Here's the html code:

<input checked="checked" type="radio" name="user_level" id="rd1" value="1"/>
<label for="rd1">radio 1</label><br/>
<input type="radio" name="user_level" id="rd2" value="2"/>
<label for="rd2">radio 2</label><br/>
<input type="radio" name="user_level" id="rd3" value="3"/>
<label for="rd3">radio 3</label><br/>

And the css code:

label{
    padding:5px;
    color:#222;
    font-family:corbel,sans-serif;
    font-size: 14px;
    margin: 10px;
}
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3
  • 1
    What's your code look like at the moment? Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 9:52
  • @ninjacoder Update your question with the code. Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 9:54
  • The thing I don't like about this is that by not putting the <input> inside the <label>, one cannot click on the label to check the boxes, at least not in my tests in Safari. Commented Mar 9, 2024 at 21:35

15 Answers 15

Reset to default
185

Try this:

input[type="radio"] {
  margin-top: -1px;
  vertical-align: middle;
}
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4 Comments

This worked for me however I had to add a height= 100%; since my parent element did not explicitly set the height.
This seemed to give me the most consistent approach between Mac, Windows, and Linux, using Chrome, Firefox, or IE. Also, I noticed that if I give padding on my label and put the radio inside the label, then I may need to set margin-top to a value less than -1px (like -3px) based on how much padding I was using on that label. (I like to give my radio box labels a hover color and rounded border effect to make them look cooler.)
To explain why this is the only correct answer: Some elements in HTML have default margin or padding values, like the <p> or <li> elements or radio buttons. You can see this if you go into developer mode (F12) and hover your mouse over the tag. Actually, this is a good behaviour, because the browser himself use CSS to position predefined elements which the user then can reset. But it can be confusing if you don't know why something is misaligned in the first place. So always try to overwrite settings which you didn't set, if it looks weird by default.
This doesn't seem to work when you increase or decrease font size. Please prove me wrong with a working example, though!
18

Might as well add a bit of flex to the answers.

.Radio {
  display: inline-flex;
  align-items: center;
}

.Radio--large {
  font-size: 2em;
}

.Radio-Input {
  margin: 0 0.5em 0;
}
<div>
  <label class="Radio" for="sex-female">
    <input class="Radio-Input" type="radio" id="sex-female" name="sex" value="female" />
    Female
  </label>

  <label class="Radio" for="sex-male">
    <input class="Radio-Input" type="radio" id="sex-male" name="sex" value="male" />
    Male
  </label>
</div>


<div>
  <label class="Radio Radio--large" for="sex-female2">
    <input class="Radio-Input" type="radio" id="sex-female2" name="sex" value="female" />
    Female
  </label>

  <label class="Radio Radio--large" for="sex-male2">
    <input class="Radio-Input" type="radio" id="sex-male2" name="sex" value="male" />
    Male
  </label>
</div>

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3 Comments

this worked! and it feels a lot less hacky than the other solutions. thank you!
It actually worked! After so much dead end googling. Thank you.
What also nice about this is that one can click the text to select the boxes
17 
input {
    display: table-cell;
    vertical-align: middle
}

Put class for all radio. This will work for all radio button on the html page.

Fiddle

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3 Comments

This is by far the best solution I've seen for this. Radio Button Label Alignment has plagued me for years until this. Works every time for me.
Note that this breaks when the label has multiple lines of text.
Your Fiddle example also applies padding: 0; margin: 0 to the input elements, and it seems to be required to get the right alignment.
16

I know I'd selected the anwer by menuka devinda but looking at the comments below it I concurred and tried to come up with a better solution. I managed to come up with this and in my opinion it's a much more elegant solution:

input[type='radio'], label{   
    vertical-align: baseline;
    padding: 10px;
    margin: 10px;
 }

Thanks to everyone who offered an answer, your answer didn't go unnoticed. If you still got any other ideas feel free to add your own answer to this question.

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Comments

9

try adding vertical-align:top into the css

label{
    padding:5px;
    color:#222;
    font-family:corbel,sans-serif;
    font-size: 14px;
    margin: 10px;
    vertical-align:top;
}​

Test: http://jsfiddle.net/muthkum/heAWP/

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2 Comments

This does not hold up when you increase or decrease font-size.
@Protectorone That's an old answer and specific to OP question. If you are trying to do same with font-size then try using display:flex. Here's a demo, jsfiddle.net/et8z47q5
8

You can do like this :

input {
    vertical-align:middle;
}

label{
    color:#222;
    font-family:corbel,sans-serif;
    font-size: 14px;
}
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1 Comment

Very good. I wanted to align the button instead of the label, and this does the trick.
3

I like putting the inputs inside the labels (added bonus: now you don't need the for attribute on the label), and put vertical-align: middle on the input.

label > input[type=radio] {
    vertical-align: middle;
    margin-top: -2px;
}

#d2 {  
    font-size: 30px;
}
<div>
	<label><input type="radio" name="radio" value="1">Good</label>
	<label><input type="radio" name="radio" value="2">Excellent</label>
<div>
<br>
<div id="d2">
	<label><input type="radio" name="radio2" value="1">Good</label>
	<label><input type="radio" name="radio2" value="2">Excellent</label>
<div>

(The -2px margin-top is a matter of taste.)

Another option I really like is using a table. (Hold your pitch forks! It's really nice!) It does mean you need to add the for attribute to all your labels and ids to your inputs. I'd recommended this option for labels with long text content, over multiple lines.

<table><tr><td>
    <input id="radioOption" name="radioOption" type="radio" />
    </td><td>
    <label for="radioOption">                     
        Really good option
    </label>
</td></tr></table>

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Comments

1

Something like this should work

CSS:

input {
    float: left;
    clear: left;
    width: 50px;
    line-height: 20px;
}

label {
    float: left;
    vertical-align: middle;
}
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Comments

1 
label, input {
    vertical-align: middle;
}

I'm just align the vertical midpoint of the boxes with the baseline of the parent box plus half the x-height (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-height) of the parent.

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Comments

1

A lot of these answers say to use vertical-align: middle;, which gets the alignment close but for me it is still off by a few pixels. The method that I used to get true 1 to 1 alignment between the labels and radio inputs is this, with vertical-align: top;:

label, label>input{
    font-size: 20px;
    display: inline-block;
    margin: 0;
    line-height: 28px;
    height: 28px;
    vertical-align: top;
}
<h1>How are you?</h1>
<fieldset>
	<legend>Your response:</legend>
	<label for="radChoiceGood">
		<input type="radio" id="radChoiceGood" name="radChoices" value="Good">Good
	</label>
	
	<label for="radChoiceExcellent">
		<input type="radio" id="radChoiceExcellent" name="radChoices" value="Excellent">Excellent
	</label>
	
	<label for="radChoiceOk">
		<input type="radio" id="radChoiceOk" name="radChoices" value="OK">OK
	</label>
</fieldset>

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Comments

1

While I agree tables shouldn't be used for design layouts contrary to popular belief they do pass validation. i.e. the table tag is not deprecated. The best way to align radio buttons is using the vertical align middle CSS with margins adjusted on the input elements.

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Comments

0

Try the below styling for the radio buttons

input { 
  width: unset;
  margin: 0 0.5em 0 0;
  vertical-align: middle;
}
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Comments

0

Simply remove the margin: 10px;

in your CSS code, and it will fix everything

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Comments

-1

Adding display:inline-block to the labels and giving them padding-top would fix this, I think. Also, just setting the line-height on the labels would also.

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Comments

-2

there are several way, one i would prefer is using a table in html. you can add two coloum three rows table and place the radio buttons and lable.

<table border="0">

<tr>
  <td><input type="radio" name="sex" value="1"></td>
  <td>radio1</td>

</tr>
<tr>
  <td><input type="radio" name="sex" value="2"></td>
  <td>radio2</td>

</tr>
</table>
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8 Comments

Please don't use tables for layout purposes.
-1 tables should not not be used for the layout and this code will not pass validation ... @ninjacoder , why the hell you picked this as the "answer"?
Indeed.. seriously.. every single time someone teaches to use tables for form markup, a cute kitten dies somewhere in the world..
@PeeHaa , tereško ,Damien Overeem I think you guys are probably right, I've been able to come up with my own solution which I've posted below here. Thanks guys! Your help and advice is highly appreciated.
I've tried the other options and they weren't much good. Tables work. .tablecell{dispay:table-cell;} ... <div class="tablecell"> seems more like a wonky workaround for people who don't want to admit they're using tables...
|

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