Why Does My Textarea Appear Higher Than Its Sibling Span?

Misalignment in Text Area Placement

In the given code snippet, it appears that the textarea element is positioned higher than its sibling span element. However, this observation is incorrect.

Explanation

By default, elements such as spans and textareas are classified as inline elements. Browsers allocate space below inline elements to accommodate descenders, which are lowercase letters that extend below the baseline.

Baseline Alignment

Each line of text has an imaginary baseline, where most letters rest. However, some letters, known as descenders, such as "y", "j", "p", and "g", extend below this baseline.

Inline Element Behavior

Inline elements adjust their vertical alignment to account for potential descenders. Even if an element like a textarea doesn't contain any descenders, the browser still allocates space for them.

The Visual Illusion

The red border around the textarea creates the impression of misalignment because it encloses only the visible text, excluding the descender space. In contrast, the blue border around the span element includes both the text and the descender space.

Solution

To resolve this visual effect, consider one of the following options:

1. Add vertical-align: bottom to the textarea rule to align its content with the bottom of the span element.
2. Add display: block to the textarea rule to transform it into a block-level element and remove the potential descender space.

The above is the detailed content of Why Does My Textarea Appear Higher Than Its Sibling Span?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!