How can I draw vertical text with CSS cross-browser?

Question

I want to rotate a single word of text by 90 degrees, with cross-browser (>= IE6, >= Firefox 2, any version of Chrome, Safari, or Opera) support. How can this be done?

Answer 1

Updated this answer with recent information (from CSS Tricks). Kudos to Matt and Douglas for pointing out the filter implementation.

.rotate {
  -webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg);
  -moz-transform: rotate(-90deg);
  -ms-transform: rotate(-90deg);
  -o-transform: rotate(-90deg);
  transform: rotate(-90deg);

  /* also accepts left, right, top, bottom coordinates; not required, but a good idea for styling */
  -webkit-transform-origin: 50% 50%;
  -moz-transform-origin: 50% 50%;
  -ms-transform-origin: 50% 50%;
  -o-transform-origin: 50% 50%;
  transform-origin: 50% 50%;

  /* Should be unset in IE9+ I think. */
  filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=3);
}

Old answer:

For FF 3.5 or Safari/Webkit 3.1, check out: -moz-transform (and -webkit-transform). IE has a Matrix filter(v5.5+), but I'm not certain how to use it. Opera has no transformation capabilities yet.

.rot-neg-90 {
  /* rotate -90 deg, not sure if a negative number is supported so I used 270 */
  -moz-transform: rotate(270deg);
  -moz-transform-origin: 50% 50%;
  -webkit-transform: rotate(270deg);
  -webkit-transform-origin: 50% 50%;
  /* IE support too convoluted for the time I've got on my hands... */
}

Answer 2

I am using the following code to write vertical text in a page. Firefox 3.5+, webkit, opera 10.5+ and IE

.rot-neg-90 {
    -moz-transform:rotate(-270deg); 
    -moz-transform-origin: bottom left;
    -webkit-transform: rotate(-270deg);
    -webkit-transform-origin: bottom left;
    -o-transform: rotate(-270deg);
    -o-transform-origin:  bottom left;
    filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=1);
}

Answer 3

Another solution is to use an SVG text node which is supported by most browsers.

<svg width="50" height="300">
    <text x="28" y="150" transform="rotate(-90, 28, 150)" style="text-anchor:middle; font-size:14px">This text is vertical</text>
</svg>

Demo: https://jsfiddle.net/bkymb5kr/

More on SVG text: http://tutorials.jenkov.com/svg/text-element.html

Answer 4

The CSS Writing Modes module introduces orthogonal flows with vertical text.

Just use the writing-mode property with the desired value.

span { margin: 20px; }
#vertical-lr { writing-mode: vertical-lr; }
#vertical-rl { writing-mode: vertical-rl; }
#sideways-lr { writing-mode: sideways-lr; }
#sideways-rl { writing-mode: sideways-rl; }

<span id="vertical-lr">
  ↑ (1) vertical-lr 至<br />
  ↑ (2) vertical-lr 至<br />
  ↑ (3) vertical-lr 至
</span>
<span id="vertical-rl">
  ↓ (1) vertical-rl 至<br />
  ↓ (2) vertical-rl 至<br />
  ↓ (3) vertical-rl 至
</span>
<span id="sideways-lr">
  ↓ (1) sideways-lr 至<br />
  ↓ (2) sideways-lr 至<br />
  ↓ (3) sideways-lr 至
</span>
<span id="sideways-rl">
  ↓ (1) sideways-rl 至<br />
  ↓ (2) sideways-rl 至<br />
  ↓ (3) sideways-rl 至
</span>

Answer 5

I adapted this from http://snook.ca/archives/html_and_css/css-text-rotation :

<style>
    .Rotate-90
    {
        display: block;
        position: absolute;
        right: -5px;
        top: 15px;
        -webkit-transform: rotate(-90deg);
        -moz-transform: rotate(-90deg);
    }
</style>
<!--[if IE]>
    <style>
        .Rotate-90 {
            filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.BasicImage(rotation=3);
            right:-15px; top:5px;
        }
    </style>
    <![endif]-->

Answer 6

I've had problems trying to do it in pure CSS - depending on the font it can look a bit rubbish. As an alternative you can use SVG/VML to do it. There are libraries that help make it cross browser with ease e.g. Raphael and ExtJS. In ExtJS4 the code looks like this:

    var drawComp = Ext.create('Ext.draw.Component', {
        renderTo: Ext.getBody(), //or whatever..
        height: 100, width: 100 //ditto..
    });
    var text = Ext.create('Ext.draw.Component', {
        type: "text",
        text: "The text to draw",
        rotate: {
            x: 0, y: 0, degrees: 270
        },
        x: -50, y: 10 //or whatever to fit (you could calculate these)..
    });
    text.show(true);

This will work in IE6+ and all modern browsers, however, unfortunately I think you need at least FF3.0.

Answer 7

If you use Bootstrap 3, you can use one of it's mixins:

.rotate(degrees);

Example:

.rotate(-90deg);

Answer 8

My solution that would work on Chrome, Firefox, IE9, IE10 (Change the degrees as per your requirement):

.rotate-text {
  -webkit-transform: rotate(270deg);
  -moz-transform: rotate(270deg);
  -ms-transform: rotate(270deg);
  -o-transform: rotate(270deg);
  transform: rotate(270deg);
  filter: none; /*Mandatory for IE9 to show the vertical text correctly*/      
}