textalign

Text-align is a CSS property that controls the horizontal alignment of inline-level content within a block container. It affects text and inline elements inside the element, not the block box itself. The property is inherited by child elements, allowing consistent alignment within nested content.

Common values include left, right, center, and justify. Directional keywords start and end adapt to the element’s writing mode, ensuring correct alignment for both left-to-right and right-to-left scripts. The value justify stretches inter-word spacing so each line (except the last) fills the line width.

The alignment of the last line can be customized with the text-align-last property, offering options such as auto, left, right, center, justify, and more. In many cases, the last line follows the main text-align value, but text-align-last allows finer control, especially for justified text.

text-align does not affect the alignment of block-level elements themselves; to align blocks on a page, other layout techniques such as margins, flexbox, or grid are used. It is typically applied to block containers like paragraph and heading elements, influencing how their inline content is arranged.

Usage considerations include readability and accessibility. Excessive centering or justification can hinder scanning and comprehension, particularly for lengthy passages. For multilingual sites, using start and end helps maintain proper behavior across different writing systems. In practice, text-align is widely supported across modern browsers and remains a fundamental tool for typographic alignment in web design.