Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@unruthless
Created May 26, 2010 01:31
Show Gist options
  • Save unruthless/413930 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Save unruthless/413930 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
CSS for <sub> and <sup>
sub, sup {
/* Specified in % so that the sup/sup is the
right size relative to the surrounding text */
font-size: 75%;
/* Zero out the line-height so that it doesn't
interfere with the positioning that follows */
line-height: 0;
/* Where the magic happens: makes all browsers position
the sup/sup properly, relative to the surrounding text */
position: relative;
/* Note that if you're using Eric Meyer's reset.css, this
is already set and you can remove this rule */
vertical-align: baseline;
}
sup {
/* Move the superscripted text up */
top: -0.5em;
}
sub {
/* Move the subscripted text down, but only
half as far down as the superscript moved up */
bottom: -0.25em;
}
@rposky
Copy link

rposky commented Dec 19, 2013

This is the only consistent solution I have found to the superscript underline problem outlined above. Thanks for sharing @unruthless.

@GigaGerard
Copy link

Disclaimer: I don't know what this GitHub is and they are not allowed to bill me for anything, I just want to comment on this excellent post.

I use sub and sup a lot and specially with the old Explorers and now with the new Firefox 27 you run into troubles that only the here proposed CSS can save you from. Well done!

In special cases a subscript or superscript can be given
margin-left: -1px;
margin-right: 1px;
depending on the context.
Also a paragraph can be given some extra line-height when sub and sup appear in it.

@tellmethetruth
Copy link

Nice! It's work for me.. 👍

@bheitkem
Copy link

Thank you! Great work!

@imrehg
Copy link

imrehg commented Jan 30, 2015

@unruthless Trying the full test linked above, with Firefox 35.0.1 (current), now it behaves like Chrome as well, breaking the text decoration with superscipt.

@vfonsecad
Copy link

Amazing, thank you!!

@kaidjohnson
Copy link

@unruthless @michaeladamek -- Not sure of the complete x-browser implications (will test IE/Safari tomorrow), but one way to remove the text-decoration from <sub> and <sup> is to display: inline-block. http://jsfiddle.net/kaidjohnson/89jdwp0f/ Seems cleaner than adding more selectors, but full browser testing is still needed on this example.

@o-o-ZEPHYROS-o-o
Copy link

o-o-ZEPHYROS-o-o commented Nov 22, 2016

This is great! Since I was already using the SUP tag, I just added your code to my CSS and voila. Well done!

@sjorsvanheuveln
Copy link

Thanks this implementation is fantastic. This helped me to solve some alignment problems that were caused by superscript for mathematical notations.

@Tzikas
Copy link

Tzikas commented May 12, 2017

+1

@Disney-Banje
Copy link

Thanks, man this helped

@christoph-werker
Copy link

Thanks man. Good work 👍

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment