0Pricing
Tailwind CSS Academy · Lesson

Text Alignment and Decoration

Align text with text-left, text-center, and text-right, and add underlines, strikethroughs, and transformations like uppercase.

Text Alignment and Decoration is a free Tailwind CSS Academy lesson on CoddyKit — lesson 4 of 4. You can read the complete lesson below for free — then practise it hands-on in the browser with a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor. It is part of the Tailwind CSS Academy learning path, one of 4 lessons in the course, and your progress syncs across the web and the CoddyKit app.

Text Alignment Basics

Position text with alignment: text-left (default), text-center, text-right, text-justify. Centered feels formal; left-aligned is easiest for long passages.

<p class="text-left">Left-aligned (default for LTR text)</p>
<p class="text-center">Center-aligned (good for headings, CTAs)</p>
<p class="text-right">Right-aligned (good for numbers, dates)</p>
<p class="text-justify">Justified text (edges align to container sides)</p>

When to Use Each Alignment

Choose alignment by purpose: text-center for hero headlines, text-left for body and forms, text-right for prices and dates. Skip text-justify in dense text.

<div class="text-center mb-8">
  <h1 class="text-4xl font-bold">Centered Hero Headline</h1>
  <p class="text-lg text-gray-500 mt-2">Centered subtitle works for marketing.</p>
</div>
<article class="text-left">
  <p class="text-base text-gray-700 leading-relaxed">
    Body text always reads better left-aligned.
  </p>
</article>

Responsive Text Alignment

Alignment can shift by screen. A hero might be text-center on mobile and text-left on desktop — just add a breakpoint prefix to override at that size.

<!-- Centered on mobile, left-aligned on large screens -->
<div class="text-center lg:text-left">
  <h1 class="text-3xl font-bold">Responsive Heading</h1>
  <p class="text-gray-500">Aligns with the layout at each breakpoint.</p>
</div>

Text Decoration: Underlines

Add lines with decoration: underline for links, line-through for cancelled items, and no-underline to strip the default underline from nav links.

<a href="#" class="underline text-blue-600">Standard link with underline</a>
<a href="#" class="no-underline text-gray-700 hover:underline">Nav link (underline on hover)</a>
<span class="line-through text-gray-500">$99.00</span>
<span class="text-red-600 font-bold">$59.00</span>

Underline Style and Color

Style underlines finely: decoration-dotted, dashed, or wavy change the look, decoration-{color} sets its color, and decoration-2 or decoration-4 set thickness.

<p class="underline decoration-dotted decoration-indigo-500">Dotted indigo underline</p>
<p class="underline decoration-wavy decoration-red-500 decoration-2">Wavy red underline</p>
<p class="underline decoration-double decoration-4">Double thick underline</p>

Underline Offset

Nudge an underline down with underline-offset-*. A small underline-offset-2 looks far more elegant than a line that touches descenders like g, p, and y.

<a href="#" class="underline underline-offset-4 decoration-indigo-600 text-indigo-700 font-medium">
  A clean, offset underline
</a>

Text Transform: Uppercase and Capitalize

Change letter case visually with transforms: uppercase for labels and buttons, lowercase, capitalize for titles, normal-case to reset — all without editing your HTML.

<span class="uppercase text-xs font-semibold tracking-wider text-gray-500">
  section label
</span>
<span class="capitalize text-lg font-medium">
  each word gets capitalized
</span>
<button class="uppercase text-sm font-bold tracking-wide">
  get started
</button>

Text Overflow: Truncate and Ellipsis

Keep overflowing text tidy with truncate: it hides overflow, adds an ellipsis, and stops wrapping in one class — perfect for single lines in tight spaces.

<!-- Truncate a long title in a card -->
<div class="w-48">
  <p class="truncate text-gray-900 font-medium">
    This is a very long title that will be cut off with an ellipsis
  </p>
</div>

Multi-Line Clamp

To cap multiple lines, use line-clamp-*. line-clamp-2 shows two lines then an ellipsis — ideal for card descriptions and previews of even height.

<!-- Blog card excerpt: exactly 3 lines -->
<p class="line-clamp-3 text-gray-600 text-sm">
  This is a blog post excerpt that could be much longer.
  It will be clamped to exactly three lines no matter how
  much text is here. The rest is hidden with an ellipsis.
  This fourth line will never be visible.
</p>

White Space Control

The whitespace-* utilities decide how spaces behave: whitespace-nowrap stops wrapping for labels, while whitespace-pre keeps spaces and newlines for code.

<!-- Keep a button label on one line -->
<button class="whitespace-nowrap px-4 py-2 bg-indigo-600 text-white rounded">
  Schedule a Demo
</button>

<!-- Display code with preserved formatting -->
<pre class="whitespace-pre font-mono text-sm bg-gray-100 p-4 rounded">
const x = 1;
const y = 2;
</pre>

Practical: Article Metadata Row

An article metadata row blends it all: avatar and author, a muted date, a hover underline on the link, and an uppercase tracking-wider reading-time badge.

<div class="flex items-center gap-3 text-sm text-gray-500">
  <img src="avatar.jpg" class="w-8 h-8 rounded-full" alt="" />
  <a href="#" class="font-medium text-gray-900 hover:underline">Jane Doe</a>
  <span>&middot;</span>
  <time class="">June 20, 2024</time>
  <span>&middot;</span>
  <span class="uppercase tracking-wide font-semibold text-xs text-indigo-600">
    5 min read
  </span>
</div>

Quick Check

Quick check! See how alignment and decoration stuck. ✍️

Lesson Recap

Well done! text-left/center/right align, underline and line-through decorate, and uppercase plus line-clamp shape text. Next up: the color palette and backgrounds.

Frequently asked questions

Is the “Text Alignment and Decoration” lesson free?

Yes — the full text of “Text Alignment and Decoration” is free to read here on the web, and the Tailwind CSS Academy course includes 4 lessons in total. To practise it interactively (a built-in code editor and a 24/7 AI tutor) and unlock the rest of the Tailwind CSS Academy course, upgrade to CoddyKit PRO.

What will I learn in “Text Alignment and Decoration”?

Align text with text-left, text-center, and text-right, and add underlines, strikethroughs, and transformations like uppercase. You practise Tailwind CSS Academy with hands-on code you run directly in the browser, and a 24/7 AI tutor answers your questions as you work through the lesson.

Do I need any experience to start Tailwind CSS Academy?

No prior experience is required. Tailwind CSS Academy on CoddyKit is structured for beginners through advanced learners; this is — lesson 4 of 4, so you can start here or from the beginning and move at your own pace.

How long does the “Text Alignment and Decoration” lesson take?

Most CoddyKit lessons take about 5–10 minutes. Each one is bite-sized and interactive, so you make steady progress and pick up exactly where you left off across the web and the app.

Can I write and run code in this Tailwind CSS Academy lesson?

Yes. Every Tailwind CSS Academy lesson includes a built-in code editor, so you write and run real code right in your browser and get instant AI feedback — no local setup required.

All lessons in this course

  1. Font Size and Font Weight
  2. Text Color and Opacity
  3. Line Height and Letter Spacing
  4. Text Alignment and Decoration
← Back to Tailwind CSS Academy