`caption-side` CSS property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It's been available across browsers since July 2015.

The caption-side CSS property puts the content of a table's <caption> on the specified side. The values are relative to the writing-mode of the table.

Try it

caption-side: top;

caption-side: bottom;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <table class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    <caption>
      Famous animals
    </caption>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <th>Name</th>
        <th>Location</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Giraffe</td>
        <td>Africa</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Penguin</td>
        <td>Antarctica</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Sloth</td>
        <td>South America</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Tiger</td>
        <td>Asia</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</section>

table {
  font-size: 1.2rem;
  text-align: left;
  color: black;
}

th,
td {
  padding: 0.2rem 1rem;
}

caption {
  background: #ffcc33;
  padding: 0.5rem 1rem;
}

tr {
  background: #eeeeee;
}

tr:nth-child(even) {
  background: #cccccc;
}

Syntax

/* Directional values */
caption-side: top;
caption-side: bottom;

/* Global values */
caption-side: inherit;
caption-side: initial;
caption-side: revert;
caption-side: revert-layer;
caption-side: unset;

Values

This property is specified as one of the following keyword values:

top: The caption box should be positioned at the block start side of the table.
bottom: The caption box should be positioned at the block end side of the table.

Note: The CSS logical properties and values module defines two logical values, inline-start and inline-end, to position the caption box at the inline start edge and inline end edge of the table, respectively. These values are not supported in any browsers.

Formal definition

Initial value	top
Applies to	table-caption elements
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

caption-side = 
  top |
  bottom

Examples

Setting captions above and below

HTML

<table class="top">
  <caption>
    Caption ABOVE the table
  </caption>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Some data</td>
      <td>Some more data</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<br />

<table class="bottom">
  <caption>
    Caption BELOW the table
  </caption>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Some data</td>
      <td>Some more data</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

.top caption {
  caption-side: top;
}

.bottom caption {
  caption-side: bottom;
}

table {
  border: 1px solid red;
}

td {
  border: 1px solid blue;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 # propdef-caption-side
CSS Logical Properties and Values Module Level 1 # caption-side

Browser compatibility

	Desktop					Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`caption-side`	1	12	1	4	1	18	4	14	1	1.0	4.4	1
`bottom`	1	79	1	15	1	18	4	14	1	1.0	4.4	1
`bottom-outside`	No	No	1–87	No	preview	No	4–87	No	No	No	No	No
`left`	No	No	1–87	No	1–17	No	4–87	No	1–17	No	No	1–17
`right`	No	No	1–87	No	1–17	No	4–87	No	1–17	No	No	1–17
`top`	1	79	1	15	1	18	4	14	1	1.0	4.4	1
`top-outside`	No	No	1–87	No	preview	No	4–87	No	No	No	No	No
`writing-mode_relative_values`	No	No	42	No	No	No	42	No	No	No	No	No