CSS Lists
The CSS list properties allow you to:
- Set different list item markers for ordered lists
- Set different list item markers for unordered lists
- Set an image as the list item marker
List
In HTML, there are two types of lists:
- unordered lists - the list items are marked with bullets
- ordered lists - the list items are marked with numbers or letters
With CSS, lists can be styled further, and images can be used as the list item marker.
Different List Item Markers
The type of list item marker is specified with the
list-style-type property:
Example
ul.a {list-style-type: circle;}
ul.b {list-style-type: square;}
ol.c {list-style-type: upper-roman;}
ol.d {list-style-type: lower-alpha;} |
View it » |
Some of the property values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.
Values for Unordered Lists
| Value |
Description |
| none |
No marker |
| disc |
Default. The marker is a filled circle |
| circle |
The marker is a circle |
| square |
The marker is a square |
Values for Ordered Lists
| Value |
Description |
| armenian |
The marker is traditional Armenian numbering |
| decimal |
The marker is a number |
| decimal-leading-zero |
The marker is a number padded by initial zeros (01, 02, 03, etc.) |
| georgian |
The marker is traditional Georgian numbering (an, ban, gan, etc.) |
| lower-alpha |
The marker is lower-alpha (a, b, c, d, e, etc.) |
| lower-greek |
The marker is lower-greek (alpha, beta, gamma, etc.) |
| lower-latin |
The marker is lower-latin (a, b, c, d, e, etc.) |
| lower-roman |
The marker is lower-roman (i, ii, iii, iv, v,
etc.) |
| upper-alpha |
The marker is upper-alpha (A, B, C, D, E, etc.) |
| upper-latin |
The marker is upper-latin (A, B, C, D, E, etc.) |
| upper-roman |
The marker is upper-roman (I, II, III, IV, V,
etc.) |
 Note: No versions of Internet Explorer (including IE8) support the property values
"decimal-leading-zero", "lower-greek", "lower-latin", "upper-latin", "armenian", or "georgian".
An Image as The List Item Marker
To specify an image as the list item marker, use the list-style-image property:
Example
ul
{
list-style-image: url('sqpurple.gif');
} |
View it » |
The example above does not display equally in all browsers. IE and Opera will display the image-marker a little bit higher than Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.
If you want the image-marker to be placed equally in all browsers, a crossbrowser solution is explained below.
Crossbrowser Solution
The following example displays the image-marker equally in all browsers:
Example
ul
{
list-style-type: none;
padding: 0px;
margin: 0px;
}
li
{
background-image: url(sqpurple.gif);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: 0px 5px;
padding-left: 14px;
} |
View it » |
Example explained:
- For ul:
- Set the list-style-type to none to remove the list item marker
- Set both padding and margin to 0px (for cross-browser compatibility)
- For li:
- Set the URL of the image, and show it only once (no-repeat)
- Position the image where you want
it (left 0px and
down 5px)
- Position the text in the list with padding-left
List - Shorthand property
It is also possible to specify all
the list properties in one, single property. This is called a shorthand property.
The shorthand property used for lists, is the list-style property:
Example
ul
{
list-style: square url("sqpurple.gif");
} |
View it » |
When using the shorthand property, the order of the values are:
- list-style-type
- list-style-position (for a description, see the CSS properties table below)
- list-style-image
It does not matter if one of the values above are missing, as long as the rest are in the specified order.
 |
More Examples |
All the different list-item markers for lists
This example demonstrates all the different list-item markers in CSS.
All CSS List Properties
The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2).
| Property |
Description |
Values |
CSS |
| list-style |
Sets all the properties for
a list in one declaration |
list-style-type
list-style-position
list-style-image
inherit |
1 |
| list-style-image |
Specifies an image as the list-item marker |
URL
none
inherit |
1 |
| list-style-position |
Specifies if the list-item markers should appear inside or
outside the content flow |
inside
outside
inherit |
1 |
| list-style-type |
Specifies the type of list-item marker |
none
disc
circle
square
decimal
decimal-leading-zero
armenian
georgian
lower-alpha
upper-alpha
lower-greek
lower-latin
upper-latin
lower-roman
upper-roman
inherit |
1 |
|
