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CSS Lists

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The CSS list properties allow you to specify different list item markers, or 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}

Try it yourself »

Some of the property values are for unordered lists, and some for ordered lists.

Unordered List - Possible Values

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

Ordered List - Possible Values

Value	Description
none	No marker
circle	The marker is a circle
disc	The marker is a filled circle. This is default
square	The marker is a square
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.)

Remark 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');
}

Try it yourself »

The example above will 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;
}

Try it yourself »

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 possible to specify all the list properties in a single property. This is called a shorthand property.

The shorthand property for list is "list-style":

Example

list-style: square url("sqpurple.gif");

Try it yourself »

When using the shorthand property, the order of the values are:

list-style-type
list-style-position
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 where to place the list-item marker	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

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