index.md

---

title: '<caption>: The Table Caption element'
slug: Web/HTML/Element/caption
page-type: html-element
browser-compat: html.elements.caption

---

{{HTMLSidebar}}

The <caption> HTML element specifies the caption (or title) of a table.

{{EmbedInteractiveExample("pages/tabbed/caption.html", "tabbed-taller")}}

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

Deprecated attributes

The following attributes are deprecated and should not be used. They are documented below for reference when updating existing code and for historical interest only.

• align {{deprecated_inline}}

  • : This enumerated attribute indicates how the caption must be aligned with respect to the table. It may have one of the following values:

    • left

      • : The caption is displayed to the left of the table.

    • top

      • : The caption is displayed above the table.

    • right

      • : The caption is displayed to the right of the table.

    • bottom

      • : The caption is displayed below the table.

    Warning: Do not use this attribute, as it has been deprecated. The {{HTMLElement("caption")}} element should be styled using the CSS properties {{cssxref("caption-side")}} and {{cssxref("text-align")}}.

Usage notes

If used, the <caption> element must be the first child of its parent {{htmlelement("table")}} element.

When the <table> element that contains the <caption> is the only descendant of a {{HTMLElement("figure")}} element, you should use the {{HTMLElement("figcaption")}} element instead of <caption>.

A {{cssxref("background-color")}} on the table will not include the caption. Add a background-color to the <caption> element as well if you want the same color to be behind both.

Example

This simple example presents a table that includes a caption.

<table>
  <caption>
    Example Caption
  </caption>
  <tr>
    <th>Login</th>
    <th>Email</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>user1</td>
    <td>[email protected]</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>user2</td>
    <td>[email protected]</td>
  </tr>
</table>

caption {
  caption-side: top;
}
table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border-spacing: 0px;
}
table,
th,
td {
  border: 1px solid black;
}

{{EmbedLiveSample('Example', 650, 100)}}

Technical summary

Content categories	None.
Permitted content	Flow content.
Tag omission	The end tag can be omitted if the element is not immediately followed by ASCII whitespace or a comment.
Permitted parents	A {{HTMLElement("table")}} element, as its first descendant.
Implicit ARIA role	caption
Permitted ARIA roles	No role permitted
DOM interface	{{domxref("HTMLTableCaptionElement")}}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• CSS properties that may be specially useful to style the {{HTMLElement("caption")}} element:

  • {{cssxref("text-align")}}, {{cssxref("caption-side")}}.