Using CSS, how do I vertically align this icon and text even when the font size changes?

Question

I have two DIVs. They each contain a SPAN with the same 16x16 background image and another SPAN with the same text. The only difference is the font sizes. How do I vertically align the centers of the icon and text even when the font sizes are different?

I basically want an element with an icon and text that vertically aligns no matter the font size. If there's a better way to do it than the multiple spans I'm using, that's fine too.

Here's a jsfiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/nup2pwqz/

<div class='divcontainer'>
    <span class='span1'> <span>
    <span class='span2 font1'>Header<span>
</div>
<div class='divcontainer'>
    <span class='span1'> <span>
    <span class='span2 font2'>Header<span>
</div>

.font1{
        font-size: 12px;
}
.font2{
        font-size: 18px;
}
.divcontainer{
    display:inline-block;
    position:relative;
    text-align:center;
    width:200px;
    border:1px solid red;
}
.span1{
    display:inline-block;
    vertical-align:middle; 
    width:16px; 
    height:16px; 
    background: url('http://www.albany.edu/gsa/FileZilla-3.7.0.2/resources/16x16/cancel.png') no-repeat;
}
.span2{
    padding-left:20px;
}

Answer 1

Example 1

 .divcontainer{ display: inline-block; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 200px; border: 1px solid red; } .divcontainer span{ padding-left: 20px; position: relative; } .divcontainer span:before{ content: ''; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 0; width:16px; height:16px; background: url('http://www.albany.edu/gsa/FileZilla-3.7.0.2/resources/16x16/cancel.png') no-repeat; margin-top: -8px; } .font1{font-size: 12px;} .font2{font-size: 18px;} .font3{font-size: 28px;} .font4{font-size: 48px;} 

 <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='font1'>Header</span> </div> <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='font2'>Header</span> </div> <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='font3'>Header</span> </div> <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='font4'>Header</span> </div> 

Example 2

 .divcontainer{ display: inline-block; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 200px; border: 1px solid red; } .divcontainer > span{ display:inline-block; vertical-align:middle; } .span1{ width:16px; height:16px; background: url('http://www.albany.edu/gsa/FileZilla-3.7.0.2/resources/16x16/cancel.png') no-repeat center center; } .span2{ padding-left:5px; } .font1{font-size: 12px;} .font2{font-size: 18px;} .font3{font-size: 28px;} .font4{font-size: 38px;} 

 <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='span1'></span> <span class='span2 font1'>Header</span> </div> <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='span1'></span> <span class='span2 font2'>Header</span> </div> <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='span1'></span> <span class='span2 font3'>Header</span> </div> <div class='divcontainer'> <span class='span1'></span> <span class='span2 font4'>Header</span> </div> 

Answer 2

Use line-height . Add on the following to the .divcontainer block:

.divcontainer {
    line-height: 16px;
}

Answer 3

You can use line-height instead of vertical-align , as below, (also you need to set value for background-image-postion )

.span1{
    display:inline-block;
    line-height:30px; 
    width:16px; 
    height:30px; 
    background: url('http://www.albany.edu/gsa/FileZilla-3.7.0.2/resources/16x16/cancel.png') no-repeat center;
}