Discrepancy in Textarea and Neighboring Element Alignment: A Detailed Explanation

Despite appearances, the textarea element in your code snippet is not placed higher up than its neighbor, the span element. This visual illusion arises from a fundamental aspect of web layout known as baseline alignment.

Baseline Alignment and Descenders

Inline elements, such as spans and text areas, are rendered on the same baseline, which is the line upon which the majority of characters rest. However, certain lowercase letters, known as descenders, extend below the baseline.

In your case, both the span and textarea elements are accommodating potential descenders in their rendering. The gap you observe is simply the reserved space for these descenders.

Misalignment Illusion

The perceived misalignment stems from the difference in border handling between the span and textarea elements. The span's border wraps the text and descender space, while the textarea's border does not. This creates the illusion that the textarea is higher up.

Possible Solutions

To resolve this visual discrepancy, you can either:

• Add vertical-align: bottom to the textarea rule: This aligns the textarea's bottom edge with the bottom edge of the span.
• Add display: block to the textarea rule: This removes the inline behavior and treats the textarea as a block element, eliminating the baseline alignment effect.