Checkbox with label in the middle - css

Question

I need to figure out how to to put label text next to checkbox button. I need the text in the middle of the checkbox button. I always got the checkbox a little above the text or little below it. Hard to get it exactly in the middle. When I fix in to the middle in one browser, in other browser it doesn't exactly in the middle. There is always a pixel or two that ruins it.
Here's the fiddle
http://jsfiddle.net/JhPHm/
<style>
.field input
{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
vertical-align: top;
}
.field label
{
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
vertical-align: top;
font: normal 12px/14px arial;
}
</style>
<div style="padding: 30px;">
<div class="field">
<label for="x"><input type="checkbox" id="x" name="x" value="1" /> Text in the middle</label>
</div>
</div>
Please help me get the text in the middle in all browsers. Here a picture with the differences:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5410/checkbox.png

Answer 1

Instead of vertical-align:top, try vertical-align:middle. It may help a bit, but input elements are notorious for being uneven across browsers.

Answer 2

Aligning input elements is tough, and sometimes nearly impossible.
If the problem is that it's misbehaving in old browsers, consider that people browsing the web with these browsers will stumble upon misaligned checkboxes on more places than just yours. They are browsing the web while it's crumbling around them so to speak. They won't care because they either know they're using an old browser or they don't notice because all sites show these tiny glitches.
If you're going to have to add all sorts of tweaks and fixes for various browsers to get to an acceptable end result, also consider that all these tweaks add to the size of your CSS and to the complexity making it tougher to maintain in the future.
In the end for me, this stuff depends on the audience, the budget and obviously the amount of checkboxes. ;-)

Answer 3

The way I've hacked around this is to use relative positioning, like this:
input[type="radio"], input[type="checkbox"] {
cursor: pointer;
line-height: normal;
margin: 0px;
position: relative;
top: -3px;
}
For example, if you want to shift them up 3 pixels. Like you've pointed out above, you might get different results in different browsers.
In this situation, Firebug or Chrome Developer Tools is going to help you a lot. There may be some garbage you're inheriting from elsewhere. Like in the example above, I set the margin back to 0px because something higher up (and unavoidable) in the CSS structure was setting a margin of 4px on all input and screwing me.
Good luck!