Two buttons vertically misaligning, how to align them properly?

Question

I have two buttons, one an A element, another a BUTTON element. They both have the same classes (class="button button--icon"). While I'm applying the same CSS on both of them, using those classes, the buttons don't display the same way.

The difference between both elements is that the A elements are direct children of their containing LIs, but the BUTTON elements are wrapped in a FORM, which is contained in a LI.

The A button's vertical position is higher than that of the BUTTON button's.

These things I've tried, which didn't solve my problem:

• Hardcoding all font-sizes to 16px;
• Applying margins or paddings to the containing LIs and As, separately (this only moved my entire UL down)
• Applying an equal vertical margin to both the A and BUTTONs.
• Wrapping the A in a form as well (no effect, as I've no styling on FORM)
• display: block !important;
• vertical-align: baseline;
• Removing the box-sizing declarations

Does anyone hav an idea how I can move the A element down, so its top is on the same line as the BUTTON's top?

I've prepared a CodePen with a simplified version of the code, which shows what goes wrong. In case the CodePen goes missing, I've also listed the exact same code at the bottom of this question. http://codepen.io/MHLut/pen/gpOREP?editors=110

The HTML:

<!-- Real world: this UL is normally in a table cell, not a DIV -->
<div class="example">
    <ul>
        <li>
            <a class="button button--icon" href="#">
                <img class="icon" src="http://placehold.it/120x120">
            </a>
        </li>

        <li>
            <form>
                <button class="button button--icon">
                    <img class="icon" src="http://placehold.it/120x120">
                </button>
            </form>
        </li>

        <li>
            <form>
                <button class="button button--icon">
                    <img class="icon" src="http://placehold.it/120x120">
                </button>
            </form>
        </li>
    </ul>
</div>

The SCSS:

html {
    @include box-sizing(border-box);
}

*,
*:before,
*:after {
    @include box-sizing(inherit);
}

small {
    font-size: 0.75em;
    line-height: 1.5em;
}

button,
.button {
    border-radius: 0.125rem;
    background-color: #eee;
    border: 0.1em outset darken(#eee, 5%);
    color: #eee;
    line-height: 1.5em;
    padding: 0.5em 0.75em;
    &:hover, &:focus {}
    &:active {
        border-style: inset;
    }
}

.button {
    display: block;
    text-decoration: none;
}

.button--icon {
    @extend small;
    display: block;
    padding: 0.5em;
    margin-top: 0;
    .icon {
        display: block;
        height: 2em;
        width: 2em;
    }
}

.example {
    ul, form {
        margin-bottom: 0;
        padding-top: 0.25rem;
        padding-bottom: 0.25rem;
    }
    ul {
        list-style-type: none;
    }
    li {
        display: inline-block;
    }
    .button {
        @extend small;
        margin-top: 0;
    }
}

Answer 1

If you set these then they will align. Your list items are inline block items so you need to set vertical align top or else they will align to base-line. I set the forms to have no padding to show you the boxes aligning perfectly

.example {
    form {
        padding: 0; /* you original also have padding top and bottom on form */
    }
    li {
        display: inline-block; /* this you already have */
        vertical-align: top;
    }
}

Answer 2

When setting up vertical alignment, I always find useful to work with display: table:

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/ZGEJKm

ul {
    list-style-type: none;
    display: table;
}
li {
    display: table-cell;
    vertical-align: middle;
}