vertical position of an a-element and button-element

Question

I want to style a <button> and <a> element both into the same format. I use the following code:

button,
a {
  border: solid 1px black;
  background-color: white;
  color: black;
  font-family: 'Arial';
  padding: 0 15px;
  font-size: 13px;
  height: 35px;
  line-height: 35px;
  display: inline-block;
}
#dummy-block {
  background-color: black;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  height: 20px;
}

<div id="dummy-block"></div>
<button>My Button</button>
<a>My Link</a>

But the <button> element seems to ignore the height and my <a> element does not touch the edge of the black dummy <div> above:

You can test the code in my fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/gyrrcrqc/1/

Answer 1

Try this:-

button, a {
    background-color: white;
    border: medium none;
    box-shadow: 0 0 1px #000 inset;
    color: black;
    display: inline-block;
    font-family: "Arial";
    font-size: 13px;
    height: 35px;
    line-height: 35px;
    padding: 0 15px;
    vertical-align: top;
}

Or:-

button, a {
    background-color: white;
    border: medium none;
    vertical-align:top;
    color: black;
    display: inline-block;
    font-family: "Arial";
    font-size: 13px;
    height: 35px;
    line-height: 35px;
    padding: 0 15px;
    border:1px solid #000;
    box-sizing:border-box
}

DEMO2

DEMO

Answer 2

Apparently the default box-sizing method for button is border-box while that for inline-block is content-box. So:

• 35px height means the <a> is actually 37px tall (border adds 2px)
• 35px height means the <button> tag is 35px tall (35px includes the border)

Set the box-sizing: border-box on both elements.

button,
a {
  border: solid 1px black;
  background-color: white;
  color: black;
  font-family: 'Arial';
  padding: 0 15px;
  font-size: 13px;
  height: 35px;
  line-height: 35px;
  display: inline-block;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}
#dummy-block {
  background-color: black;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  height: 20px;
}

<div id="dummy-block"></div>
<button>My Button</button>
<a>My Link</a>