<div class="container">
  <p>
    The following lines have a line height set on them. The dotted borders represent the boundaries of the line box.
  </p>
  <ul>
    <li><img src="http://tympanus.net/codrops-playground/assets/images/cssref/properties/vertical-align/walking-cat.png" class="small-kitty"> This cat is aligned to the baseline.</li>
    <li>
      <img src="http://tympanus.net/codrops-playground/assets/images/cssref/properties/vertical-align/kitty.png" class="small-kitty text-bottom"> This kitty is aligned to the bottom of the text using the value <code>text-bottom</code>.
    </li>
    <li><img src="http://tympanus.net/codrops-playground/assets/images/cssref/properties/vertical-align/arrow-circle.png" class="top">The arrow is aligned to the top.</li>
    <li><img src="http://tympanus.net/codrops-playground/assets/images/cssref/properties/vertical-align/tears.jpg" class="middle">The face is aligned using the value <code>middle</code>.</li>
  </ul>
</div>
* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

body {
  color: #555;
  font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}

.container {
  margin: 40px auto;
  max-width: 700px;
}

ul {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
}

li {
  font-size: 1.5em;
  border: 1px dotted grey;
  list-style: none;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
  line-height: 80px;
}

.small-kitty {
  height: 50px;
}

.text-bottom {
  vertical-align: text-bottom;
}

.top {
  vertical-align: top;
}

.middle {
  vertical-align: middle;
}