Overview
An <sp-field-label>
provides accessible labelling for form elements. Use the for
attribute to outline the id
of an element in the same DOM tree to which it should associate itself. Field labels give context to information that a user needs to input and are commonly used in forms to provide users with clear guidance about what information is required.
Usage

yarn add @spectrum-web-components/field-label
Import the side effectful registration of <sp-field-label>
via:
import '@spectrum-web-components/field-label/sp-field-label.js';
When looking to leverage the FieldLabel
base class as a type and/or for extension purposes, do so via:
import { FieldLabel } from '@spectrum-web-components/field-label';
Anatomy
Field labels can be associated with form elements by using the for
attribute, which should reference the id
of the related input element.
<sp-field-label for="email">Email address</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield id="email" placeholder="user@adobe.com"></sp-textfield>
Field labels can also be used to label a group of related inputs:
<sp-field-label for="account-type">Account type</sp-field-label>
<sp-radio-group id="account-type">
<sp-radio value="admin">Admin</sp-radio>
<sp-radio value="member" checked>Member</sp-radio>
<sp-radio value="guest">Guest</sp-radio>
</sp-radio-group>
Options
Sizes
Small
<sp-field-label for="lifestory-0" size="s">Life Story (Small)</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your life story"
id="lifestory-0"
size="s"
></sp-textfield>
Medium
<sp-field-label for="lifestory-1" size="m">Life Story (Medium)</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your life story"
id="lifestory-1"
size="m"
></sp-textfield>
Large
<sp-field-label for="lifestory-2" size="l">Life Story (Large)</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your life story"
id="lifestory-2"
size="l"
></sp-textfield>
Extra Large
<sp-field-label for="lifestory-3" size="xl">
Life Story (Extra Large)
</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your life story"
id="lifestory-3"
size="xl"
></sp-textfield>
Label Position
Field labels can be positioned either on top of an input (default) or to the side of an input. The top position is recommended for most cases as it works better with long text, localization, and responsive layouts.
Using the side-aligned
attribute will display the <sp-field-label>
element inline with surrounding elements and the start
and end
values outline the alignment of the label text in the width specified.
Top (Default)
<sp-field-label for="country-top">Country</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield placeholder="Enter your country" id="country-top"></sp-textfield>
Side (Start Aligned)
Use side-aligned="start"
to display the <sp-field-label>
inline and to align the label text to the "start" of the flow of text:
<sp-field-label for="lifestory-1" side-aligned="start" style="width: 120px">
Life Story
</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your life story"
id="lifestory-1"
></sp-textfield>
<br />
<br />
<sp-field-label
for="birth-place-1"
side-aligned="start"
required
style="width: 120px"
>
Birthplace
</sp-field-label>
<sp-picker id="birth-place-1">
<span slot="label">Choose a location:</span>
<sp-menu-item>Istanbul</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>London</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Maputo</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Melbourne</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>New York</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>San Francisco</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Santiago</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Tokyo</sp-menu-item>
</sp-picker>
Side (End Aligned)
Use side-aligned="end"
to display the <sp-field-label>
inline and to align the label text to the "end" of the flow of text:
<sp-field-label
for="lifestory-2"
side-aligned="end"
required
style="width: 120px"
>
Life Story
</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your life story"
id="lifestory-2"
></sp-textfield>
<br />
<br />
<sp-field-label for="birth-place-2" side-aligned="end" style="width: 120px">
Birthplace
</sp-field-label>
<sp-picker id="birth-place-2">
<span slot="label">Choose a location:</span>
<sp-menu-item>Istanbul</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>London</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Maputo</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Melbourne</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>New York</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>San Francisco</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Santiago</sp-menu-item>
<sp-menu-item>Tokyo</sp-menu-item>
</sp-picker>
Necessity Indicator
Field labels can indicate whether an input is required or optional. By default, required fields are marked with an asterisk icon.
Required (Icon)
<sp-field-label for="name-required" required>Full name</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your full name"
id="name-required"
required
></sp-textfield>
Optional (Text)
<sp-field-label for="description-optional">
Profile description (optional)
</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter a description"
id="description-optional"
></sp-textfield>
States
Disabled
When the associated input field is disabled, the field label should also be disabled.
<sp-field-label for="disabled-field" disabled>Country</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your country"
id="disabled-field"
disabled
></sp-textfield>
Behaviors
Text Overflow
When a field label is too long for the available horizontal space, it wraps to form another line.
<sp-field-label for="seminar-field" style="max-width: 200px">
What you're hoping to learn from the seminar and any specific topics you'd
like covered
</sp-field-label>
<sp-textfield
placeholder="Enter your expectations"
id="seminar-field"
></sp-textfield>
Accessibility
Always include a label
Every input should have a label. An input without a label is ambiguous and not accessible. In rare cases where context is sufficient and an accessibility expert has reviewed the design, the label could be visually hidden but should still include an aria-label
in HTML.
Ensure proper association
The for
attribute of the field label should match the id
attribute of the associated input element to ensure proper association for screen readers and other assistive technologies.
Keep labels concise
Use a short, descriptive label (1-3 words) for the information that users need to provide. Supplementary information or requirements should be shown in help text below the field, not in the label.
Use sentence case
Following Adobe's UX writing style, field labels should be written in sentence case unless they contain words that are branded terms.
Don't add a colon at the end of a field label
The design of the component already communicates the relationship between the label and the input field, so a colon is unnecessary.
Mark only required or only optional fields, not both
In a single form, mark only the required fields or only the optional fields, depending on whichever is less frequent in the entire form. This reduces visual noise and makes the form easier to understand.
1.7.0 (2025-06-11)
Minor Changes
sp-overlay: Fixed : Overlays (like pickers and action menus) were incorrectly closing when scrolling occurred within components. The fix ensures the handleScroll
method in OverlayStack
only responds to document/body scrolling events and ignores component-level scrolling events, which was the original intention.
sp-card: Fixed: On mobile Chrome (both Android and iOS), scrolling on sp-card
components would inadvertently trigger click events. This was caused by the timing-based click detection (200ms threshold) in the pointer event handling, which could misinterpret quick scrolls as clicks. This issue did not affect Safari on mobile devices.
sp-action-button: - Fixed : Action buttons with href attributes now properly detects modifier keys and skips the proxy click, allowing only native browser behavior to proceed.
Patch Changes
sp-styles: Remove unnecessary system theme references to reduce complexity for components that don't need the additional mapping layer.
sp-card: - Fixed: sp-card
component relies on sp-popover
for certain toggle interactive behaviors, but this dependency was missing from its dependency tree.
sp-menu: Fixes: Icons in menu stories weren't properly responding to theme changes when used in functional story components.
Switching to class-based LitElement components ensures proper component lifecycle hooks and shadow DOM context for icon initialization and theme integration.
sp-tabs: Added @spectrum-web-components/action-button
as a dependency for Tabs as its used in the direction button.
sp-split-view: Added @spectrum-web-components/shared dependency in splitview since it uses ranDomId from the shared package
sp-textfield: Replace deprecated word-break: break-word
with overflow-wrap: break-word
to align with modern CSS standards and improve cross-browser compatibility. This property was deprecated in Chrome 44 (July 2015) in favor of the standardized overflow-wrap
property.