diff --git a/src/string_width.gleam b/src/string_width.gleam
--- a/src/string_width.gleam
+++ b/src/string_width.gleam
@@ -1192,6 +1192,9 @@
 /// ### Examples
 ///
 /// ```gleam
+/// align("", to: 5, align: Left, with: "x")
+/// // --> "xxxxx"
+///
 /// align("hello", to: 10, align: Left, with: " ")
 /// // --> "hello     "
 ///
@@ -1236,7 +1239,9 @@
   let space_width = spacer_width(options, space)
   let str_size = dimensions_with(str, options)
 
-  let bottom = str_size.rows
+  // in contrast to other view functions, we want to treat empty strings
+  // as empty lines, not empty blocks here. hence int.max(1, _)
+  let bottom = int.max(1, str_size.rows)
   let right = int.max(str_size.columns, max_width)
 
   use line, line_width <- view(str, 0, 0, options, bottom:, right:)