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We can use the HTML placeholder attribute on our form elements if need be. By default, our form element titles (labels) will be rendered like this:

Normal Element Title

Node Title Edit without Placeholder

But if we set the element's title to be a placeholder, it will be rendered like this:

Placeholder Element Title

Node Title Edit with Placeholder

As you can see, this saves precious real estate and can be more UX friendly in certain cases.

How It's Done

By using hook_form_alter() we can change a form element to use a placeholder instead of a label:

/**
 * Implements hook_form_alter().
 */
function my_module_form_alter(form, form_state, form_id) {
  try {
    if (form_id == 'node_edit') {
      form.elements['title'].title_placeholder = true;
    }
  }
  catch (error) { console.log('my_module_form_alter - ' + error); }
}