Related
I want to center a div vertically with CSS. I don't want tables or JavaScript, but only pure CSS. I found some solutions, but all of them are missing Internet Explorer 6 support.
<body>
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
</body>
How can I center a div vertically in all major browsers, including Internet Explorer 6?
Below is the best all-around solution I could build to vertically and horizontally center a fixed-width, flexible height content box. It was tested and worked for recent versions of Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari.
.outer {
display: table;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
.middle {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.inner {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
width: 400px;
/* Whatever width you want */
}
<div class="outer">
<div class="middle">
<div class="inner">
<h1>The Content</h1>
<p>Once upon a midnight dreary...</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
View A Working Example With Dynamic Content
I built in some dynamic content to test the flexibility and would love to know if anyone sees any problems with it. It should work well for centered overlays also -- lightbox, pop-up, etc.
The simplest way would be the following three lines of CSS:
1) position: relative;
2) top: 50%;
3) transform: translateY(-50%);
Following is an example:
div.outer-div {
height: 170px;
width: 300px;
background-color: lightgray;
}
div.middle-div {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
-webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
-ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
transform: translateY(-50%);
}
<div class='outer-div'>
<div class='middle-div'>
Test text
</div>
</div>
One more I can't see on the list:
.Center-Container {
position: relative;
height: 100%;
}
.Absolute-Center {
width: 50%;
height: 50%;
overflow: auto;
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0; left: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0;
border: solid black;
}
Cross-browser (including Internet Explorer 8 - Internet Explorer 10 without hacks!)
Responsive with percentages and min-/max-
Centered regardless of padding (without box-sizing!)
height must be declared (see Variable Height)
Recommended setting overflow: auto to prevent content spillover (see Overflow)
Source: Absolute Horizontal And Vertical Centering In CSS
Now the Flexbox solution is a very easy way for modern browsers, so I recommend this for you:
.container {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
height: 100%;
background: green;
}
body,
html {
height: 100%;
}
<div class="container">
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
</div>
Actually, you need two div's for vertical centering. The div containing the content must have a width and height.
#container {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -200px;
/* Half of #content height */
left: 0;
width: 100%;
}
#content {
width: 624px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
height: 395px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
<div id="container">
<div id="content">
<h1>Centered div</h1>
</div>
</div>
Here is the result.
Edit 2020: only use this if you need to support old browsers like Internet Explorer 8 (which you should refuse to do 😉). If not, use Flexbox.
This is the simplest method I found and I use it all the time
(jsFiddle demo here).
Thank Chris Coyier from CSS Tricks for this article.
html, body{
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
.v-wrap{
height: 100%;
white-space: nowrap;
text-align: center;
}
.v-wrap:before{
content: "";
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 0;
/* adjust for white space between pseudo element and next sibling */
margin-right: -.25em;
/* stretch line height */
height: 100%;
}
.v-box{
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
white-space: normal;
}
<div class="v-wrap">
<article class="v-box">
<p>This is how I've been doing it for some time</p>
</article>
</div>
Support starts with Internet Explorer 8.
After a lot of research I finally found the ultimate solution. It works even for floated elements. View Source
.element {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%); /* or try 50% */
}
Use the CSS Flexbox align-items property to achieve this.
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
body {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
}
<div>This is centered vertically</div>
To center the div on a page, check the fiddle link.
#vh {
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
}
.box{
border-radius: 15px;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
padding: 25px;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: white;
}
<div id="vh" class="box">Div to be aligned vertically</div>
Another option is to use flex box, check the fiddle link.
.vh {
background-color: #ddd;
height: 400px;
align-items: center;
display: flex;
}
.vh > div {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}
<div class="vh">
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
</div>
Another option is to use a CSS 3 transform:
#vh {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
/*transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);*/
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}
.box{
border-radius: 15px;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
padding: 25px;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: white;
}
<div id="vh" class="box">Div to be aligned vertically</div>
The easiest solution is below:
.outer-div{
width: 100%;
height: 200px;
display: flex;
border:1px solid #000;
}
.inner-div{
margin: auto;
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid red;
}
<div class="outer-div">
<div class="inner-div">
Hey there!
</div>
</div>
There are multiple ways to achieve this.
Using flex property of CSS.
Solution #1
.parent {
width: 400px;
height:200px;
background: blue;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content:center;
}
.child {
width: 75px;
height: 75px;
background: yellow;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child"></div>
</div>
or by using display: flex; and margin: auto;
Solution #2
.parent {
width: 400px;
height:200px;
background: blue;
display: flex;
}
.child {
width: 75px;
height: 75px;
background: yellow;
margin:auto;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child"></div>
</div>
show text center
Solution #3
.parent {
width: 400px;
height: 200px;
background: yellow;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content:center;
}
<div class="parent">Center</div>
Using percentage(%) height and width.
Solution #4
.parent {
position: absolute;
height:100%;
width:100%;
background: blue;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content:center;
}
.child {
width: 75px;
height: 75px;
background: yellow;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child"></div>
</div>
Unfortunately — but not surprisingly — the solution is more complicated than one would wish it to be. Also unfortunately, you'll need to use additional divs around the div you want vertically centered.
For standards-compliant browsers like Mozilla, Opera, Safari, etc. you need to set the outer div to be displayed as a table and the inner div to be displayed as a table-cell — which can then be vertically centered. For Internet Explorer, you need to position the inner div absolutely within the outer div and then specify the top as 50%. The following pages explain this technique well and provide some code samples too:
Vertical Centering in CSS
Vertical Centering in CSS with Unknown Height (Internet Explorer 7 compatible) (Archived article courtesy of the Wayback Machine)
There is also a technique to do the vertical centering using JavaScript. Vertical alignment of content with JavaScript & CSS demonstrates it.
If someone cares for Internet Explorer 10 (and later) only, use Flexbox:
.parent {
width: 500px;
height: 500px;
background: yellow;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: flex;
-webkit-justify-content: center;
-ms-flex-pack: center;
justify-content: center;
-webkit-align-items: center;
-ms-flex-align: center;
align-items: center;
}
.centered {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: blue;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="centered"></div>
</div>
Flexbox support: http://caniuse.com/flexbox
A modern way to center an element vertically would be to use flexbox.
You need a parent to decide the height and a child to center.
The example below will center a div to the center within your browser. What's important (in my example) is to set height: 100% to body and html and then min-height: 100% to your container.
body, html {
background: #F5F5F5;
box-sizing: border-box;
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
#center_container {
align-items: center;
display: flex;
min-height: 100%;
}
#center {
background: white;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 200px;
}
<div id='center_container'>
<div id='center'>I am center.</div>
</div>
.center {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* (x, y) => position */
-ms-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* IE 9 */
-webkit-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* Chrome, Safari, Opera */
}
.vertical {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
//left: 0;
transform: translate(0, -50%); /* (x, y) => position */
}
.horizontal {
position: absolute;
//top: 0;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, 0); /* (x, y) => position */
}
div {
padding: 1em;
background-color: grey;
color: white;
}
<body>
<div class="vertical">Vertically left</div>
<div class="horizontal">Horizontal top</div>
<div class="center">Vertically Horizontal</div>
</body>
Related: Center a Image
Centering only vertically
If you don't care about Internet Explorer 6 and 7, you can use a technique that involves two containers.
The outer container:
should have display: table;
The inner container:
should have display: table-cell;
should have vertical-align: middle;
The content box:
should have display: inline-block;
You can add any content you want to the content box without caring about its width or height!
Demo:
body {
margin: 0;
}
.outer-container {
position: absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%; /* This could be ANY width */
height: 100%; /* This could be ANY height */
background: #ccc;
}
.inner-container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
background: #fff;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="outer-container">
<div class="inner-container">
<div class="centered-content">
Malcolm in the Middle
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Centering horizontally and vertically
If you want to center both horizontally and vertically, you also need the following.
The inner container:
should have text-align: center;
The content box:
should re-adjust the horizontal text-alignment to for example text-align: left; or text-align: right;, unless you want text to be centered
Demo:
body {
margin: 0;
}
.outer-container {
position: absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%; /* This could be ANY width */
height: 100%; /* This could be ANY height */
background: #ccc;
}
.inner-container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
text-align: left;
background: #fff;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="outer-container">
<div class="inner-container">
<div class="centered-content">
Malcolm in the Middle
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
It can be done in two ways
body{
left: 50%;
top:50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
OR
Using flex
body {
height:100%
width:100%
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
align-items:center; makes the content vertically center
justify-content: center;makes the content horizontally center
This is always where I go when I have to come back to this issue.
For those who don't want to make the jump:
Specify the parent container as position:relative or position:absolute.
Specify a fixed height on the child container.
Set position:absolute and top:50% on the child container to move the top down to the middle of the parent.
Set margin-top:-yy where yy is half the height of the child container to offset the item up.
An example of this in code:
<style type="text/css">
#myoutercontainer {position:relative}
#myinnercontainer {position:absolute; top:50%; height:10em; margin-top:-5em}
</style>
...
<div id="myoutercontainer">
<div id="myinnercontainer">
<p>Hey look! I'm vertically centered!</p>
<p>How sweet is this?!</p>
</div>
</div>
I just wrote this CSS and to know more, please go through: This article with vertical align anything with just 3 lines of CSS.
.element {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: perspective(1px) translateY(-50%);
}
For newcomers, please try:
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
The three lines of code using transform works practically on modern browsers and Internet Explorer:
.element{
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
-moz-transform: translateY(-50%);
-webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
-ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
}
I am adding this answer since I found some incompleteness in the previous version of this answer (and Stack Overflow won't allow me to simply comment).
'position' relative messes up the styling if the current div is in the body and has no container div. However 'fixed' seems to work, but it obviously fixes the content in the center of the viewport
Also I used this styling for centering some overlay divs and found that in Mozilla all elements inside this transformed div had lost their bottom borders. Possibly a rendering issue. But adding just the minimal padding to some of them rendered it correctly. Chrome and Internet Explorer (surprisingly) rendered the boxes without any need for padding
CSS Grid
body, html { margin: 0; }
body {
display: grid;
min-height: 100vh;
align-items: center;
}
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
.center{
display: grid;
place-items: center;
}
The answer from Billbad only works with a fixed width of the .inner div.
This solution works for a dynamic width by adding the attribute text-align: center to the .outer div.
.outer {
position: absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
.middle {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.inner {
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
width: auto;
}
<div class="outer">
<div class="middle">
<div class="inner">
Content
</div>
</div>
</div>
Just do it: Add the class at your div:
.modal {
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
height: 240px;
}
And read this article for an explanation. Note: Height is necessary.
I did it with this (change width, height, margin-top and margin-left accordingly):
.wrapper {
width: 960px;
height: 590px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin-top: -295px;
margin-left: -480px;
}
<div class="wrapper"> -- Content -- </div>
Not answering for browser compatibility but to also mention the new Grid and the not so new Flexbox feature.
Grid
From: Mozilla - Grid Documentation - Align Div Vertically
Browser Support: Grid Browser Support
CSS:
.wrapper {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
grid-gap: 10px;
grid-auto-rows: 200px;
grid-template-areas:
". a a ."
". a a .";
}
.item1 {
grid-area: a;
align-self: center;
justify-self: center;
}
HTML:
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="item1">Item 1</div>
</div>
Flexbox
Browser Support: Flexbox Browser Support
CSS:
display: -webkit-box;
display: -moz-box;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
I think a solid solution for all browsers without using Flexbox - "align-items: center;" is a combination of display: table and vertical-align: middle;.
CSS
.vertically-center
{
display: table;
width: 100%; /* Optional */
height: 100%; /* Optional */
}
.vertically-center > div
{
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
HTML
<div class="vertically-center">
<div>
<div style="border: 1px solid black;">some text</div>
</div>
</div>
‣Demo: https://jsfiddle.net/6m640rpp/
Especially for parent divs with relative (unknown) height, the centering in the unknown solution works great for me. There are some really nice code examples in the article.
It was tested in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer.
/* This parent can be any width and height */
.block {
text-align: center;
}
/* The ghost, nudged to maintain perfect centering */
.block:before {
content: '';
display: inline-block;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
margin-right: -0.25em; /* Adjusts for spacing */
}
/* The element to be centered, can
also be of any width and height */
.centered {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 300px;
}
<div style="width: 400px; height: 200px;">
<div class="block" style="height: 90%; width: 100%">
<div class="centered">
<h1>Some text</h1>
<p>Any other text..."</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
There is a trick I found out recently: You need to use top 50%, and then you do a translateY(-50%).
.outer-div {
position: relative;
height: 150px;
width: 150px;
background-color: red;
}
.centered-div {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
-webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
-ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
transform: translateY(-50%);
background-color: white;
}
<div class='outer-div'>
<div class='centered-div'>
Test text
</div>
</div>
I want to center a div vertically with CSS. I don't want tables or JavaScript, but only pure CSS. I found some solutions, but all of them are missing Internet Explorer 6 support.
<body>
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
</body>
How can I center a div vertically in all major browsers, including Internet Explorer 6?
Below is the best all-around solution I could build to vertically and horizontally center a fixed-width, flexible height content box. It was tested and worked for recent versions of Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari.
.outer {
display: table;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
.middle {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.inner {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
width: 400px;
/* Whatever width you want */
}
<div class="outer">
<div class="middle">
<div class="inner">
<h1>The Content</h1>
<p>Once upon a midnight dreary...</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
View A Working Example With Dynamic Content
I built in some dynamic content to test the flexibility and would love to know if anyone sees any problems with it. It should work well for centered overlays also -- lightbox, pop-up, etc.
The simplest way would be the following three lines of CSS:
1) position: relative;
2) top: 50%;
3) transform: translateY(-50%);
Following is an example:
div.outer-div {
height: 170px;
width: 300px;
background-color: lightgray;
}
div.middle-div {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
-webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
-ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
transform: translateY(-50%);
}
<div class='outer-div'>
<div class='middle-div'>
Test text
</div>
</div>
One more I can't see on the list:
.Center-Container {
position: relative;
height: 100%;
}
.Absolute-Center {
width: 50%;
height: 50%;
overflow: auto;
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0; left: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0;
border: solid black;
}
Cross-browser (including Internet Explorer 8 - Internet Explorer 10 without hacks!)
Responsive with percentages and min-/max-
Centered regardless of padding (without box-sizing!)
height must be declared (see Variable Height)
Recommended setting overflow: auto to prevent content spillover (see Overflow)
Source: Absolute Horizontal And Vertical Centering In CSS
Now the Flexbox solution is a very easy way for modern browsers, so I recommend this for you:
.container {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
height: 100%;
background: green;
}
body,
html {
height: 100%;
}
<div class="container">
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
</div>
Actually, you need two div's for vertical centering. The div containing the content must have a width and height.
#container {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -200px;
/* Half of #content height */
left: 0;
width: 100%;
}
#content {
width: 624px;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
height: 395px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
}
<div id="container">
<div id="content">
<h1>Centered div</h1>
</div>
</div>
Here is the result.
Edit 2020: only use this if you need to support old browsers like Internet Explorer 8 (which you should refuse to do 😉). If not, use Flexbox.
This is the simplest method I found and I use it all the time
(jsFiddle demo here).
Thank Chris Coyier from CSS Tricks for this article.
html, body{
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
.v-wrap{
height: 100%;
white-space: nowrap;
text-align: center;
}
.v-wrap:before{
content: "";
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 0;
/* adjust for white space between pseudo element and next sibling */
margin-right: -.25em;
/* stretch line height */
height: 100%;
}
.v-box{
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
white-space: normal;
}
<div class="v-wrap">
<article class="v-box">
<p>This is how I've been doing it for some time</p>
</article>
</div>
Support starts with Internet Explorer 8.
After a lot of research I finally found the ultimate solution. It works even for floated elements. View Source
.element {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%); /* or try 50% */
}
Use the CSS Flexbox align-items property to achieve this.
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
body {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
}
<div>This is centered vertically</div>
To center the div on a page, check the fiddle link.
#vh {
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
}
.box{
border-radius: 15px;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
padding: 25px;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: white;
}
<div id="vh" class="box">Div to be aligned vertically</div>
Another option is to use flex box, check the fiddle link.
.vh {
background-color: #ddd;
height: 400px;
align-items: center;
display: flex;
}
.vh > div {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}
<div class="vh">
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
</div>
Another option is to use a CSS 3 transform:
#vh {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
/*transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);*/
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}
.box{
border-radius: 15px;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
padding: 25px;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: white;
}
<div id="vh" class="box">Div to be aligned vertically</div>
The easiest solution is below:
.outer-div{
width: 100%;
height: 200px;
display: flex;
border:1px solid #000;
}
.inner-div{
margin: auto;
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid red;
}
<div class="outer-div">
<div class="inner-div">
Hey there!
</div>
</div>
There are multiple ways to achieve this.
Using flex property of CSS.
Solution #1
.parent {
width: 400px;
height:200px;
background: blue;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content:center;
}
.child {
width: 75px;
height: 75px;
background: yellow;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child"></div>
</div>
or by using display: flex; and margin: auto;
Solution #2
.parent {
width: 400px;
height:200px;
background: blue;
display: flex;
}
.child {
width: 75px;
height: 75px;
background: yellow;
margin:auto;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child"></div>
</div>
show text center
Solution #3
.parent {
width: 400px;
height: 200px;
background: yellow;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content:center;
}
<div class="parent">Center</div>
Using percentage(%) height and width.
Solution #4
.parent {
position: absolute;
height:100%;
width:100%;
background: blue;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content:center;
}
.child {
width: 75px;
height: 75px;
background: yellow;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child"></div>
</div>
Unfortunately — but not surprisingly — the solution is more complicated than one would wish it to be. Also unfortunately, you'll need to use additional divs around the div you want vertically centered.
For standards-compliant browsers like Mozilla, Opera, Safari, etc. you need to set the outer div to be displayed as a table and the inner div to be displayed as a table-cell — which can then be vertically centered. For Internet Explorer, you need to position the inner div absolutely within the outer div and then specify the top as 50%. The following pages explain this technique well and provide some code samples too:
Vertical Centering in CSS
Vertical Centering in CSS with Unknown Height (Internet Explorer 7 compatible) (Archived article courtesy of the Wayback Machine)
There is also a technique to do the vertical centering using JavaScript. Vertical alignment of content with JavaScript & CSS demonstrates it.
If someone cares for Internet Explorer 10 (and later) only, use Flexbox:
.parent {
width: 500px;
height: 500px;
background: yellow;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: flex;
-webkit-justify-content: center;
-ms-flex-pack: center;
justify-content: center;
-webkit-align-items: center;
-ms-flex-align: center;
align-items: center;
}
.centered {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: blue;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="centered"></div>
</div>
Flexbox support: http://caniuse.com/flexbox
A modern way to center an element vertically would be to use flexbox.
You need a parent to decide the height and a child to center.
The example below will center a div to the center within your browser. What's important (in my example) is to set height: 100% to body and html and then min-height: 100% to your container.
body, html {
background: #F5F5F5;
box-sizing: border-box;
height: 100%;
margin: 0;
}
#center_container {
align-items: center;
display: flex;
min-height: 100%;
}
#center {
background: white;
margin: 0 auto;
padding: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 200px;
}
<div id='center_container'>
<div id='center'>I am center.</div>
</div>
.center {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* (x, y) => position */
-ms-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* IE 9 */
-webkit-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* Chrome, Safari, Opera */
}
.vertical {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
//left: 0;
transform: translate(0, -50%); /* (x, y) => position */
}
.horizontal {
position: absolute;
//top: 0;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, 0); /* (x, y) => position */
}
div {
padding: 1em;
background-color: grey;
color: white;
}
<body>
<div class="vertical">Vertically left</div>
<div class="horizontal">Horizontal top</div>
<div class="center">Vertically Horizontal</div>
</body>
Related: Center a Image
Centering only vertically
If you don't care about Internet Explorer 6 and 7, you can use a technique that involves two containers.
The outer container:
should have display: table;
The inner container:
should have display: table-cell;
should have vertical-align: middle;
The content box:
should have display: inline-block;
You can add any content you want to the content box without caring about its width or height!
Demo:
body {
margin: 0;
}
.outer-container {
position: absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%; /* This could be ANY width */
height: 100%; /* This could be ANY height */
background: #ccc;
}
.inner-container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
background: #fff;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="outer-container">
<div class="inner-container">
<div class="centered-content">
Malcolm in the Middle
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Centering horizontally and vertically
If you want to center both horizontally and vertically, you also need the following.
The inner container:
should have text-align: center;
The content box:
should re-adjust the horizontal text-alignment to for example text-align: left; or text-align: right;, unless you want text to be centered
Demo:
body {
margin: 0;
}
.outer-container {
position: absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%; /* This could be ANY width */
height: 100%; /* This could be ANY height */
background: #ccc;
}
.inner-container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
text-align: left;
background: #fff;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="outer-container">
<div class="inner-container">
<div class="centered-content">
Malcolm in the Middle
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
It can be done in two ways
body{
left: 50%;
top:50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
OR
Using flex
body {
height:100%
width:100%
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
align-items:center; makes the content vertically center
justify-content: center;makes the content horizontally center
This is always where I go when I have to come back to this issue.
For those who don't want to make the jump:
Specify the parent container as position:relative or position:absolute.
Specify a fixed height on the child container.
Set position:absolute and top:50% on the child container to move the top down to the middle of the parent.
Set margin-top:-yy where yy is half the height of the child container to offset the item up.
An example of this in code:
<style type="text/css">
#myoutercontainer {position:relative}
#myinnercontainer {position:absolute; top:50%; height:10em; margin-top:-5em}
</style>
...
<div id="myoutercontainer">
<div id="myinnercontainer">
<p>Hey look! I'm vertically centered!</p>
<p>How sweet is this?!</p>
</div>
</div>
I just wrote this CSS and to know more, please go through: This article with vertical align anything with just 3 lines of CSS.
.element {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: perspective(1px) translateY(-50%);
}
For newcomers, please try:
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
The three lines of code using transform works practically on modern browsers and Internet Explorer:
.element{
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
-moz-transform: translateY(-50%);
-webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
-ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
}
I am adding this answer since I found some incompleteness in the previous version of this answer (and Stack Overflow won't allow me to simply comment).
'position' relative messes up the styling if the current div is in the body and has no container div. However 'fixed' seems to work, but it obviously fixes the content in the center of the viewport
Also I used this styling for centering some overlay divs and found that in Mozilla all elements inside this transformed div had lost their bottom borders. Possibly a rendering issue. But adding just the minimal padding to some of them rendered it correctly. Chrome and Internet Explorer (surprisingly) rendered the boxes without any need for padding
CSS Grid
body, html { margin: 0; }
body {
display: grid;
min-height: 100vh;
align-items: center;
}
<div>Div to be aligned vertically</div>
.center{
display: grid;
place-items: center;
}
The answer from Billbad only works with a fixed width of the .inner div.
This solution works for a dynamic width by adding the attribute text-align: center to the .outer div.
.outer {
position: absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
.middle {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.inner {
text-align: center;
display: inline-block;
width: auto;
}
<div class="outer">
<div class="middle">
<div class="inner">
Content
</div>
</div>
</div>
Just do it: Add the class at your div:
.modal {
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
height: 240px;
}
And read this article for an explanation. Note: Height is necessary.
I did it with this (change width, height, margin-top and margin-left accordingly):
.wrapper {
width: 960px;
height: 590px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin-top: -295px;
margin-left: -480px;
}
<div class="wrapper"> -- Content -- </div>
Not answering for browser compatibility but to also mention the new Grid and the not so new Flexbox feature.
Grid
From: Mozilla - Grid Documentation - Align Div Vertically
Browser Support: Grid Browser Support
CSS:
.wrapper {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(4, 1fr);
grid-gap: 10px;
grid-auto-rows: 200px;
grid-template-areas:
". a a ."
". a a .";
}
.item1 {
grid-area: a;
align-self: center;
justify-self: center;
}
HTML:
<div class="wrapper">
<div class="item1">Item 1</div>
</div>
Flexbox
Browser Support: Flexbox Browser Support
CSS:
display: -webkit-box;
display: -moz-box;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
I think a solid solution for all browsers without using Flexbox - "align-items: center;" is a combination of display: table and vertical-align: middle;.
CSS
.vertically-center
{
display: table;
width: 100%; /* Optional */
height: 100%; /* Optional */
}
.vertically-center > div
{
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
HTML
<div class="vertically-center">
<div>
<div style="border: 1px solid black;">some text</div>
</div>
</div>
‣Demo: https://jsfiddle.net/6m640rpp/
Especially for parent divs with relative (unknown) height, the centering in the unknown solution works great for me. There are some really nice code examples in the article.
It was tested in Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer.
/* This parent can be any width and height */
.block {
text-align: center;
}
/* The ghost, nudged to maintain perfect centering */
.block:before {
content: '';
display: inline-block;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
margin-right: -0.25em; /* Adjusts for spacing */
}
/* The element to be centered, can
also be of any width and height */
.centered {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 300px;
}
<div style="width: 400px; height: 200px;">
<div class="block" style="height: 90%; width: 100%">
<div class="centered">
<h1>Some text</h1>
<p>Any other text..."</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
There is a trick I found out recently: You need to use top 50%, and then you do a translateY(-50%).
.outer-div {
position: relative;
height: 150px;
width: 150px;
background-color: red;
}
.centered-div {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
-webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
-ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
transform: translateY(-50%);
background-color: white;
}
<div class='outer-div'>
<div class='centered-div'>
Test text
</div>
</div>
How can I horizontally center a <div> within another <div> using CSS?
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
With flexbox it is very easy to style the div horizontally and vertically centered.
#inner {
border: 0.05em solid black;
}
#outer {
border: 0.05em solid red;
width:100%;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
To align the div vertically centered, use the property align-items: center.
Other Solutions
You can apply this CSS to the inner <div>:
#inner {
width: 50%;
margin: 0 auto;
}
Of course, you don't have to set the width to 50%. Any width less than the containing <div> will work. The margin: 0 auto is what does the actual centering.
If you are targeting Internet Explorer 8 (and later), it might be better to have this instead:
#inner {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
}
It will make the inner element center horizontally and it works without setting a specific width.
Working example here:
#inner {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#outer {
border: 1px solid red;
width:100%
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
If you don't want to set a fixed width on the inner div you could do something like this:
#outer {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
That makes the inner div into an inline element that can be centered with text-align.
The best approaches are with CSS3.
The old box model (deprecated)
display: box and its properties box-pack, box-align, box-orient, box-direction etc. have been replaced by flexbox. While they may still work, they are not recommended to be used in production.
#outer {
width: 100%;
/* Firefox */
display: -moz-box;
-moz-box-pack: center;
-moz-box-align: center;
/* Safari and Chrome */
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-pack: center;
-webkit-box-align: center;
/* W3C */
display: box;
box-pack: center;
box-align: center;
}
#inner {
width: 50%;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
According to your usability you may also use the box-orient, box-flex, box-direction properties.
The modern box model with Flexbox
#outer {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
Read more about centering the child elements
CSS Box Model Module Level 3
Box model (CSS2)
box-align on MDN
And this explains why the box model is the best approach:
Why is the W3C box model considered better?
#centered {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -100px;
}
<div id="outer" style="width:200px">
<div id="centered">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Make sure the parent element is positioned, i.e., relative, fixed, absolute, or sticky.
If you don't know the width of your div, you can use transform:translateX(-50%); instead of the negative margin.
With CSS calc(), the code can get even simpler:
.centered {
width: 200px;
position: absolute;
left: calc(50% - 100px);
}
The principle is still the same; put the item in the middle and compensate for the width.
I've created this example to show how to vertically and horizontally align.
The code is basically this:
#outer {
position: relative;
}
and...
#inner {
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
left:0;
right: 0;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
}
And it will stay in the center even when you resize your screen.
Some posters have mentioned the CSS 3 way to center using display:box.
This syntax is outdated and shouldn't be used anymore. [See also this post].
So just for completeness here is the latest way to center in CSS 3 using the Flexible Box Layout Module.
So if you have simple markup like:
<div class="box">
<div class="item1">A</div>
<div class="item2">B</div>
<div class="item3">C</div>
</div>
...and you want to center your items within the box, here's what you need on the parent element (.box):
.box {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap; /* Optional. only if you want the items to wrap */
justify-content: center; /* For horizontal alignment */
align-items: center; /* For vertical alignment */
}
.box {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
/* Optional. only if you want the items to wrap */
justify-content: center;
/* For horizontal alignment */
align-items: center;
/* For vertical alignment */
}
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
html,
body {
height: 100%;
}
.box {
height: 200px;
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
border: 2px solid tomato;
}
.box div {
margin: 0 10px;
width: 100px;
}
.item1 {
height: 50px;
background: pink;
}
.item2 {
background: brown;
height: 100px;
}
.item3 {
height: 150px;
background: orange;
}
<div class="box">
<div class="item1">A</div>
<div class="item2">B</div>
<div class="item3">C</div>
</div>
If you need to support older browsers which use older syntax for flexbox here's a good place to look.
If you don't want to set a fixed width and don't want the extra margin, add display: inline-block to your element.
You can use:
#element {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
}
Centering a div of unknown height and width
Horizontally and vertically. It works with reasonably modern browsers (Firefox, Safari/WebKit, Chrome, Internet & Explorer & 10, Opera, etc.)
.content {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}
<div class="content">This works with any content</div>
Tinker with it further on Codepen or on JSBin.
Set the width and set margin-left and margin-right to auto. That's for horizontal only, though. If you want both ways, you'd just do it both ways. Don't be afraid to experiment; it's not like you'll break anything.
It cannot be centered if you don't give it a width. Otherwise, it will take, by default, the whole horizontal space.
CSS 3's box-align property
#outer {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: box;
box-orient: horizontal;
box-pack: center;
box-align: center;
}
The way I usually do it is using absolute position:
#inner{
left: 0;
right: 0;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
position: absolute;
}
The outer div doesn't need any extra properties for this to work.
I recently had to center a "hidden" div (i.e., display:none;) that had a tabled form within it that needed to be centered on the page. I wrote the following jQuery code to display the hidden div and then update the CSS content to the automatic generated width of the table and change the margin to center it. (The display toggle is triggered by clicking on a link, but this code wasn't necessary to display.)
NOTE: I'm sharing this code, because Google brought me to this Stack Overflow solution and everything would have worked except that hidden elements don't have any width and can't be resized/centered until after they are displayed.
$(function(){
$('#inner').show().width($('#innerTable').width()).css('margin','0 auto');
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="inner" style="display:none;">
<form action="">
<table id="innerTable">
<tr><td>Name:</td><td><input type="text"></td></tr>
<tr><td>Email:</td><td><input type="text"></td></tr>
<tr><td>Email:</td><td><input type="submit"></td></tr>
</table>
</form>
</div>
For Firefox and Chrome:
<div style="width:100%;">
<div style="width: 50%; margin: 0px auto;">Text</div>
</div>
For Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome:
<div style="width:100%; text-align:center;">
<div style="width: 50%; margin: 0px auto; text-align:left;">Text</div>
</div>
The text-align: property is optional for modern browsers, but it is necessary in Internet Explorer Quirks Mode for legacy browsers support.
Use:
#outerDiv {
width: 500px;
}
#innerDiv {
width: 200px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
<div id="outerDiv">
<div id="innerDiv">Inner Content</div>
</div>
Another solution for this without having to set a width for one of the elements is using the CSS 3 transform attribute.
#outer {
position: relative;
}
#inner {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
transform: translateX(-50%);
}
The trick is that translateX(-50%) sets the #inner element 50 percent to the left of its own width. You can use the same trick for vertical alignment.
Here's a Fiddle showing horizontal and vertical alignment.
More information is on Mozilla Developer Network.
Chris Coyier who wrote an excellent post on 'Centering in the Unknown' on his blog. It's a roundup of multiple solutions. I posted one that isn't posted in this question. It has more browser support than the Flexbox solution, and you're not using display: table; which could break other things.
/* This parent can be any width and height */
.outer {
text-align: center;
}
/* The ghost, nudged to maintain perfect centering */
.outer:before {
content: '.';
display: inline-block;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* The element to be centered, can
also be of any width and height */
.inner {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 300px;
}
I recently found an approach:
#outer {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
}
#inner {
position: relative;
left: -50%;
}
Both elements must be the same width to function correctly.
For example, see this link and the snippet below:
div#outer {
height: 120px;
background-color: red;
}
div#inner {
width: 50%;
height: 100%;
background-color: green;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center; /* For text alignment to center horizontally. */
line-height: 120px; /* For text alignment to center vertically. */
}
<div id="outer" style="width:100%;">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
If you have a lot of children under a parent, so your CSS content must be like this example on fiddle.
The HTML content look likes this:
<div id="outer" style="width:100%;">
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
</div>
Then see this example on fiddle.
Centering only horizontally
In my experience, the best way to center a box horizontally is to apply the following properties:
The container:
should have text-align: center;
The content box:
should have display: inline-block;
Demo:
.container {
width: 100%;
height: 120px;
background: #CCC;
text-align: center;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
background: #FFF;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="centered-content">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Centering both horizontally & vertically
In my experience, the best way to center a box both vertically and horizontally is to use an additional container and apply the following properties:
The outer container:
should have display: table;
The inner container:
should have display: table-cell;
should have vertical-align: middle;
should have text-align: center;
The content box:
should have display: inline-block;
Demo:
.outer-container {
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 120px;
background: #CCC;
}
.inner-container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
background: #FFF;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="outer-container">
<div class="inner-container">
<div class="centered-content">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Flexbox
display: flex behaves like a block element and lays out its content according to the flexbox model. It works with justify-content: center.
Please note: Flexbox is compatible all browsers exept Internet Explorer. See display: flex not working on Internet Explorer for a complete and up to date list of browsers compatibility.
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
#outer {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Text-align: center
Applying text-align: center the inline contents are centered within the line box. However since the inner div has by default width: 100% you have to set a specific width or use one of the following:
display: block
display: inline
display: inline-block
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
#outer {
text-align: center;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Margin: 0 auto
Using margin: 0 auto is another option and it is more suitable for older browsers compatibility. It works together with display: table.
#inner {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Transform
transform: translate lets you modify the coordinate space of the CSS visual formatting model. Using it, elements can be translated, rotated, scaled, and skewed. To center horizontally it require position: absolute and left: 50%.
#inner {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, 0%);
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
<center> (Deprecated)
The tag <center> is the HTML alternative to text-align: center. It works on older browsers and most of the new ones but it is not considered a good practice since this feature is obsolete and has been removed from the Web standards.
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
<div id="outer">
<center>
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</center>
</div>
This method also works just fine:
div.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center; /* For horizontal alignment */
align-items: center; /* For vertical alignment */
}
For the inner <div>, the only condition is that its height and width must not be larger than the ones of its container.
The easiest way:
#outer {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
#inner {
margin: auto;
width: 200px;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Blabla</div>
</div>
Flex have more than 97% browser support coverage and might be the best way to solve these kind of problems within few lines:
#outer {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
If width of the content is unknown you can use the following method. Suppose we have these two elements:
.outer -- full width
.inner -- no width set (but a max-width could be specified)
Suppose the computed width of the elements are 1000 pixels and 300 pixels respectively. Proceed as follows:
Wrap .inner inside .center-helper
Make .center-helper an inline block; it becomes the same size as .inner making it 300 pixels wide.
Push .center-helper 50% right relative to its parent; this places its left at 500 pixels wrt. outer.
Push .inner 50% left relative to its parent; this places its left at -150 pixels wrt. center helper which means its left is at 500 - 150 = 350 pixels wrt. outer.
Set overflow on .outer to hidden to prevent horizontal scrollbar.
Demo:
body {
font: medium sans-serif;
}
.outer {
overflow: hidden;
background-color: papayawhip;
}
.center-helper {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
left: 50%;
background-color: burlywood;
}
.inner {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
left: -50%;
background-color: wheat;
}
<div class="outer">
<div class="center-helper">
<div class="inner">
<h1>A div with no defined width</h1>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.<br>
Duis condimentum sem non turpis consectetur blandit.<br>
Donec dictum risus id orci ornare tempor.<br>
Proin pharetra augue a lorem elementum molestie.<br>
Nunc nec justo sit amet nisi tempor viverra sit amet a ipsum.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
You can do something like this
#container {
display: table;
width: <width of your container>;
height: <height of your container>;
}
#inner {
width: <width of your center div>;
display: table-cell;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}
This will also align the #inner vertically. If you don't want to, remove the display and vertical-align properties;
Here is what you want in the shortest way.
JSFIDDLE
#outer {
margin - top: 100 px;
height: 500 px; /* you can set whatever you want */
border: 1 px solid# ccc;
}
#inner {
border: 1 px solid# f00;
position: relative;
top: 50 % ;
transform: translateY(-50 % );
}
You can use display: flex for your outer div and to horizontally center you have to add justify-content: center
#outer{
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
or you can visit w3schools - CSS flex Property for more ideas.
Well, I managed to find a solution that maybe will fit all situations, but uses JavaScript:
Here's the structure:
<div class="container">
<div class="content">Your content goes here!</div>
<div class="content">Your content goes here!</div>
<div class="content">Your content goes here!</div>
</div>
And here's the JavaScript snippet:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('.container .content').each( function() {
container = $(this).closest('.container');
content = $(this);
containerHeight = container.height();
contentHeight = content.height();
margin = (containerHeight - contentHeight) / 2;
content.css('margin-top', margin);
})
});
If you want to use it in a responsive approach, you can add the following:
$(window).resize(function() {
$('.container .content').each( function() {
container = $(this).closest('.container');
content = $(this);
containerHeight = container.height();
contentHeight = content.height();
margin = (containerHeight - contentHeight) / 2;
content.css('margin-top', margin);
})
});
One option existed that I found:
Everybody says to use:
margin: auto 0;
But there is another option. Set this property for the parent div. It
works perfectly anytime:
text-align: center;
And see, child go center.
And finally CSS for you:
#outer{
text-align: center;
display: block; /* Or inline-block - base on your need */
}
#inner
{
position: relative;
margin: 0 auto; /* It is good to be */
}
How can I horizontally center a <div> within another <div> using CSS?
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
With flexbox it is very easy to style the div horizontally and vertically centered.
#inner {
border: 0.05em solid black;
}
#outer {
border: 0.05em solid red;
width:100%;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
To align the div vertically centered, use the property align-items: center.
Other Solutions
You can apply this CSS to the inner <div>:
#inner {
width: 50%;
margin: 0 auto;
}
Of course, you don't have to set the width to 50%. Any width less than the containing <div> will work. The margin: 0 auto is what does the actual centering.
If you are targeting Internet Explorer 8 (and later), it might be better to have this instead:
#inner {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
}
It will make the inner element center horizontally and it works without setting a specific width.
Working example here:
#inner {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
border: 1px solid black;
}
#outer {
border: 1px solid red;
width:100%
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
If you don't want to set a fixed width on the inner div you could do something like this:
#outer {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
That makes the inner div into an inline element that can be centered with text-align.
The best approaches are with CSS3.
The old box model (deprecated)
display: box and its properties box-pack, box-align, box-orient, box-direction etc. have been replaced by flexbox. While they may still work, they are not recommended to be used in production.
#outer {
width: 100%;
/* Firefox */
display: -moz-box;
-moz-box-pack: center;
-moz-box-align: center;
/* Safari and Chrome */
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-pack: center;
-webkit-box-align: center;
/* W3C */
display: box;
box-pack: center;
box-align: center;
}
#inner {
width: 50%;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
According to your usability you may also use the box-orient, box-flex, box-direction properties.
The modern box model with Flexbox
#outer {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
Read more about centering the child elements
CSS Box Model Module Level 3
Box model (CSS2)
box-align on MDN
And this explains why the box model is the best approach:
Why is the W3C box model considered better?
#centered {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -100px;
}
<div id="outer" style="width:200px">
<div id="centered">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Make sure the parent element is positioned, i.e., relative, fixed, absolute, or sticky.
If you don't know the width of your div, you can use transform:translateX(-50%); instead of the negative margin.
With CSS calc(), the code can get even simpler:
.centered {
width: 200px;
position: absolute;
left: calc(50% - 100px);
}
The principle is still the same; put the item in the middle and compensate for the width.
I've created this example to show how to vertically and horizontally align.
The code is basically this:
#outer {
position: relative;
}
and...
#inner {
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
left:0;
right: 0;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
}
And it will stay in the center even when you resize your screen.
Some posters have mentioned the CSS 3 way to center using display:box.
This syntax is outdated and shouldn't be used anymore. [See also this post].
So just for completeness here is the latest way to center in CSS 3 using the Flexible Box Layout Module.
So if you have simple markup like:
<div class="box">
<div class="item1">A</div>
<div class="item2">B</div>
<div class="item3">C</div>
</div>
...and you want to center your items within the box, here's what you need on the parent element (.box):
.box {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap; /* Optional. only if you want the items to wrap */
justify-content: center; /* For horizontal alignment */
align-items: center; /* For vertical alignment */
}
.box {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
/* Optional. only if you want the items to wrap */
justify-content: center;
/* For horizontal alignment */
align-items: center;
/* For vertical alignment */
}
* {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
html,
body {
height: 100%;
}
.box {
height: 200px;
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
border: 2px solid tomato;
}
.box div {
margin: 0 10px;
width: 100px;
}
.item1 {
height: 50px;
background: pink;
}
.item2 {
background: brown;
height: 100px;
}
.item3 {
height: 150px;
background: orange;
}
<div class="box">
<div class="item1">A</div>
<div class="item2">B</div>
<div class="item3">C</div>
</div>
If you need to support older browsers which use older syntax for flexbox here's a good place to look.
If you don't want to set a fixed width and don't want the extra margin, add display: inline-block to your element.
You can use:
#element {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
}
Centering a div of unknown height and width
Horizontally and vertically. It works with reasonably modern browsers (Firefox, Safari/WebKit, Chrome, Internet & Explorer & 10, Opera, etc.)
.content {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}
<div class="content">This works with any content</div>
Tinker with it further on Codepen or on JSBin.
Set the width and set margin-left and margin-right to auto. That's for horizontal only, though. If you want both ways, you'd just do it both ways. Don't be afraid to experiment; it's not like you'll break anything.
It cannot be centered if you don't give it a width. Otherwise, it will take, by default, the whole horizontal space.
CSS 3's box-align property
#outer {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: box;
box-orient: horizontal;
box-pack: center;
box-align: center;
}
The way I usually do it is using absolute position:
#inner{
left: 0;
right: 0;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
position: absolute;
}
The outer div doesn't need any extra properties for this to work.
I recently had to center a "hidden" div (i.e., display:none;) that had a tabled form within it that needed to be centered on the page. I wrote the following jQuery code to display the hidden div and then update the CSS content to the automatic generated width of the table and change the margin to center it. (The display toggle is triggered by clicking on a link, but this code wasn't necessary to display.)
NOTE: I'm sharing this code, because Google brought me to this Stack Overflow solution and everything would have worked except that hidden elements don't have any width and can't be resized/centered until after they are displayed.
$(function(){
$('#inner').show().width($('#innerTable').width()).css('margin','0 auto');
});
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div id="inner" style="display:none;">
<form action="">
<table id="innerTable">
<tr><td>Name:</td><td><input type="text"></td></tr>
<tr><td>Email:</td><td><input type="text"></td></tr>
<tr><td>Email:</td><td><input type="submit"></td></tr>
</table>
</form>
</div>
For Firefox and Chrome:
<div style="width:100%;">
<div style="width: 50%; margin: 0px auto;">Text</div>
</div>
For Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome:
<div style="width:100%; text-align:center;">
<div style="width: 50%; margin: 0px auto; text-align:left;">Text</div>
</div>
The text-align: property is optional for modern browsers, but it is necessary in Internet Explorer Quirks Mode for legacy browsers support.
Use:
#outerDiv {
width: 500px;
}
#innerDiv {
width: 200px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
<div id="outerDiv">
<div id="innerDiv">Inner Content</div>
</div>
Another solution for this without having to set a width for one of the elements is using the CSS 3 transform attribute.
#outer {
position: relative;
}
#inner {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
transform: translateX(-50%);
}
The trick is that translateX(-50%) sets the #inner element 50 percent to the left of its own width. You can use the same trick for vertical alignment.
Here's a Fiddle showing horizontal and vertical alignment.
More information is on Mozilla Developer Network.
Chris Coyier who wrote an excellent post on 'Centering in the Unknown' on his blog. It's a roundup of multiple solutions. I posted one that isn't posted in this question. It has more browser support than the Flexbox solution, and you're not using display: table; which could break other things.
/* This parent can be any width and height */
.outer {
text-align: center;
}
/* The ghost, nudged to maintain perfect centering */
.outer:before {
content: '.';
display: inline-block;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
/* The element to be centered, can
also be of any width and height */
.inner {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
width: 300px;
}
I recently found an approach:
#outer {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
}
#inner {
position: relative;
left: -50%;
}
Both elements must be the same width to function correctly.
For example, see this link and the snippet below:
div#outer {
height: 120px;
background-color: red;
}
div#inner {
width: 50%;
height: 100%;
background-color: green;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center; /* For text alignment to center horizontally. */
line-height: 120px; /* For text alignment to center vertically. */
}
<div id="outer" style="width:100%;">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
If you have a lot of children under a parent, so your CSS content must be like this example on fiddle.
The HTML content look likes this:
<div id="outer" style="width:100%;">
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> </div>
<div class="inner"> Foo Text </div>
</div>
Then see this example on fiddle.
Centering only horizontally
In my experience, the best way to center a box horizontally is to apply the following properties:
The container:
should have text-align: center;
The content box:
should have display: inline-block;
Demo:
.container {
width: 100%;
height: 120px;
background: #CCC;
text-align: center;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
background: #FFF;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="centered-content">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Centering both horizontally & vertically
In my experience, the best way to center a box both vertically and horizontally is to use an additional container and apply the following properties:
The outer container:
should have display: table;
The inner container:
should have display: table-cell;
should have vertical-align: middle;
should have text-align: center;
The content box:
should have display: inline-block;
Demo:
.outer-container {
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 120px;
background: #CCC;
}
.inner-container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
.centered-content {
display: inline-block;
background: #FFF;
padding: 20px;
border: 1px solid #000;
}
<div class="outer-container">
<div class="inner-container">
<div class="centered-content">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Flexbox
display: flex behaves like a block element and lays out its content according to the flexbox model. It works with justify-content: center.
Please note: Flexbox is compatible all browsers exept Internet Explorer. See display: flex not working on Internet Explorer for a complete and up to date list of browsers compatibility.
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
#outer {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Text-align: center
Applying text-align: center the inline contents are centered within the line box. However since the inner div has by default width: 100% you have to set a specific width or use one of the following:
display: block
display: inline
display: inline-block
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
#outer {
text-align: center;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Margin: 0 auto
Using margin: 0 auto is another option and it is more suitable for older browsers compatibility. It works together with display: table.
#inner {
display: table;
margin: 0 auto;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
Transform
transform: translate lets you modify the coordinate space of the CSS visual formatting model. Using it, elements can be translated, rotated, scaled, and skewed. To center horizontally it require position: absolute and left: 50%.
#inner {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, 0%);
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
<center> (Deprecated)
The tag <center> is the HTML alternative to text-align: center. It works on older browsers and most of the new ones but it is not considered a good practice since this feature is obsolete and has been removed from the Web standards.
#inner {
display: inline-block;
}
<div id="outer">
<center>
<div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</center>
</div>
This method also works just fine:
div.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center; /* For horizontal alignment */
align-items: center; /* For vertical alignment */
}
For the inner <div>, the only condition is that its height and width must not be larger than the ones of its container.
The easiest way:
#outer {
width: 100%;
text-align: center;
}
#inner {
margin: auto;
width: 200px;
}
<div id="outer">
<div id="inner">Blabla</div>
</div>
Flex have more than 97% browser support coverage and might be the best way to solve these kind of problems within few lines:
#outer {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
If width of the content is unknown you can use the following method. Suppose we have these two elements:
.outer -- full width
.inner -- no width set (but a max-width could be specified)
Suppose the computed width of the elements are 1000 pixels and 300 pixels respectively. Proceed as follows:
Wrap .inner inside .center-helper
Make .center-helper an inline block; it becomes the same size as .inner making it 300 pixels wide.
Push .center-helper 50% right relative to its parent; this places its left at 500 pixels wrt. outer.
Push .inner 50% left relative to its parent; this places its left at -150 pixels wrt. center helper which means its left is at 500 - 150 = 350 pixels wrt. outer.
Set overflow on .outer to hidden to prevent horizontal scrollbar.
Demo:
body {
font: medium sans-serif;
}
.outer {
overflow: hidden;
background-color: papayawhip;
}
.center-helper {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
left: 50%;
background-color: burlywood;
}
.inner {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
left: -50%;
background-color: wheat;
}
<div class="outer">
<div class="center-helper">
<div class="inner">
<h1>A div with no defined width</h1>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.<br>
Duis condimentum sem non turpis consectetur blandit.<br>
Donec dictum risus id orci ornare tempor.<br>
Proin pharetra augue a lorem elementum molestie.<br>
Nunc nec justo sit amet nisi tempor viverra sit amet a ipsum.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
You can do something like this
#container {
display: table;
width: <width of your container>;
height: <height of your container>;
}
#inner {
width: <width of your center div>;
display: table-cell;
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}
This will also align the #inner vertically. If you don't want to, remove the display and vertical-align properties;
Here is what you want in the shortest way.
JSFIDDLE
#outer {
margin - top: 100 px;
height: 500 px; /* you can set whatever you want */
border: 1 px solid# ccc;
}
#inner {
border: 1 px solid# f00;
position: relative;
top: 50 % ;
transform: translateY(-50 % );
}
You can use display: flex for your outer div and to horizontally center you have to add justify-content: center
#outer{
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
or you can visit w3schools - CSS flex Property for more ideas.
Well, I managed to find a solution that maybe will fit all situations, but uses JavaScript:
Here's the structure:
<div class="container">
<div class="content">Your content goes here!</div>
<div class="content">Your content goes here!</div>
<div class="content">Your content goes here!</div>
</div>
And here's the JavaScript snippet:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('.container .content').each( function() {
container = $(this).closest('.container');
content = $(this);
containerHeight = container.height();
contentHeight = content.height();
margin = (containerHeight - contentHeight) / 2;
content.css('margin-top', margin);
})
});
If you want to use it in a responsive approach, you can add the following:
$(window).resize(function() {
$('.container .content').each( function() {
container = $(this).closest('.container');
content = $(this);
containerHeight = container.height();
contentHeight = content.height();
margin = (containerHeight - contentHeight) / 2;
content.css('margin-top', margin);
})
});
One option existed that I found:
Everybody says to use:
margin: auto 0;
But there is another option. Set this property for the parent div. It
works perfectly anytime:
text-align: center;
And see, child go center.
And finally CSS for you:
#outer{
text-align: center;
display: block; /* Or inline-block - base on your need */
}
#inner
{
position: relative;
margin: 0 auto; /* It is good to be */
}
This question already has answers here:
How can I horizontally center an element?
(133 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I have a div tag with width set to 800 pixels. When the browser width is greater than 800 pixels, it shouldn't stretch the div, but it should bring it to the middle of the page.
<body>
<div style="width:800px; margin:0 auto;">
centered content
</div>
</body>
position: absolute and then top:50% and left:50% places the top edge at the vertical center of the screen, and the left edge at the horizontal center, then by adding margin-top to the negative of the height of the div, i.e., -100 shifts it above by 100 and similarly for margin-left. This gets the div exactly in the center of the page.
#outPopUp {
position: absolute;
width: 300px;
height: 200px;
z-index: 15;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin: -100px 0 0 -150px;
background: red;
}
<div id="outPopUp"></div>
Flexbox solution is the way to go in/from 2015. justify-content: center is used for the parent element to align the content to the center of it.
HTML
<div class="container">
<div class="center">Center</div>
</div>
CSS
.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
Output
.container {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
}
.center {
width: 400px;
padding: 10px;
background: #5F85DB;
color: #fff;
font-weight: bold;
font-family: Tahoma;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="center">Centered div with left aligned text.</div>
</div>
Do you mean that you want to center it vertically or horizontally? You said you specified the height to 800 pixels, and wanted the div not to stretch when the width was greater than that...
To center horizontally, you can use the margin: auto; attribute in CSS. Also, you'll have to make sure that the body and html elements don't have any margin or padding:
html, body { margin: 0; padding: 0; }
#centeredDiv { margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto; width: 800px; }
<div></div>
div {
display: table;
margin-right: auto;
margin-left: auto;
}
To make it also work correctly in Internet Explorer 6 you have to do it as follows:
HTML
<body>
<div class="centered">
centered content
</div>
</body>
CSS
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-align: center; /* !!! */
}
.centered {
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: left;
width: 800px;
}
Div centered vertically and horizontally inside the parent without fixing the content size
Here on this page is a nice overview with several solutions, too much code to share here, but it shows what is possible...
Personally I like this solution with the famous transform translate -50% trick the most. It works well for both fixed (% or px) and undefined height and width of your element.
The code is as simple as:
HTML:
<div class="center"><div>
CSS:
.center {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 50%;
-moz-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* Firefox */
-ms-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* IE 9 */
-webkit-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* Safari and Chrome*/
-o-transform: translate(-50%, -50%); /* Opera */
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
/* optional size in px or %: */
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
}
Here a fiddle that shows that it works
You can also use it like this:
<div style="width: 60%; margin: 0px auto;">
Your contents here...
</div>
Simply use the center tag just after the body tag, and end the center tag just before body ends:
<body>
<center>
... Your code here ...
</center>
</body>
This worked for me with all the browsers I have tried.
This can be easily achieved via flex container.
.container{
width: 100%;
display: flex;
height: 100vh;
justify-content: center;
}
.item{
align-self: center;
}
Preview Link
Add this class to the div you want centered (which should have a set width):
.marginAutoLR
{
margin-right:auto;
margin-left:auto;
}
Or, add the margin stuff to your div class, like this:
.divClass
{
width:300px;
margin-right:auto;
margin-left:auto;
}
Use the CSS flex property: http://jsfiddle.net/cytr/j7SEa/6/show/
body { /* Centered */
display: box;
flex-align: center;
flex-pack: center;
}
Some other pre-existing setups from older code that will prevent div page centering L&R are:
Other classes hidden in external stylesheet links.
Other classes embedded in something like an img (like for older external CSS print format controls).
Legend code with IDs and/or CLASSES will conflict with a named div class.
Centering without specifying div width:
body {
text-align: center;
}
body * {
text-align: initial;
}
body div {
display: inline-block;
}
This is something like <center> tag does, except:
all direct inline childs elements (eg. <h1>) of <center> will also positioned to center
inline-block element can have different size (comapred to display:block setting) according to browser defaults
Use the below code for centering the div box:
.box-content{
margin: auto;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
position: absolute;
width: 800px;
height: 100px;
background-color: green;
}
<div class="box-content">
</div>
If you have some regular content, and not only one line of text, the only possible reason I know is to calculate margin.
Here is an example:
HTML
<div id="supercontainer">
<div id="middlecontainer">
<div class="common" id="first">first</div>
<div id="container">
<div class="common" id="second">second</div>
<div class="common" id="third">third</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
CSS
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
.common {
border: 1px solid black;
}
#supercontainer {
width: 1200px;
background: aqua;
float: left;
}
#middlecontainer {
float: left;
width: 104px;
margin: 0 549px;
}
#container {
float: left;
}
#first {
background: red;
height: 102px;
width: 50px;
float: left;
}
#second {
background: green;
height: 50px;
width: 50px;
}
#third {
background: yellow;
height: 50px;
width: 50px;
}
So, #supercontainer is your "whole page" and its width is 1200px.
#middlecontainer is div with content of your site; it's width 102px. In case the width of content is known, you need to divide the page's size to 2, and subtract half of content's width from the result:
1200 / 2 - (102 / 2) = 549;
Yes, I'm also seeing that this is der grosse fail of CSS.
.middle {
margin:0 auto;
text-align: center;
}
/* it brings div to center */
parent {
position: relative;
}
child {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
transform: translateX(-50%);
}
<parent>
<child>
</child>
</parent>
Use justify-content and align-items to horizontally and vertically align a div
https://developer.mozilla.org/de/docs/Web/CSS/justify-content
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/CSS/align-items
html,
body,
.container {
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
.container {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
}
.mydiv {
width: 80px;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="mydiv">h & v aligned</div>
</div>
body, html {
display: table;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
.container {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.container .box {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: red;
margin: 0 auto;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/NPV2E/
"width:100%" for the "body" tag is only for an example. In a real project you may remove this property.
Simple http://jsfiddle.net/8pd4qx5r/
html {
display: table;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
body {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.content {
margin: 0 auto;
width: 260px;
text-align: center;
background: pink;
}
This also works in Internet Explorer, but auto margins do not.
.centered {
position: absolute;
display: inline-block;
left: -500px;
width: 1000px;
margin: 0 50%;
}
If your center content is deep inside other divs then only margin can save you. Nothing else. I face it always when not using a framework like Bootstrap.
In my case, the phone screen size is unknown, and here is what I did.
HTML
<div class="loadingImg"></div>
CSS
.loadingImg{
position: fixed;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
z-index: 9999999;
border: 0;
background: url('../images/loading.gif') no-repeat center;
background-size: 50px 50px;
display: block;
margin: 0 auto;
-webkit-border-radius: 50px;
border-radius: 50px;
}
JavaScript (before you need to show this DIV)
$(".loadingImg").css("height",$(document).height());
$(".loadingImg").css("width",$(document).width());
$(".loadingImg").show();
<body>
<div style=" display: table; margin: 250 auto;">
In center
</div>
</body>
If you want to change the vertical position, change the value of 250 and you can arrange the content as per your need. There is no need to give the width and other parameters.
For some reason, none of the previous answers worked for me really. This is what worked for me and it works across browsers as well:
.center {
text-align: center;
height: 100%;
/* Safari, Opera, and Chrome */
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-pack: center;
-webkit-box-align: center;
/* Firefox */
display: -moz-box;
-moz-box-pack: center;
-moz-box-align: center;
/* Internet Explorer 10 */
display: -ms-flexbox;
-ms-flex-pack: center;
-ms-flex-align: center;
}
Get the width of the screen.
Then make margin left 25%
Make margin right 25%
In this way the content of your container will sit in the middle.
Example: suppose that container width = 800px;
<div class='container' width='device-width' id='updatedContent'>
<p id='myContent'></p>
<contents></contents>
<contents></contents>
</div>
if ($("#myContent").parent === $("updatedContent"))
{
$("#myContent").css({
'left': '-(device-width/0.25)px';
'right': '-(device-width/0.225)px';
});
}