CSS: Vertical align content of an element - css

I need to vertical align a span, but the thing that makes this complicated is that this span needs to occupy its whole parent. Something like this jsfiddle
So, the HTML is
<div>
<span>OK</span>
</div>
CSS:
div {
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
background-color: lightgrey;
}
span {
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
}
Is this possible without changing the html ?
UPDATE: Although the below answers are all correct and interesting, I chose the one I actually used to be the correct one!

Tell it to behave like a table:
div {
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
background-color: lightgrey;
display: table;
}
span {
display: table-cell;
text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/9uaE6/2/

div{
/* Internet Explorer 10 */
display:-ms-flexbox;
-ms-flex-pack:start;
-ms-flex-align:center;
/* Firefox */
display:-moz-box;
-moz-box-pack:start;
-moz-box-align:center;
/* Safari, Opera, and Chrome */
display:-webkit-box;
-webkit-box-pack:start;
-webkit-box-align:center;
/* W3C */
display:box;
box-pack:start;
box-align:center;
}
Source:ms-flex
your Updated Fiddle

You could achieve that with a 'ghost' pseudo element
span {
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
span:before {
content: "";
display:inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
height: 100%;
}
An example : http://jsfiddle.net/9uaE6/11/

Related

Centering vertically an absolutely positioned iframe inside a div without having to manually set the height and width for all elements? [duplicate]

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>

Center by absolute position work fine in Chrome but not in latest versions of IE and Firefox [duplicate]

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>

Can't vertically center my logo

On my page the top left logo isn't centered. Here's my code:
.header_col1 {
float: left;
width: 20%;
background: #009240;
text-align: center;
position: relative;
}
.header_col1 a { /* my logo */
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}
Yet according to articles I've read this technique should work. Why not in this case? I don't want to use absolute positioning because the green area around the logo descreases in size in smaller resolutions and logo must do so too.
Here is one way of doing it.
Apply display: table-cell to the a element wrapping your image and inherit the width and height from the .header-col1 ancestor block.
You can then use vertical-align: middle and text-align: center to get the alignment that you want. Add some left-right padding if you need some white space at the left and right edges.
Finally, to get the image to act responsively, set width: 100% and use vertical-align: top to take care of the white-space-below-the-baseline issue.
.header_col1, .header_col2 {
height: 110px;
}
.header_col1 {
float: left;
width: 20%;
background: #009240 none repeat scroll 0% 0%;
text-align: center;
position: relative;
}
.header_col1 a {
vertical-align: middle;
display: table-cell;
text-align: center;
width: inherit;
height: inherit;
padding: 0 10px; /* optional if you need left/right whitespace */
}
.header_col1 a img {
width: 100%;
vertical-align: top;
}
<div class="header_col1">
<a id="logo" href="#">
<img src="http://placehold.it/262x78">
</a>
</div>
Use the display table magic trick :-)
.header_col1 {
display:table;
}
.header_col1 a { /* my logo */
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
I would center it with transforms.
.header_col1 a { /* my logo */
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
position: relative;
padding: .5em;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
}
EDIT: Added padding: .5em; to give the logo some breathing room on smaller screens, when the container starts to shrink.
The new hotness would be this;
.header_col1 {
display: -webkit-box;
display: -moz-box;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
}
.header_col1 a { /* my logo */
margin: auto;
}
Note: as time goes by, the vendor prefixes -webkit- -moz- ms- will be not nessacery.
here is a sample: https://jsfiddle.net/w4m50ybd/1/
Bonus: making the image resize to the container is a different question.. however the answer to that is width: 100%; height: auto; in the most simple case.
Try this
.header_col1:before {
content: '';
display: inline-block;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
margin-right: -0.25em;
}
.header_col1 a {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
max-width: 100%;
}
Codepen Demo
You need to set a line-height equal to the height for the .header_col1 for this technique to work:
.header_col1 {
float: left;
width: 20%;
background: #009240;
text-align: center;
position: relative;
line-height: 110px;
}
.header_col1 a { /* my logo */
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}
...and the img needs to be a block-element:
.header_col1 a img {
display: block;
}
Edit:
Add this to retain the flexible sizing:
.header_col1 a {
width: 100%;
}
.header_col1 a img {
max-width: 100%;
}
I have added line-height to the anchor tag.
header_col1 a {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 10;
}
you can use the table display to align a tag vertically and horizontally. This way is the easiest way to align an element. I did test on your page, it worked perfectly.
.header_col1 {
float: left;
width: 20%;
background: #009240;
text-align: center;
position: relative;
display: table;
}
.header_col1 a { /* my logo */
display: table-cell;
text-align: center
vertical-align: middle;
}
or another way is to use padding to center your element.
.header_col1 a {
padding: 16px 0px;
}
To avoid other headache while changing the size of your navigation in other devices and screen resolution, I recommend the first solution.

How do i align button in table display without adding any divs

http://jsfiddle.net/mXbfe/
Im trying to align the button with the input box without adding div tag. Can i do it just by CSS? i tried margin-top and padding-top on the input.submit but it doesnt work?
Here are the CSS:
#outer {
width: 50%;
display: table; /*padding: 1em 0 0; */
background: green;
}
#inner {
display: table-cell;
/*width: 100%;*/
background: red;
}
input {
width: 100%;
/*padding: .5em 1em;*/
}
Here are the HTML:
<div id='outer'>
<div id='inner'>
<label>Eat</label>
<input type='textbox'></input>
</div>
<input class='button_submit' type='submit'></input>
</div>
Change the input in your css to input[type=submit]
Move your display: table and display: table-cell declarations down a level: DEMO
#inner {
display: table;
}
input, label {
display: table-cell;
}
.button_submit {
width: auto;
}
you can make align the divs using display:table property. In your code you haven't apply any stlye for input button field.
Here is a Demo http://jsfiddle.net/kheema/mXbfe/24/
Have a look at this CSS.
#outer {
width: 50%;
display: table; /*padding: 1em 0 0; */
background: green;
}
#inner {
display: table-cell;
/*width: 100%;*/
background: red;
}
input[type="submit"]{display: table-cell;}

CSS vertical center image and text

I was wrote this source code just for example, I was manual enter padding-top 90px for h2 tag for example what i want; but when remove padding text is not centered vertical. This is not problem when i know bluebox div height but some times this is 200px, some times 900px.
.bluebox
{
width: 400px;
background-color: blue;
height: 200px;
}
.bluebox h2
{
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 10pt;
text-align: center;
padding-top: 90px;
}
<div class="bluebox"><h2>Hi i am a text, now I am only horizontal centered<h2></div>
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/5UJWa/
.bluebox {
width: 400px;
background-color: blue;
height: 200px;
position: relative; /* allow absolute positioning within */
}
.bluebox h2 {
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 10pt;
text-align: center;
position: absolute; /* positioning */
top: 50%; /* 50% from the top (half way) */
margin-top: -5pt; /* bring it back up half the height of your text size */
width: 100%; /* to allow for the text align */
}
Example at http://jsfiddle.net/zTPgh/1/ - Change the height of the container and run or update to see it in action.
You can play with display: table-cell;.
Your new CSS:
.bluebox {
width: 400px;
background-color: blue;
height: 150px;
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.bluebox h2 {
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 10pt;
text-align: center;
}
Check out the illustration on jsFiddle.
See my tutorial here which will vertically align and center text and images. DON'T rely on line-heights as you'll have huge gaps between lines of text. http://www.andy-howard.com/verticalAndHorizontalAlignment/index.html
I have Create one demo for vertical image center and text also i have test on firefox ,chrome,safari, internet explorer 9 and 8 too.
It is very short and easy css and html, Please check below code and you can find output on screenshort.
HTML
<div class="frame">
<img src="capabilities_icon1.png" alt="" />
</div>
CSS
.frame {
height: 160px;
width: 160px;
border: 1px solid red;
white-space: nowrap;
text-align: center; margin: 1em 0;
}
.frame::before {
display: inline-block;
height: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;
content:"";
}
img {
background: #3A6F9A;
vertical-align: middle;
}
For aligning an element vertically center, I have used css3 calc() function. It's perfectly working in all the latest browsers including ie11 and edge.
Check it live here https://jsfiddle.net/ashish_m/ebLxsxhk/
.calcTest { width: 250px; height: 250px; border:1px solid #e0e0e0; text-align: center; }
.calcTest .calcTestInner { width: 50px; height: 50px; background: #e0e0e0;
margin: 0 auto; margin-top: calc(50% - 25px); vertical-align: top; }
<div class="calcTest">
<div class="calcTestInner">
Hello Folks
</div>
</div>

Resources