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 have trouble coding a 1px horizontal seperator line with a logo displayed in the center as pure CSS. Should look like this:
Divider with logo centered
There is a problem with multiple instances: When I add more dividers on a single page only one or two will be displayed with a line, the others will just display the logo.
A question about a centered logo was answered here - but none adressed the bug that happens with multiple instances: Divider with centred image in CSS?
Here is a adapted solution out of that discussion, fiddle below.
CSS:
body {
margin: 0;
background: white;
}
header:after {
content: '';
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 1px;
background: #ccc;
margin-top: -90px; /* Negative margin up by half height of logo + half total top and bottom padding around logo */
}
.logo {
position: relative; /* Brings the div above the header:after element */
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
padding: 40px;
margin: 0 auto;
background: white url("http://placehold.it/200x100") no-repeat center center;
}
.logo img {
display: block;
}
HTML:
<body>
<header>
<div class="logo">
</div>
<div class="logo">
</div>
<div class="logo">
</div>
</header>
</body>
The fiddle:
http://jsbin.com/delixecobi/edit?html,css,output
I totally changed the CSS. Give the .logo a position: relative and :after a position: absolute. You are using it for one single header. That's why it didn't work.
body {
margin: 0;
background: white;
}
.logo:after {
content: ' ';
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 1px;
background: #ccc;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -1px;
left: -50%;
width: 200%;
}
.logo {
position: relative; /* Brings the div above the header:after element */
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
padding: 40px;
margin: 0 auto;
background: white url("http://placehold.it/200x100") no-repeat center center;
}
.logo img {
display: block;
}
<header>
<div class="logo">
</div>
<div class="logo">
</div>
<div class="logo">
</div>
</header>
Preview
If you want the line not to cross or cut, use a negative z-index.
I found a solution also for my question how to get text centered within the div - thanks to web-tiki for his approach here: Line before and after title over image
In the JSBin I put all together and formatted / commented it a bit to make it easy to work with. You will find:
divider formats with img, text and text in multiple lines
stable in multiple instances
body {
margin: 0;
background: white;
}
.logo:after {
content: ' ';
display: block;
width: 100%;
height: 1px;
background: #ccc;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
margin-top: -1px;
left: -50%;
width: 200%;
z-index: -1;
}
.logo {
position: relative;
/* Brings the div above the header:after element */
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
padding: 20px;
/* also padding between line and logo */
margin: 0 auto;
background: white url("http://placehold.it/200x100") no-repeat center center;
}
.logo img {
display: block;
}
.logotext {
width: 100%;
margin: 20 auto;
overflow: hidden;
text-align: center;
font-weight: 300;
color: green;
/* color text */
}
.logotext:before,
.logotext:after {
content: "";
display: inline-block;
width: 50%;
margin: 0 20 0 -55%;
/* 2nd no: space text to line on the left */
vertical-align: middle;
border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc;
/* last: color line */
}
.logotext:after {
margin: 0 -55% 0 20;
/* last no: space text to line on the right */
}
span {
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
}
<header>
<div class="logo">
</div>
<div class="logo">
</div>
<div class="logotext">
somesome</div>
<div class="logotext">
somesome</div>
</header>
One major drawback to this solution is that it does not allow the width of the line to be defined to % of the main viewport.
JSFiddle here.
This is an SSCCE demonstrating a div with display:table with three child divs having a display:table-cell. The problem is that the .blog-post-slide overlaps the .previous-slide-arrow, rather than being adjacent to it.
The question is why, and how should I solve this problem.
.post-main-area {
display: table;
width: 100%;
}
.post-main-area .previous-slide-arrow,
.post-main-area .next-slide-arrow {
border: 5px solid green;
/*check*/
width: 5%;
display: table-cell;
position: relative;
vertical-align: middle;
left: 20px;
}
.post-main-area .next-slide-arrow {
left: auto;
right: 20px;
}
.post-slide {
border: 5px solid wheat;
/*check*/
width: 90%;
position: relative;
}
<div class="post-main-area">
<a class="previous-slide-arrow" href="#"><</a>
<div class="post-slide">.
<!--<div class="left-part">.</div>
<div class="right-part">.</div>-->
</div>
<a class="next-slide-arrow" href="#">></a>
</div>
Because you shift the first cell 20px to the right:
position: relative;
left: 20px;
Then, as explained in Relative positioning, it overlaps the following cell.
Once a box has been laid out according to the normal flow or floated,
it may be shifted relative to this position. This is called relative
positioning. Offsetting a box (B1) in this way has no effect on the
box (B2) that follows: B2 is given a position as if B1 were not offset
and B2 is not re-positioned after B1's offset is applied. This implies
that relative positioning may cause boxes to overlap.
Instead, I would add some margin to the table:
width: calc(100% - 40px);
margin: 0 20px;
.post-main-area {
display: table;
width: calc(100% - 40px);
margin: 0 20px;
}
.post-main-area .previous-slide-arrow,
.post-main-area .next-slide-arrow {
border: 5px solid green;
width: 5%;
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.post-slide {
border: 5px solid wheat;
}
<div class="post-main-area">
<a class="previous-slide-arrow" href="#"><</a>
<div class="post-slide">.</div>
<a class="next-slide-arrow" href="#">></a>
</div>
I wouldn't manually move the buttons and stuff, try adding display:table-cell; to .post-slide {} and getting rid of all of the left: and right: attributes like so;
.post-main-area {
display: table;
width: 100%;
}
.post-main-area .previous-slide-arrow,
.post-main-area .next-slide-arrow {
border: 5px solid green;
/*check*/
width: 5%;
display: table-cell;
position: relative;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.post-slide {
border: 5px solid wheat;
display: table-cell;
/*check*/
width: 90%;
position: relative;
}
This allows the computer to position everything like a table, and due to the widths and the order you write the elements in the html document, it should work.