How do I center content in a div using CSS? - css

How do I center content in a div both horizontally and vertically?

To align horizontally it's pretty straight forward:
<style type="text/css">
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
text-align: center;
}
.bodyclass #container {
width: ???px; /*SET your width here*/
margin: 0 auto;
text-align: left;
}
</style>
<body class="bodyclass ">
<div id="container">type your content here</div>
</body>
and for vertical align, it's a bit tricky:
here's the source
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>Universal vertical center with CSS</title>
<style>
.greenBorder {border: 1px solid green;} /* just borders to see it */
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="greenBorder" style="display: table; height: 400px; #position: relative; overflow: hidden;">
<div style=" #position: absolute; #top: 50%;display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle;">
<div class="greenBorder" style=" #position: relative; #top: -50%">
any text<br>
any height<br>
any content, for example generated from DB<br>
everything is vertically centered
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Update 2020:
There are several options available*:
*Disclaimer: This list may not be complete.
Using Flexbox
Nowadays, we can use flexbox. It is quite a handy alternative to the css-transform option. I would use this solution almost always. If it is just one element maybe not, but for example if I had to support an array of data e.g. rows and columns and I want them to be relatively centered in the very middle.
.flexbox {
display: flex;
height: 100px;
flex-flow: row wrap;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
background-color: #eaeaea;
border: 1px dotted #333;
}
.item {
/* default => flex: 0 1 auto */
background-color: #fff;
border: 1px dotted #333;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
<div class="flexbox">
<div class="item">I am centered in the middle.</div>
<div class="item">I am centered in the middle, too.</div>
</div>
Using CSS 2D-Transform
This is still a good option, was also the accepted solution back in 2015.
It is very slim and simple to apply and does not mess with the layouting of other elements.
.boxes {
position: relative;
}
.box {
position: relative;
display: inline-block;
float: left;
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
font-weight: bold;
color: #333;
margin-right: 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
background-color: #eaeaea;
}
.h-center {
text-align: center;
}
.v-center span {
position: absolute;
left: 0;
right: 0;
top: 50%;
transform: translate(0, -50%);
}
<div class="boxes">
<div class="box h-center">horizontally centered lorem ipsun dolor sit amet</div>
<div class="box v-center"><span>vertically centered lorem ipsun dolor sit amet lorem ipsun dolor sit amet</span></div>
<div class="box h-center v-center"><span>horizontally and vertically centered lorem ipsun dolor sit amet</span></div>
</div>
Note: This does also work with :after and :before pseudo-elements.
Using Grid
This might just be an overkill, but it depends on your DOM. If you want to use grid anyway, then why not. It is very powerful alternative and you are really maximum flexible with the design.
Note: To align the items vertically we use flexbox in combination with
grid. But we could also use display: grid on the items.
.grid {
display: grid;
width: 400px;
grid-template-rows: 100px;
grid-template-columns: 100px 100px 100px;
grid-gap: 3px;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
background-color: #eaeaea;
border: 1px dotted #333;
}
.item {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
border: 1px dotted #333;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
.item-large {
height: 80px;
}
<div class="grid">
<div class="item">Item 1</div>
<div class="item item-large">Item 2</div>
<div class="item">Item 3</div>
</div>
Further reading:
CSS article about grid
CSS article about flexbox
CSS article about centering without flexbox or grid

with all the adjusting css.
if possible, wrap it with a table
with height and width as 100% and
td set it to vertical align to middle, text-align to center

By using transform: works like a charm!
<div class="parent">
<span>center content using transform</span>
</div>
//CSS
.parent {
position: relative;
height: 200px;
border: 1px solid;
}
.parent span {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
-webkit-transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}

Related

How to make a floating div stick to the top

I have 3 "boxes"/divs side by side with this class:
.roundedBox {
float: left;
background-color: aliceblue;
border-radius: 15px;
padding: 20px;
margin: 20px;
}
Because the midle one is much taller then the other 2, I would like the other 2 to come down while we scroll down, so I tought to add this code/css class to the ones on the sides:
.stickTop {
position: sticky;
top: 0;
}
Doesn't seem to make any diference, what am I missing?
You have to do some tricks in there PLUS fix the structure of your HTML - because using "float" might become a problem with responsiveness.
1st, create <div> as the outer container, this will represent as the main "row" of your 3 column boxes (roundedBox, results, roundedBox). Class name it as "container". In your CSS, this one should have display: flex; flex-direction: row;
2nd, create another 3 <div> inside the class="container" as the column boxes. Class name each as "box-item". Add another class name on the first and third "roundedBox". In your CSS, "box-item" should have width: 60%; position: relative; and "roundedBox" should have width: 20%;
3rd, Inside of each class="box-item", there will be another <div class="inner-box-item">. Because the tricks of floating boxes will start here. Add class names on the first and third "inner-box-item" with "box-float" and "box-left"/"box-right". In your CSS, "box-float" should have position: fixed;. This should float the left and right boxes upon scrolling the page. In your CSS again, add ".box-float" together with ".roundedBox" to have 20% width of the box.
Take note that every time you use position: fixed; in CSS, you have to always declare the item's width.
If you're asking why "inner-box-item" is necessary, you can experiment by removing it and just position: fixed; the ".box-item" instead. See what will happen there only if you have time.
See the HTML structure and CSS below, this should be easier for you to adjust the boxes in smaller devices too.
Structure:
body {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
.container {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
}
.box-item {
width: 60%;
padding: 20px;
position: relative;
}
.roundedBox, .box-float {
width: 20%;
}
.inner-box-item {
background: pink;
height: 1000px;
}
.box-float {
position: fixed;
max-height: 50vh;
}
.box-left {
left: 20px
}
.box-right {
right: 20px
}
p {
margin: 0;
}
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
</head>
<body>
<div class="container">
<div class="box-item roundedBox">
<div class="inner-box-item box-float box-left">
<p>A</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="box-item">
<div class="inner-box-item">
<p>B</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="box-item roundedBox">
<div class="inner-box-item box-float box-right">
<p>C</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Hey you can check this approach below
.grid-container {
display: grid;
gap: 1rem;
grid-template-columns: min-content 1fr min-content;
position: relative;
}
.item-sticky {
background: firebrick;
padding: 1rem;
height: 150px;
position: sticky;
top: 10px;
}
.item-long {
background: orchid;
padding: 1rem;
height: 200vh;
}
<div class="grid-container">
<div class="item-sticky">
Some content
</div>
<div class="item-long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur, adipisicing elit. Earum, dolores.</div>
<div class="item-sticky">Somecontent</div>
</div>
After a bit of playing around with the solutions of #Servesh Chaturvedi and #Sabrina L. (and a bit of dispair)
I think I found something that uses the principle of both using flex
.roundedBox {
background-color: aliceblue;
border-radius: 15px;
padding: 20px;
margin: 20px;
}
.grid-container {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
flex-wrap: wrap;
align-items: flex-start;
}
.sticky {
position: sticky;
top: 10px;
}
.item-long {
background: orchid;
height: 200vh;
}
<div class="grid-container">
<div class="sticky roundedBox">Some content</div>
<div class="roundedBox item-long ">Lorem ipsum dolor </div>
<div class="sticky roundedBox">Somecontent</div>
</div>

Element Centering From The Left Instead Of Center [duplicate]

I am trying to center my tabs content vertically, but when I add the CSS style display:inline-flex, the horizontal text-align disappears.
How can I make both text alignments x and y for each of my tabs?
* { box-sizing: border-box; }
#leftFrame {
background-color: green;
position: absolute;
left: 0;
right: 60%;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
}
#leftFrame #tabs {
background-color: red;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
height: 25%;
}
#leftFrame #tabs div {
border: 2px solid black;
position: static;
float: left;
width: 50%;
height: 100%;
text-align: center;
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
}
<div id=leftFrame>
<div id=tabs>
<div>first</div>
<div>second</div>
</div>
</div>
Approach 1 - transform translateX/translateY:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
In supported browsers (most of them), you can use top: 50%/left: 50% in combination with translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%) to dynamically vertically/horizontally center the element.
.container {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
-moz-transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
-webkit-transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
}
<div class="container">
<span>I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</span>
</div>
Approach 2 - Flexbox method:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
In supported browsers, set the display of the targeted element to flex and use align-items: center for vertical centering and justify-content: center for horizontal centering. Just don't forget to add vendor prefixes for additional browser support (see example). Remember the parent container will also need height (in this case, 100%).
html, body, .container {
height: 100%;
}
.container {
display: -webkit-flexbox;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
-webkit-flex-align: center;
-ms-flex-align: center;
-webkit-align-items: center;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
}
<div class="container">
<span>I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</span>
</div>
Approach 3 - table-cell/vertical-align: middle:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
In some cases, you will need to ensure that the html/body element's height is set to 100%.
For vertical alignment, set the parent element's width/height to 100% and add display: table. Then for the child element, change the display to table-cell and add vertical-align: middle.
For horizontal centering, you could either add text-align: center to center the text and any other inline children elements. Alternatively, you could use margin: 0 auto, assuming the element is block level.
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
.parent {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: table;
text-align: center;
}
.parent > .child {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
<section class="parent">
<div class="child">I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</div>
</section>
Approach 4 - Absolutely positioned 50% from the top with displacement:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
This approach assumes that the text has a known height - in this instance, 18px. Just absolutely position the element 50% from the top, relative to the parent element. Use a negative margin-top value that is half of the element's known height, in this case - -9px.
html, body, .container {
height: 100%;
}
.container {
position: relative;
text-align: center;
}
.container > p {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 0;
right: 0;
margin-top: -9px;
}
<div class="container">
<p>I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</p>
</div>
Approach 5 - The line-height method (Least flexible - not suggested):
Example Here
In some cases, the parent element will have a fixed height. For vertical centering, all you have to do is set a line-height value on the child element equal to the fixed height of the parent element.
Though this solution will work in some cases, it's worth noting that it won't work when there are multiple lines of text - like this.
.parent {
height: 200px;
width: 400px;
background: lightgray;
text-align: center;
}
.parent > .child {
line-height: 200px;
}
<div class="parent">
<span class="child">I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</span>
</div>
If CSS3 is an option (or you have a fallback) you can use transform:
.center {
right: 50%;
bottom: 50%;
transform: translate(50%,50%);
position: absolute;
}
Unlike the first approach above, you don't want to use left:50% with the negative translation because there's an overflow bug in IE9+. Utilize a positive right value and you won't see horizontal scrollbars.
Here is how to use two simple flexbox properties to center n divs on the two axes:
Set the height of your container: Here the body is set to be at least 100 viewport height.
align-items: center; will center the blocks vertically if flex direction is row else horizontally if flex direction is column
justify-content: space-around; will distribute the free space vertically if flex direction is row else horizontally if flex direction is column around the div elements
body {
min-height: 100vh;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-around;
}
<div>foo</div>
<div>bar</div>
The best way to center a box both vertically and horizontally, is to use two containers :
The outher 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;
should adjust the horizontal text-alignment, unless you want text to be centered
Demo :
body {
margin : 0;
}
.outer-container {
display: table;
width: 80%;
height: 120px;
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">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Centering in the middle of the page:
To center your content in the middle of your page, add the following to your outer container :
position : absolute;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
Here's a demo for that :
body {
margin : 0;
}
.outer-container {
position : absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
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">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
CSS Grid: place-items
Finally, we have place-items: center for CSS Grid to make it easier.
HTML
<div class="parent">
<div class="to-center"></div>
</div>
CSS
.parent {
display: grid;
place-items: center;
}
Output:
html,
body {
height: 100%;
}
.container {
display: grid;
place-items: center;
height: 100%;
}
.center {
background: #5F85DB;
color: #fff;
font-weight: bold;
font-family: Tahoma;
padding: 10px;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="center" contenteditable>I am always super centered within my parent</div>
</div>
Run this code snippet and see a vertically and horizontally aligned div.
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>
.align {
display: flex;
width: 400px;
height: 400px;
border: solid 1px black;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-around;
}
.align div:first-child {
width: 20px;
height: 20px;
background-color: red;
position: absolute;
}
.align div {
width: 20px;
height: 20px;
background-color: blue;
}
<div class='align'>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
</div>
First child will be aligned vertically and horizontally at center
Source Link
Method 1) Display type flex
.child-element{
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
Method 2) 2D Transform
.child-element {
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50% , -50%);
position: absolute;
}
See other methods here
to center the Div in a page check the fiddle link
#vh {
border-radius: 15px;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
padding: 25px;
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
background: white;
text-align: center;
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
}
<div id="vh">Div to be aligned vertically</div>
Update
Another option is to use flex box check the fiddle link
.vh {
background-color: #ddd;
height: 200px;
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>
Below is the Flex-box approach to get desired result
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
<title>Flex-box approach</title>
<style>
.tabs{
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
width: 500px;
height: 250px;
background-color: grey;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.f{
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
margin: 20px;
background-color: yellow;
margin: 0 auto;
display: inline; /*for vertically aligning */
top: 9%; /*for vertically aligning */
position: relative; /*for vertically aligning */
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="tabs">
<div class="f">first</div>
<div class="f">second</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Another approach is to use table:
<div style="border:2px solid #8AC007; height:200px; width:200px;">
<table style="width:100%; height:100%">
<tr style="height:100%">
<td style="height:100%; text-align:center">hello, multiple lines here, this is super long, and that is awesome, dude</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
Grid css approach
#wrapper {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
left: 0;
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
grid-template-rows: repeat(3, 1fr);
}
.main {
background-color: #444;
}
<div id="wrapper">
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box main"></div>
</div>
Need to follow following New and easy solution:
.centered-class {
align-items: center;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
width: 100vw;
height: 100vh;
}
<div class="centered-class">
I'm in center vertically and horizontally.
</div>
The simplest and cleanest solution for me is using the CSS3 property "transform":
.container {
position: relative;
}
.container a {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
transform: translate(0,-50%);
}
<div class="container">
Hello world!
</div>
In order to vertically and horizontally center an element we can also use below mentioned properties.
This CSS property aligns-items vertically and accepts the following values:
flex-start: Items align to the top of the container.
flex-end: Items align to the bottom of the container.
center: Items align at the vertical center of the container.
baseline: Items display at the baseline of the container.
stretch: Items are stretched to fit the container.
This CSS property justify-content , which aligns items horizontally and accepts the following values:
flex-start: Items align to the left side of the container.
flex-end: Items align to the right side of the container.
center: Items align at the center of the container.
space-between: Items display with equal spacing between them.
space-around: Items display with equal spacing around them.
Just make top,bottom, left and right to 0.
<html>
<head>
<style>
<div>
{
position: absolute;
margin: auto;
background-color: lightblue;
width: 100px;
height :100px;
padding: 25px;
top :0;
right :0;
bottom:0;
left:0;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div> I am in the middle</div>
</body>
</html>
You can achieve this using CSS (your element display:inline-grid + grid-auto-flow: row; ) Grid and Flex Box ( parent element display:flex;),
See below snippet
#leftFrame {
display: flex;
height: 100vh;
width: 100%;
}
#tabs {
display: inline-grid;
grid-auto-flow: row;
grid-gap: 24px;
justify-items: center;
margin: auto;
}
html,body {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
<div>
<div id=leftFrame>
<div id=tabs>
<div>first</div>
<div>second</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
This should works
.center-div {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
text-align: center;
min-height: 100vh;
}
<div class="center-div">Center Div</div>
If you prefer it without flexbox, grid, table or vertical-align: middle;
You can do:
HTML
<div class="box">
<h2 class="box__label">square</h2>
</div>
CSS
.box {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid black;
}
.box__label {
box-sizing: border-box;
display: inline-block;
transform: translateY(50%);
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid black;
}
If it's only about text aligning it's simple. Just use this:
vertical-align: middle; /* vertical centering*/
text-align: center; /* horizontal centering*/
Parent styling is not needed.
In some cases when the parent has some style properties it may affect the child, where this will not work properly.
Approach 6
/*Change units to "%", "px" or whatever*/
#wrapper{
width: 50%;
height: 70vh;
background: rgba(0,0,0,.5);
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
margin: auto;
}
#left{
width: 50%;
height: 50vh;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
margin: auto;
background: red;
}
#right{
width: 50%;
height: 50vh;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
margin: auto;
background: green;
}
.txt{
text-align: center;
line-height: 50vh;
}
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="left" class="txt">Left</div>
<div id="right" class="txt">Right</div>
</div>
.container{
width: 50%; //Your container width here
height: 50%; //Your container height here
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
margin: auto;
}
The easiest way of centering a div both vertically and horizontally is as follows:
<div style="display: table; width: 200px; height: 200px; border: 1px solid black;">
<div style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;">
Text Here
</div>
</div>
One More Example:
.parent {
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
.child {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
<h4><u>SERVICE IN BANGLADESH FLEET RESERVE <br> AND <br> RE-ENGAGEMENT ORDER FOR DEFENCE SERVICE</u></h4>
</div>
</div>
I see this the shortest and easiest way. However it depends on the element width and height. So feel free to adjust more the percentages on translate(50%, 50%);.
.divContainer {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
transform: translate(50%, 50%);
}
<div class="divContainer">I am centered</div>
The simplest flexbox approach:
The easiest way how to center a single element vertically and horizontally is to make it a flex item and set its margin to auto:
If you apply auto margins to a flex item, that item will automatically
extend its specified margin to occupy the extra space in the flex
container...
.flex-container {
height: 150px;
display: flex;
}
.flex-item {
margin: auto;
}
<div class="flex-container">
<div class="flex-item">
This should be centered!
</div>
</div>
This extension of margins in each direction will push the element exactly to the middle of its container.
In the case where I was trying to vertically align text content inside button::before and button::after, I was able to get it working using vertical-align: text-top.
button::after {
vertical-align: text-top;
}
I use this CSS code:
display: grid;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
The source is CSS-Tricks
This is a related problem that people might come to this page when searching: When I want to centre a div for a "waiting.." 100px square animated gif, I use:
.centreDiv {
position: absolute;
top: -moz-calc(50vh - 50px);
top: -webkit-calc(50vh - 50px);
top: calc(50vh - 50px);
left: -moz-calc(50vw - 50px);
left: -webkit-calc(50vw - 50px);
left: calc(50vw - 50px);
z-index: 1000; /* whatever is required */
}

Center align group of divs within a div [duplicate]

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 to center div and text align left? [duplicate]

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 */
}

Center text vertically in a div with height 50% [duplicate]

I am trying to center my tabs content vertically, but when I add the CSS style display:inline-flex, the horizontal text-align disappears.
How can I make both text alignments x and y for each of my tabs?
* { box-sizing: border-box; }
#leftFrame {
background-color: green;
position: absolute;
left: 0;
right: 60%;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
}
#leftFrame #tabs {
background-color: red;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
height: 25%;
}
#leftFrame #tabs div {
border: 2px solid black;
position: static;
float: left;
width: 50%;
height: 100%;
text-align: center;
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
}
<div id=leftFrame>
<div id=tabs>
<div>first</div>
<div>second</div>
</div>
</div>
Approach 1 - transform translateX/translateY:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
In supported browsers (most of them), you can use top: 50%/left: 50% in combination with translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%) to dynamically vertically/horizontally center the element.
.container {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
-moz-transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
-webkit-transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
transform: translateX(-50%) translateY(-50%);
}
<div class="container">
<span>I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</span>
</div>
Approach 2 - Flexbox method:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
In supported browsers, set the display of the targeted element to flex and use align-items: center for vertical centering and justify-content: center for horizontal centering. Just don't forget to add vendor prefixes for additional browser support (see example). Remember the parent container will also need height (in this case, 100%).
html, body, .container {
height: 100%;
}
.container {
display: -webkit-flexbox;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
-webkit-flex-align: center;
-ms-flex-align: center;
-webkit-align-items: center;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
}
<div class="container">
<span>I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</span>
</div>
Approach 3 - table-cell/vertical-align: middle:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
In some cases, you will need to ensure that the html/body element's height is set to 100%.
For vertical alignment, set the parent element's width/height to 100% and add display: table. Then for the child element, change the display to table-cell and add vertical-align: middle.
For horizontal centering, you could either add text-align: center to center the text and any other inline children elements. Alternatively, you could use margin: 0 auto, assuming the element is block level.
html, body {
height: 100%;
}
.parent {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
display: table;
text-align: center;
}
.parent > .child {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
<section class="parent">
<div class="child">I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</div>
</section>
Approach 4 - Absolutely positioned 50% from the top with displacement:
Example Here / Full Screen Example
This approach assumes that the text has a known height - in this instance, 18px. Just absolutely position the element 50% from the top, relative to the parent element. Use a negative margin-top value that is half of the element's known height, in this case - -9px.
html, body, .container {
height: 100%;
}
.container {
position: relative;
text-align: center;
}
.container > p {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 0;
right: 0;
margin-top: -9px;
}
<div class="container">
<p>I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</p>
</div>
Approach 5 - The line-height method (Least flexible - not suggested):
Example Here
In some cases, the parent element will have a fixed height. For vertical centering, all you have to do is set a line-height value on the child element equal to the fixed height of the parent element.
Though this solution will work in some cases, it's worth noting that it won't work when there are multiple lines of text - like this.
.parent {
height: 200px;
width: 400px;
background: lightgray;
text-align: center;
}
.parent > .child {
line-height: 200px;
}
<div class="parent">
<span class="child">I'm vertically/horizontally centered!</span>
</div>
If CSS3 is an option (or you have a fallback) you can use transform:
.center {
right: 50%;
bottom: 50%;
transform: translate(50%,50%);
position: absolute;
}
Unlike the first approach above, you don't want to use left:50% with the negative translation because there's an overflow bug in IE9+. Utilize a positive right value and you won't see horizontal scrollbars.
Here is how to use two simple flexbox properties to center n divs on the two axes:
Set the height of your container: Here the body is set to be at least 100 viewport height.
align-items: center; will center the blocks vertically if flex direction is row else horizontally if flex direction is column
justify-content: space-around; will distribute the free space vertically if flex direction is row else horizontally if flex direction is column around the div elements
body {
min-height: 100vh;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-around;
}
<div>foo</div>
<div>bar</div>
The best way to center a box both vertically and horizontally, is to use two containers :
The outher 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;
should adjust the horizontal text-alignment, unless you want text to be centered
Demo :
body {
margin : 0;
}
.outer-container {
display: table;
width: 80%;
height: 120px;
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">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
Centering in the middle of the page:
To center your content in the middle of your page, add the following to your outer container :
position : absolute;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
Here's a demo for that :
body {
margin : 0;
}
.outer-container {
position : absolute;
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
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">
Center this!
</div>
</div>
</div>
See also this Fiddle!
CSS Grid: place-items
Finally, we have place-items: center for CSS Grid to make it easier.
HTML
<div class="parent">
<div class="to-center"></div>
</div>
CSS
.parent {
display: grid;
place-items: center;
}
Output:
html,
body {
height: 100%;
}
.container {
display: grid;
place-items: center;
height: 100%;
}
.center {
background: #5F85DB;
color: #fff;
font-weight: bold;
font-family: Tahoma;
padding: 10px;
}
<div class="container">
<div class="center" contenteditable>I am always super centered within my parent</div>
</div>
Run this code snippet and see a vertically and horizontally aligned div.
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>
.align {
display: flex;
width: 400px;
height: 400px;
border: solid 1px black;
align-items: center;
justify-content: space-around;
}
.align div:first-child {
width: 20px;
height: 20px;
background-color: red;
position: absolute;
}
.align div {
width: 20px;
height: 20px;
background-color: blue;
}
<div class='align'>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
</div>
First child will be aligned vertically and horizontally at center
Source Link
Method 1) Display type flex
.child-element{
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}
Method 2) 2D Transform
.child-element {
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50% , -50%);
position: absolute;
}
See other methods here
to center the Div in a page check the fiddle link
#vh {
border-radius: 15px;
box-shadow: 0 0 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
padding: 25px;
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
background: white;
text-align: center;
margin: auto;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
}
<div id="vh">Div to be aligned vertically</div>
Update
Another option is to use flex box check the fiddle link
.vh {
background-color: #ddd;
height: 200px;
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>
Below is the Flex-box approach to get desired result
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
<title>Flex-box approach</title>
<style>
.tabs{
display: -webkit-flex;
display: flex;
width: 500px;
height: 250px;
background-color: grey;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.f{
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
margin: 20px;
background-color: yellow;
margin: 0 auto;
display: inline; /*for vertically aligning */
top: 9%; /*for vertically aligning */
position: relative; /*for vertically aligning */
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="tabs">
<div class="f">first</div>
<div class="f">second</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Another approach is to use table:
<div style="border:2px solid #8AC007; height:200px; width:200px;">
<table style="width:100%; height:100%">
<tr style="height:100%">
<td style="height:100%; text-align:center">hello, multiple lines here, this is super long, and that is awesome, dude</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
Grid css approach
#wrapper {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
left: 0;
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(3, 1fr);
grid-template-rows: repeat(3, 1fr);
}
.main {
background-color: #444;
}
<div id="wrapper">
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box"></div>
<div class="box main"></div>
</div>
Need to follow following New and easy solution:
.centered-class {
align-items: center;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
width: 100vw;
height: 100vh;
}
<div class="centered-class">
I'm in center vertically and horizontally.
</div>
The simplest and cleanest solution for me is using the CSS3 property "transform":
.container {
position: relative;
}
.container a {
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
transform: translate(0,-50%);
}
<div class="container">
Hello world!
</div>
In order to vertically and horizontally center an element we can also use below mentioned properties.
This CSS property aligns-items vertically and accepts the following values:
flex-start: Items align to the top of the container.
flex-end: Items align to the bottom of the container.
center: Items align at the vertical center of the container.
baseline: Items display at the baseline of the container.
stretch: Items are stretched to fit the container.
This CSS property justify-content , which aligns items horizontally and accepts the following values:
flex-start: Items align to the left side of the container.
flex-end: Items align to the right side of the container.
center: Items align at the center of the container.
space-between: Items display with equal spacing between them.
space-around: Items display with equal spacing around them.
Just make top,bottom, left and right to 0.
<html>
<head>
<style>
<div>
{
position: absolute;
margin: auto;
background-color: lightblue;
width: 100px;
height :100px;
padding: 25px;
top :0;
right :0;
bottom:0;
left:0;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div> I am in the middle</div>
</body>
</html>
You can achieve this using CSS (your element display:inline-grid + grid-auto-flow: row; ) Grid and Flex Box ( parent element display:flex;),
See below snippet
#leftFrame {
display: flex;
height: 100vh;
width: 100%;
}
#tabs {
display: inline-grid;
grid-auto-flow: row;
grid-gap: 24px;
justify-items: center;
margin: auto;
}
html,body {
margin:0;
padding:0;
}
<div>
<div id=leftFrame>
<div id=tabs>
<div>first</div>
<div>second</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
This should works
.center-div {
display: flex;
flex-direction: column;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
text-align: center;
min-height: 100vh;
}
<div class="center-div">Center Div</div>
If you prefer it without flexbox, grid, table or vertical-align: middle;
You can do:
HTML
<div class="box">
<h2 class="box__label">square</h2>
</div>
CSS
.box {
box-sizing: border-box;
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid black;
}
.box__label {
box-sizing: border-box;
display: inline-block;
transform: translateY(50%);
text-align: center;
border: 1px solid black;
}
If it's only about text aligning it's simple. Just use this:
vertical-align: middle; /* vertical centering*/
text-align: center; /* horizontal centering*/
Parent styling is not needed.
In some cases when the parent has some style properties it may affect the child, where this will not work properly.
Approach 6
/*Change units to "%", "px" or whatever*/
#wrapper{
width: 50%;
height: 70vh;
background: rgba(0,0,0,.5);
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
margin: auto;
}
#left{
width: 50%;
height: 50vh;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
margin: auto;
background: red;
}
#right{
width: 50%;
height: 50vh;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
margin: auto;
background: green;
}
.txt{
text-align: center;
line-height: 50vh;
}
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="left" class="txt">Left</div>
<div id="right" class="txt">Right</div>
</div>
.container{
width: 50%; //Your container width here
height: 50%; //Your container height here
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
margin: auto;
}
The easiest way of centering a div both vertically and horizontally is as follows:
<div style="display: table; width: 200px; height: 200px; border: 1px solid black;">
<div style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center;">
Text Here
</div>
</div>
One More Example:
.parent {
display: table;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
.child {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
text-align: center;
}
<div class="parent">
<div class="child">
<h4><u>SERVICE IN BANGLADESH FLEET RESERVE <br> AND <br> RE-ENGAGEMENT ORDER FOR DEFENCE SERVICE</u></h4>
</div>
</div>
I see this the shortest and easiest way. However it depends on the element width and height. So feel free to adjust more the percentages on translate(50%, 50%);.
.divContainer {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
transform: translate(50%, 50%);
}
<div class="divContainer">I am centered</div>
The simplest flexbox approach:
The easiest way how to center a single element vertically and horizontally is to make it a flex item and set its margin to auto:
If you apply auto margins to a flex item, that item will automatically
extend its specified margin to occupy the extra space in the flex
container...
.flex-container {
height: 150px;
display: flex;
}
.flex-item {
margin: auto;
}
<div class="flex-container">
<div class="flex-item">
This should be centered!
</div>
</div>
This extension of margins in each direction will push the element exactly to the middle of its container.
In the case where I was trying to vertically align text content inside button::before and button::after, I was able to get it working using vertical-align: text-top.
button::after {
vertical-align: text-top;
}
I use this CSS code:
display: grid;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
The source is CSS-Tricks
This is a related problem that people might come to this page when searching: When I want to centre a div for a "waiting.." 100px square animated gif, I use:
.centreDiv {
position: absolute;
top: -moz-calc(50vh - 50px);
top: -webkit-calc(50vh - 50px);
top: calc(50vh - 50px);
left: -moz-calc(50vw - 50px);
left: -webkit-calc(50vw - 50px);
left: calc(50vw - 50px);
z-index: 1000; /* whatever is required */
}

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