How to center an element horizontally and vertically

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.


  • 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).

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>

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>

Tags:

Html

Css

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