How can I horizontally center an element?

Asked 2023-09-20 20:02:10 View 354,499

How can I horizontally center a <div> within another <div> using CSS?

<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>
  • Of those great answers, I just want to highlight that you must give "#inner" a "width", or it will be "100%", and you can't tell if it's already centered. - anyone
  • display:flex; is the easiest to remember (Chrome gives you guides in DevTools) and supports centering on both axes. - anyone

Answers

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>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • You also set the top and bottom margins to 0, which is unrelated. Better putting margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto I think. - anyone
  • To support mobile browsers, I do not recommend using width: 50%. Use something like max-width: 300px instead. - anyone
  • Not necessarily margin:0 auto: it can be margin: <whatever_vertical_margin_you_need> auto second being the horizontal margin. - anyone
  • voted most but not a better solution. the best way to do this is to use the combination of div and span tag, block css property and cross browser inline-block, and text center will do the simple magin - anyone
  • Because "input" is inline element and must be centered by "text-align: center". - anyone

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • @SabaAhang the correct syntax for that would be float: none; and is probably only needed because #inner has inherited a float of either left or right from somewhere else in your CSS. - anyone
  • This is a nice solution. Just keep in mind that inner will inherit text-align so you may want to set inner's text-align to initial or some other value. - anyone

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

And this explains why the box model is the best approach:

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • Safari, as of now, still requires -webkit flags for flexbox (display: -webkit-flex; and -webkit-align-items: center; and -webkit-justify-content: center;) - anyone
  • I always think that use lots code is bad practice for example with this code I center my div: display: table; margin: auto; simple and easy - anyone

#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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • I don't like this solution because when the inner element is too broad for the screen, you can't scroll over the whole element horizontally. margin: 0 auto works better. - anyone
  • margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; centres a block level element - anyone
  • The default width for most block level elements is auto, which fills the available area on screen. Just being centered places it in the same position as left alignment. If you wish it to be visually centered you should set a width (or a max-width although Internet Explorer 6 and earlier do not support this, and IE 7 only supports it in standards mode). - anyone

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;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

And it will stay in the center even when you resize your screen.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • +1 for this method, I was about to answer with it. Note that you must declare a width on the element you wish to center horizontally (or height if centering vertically). Here's a comprehensive explanation: codepen.io/shshaw/full/gEiDt. One of the more versatile and widely-supported methods of centering elements vertically and/or horizontally. - anyone
  • You cannot use padding within the div, but if you want to give the illusion use a border of the same color. - anyone

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • what do you mean by "syntax is outdated", is it deprecated? - anyone
  • The Flexbox specification has gone through 3 major revisions. The most recent draft is from Sept 2012, which officially deprecates all previous drafts. However, browser support is spotty (particularly old Android browsers): stackoverflow.com/questions/15662578/… - anyone
  • Isn't the "justify-content: center;" for the vertical alignment and the "align-items: center;" for the horizontal alignment? - anyone
  • @WouterVanherck it depends on the flex-direction value. If it is 'row' (the default) - then justify-content: center; is for the horizontal alignment (like I mentioned in the answer) If it is 'column' - then justify-content: center; is for the vertical alignment. - anyone

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:

#inner {
  display: table;
  margin: 0 auto;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • I used this, too, but I've never encountered display: table; before. What does it do? - anyone

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • This is the only one that works for perfect centering and will remain centered even after the contents in the div are modified. - anyone
  • It's a nice trick, but there is a little caveat. If the element has inline content that's wider than 50% of the parent's width, then the extra 50% offset from the left will extrapolate the parent's width, breaking the content to the next lines to avoid overflow. But it's possible to keep the content inline by setting in the centered element the white-space attribute to nowrap. Try that in this JSFiddle. - anyone

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

It cannot be centered if you don't give it a width. Otherwise, it will take, by default, the whole horizontal space.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • and if you don't know the width? Say because the content is dynamic? - anyone
  • max-width? what about that? - anyone
  • I use width: fit-content; and margin: 0 auto. I think this can work with unknown width. - anyone

CSS 3's box-align property

#outer {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  display: box;
  box-orient: horizontal;
  box-pack: center;
  box-align: center;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • It's now replaced by flexbox so it's not recommended anymore - still, worth an upvote for me! - anyone

The way I usually do it is using absolute position:

#inner {
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  position: absolute;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

The outer div doesn't need any extra properties for this to work.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • This may not work if you have other divs below the centered div. - anyone

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>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • text-align is actually necessary for it to work in IE quicks mode, so if you don't mind adding a little expression to support older browsers keep it there. (IE8 with IE8 rules and IE7 rules both work without text-align, so may be it's only IE6 and older that are concerned) - anyone

Use:

#outerDiv {
  width: 500px;
}

#innerDiv {
  width: 200px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}
<div id="outerDiv">
  <div id="innerDiv">Inner Content</div>
</div>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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%);
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • One may need vendor prefixes as well : -webkit-transform: translate(-50%,0); -moz-transform: translate(-50%,0); -ms-transform: translate(-50%,0); -khtml-transform: translate(-50%,0); -o-transform: translate(-50%,0); - anyone

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;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

I recently found an approach:

#outer {
  position: absolute;
  left: 50%;
}

#inner {
  position: relative;
  left: -50%;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

Both elements must be the same width to function correctly.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • Just set this rule for #inner only: #inner { position:relative; left:50%; transform:translateX(-50%); }. This works for any width. - anyone

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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!

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

This method also works just fine:

#outer { /*div.container*/
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  /* For horizontal alignment */
  align-items: center;
  /* For vertical alignment   */
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

For the inner <div>, the only condition is that its height and width must not be larger than the ones of its container.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • in regards to edit records this person answered first on the page. Upvoting. - anyone

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:

#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>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

The easiest way:

#outer {
  width: 100%;
  text-align: center;
}
#inner {
  margin: auto;
  width: 200px;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Blabla</div>
</div>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • As your fiddle notes, #inner has to have a width set on it. - anyone
  • #outer doesn't need any width:100%; as the <div> by default always has width:100%. and text-align:center is also not a necessary at all. - anyone

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;
}
<div id="outer">
  <div id="inner">Foo foo</div>
</div>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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:

  1. Wrap .inner inside .center-helper
  2. Make .center-helper an inline block; it becomes the same size as .inner making it 300 pixels wide.
  3. Push .center-helper 50% right relative to its parent; this places its left at 500 pixels wrt. outer.
  4. 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.
  5. 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>

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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;

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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 % );
}

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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.

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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);
  })
});

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

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 */
}

Answered   2023-09-20 20:02:10

  • text-align work for text alignment in its container not for its container to its parent. - anyone
  • i test it , i problem with set child to center , must when you have more one child , more times margin:0 auto font answer , but , text-align center , for parent make this child be center , even if they are element and not be text , test and see what happen - anyone
  • text-align center text only. You right at this time but when you write a container css which contains a child with different width and color your code does't work. Test it again!!!! - anyone
  • See this example jsfiddle.net/uCdPK/2 and tell me what do you think about it!!!!! - anyone