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CSS•CSS Foundations

CSS Horizontal Align

Horizontal Centering

There are several ways to horizontally center elements in CSS, depending on the type of element.

Center Align Block Elements

Formula

Use margin: auto;, to horizontally center a block - level element (like < div >).

Also specify a width for the element, to prevent it from stretching out to the edges of its container.

Note:

Formula

Center aligning has no effect on block - level elements if the width property is not set

(or set to 100%). Below, the <div> element is centered and has a width of 50% (and the remaining space will be split equally between the left and right margins): This div element is centered.

Example.center

{
margin: auto;
width: 50%;
border: 3px solid green;
padding: 10px;
}

Center Align Text

Formula

To center the text inside a block - level element, use text - align: center;.

This text is centered.

Example p {
text-align: center;
}

Tip:

For more examples on how to align text, see the CSS Text chapter.

Center Align an Image

Formula

To center an image, set margin - left and margin - right to auto, and also turn the image into a block element:

Example img

{
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
width: 40%;
}

Formula

Left and Right Align - Using position

Another method for aligning elements is to use position: absolute;

Note:

Absolute positioned elements are removed from the normal flow, and can overlap other elements.

Formula

This < div > element is positioned to the right, with the position:

absolute property.

Example.right

{
position: absolute;
right: 0px;
width: 300px;
border: 3px solid green;
padding: 10px;
}

Formula

Left and Right Align - Using float

Another method for aligning an element to the left or right, is to use the float property:

Example.right

{
float: right;
width: 300px;
border: 3px solid green;
padding: 10px;
}

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CSS Center Align

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CSS Vertical Align