How to Center Navbar Elements Vertically (Twitter Bootstrap)

How to center navbar elements vertically (Twitter Bootstrap)?

The .brand class uses a different line-height than the base text that is used throughout Bootstrap, as well as a few other key differences.

Relevant parts from the original bootstrap navbar LESS -

For .brand:

.brand {
  // Vertically center the text given $navbarHeight
  @elementHeight: 20px;
  padding: ((@navbarHeight - @elementHeight) / 2 - 2) 20px ((@navbarHeight - @elementHeight) / 2 + 2);
  font-size: 20px;
  line-height: 1;
}

For links in the navbar:

.navbar .nav > li > a {
  @elementHeight: 20px;
  padding: ((@navbarHeight - @elementHeight) / 2 - 1) 10px ((@navbarHeight - @elementHeight) / 2 + 1);
  line-height: 19px;
}

You'll probably need to play around with the values of @elementHeight, line-height, and maybe padding for the .navbar .nav > li > a selector to reflect the bigger 60px @navbarHeight (these default values are meant for a 40px @navbarHeight). Maybe try a 40px @elementHeight and/or a 29px line-height to start.

Bootstrap 3 : Vertically Center Navigation Links when Logo Increasing The Height of Navbar

add this to your stylesheet. line-height should match the height of your logo

.navbar-nav li a {
 line-height: 50px;
}

Check out the fiddle at: http://jsfiddle.net/nD4tW/

Vertically centering nav items in Bootstrap 3

Vertical alignment can be done in a number of ways, as shown in this Stack Overflow question. However, they're fairly situational, meaning there isn't a single approach that can be applied to every case.

For the issue you're facing, I'd suggest the line-height approach, since all of your navigation content is on a single line. Just remove any vertical padding on the elements in questions, and set them to have the same line-height as the desired container height (80px):

.navbar-nav li a {
    padding:0 15px;
    line-height:80px;    
}
.navbar-header a {
    padding:0 15px;
    line-height:80px;    
}

Here's a Bootply to demonstrate. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Alternatively, you can use:

.navbar.isModified a {
    padding:0 15px;
    line-height:80px;    
}

Though you may find this too broad of a CSS selector if you plan on styling other links in your navbar differently.

Note: If you want the mobile version of the menu to look alright, you may need to use media queries to override these styles with more of your own.

Bootstrap 4 : Vertically Align Navigation Links when Logo Increases the Navbar Height

I think you can remove top and bottom padding from links and add height and line-height to it. Also remove padding from .navbar-brand.

Just add this CSS:

.navbar-brand {
  padding: 0;
}
.navbar-nav .nav-link {
  padding-top: 0;
  padding-bottom: 0;
  height: 50px;
  line-height: 50px;
}

CODEPEN

Centering Bootstrap navbar horizontally and vertically

If you want to center the links you need to apply those rules to the .navbar-nav and li classes (most likely you'll want these inside a media-query as well).

Centered Links CSS

@media (min-width: 768px) {
  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav {
    width: 100%;
    text-align: center;
  }
  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav > li {
    display: inline-block;
    float: none
  }
}

And you can use line-height to adjust the height of your links so they're vertically aligned.

Vertical Link Alignment

@media (min-width: 768px) {
  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav > li > a {
    line-height: 4;
  }
}

Working Example:

.navbar.navbar-default {  background: white;  border: 1px solid transparent}.navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav.navbar-center > li > a,.navbar.navbar-default .navbar-search > li > a {  color: #266080;}@media (max-width: 767px) {  .navbar.navbar-default {    padding: 15px 0;  }  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-collapse {    margin-top: 15px;    margin-bottom: -15px;    border: 0;    box-shadow: none;  }}@media (min-width: 768px) {  .navbar.navbar-default {} .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav.navbar-center {    width: 100%;    text-align: center;  }  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav.navbar-center > li {    display: inline-block;    float: none  }  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-nav.navbar-center > li > a {    line-height: 4;    text-transform: uppercase;    font-size: 14px;    font-weight: bold;  }  .navbar.navbar-default .navbar-search {    position: absolute;    right: 2%;    top: 17px;    line-height: 4;    font-size: 20px;  }}

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/css/bootstrap.min.css"><nav class="navbar navbar-default navbar-static-top">  <div class="container-fluid">
    <div class="navbar-header">      <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#nav" aria-expanded="false">        <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>        <span class="icon-bar"></span>        <span class="icon-bar"></span>        <span class="icon-bar"></span>      </button>    </div>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="nav">      <ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-center">        <li class="active"><a href="#home">Home</a>        </li>        <li><a href="#portfolio">Portfolio</a>        </li>        <li><a href="#blog">Blog</a>        </li>        <li><a href="#pages">Pages</a>        </li>        <li><a href="#features">Features</a>        </li>        <li><a href="#mega-menu">Mega menu</a>        </li>        <li><a href="#contact">Contact</a>        </li>      </ul>      <ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right navbar-search">        <li><a href="#"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search"></span> </a>        </li>      </ul>    </div>
  </div></nav><script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.2.2/jquery.min.js"></script><script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

Vertical Align Center in Bootstrap 4

Important! Vertical center is relative to the height of the parent

If the parent of the element you're trying to center has no defined
height, none of the vertical centering solutions will work!

Now, onto vertical centering...

Bootstrap 5 (Updated 2021)

Bootstrap 5 is still flexbox based so vertical centering works the same way as Bootstrap 4. For example, align-items-center, justify-content-center or auto margins can used on the flexbox parent (row or d-flex).

use align-items-center on a flexbox row parent (row or d-flex)
use justify-content-center on a flexbox column parent (d-flex flex-column)
use my-auto on a flexbox parent

Vertical Center in Bootstrap 5

Bootstrap 4

You can use the new flexbox & size utilities to make the container full-height and display: flex. These options don't require extra CSS (except that the height of the container (ie:html,body) must be 100%).

Option 1 align-self-center on flexbox child

<div class="container d-flex h-100">
    <div class="row justify-content-center align-self-center">
     I'm vertically centered
    </div>
</div>

https://codeply.com/go/fFqaDe5Oey

Option 2 align-items-center on flexbox parent (.row is display:flex; flex-direction:row)

<div class="container h-100">
    <div class="row align-items-center h-100">
        <div class="col-6 mx-auto">
            <div class="jumbotron">
                I'm vertically centered
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Sample Image

https://codeply.com/go/BumdFnmLuk

Option 3 justify-content-center on flexbox parent (.card is display:flex;flex-direction:column)

<div class="container h-100">
    <div class="row align-items-center h-100">
        <div class="col-6 mx-auto">
            <div class="card h-100 border-primary justify-content-center">
                <div>
                    ...card content...
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

https://codeply.com/go/3gySSEe7nd

More on Bootstrap 4 Vertical Centering

Now that Bootstrap 4 offers flexbox and other utilities, there are many approaches to vertical
alignment. http://www.codeply.com/go/WG15ZWC4lf

1 - Vertical Center Using Auto Margins:

Another way to vertically center is to use my-auto. This will center the element within it's container. For example, h-100 makes the row full height, and my-auto will vertically center the col-sm-12 column.

<div class="row h-100">
    <div class="col-sm-12 my-auto">
        <div class="card card-block w-25">Card</div>
    </div>
</div>

Vertical Center Using Auto Margins Demo

my-auto represents margins on the vertical y-axis and is equivalent to:

margin-top: auto;
margin-bottom: auto;

2 - Vertical Center with Flexbox:

vertical center grid columns

Since Bootstrap 4 .row is now display:flex you can simply use align-self-center on any column to vertically center it...

       <div class="row">
           <div class="col-6 align-self-center">
                <div class="card card-block">
                 Center
                </div>
           </div>
           <div class="col-6">
                <div class="card card-inverse card-danger">
                    Taller
                </div>
          </div>
    </div>

or, use align-items-center on the entire .row to vertically center align all col-* in the row...

       <div class="row align-items-center">
           <div class="col-6">
                <div class="card card-block">
                 Center
                </div>
           </div>
           <div class="col-6">
                <div class="card card-inverse card-danger">
                    Taller
                </div>
          </div>
    </div>

Vertical Center Different Height Columns Demo

See this Q/A to center, but maintain equal height

3 - Vertical Center Using Display Utils:

Bootstrap 4 has display utils that can be used for display:table, display:table-cell, display:inline, etc.. These can be used with the vertical alignment utils to align inline, inline-block or table cell elements.

<div class="row h-50">
    <div class="col-sm-12 h-100 d-table">
        <div class="card card-block d-table-cell align-middle">
            I am centered vertically
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Vertical Center Using Display Utils Demo

More examples
Vertical center image in <div>
Vertical center .row in .container

Vertical center and bottom in <div>
Vertical center child inside parent

Vertical center full screen jumbotron

Important! Did I mention height?

Remember vertical centering is relative to the height of the parent element. If you want to center on the entire page, in most cases, this should be your CSS...

body,html {
  height: 100%;
}

Or use min-height: 100vh (min-vh-100 in Bootstrap 4.1+) on the parent/container. If you want to center a child element inside the parent. The parent must have a defined height.

Also see:

Vertical alignment in bootstrap 4

Bootstrap Center Vertical and Horizontal Alignment

Vertical align logo inside .navbar-brand with Bootstrap 3

You could add some custom style and set display: flex and align-items: center on navbar-brand element.

.navbar-brand {  display: flex;  align-items: center;}

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" /><nav class="navbar navbar-fixed-top navbar-default" role="navigation">  <div class="container-fluid">    <div class="navbar-header">      <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbar-collapse-1">      <span class="icon-bar"></span>       <span class="icon-bar"></span>       <span class="icon-bar"></span>            </button>      <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">         Company Name <img src="http://via.placeholder.com/220x36">      </a>    </div>  </div></nav>

Bootstrap navbar - align button vertically

Give your button.navbar-btn class a margin-top of 25px and you are good to go.

button.navbar-btn{
      margin-top:25px
    }

Check fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/4ku2jhm4/1/

How to Center Navbar Elements Vertically (Twitter Bootstrap)