How to Do Vertical+Horizontal Centering in CSS

Center a DIV horizontally and vertically

After trying a lot of things I find a way that works. I share it here if it is useful to anyone. You can see it here working: http://jsbin.com/iquviq/30/edit

.content {
        width: 200px;
        height: 600px;
        background-color: blue;
        position: absolute; /*Can also be `fixed`*/
        left: 0;
        right: 0;
        top: 0;
        bottom: 0;
        margin: auto;
        /*Solves a problem in which the content is being cut when the div is smaller than its' wrapper:*/
        max-width: 100%;
        max-height: 100%;
        overflow: auto;
}

How can I center text (horizontally and vertically) inside a div block?

If it is one line of text and/or image, then it is easy to do. Just use:

text-align: center;
vertical-align: middle;
line-height: 90px;       /* The same as your div height */

That's it. If it can be multiple lines, then it is somewhat more complicated. But there are solutions on http://pmob.co.uk/. Look for "vertical align".

Since they tend to be hacks or adding complicated divs... I usually use a table with a single cell to do it... to make it as simple as possible.

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Update for 2020:

Unless you need make it work on earlier browsers such as Internet Explorer 10, you can use flexbox. It is widely supported by all current major browsers. Basically, the container needs to be specified as a flex container, together with centering along its main and cross axis:

#container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
}

To specify a fixed width for the child, which is called a "flex item":

#content {
  flex: 0 0 120px;
}

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/2woqsef1/1/

To shrink-wrap the content, it is even simpler: just remove the flex: ... line from the flex item, and it is automatically shrink-wrapped.

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/2woqsef1/2/

The examples above have been tested on major browsers including MS Edge and Internet Explorer 11.

One technical note if you need to customize it: inside of the flex item, since this flex item is not a flex container itself, the old non-flexbox way of CSS works as expected. However, if you add an additional flex item to the current flex container, the two flex items will be horizontally placed. To make them vertically placed, add the flex-direction: column; to the flex container. This is how it works between a flex container and its immediate child elements.

There is an alternative method of doing the centering: by not specifying center for the distribution on the main and cross axis for the flex container, but instead specify margin: auto on the flex item to take up all extra space in all four directions, and the evenly distributed margins will make the flex item centered in all directions. This works except when there are multiple flex items. Also, this technique works on MS Edge but not on Internet Explorer 11.

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Update for 2016 / 2017:

It can be more commonly done with transform, and it works well even in older browsers such as Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11. It can support multiple lines of text:

position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);

Example: https://jsfiddle.net/wb8u02kL/1/

To shrink-wrap the width:

The solution above used a fixed width for the content area. To use a shrink-wrapped width, use

position: relative;
float: left;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);

Example: https://jsfiddle.net/wb8u02kL/2/

If the support for Internet Explorer 10 is needed, then flexbox won't work and the method above and the line-height method would work. Otherwise, flexbox would do the job.

How to center an element horizontally and vertically

• 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>

CSS Vertically & Horizontally Center Div

If the div has an fixed width and height use:
(if width=120px and height=80px)

position: fixed;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin-left: -60px; /* negative half of the width */
margin-top: -40px; /* negative half of the height */

How to do Vertical+Horizontal centering in CSS

Horizontal centering is easy:

.inner {
  width: 70%; /* Anything less than 100% */
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

But vertical centering is a little tricky. The best technique for modern browsers is to combine inline-block and a pseudo elements. This originates from "Ghost element", the last technique at http://css-tricks.com/centering-in-the-unknown/. It sets adds a pseudo-element and uses inline-block styles get the centering.
The CSS:

.outer { 
  height: 10rem; 
  text-align: center; 
  outline: dotted black 1px; 
}

.outer:before { 
  content: ''; 
  display: inline-block; 
  height: 100%; 
  vertical-align: middle;
}

.inner { 
  width: 10rem; 
  display: inline-block; 
  vertical-align: middle;
  outline: solid black 1px; 
}

An example on Codepen: http://codepen.io/KatieK2/pen/ucwgi

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For simpler cases, the following may be good options:

For single lines of content, you can do a quick and dirty vertical centering job on the text within an element by using line-height larger than your font-size:

.inner { 
  border: 1px solid #666; 
  line-height: 200%;
}

The solution with widest support is to use a non-semantic table. This works with very old versions of IE and doesn't require JavaScript:

td.inner { 
  vertical-align: middle; 
}

And here is simple solution for known height elements (which could be in ems, not px):

.outer { 
  position:relative; 
}
.inner { 
  position: absolute; 
  top:50%; 
  height:4em; 
  margin-top:-2em; 
  width: 50%; left: 25%; 
}

Vertical and horizontal align (middle and center) with CSS

There are many methods :

1. Center horizontal and vertical align of an element with fixed measure

CSS

 <div style="width:200px;height:100px;position:absolute;left:50%;top:50%;
margin-left:-100px;margin-top:-50px;">
<!–content–>
</div> 

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2 . Center horizontally and vertically a single line of text

CSS

<div style="width:400px;height:200px;text-align:center;line-height:200px;">
<!–content–>
</div>  

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3 . Center horizontal and vertical align of an element with no specific measure

CSS

<div style="display:table;height:300px;text-align:center;">
<div style="display:table-cell;vertical-align:middle;">
<!–content–>
</div>
</div>  

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How can I horizontally center an element?

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>

How can I vertically center a div element for all browsers using CSS?

Below is the best all-around solution I could build to vertically and horizontally center a fixed-width, flexible height content box. It was tested and worked for recent versions of Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari.

.outer {
  display: table;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
}

.middle {
  display: table-cell;
  vertical-align: middle;
}

.inner {
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  width: 400px;
  /* Whatever width you want */
}

<div class="outer">
  <div class="middle">
    <div class="inner">
      <h1>The Content</h1>
      <p>Once upon a midnight dreary...</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

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