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Cover image for How to center things in CSS ๐Ÿ’˜
Jayesh Tembhekar โšก
Jayesh Tembhekar โšก

Posted on • Edited on

How to center things in CSS ๐Ÿ’˜

#css #html #beginners

Yo devs ! ๐Ÿ”ฅ

A quick guide on "How to center things in CSS" ๐Ÿ™Œ

Most of the time, you write great CSS code from colors to complex animations.
But I know most of us (beginners) still struggle to center elements on a viewport perfectly.

Don't worry devs, you are no longer be an noob at the end of this short guide.

Let's get started

There are two ways to center any HTML element on a web page :

1. Using Flexbox

2. Using Transform

  • Using Flexbox

HTML code as shown below ๐Ÿ‘‡

  <body>
    <div class="container">
      <div id="object"></div>
    </div>
  </body>
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Now the CSS code


html,
body,
.container {
  height: 100%;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
}

#object {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100px;
  background: red;
  align-self: center;
}
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  • Using Transform

HTML code shown below ๐Ÿ‘‡


<body>
    <div class="element"></div>
</body>
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Now the CSS code


.element
    {
        width: 100px;
        height: 100px;
        background: coral;           
    }

.element
    { 
        position: absolute;
        top: 50%;
        left: 50%;
        transform: translate(-50% , -50%);
    }
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Check out my other posts too ๐Ÿฅ‚

Author: Jayesh ๐Ÿงก

Top comments (11)

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danielpdev profile image
danielpdev • • Edited

You could also use the old style:

#content {
margin: 0 auto;
}
but this works only on block elements, so just add display: block; for inline elements.

Thanks for sharing!

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alvaromontoro profile image
Alvaro Montoro •

That would only center horizontally though.

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danielpdev profile image
danielpdev •

Yes, that's right.
Although, to align both horizontally and vertically you can also use margin in combination with position.

here is an example

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tobiassn profile image
Tobias SN •

I generally use this website: howtocenterincss.com

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marklchaves profile image
mark l chaves • • Edited

Nice.

Just to add, I usually give the flex container the responsibility of aligning its children. E.g.

<section>
  <div id="object"></div>
  <div>Hello World!</div>
</section>

section {
  height: 100vh;
  overflow: hidden;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center; /* To vertically align all items added to the flex--not just one. */
}

Then any time you add another child, they will automagically align in the centre. In the example above, the children will align in one column because I specified flex-direction: column;.

Demo on CodePen.

Question @mindset ,

Why define the .element class twice on top of each other? Is there an advantage to that?

Here's how I would have done it.

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mindset profile image
Jayesh Tembhekar โšก •

Not an advantage, just to separate main transform properties for easy understanding ๐Ÿ˜…

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marklchaves profile image
mark l chaves • • Edited

Ok. Cool. I typically don't see that style unless it's a mistake. That's why I asked.

If you want to be more OO-like, I would delegate alignment to another class. Then add that class to the class list in the HTML. Like what I've shared with you above. Similar to multiple inheritance.

Then .demo-box and .centre-me are reusable.

Thanks!

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ziizium profile image
Habdul Hazeez •

With CSS Grid:

.selector {
    display: grid;
    place-items: center;
}

I wrote about it in the following post:

ziizium image

My WebDev Notes: Center page elements with CSS Grid

Habdul Hazeez ใƒป Apr 3 ใƒป 3 min read

#html #css
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zarabotaet profile image
Dima • • Edited

display: flex for parent
margin: auto for centered block

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adisreyaj profile image
Adithya Sreyaj •

Flex for life ๐Ÿงก

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khaleddiz profile image
Khaled Breaker •

just add to the parent div {

display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;

}

View full discussion (11 comments)

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