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Topic #80

Horizontal Align

Horizontal alignment centres block elements with margins or flexbox. Centring a box is the first alignment challenge everyone meets.


Horizontal Centering

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


Center Align Block Elements

Use margin: auto;, to horizontally center a block-level element (like

).

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

Note: Center aligning has no effect on block-level elements if the width property is not set (or set to 100%).

Below, the

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

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

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

Paris

Example

img
{
  display: block;

    margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;

  width: 40%;

}

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.

This

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;

}

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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Horizontal Align – FAQs

Quick answers about learning Horizontal Align in CSS.

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