- Centering all HTML form elements using CSS
- 3 Answers 3
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- Related
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- CSS Layout — Horizontal & Vertical Align
- Example
- Center Align Text
- Example
- Center an Image
- Example
- Left and Right Align — Using position
- Example
- Left and Right Align — Using float
- Example
- The clearfix Hack
- Without Clearfix
- With Clearfix
- Example
- Center Vertically — Using padding
- Example
- Example
- Center Vertically — Using line-height
- Example
- Center Vertically — Using position & transform
- Example
- Center Vertically — Using Flexbox
- Example
- Web Style Sheets CSS tips & tricks
- Centering a block or image
- Centering vertically
- Centering vertically in CSS level 3
- Centering vertically and horizontally in CSS level 3
- Centering in the viewport in CSS level 3
- Nicely centered
- Site navigation
Centering all HTML form elements using CSS
How do you center all form label and input fields using CSS? How would you do this for a form with label text (block) on top of the input field?
#fieldset label < display: block; >#fieldset input
what exactly do you mean? do you want to centre the form within the page? or the elements within the form? or the text within the elements?
A Frequently Duplicated Question. The most recent dupe I’m aware of is , which also has a useful answer or two.
i’ve actually thoroughly googled for an answer to my specific case. couldn’t find one. in a way, it’s basically just a css replacement for center, but you don’t think of that when you encounter the problem from the other side.
3 Answers 3
As Boldewyn and Ben said, text-align will centre inline items (such as spans). To centre block elements (such as divs and forms and paragraphs), give it a width and set margin-right and margin-left to auto.
It depends on both your HTML and your current CSS. The above is a starting point.
The usual «centering» used for form labels and inputs is actually 2 columns, labels right-aligned and input-fields left-aligned.
One way to do this without tables is to give the label elements the same width and right-align them, for example:
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CSS Layout — Horizontal & Vertical Align
Setting the width of the element will prevent it from stretching out to the edges of its container.
The element will then take up the specified width, and the remaining space will be split equally between the two margins:
This div element is centered.
Example
Note: Center aligning has no effect if the width property is not set (or set to 100%).
Center Align Text
To just center the text inside an element, use text-align: center;
Example
Tip: For more examples on how to align text, see the CSS Text chapter.
Center an Image
To center an image, set left and right margin to auto and make it into a block element:
Example
Left and Right Align — Using position
One method for aligning elements is to use position: absolute; :
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
Example
Note: Absolute positioned elements are removed from the normal flow, and can overlap elements.
Left and Right Align — Using float
Another method for aligning elements is to use the float property:
Example
The clearfix Hack
Note: If an element is taller than the element containing it, and it is floated, it will overflow outside of its container. You can use the «clearfix hack» to fix this (see example below).
Without Clearfix
With Clearfix
Then we can add the clearfix hack to the containing element to fix this problem:
Example
Center Vertically — Using padding
There are many ways to center an element vertically in CSS. A simple solution is to use top and bottom padding :
Example
To center both vertically and horizontally, use padding and text-align: center :
I am vertically and horizontally centered.
Example
Center Vertically — Using line-height
Another trick is to use the line-height property with a value that is equal to the height property:
I am vertically and horizontally centered.
Example
.center <
line-height: 200px;
height: 200px;
border: 3px solid green;
text-align: center;
>
/* If the text has multiple lines, add the following: */
.center p line-height: 1.5;
display: inline-block;
vertical-align: middle;
>
Center Vertically — Using position & transform
If padding and line-height are not options, another solution is to use positioning and the transform property:
I am vertically and horizontally centered.
Example
.center <
height: 200px;
position: relative;
border: 3px solid green;
>
.center p margin: 0;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
>
Tip: You will learn more about the transform property in our 2D Transforms Chapter.
Center Vertically — Using Flexbox
You can also use flexbox to center things. Just note that flexbox is not supported in IE10 and earlier versions:
Example
.center <
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
height: 200px;
border: 3px solid green;
>
Tip: You will learn more about Flexbox in our CSS Flexbox Chapter.
Web Style Sheets CSS tips & tricks
The most common and (therefore) easiest type of centering is that of lines of text in a paragraph or in a heading. CSS has the property ‘text-align’ for that:
renders each line in a P or in a H2 centered between its margins, like this:
The lines in this paragraph are all centered between the paragraph’s margins, thanks to the value ‘center’ of the CSS property ‘text-align’.
Centering a block or image
Sometimes it is not the text that needs to be centered, but the block as a whole. Or, phrased differently: we want the left and right margin to be equal. The way to do that is to set the margins to ‘auto’. This is normally used with a block of fixed width, because if the block itself is flexible, it will simply take up all the available width. Here is an example:
This rather narrow block of text is centered. Note that the lines inside the block are not centered (they are left-aligned), unlike in the earlier example.
This is also the way to center an image: make it into block of its own and apply the margin properties to it. For example:
The following image is centered:
Centering vertically
CSS level 2 doesn’t have a property for centering things vertically. There will probably be one in CSS level 3 (see below ). But even in CSS2 you can center blocks vertically, by combining a few properties. The trick is to specify that the outer block is to be formatted as a table cell, because the contents of a table cell can be centered vertically.
DIV.container < min-height: 10em; display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle >.This small paragraph.
This small paragraph is vertically centered.
Centering vertically in CSS level 3
CSS level 3 offers other possibilities. At this time (2014), a good way to center blocks vertically without using absolute positioning (which may cause overlapping text) is still under discussion. But if you know that overlapping text will not be a problem in your document, you can use the ‘transform’ property to center an absolutely positioned element. For example:
This paragraph is vertically centered.
For a document that looks like this:
the style sheet looks like this:
div.container3 < height: 10em; position: relative > /* 1 */ div.container3 p < margin: 0; position: absolute; /* 2 */ top: 50%; /* 3 */ transform: translate(0, -50%) > /* 4 */
- Make the container relatively positioned, which declares it to be a container for absolutely positioned elements.
- Make the element itself absolutely positioned.
- Place it halfway down the container with ‘top: 50%’. (Note that 50%’ here means 50% of the height of the container.)
- Use a translation to move the element up by half its own height. (The ‘50%’ in ‘translate(0, -50%)’ refers to the height of the element itself.)
Recently (since about 2015), another technique has also become available in several CSS implementations. It is based on the new ‘flex’ keyword for the ‘display’ property. This keyword is meant for use in graphical user interfaces (GUIs), but nothing stops you from using it in a document, if the document happens to have the right structure.
This paragraph is vertically centered.
the style sheet looks like this:
div.container5 < height: 10em; display: flex; align-items: center > div.container5 p
Centering vertically and horizontally in CSS level 3
We can extend both methods to center horizontally and vertically at the same time.
A side-effect of making the paragraph absolutely positioned is that it is then only as wide as it needs to be (unless we give it an explicit width, of course). In the example below, that’s precisely what we want: We center a paragraph with just one word (“Centered!”), so the width of the paragraph should be exactly the width of that word.
The yellow background is there to show that the paragraph is indeed only as wide as its contents. We assume the same mark-up as before:
The style sheet is similar to the previous example with respect to the vertical centering. But we now move the element halfway across the container as well, with ‘left: 50%’, and at the same time move it leftwards by half its own width in the ‘translate’ transformation:
div.container4 < height: 10em; position: relative >div.container4 p < margin: 0; background: yellow; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; margin-right: -50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%) >
The next example below explains why the ‘margin-right: -50%’ is needed.
When the CSS formatter supports ‘flex’, it’s even easier:
div.container6 < height: 10em; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center > div.container6 p
i.e., the only addition is the ‘justify-content: center’. Just like ‘align-items’ determines the vertical alignment of the container’s contents, ‘justify-content’ determines the horizontal alignment. (It’s actually a bit more complex, as their names suggest, but in a simple case that’s how it works.) A side-effect of ‘flex’ is that the child element, the P in this case, is automatically made as small as possible.
Centering in the viewport in CSS level 3
The default container for absolutely positioned elements is the viewport. (In case of a browser, that means the browser window). So centering an element in the viewport is very simple. Here is a complete example. (This example uses HTML5 syntax.)
Nicely centered
This text block is vertically centered.
Horizontally, too, if the window is wide enough.
You can see the result in a separate document.
The ‘margin-right: -50%’ is needed to compensate the ‘left: 50%’. The ‘left’ rule reduces the available width for the element by 50%. The renderer will thus try to make lines that are no longer than half the width of the container. By saying that the right margin of the element is further to the right by that same amount, the maximum line length is again the same as the container’s width.
Try resizing the window: You’ll see that each sentence is on one line when the window is wide enough. Only when the window is too narrow for the whole sentence will the sentence be broken over several lines. When you remove the ‘margin-right: -50%’ and resize the window again, you’ll see that the sentences will be broken already when the window is still twice as wide as the text lines.
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Bert Bos, style activity lead
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