How to Center a Text Input in CSS: Best Practices and Helpful Tips
Learn how to center a text input in CSS with different techniques, including text-align property, semantic HTML and labels, Materialize CSS grid classes, and more. Improve accessibility and SEO with these tips.
If you are building a website or a web application, you may need to center a text input using CSS. While there are many ways to achieve this, some are more effective than others. In this blog post, we will cover different ways to center a text input in CSS, including best practices and helpful tips.
The most common approach to centering a text input in CSS is to use the text-align: center property. You can apply this property to the form or the container div that holds the text input. You can also apply it to the input’s parent element or a paragraph containing the input. Here is an example:
However, it is not recommended to use padding to center an element within a div. This approach may cause issues with floating elements and may not work in all situations.
Semantic HTML and labels
A more accessible approach to centering a text input in CSS is to use semantic HTML elements and labels. This method also improves SEO and makes the form easier to use for screen readers. Here is an example:
By using the label element, you are providing a descriptive name for the input field, which makes it easier for users to understand its purpose.
How to Horizontally Center an Input Value in HTML
Materialize CSS
Materialize CSS is a front-end framework that offers a grid class called col s4 offset-s4 that can be used to center text inputs. Here is an example:
The col class specifies the column width, and the offset class adds a margin to the left of the column to center it.
Post CSS and use label
Post CSS is a tool that allows you to write CSS in a more modular and efficient way. To center text inputs, text areas, and select options, you can use post CSS and the label element. Here is an example:
By using the display: block property, you are forcing the label and input elements to take up the full width of their container, which makes it easier to center them.
Aligning the placeholder text of an input field
Sometimes, you may want to center the placeholder text of an input field in HTML. To achieve this, you can use CSS and set the text-align property to center. Here is an example:
By using the ::placeholder selector, you are targeting the placeholder text of the input field.
Other helpful CSS code examples for centering a text input
In css, center an input css code example
In css, how to center a text input in css code example
Centering a text input in CSS can be achieved through different techniques, including the text-align property, using semantic HTML and labels, Materialize CSS grid classes, post CSS and use label, and aligning the placeholder text. It is important to consider best practices for accessibility and SEO when centering text inputs. Different approaches may work better depending on the specific context and layout. By following the tips and examples provided in this blog post, you can effectively center text inputs using CSS.
In HTML, input fields are used inside forms to collect user data. The input fields are actually the most commonly used form elements which can be used to collect various types of user information such as name, email, phone, password, address, etc.
When we are working with these input fields, one common problem that we all face is their centering inside their form or their parent element.
Method 1: Center an Input Field Using text-align Property
Originally, the text-align property is used to align the text of an element to the left, right or center. But, we can also use this property to center our input fields.
Now, you might be thinking if the text-align property aligns only the text of an element, how can it align the inputs?
Well, this works because the input elements( ) are by default inline-block type elements. If an element is of type inline-block, it does not take the full with of its parent. Instead, it takes only as much width as it requires. This is the reason, the text-align property works on inputs.
Let’s say, we have a div element, which contains an input text-box:
To center align the input field inside the div element, we can simply set its text-align property to center in our CSS file:
Below is the outcome of the above code:
When using this approach, you have to keep in mind that this will also center other elements of the div such as the texts, images, links, etc. if any. So use it wisely.
Method 2: Center an Input Field Using margin: auto
The margin property basically specifies a space around the boundaries(outside borders) of an element. But it can also be used to center align things within their container.
All you need to do is apply margin: auto; on the element that you want to center. But there is one important thing that is to be kept in mind, if the element is not a block-level element, applying margin: auto; will not center it.
In that case, you have to explicitly make the element a block-level element by explicitly setting its display property to block .
Let’s take the same example again:
To center align the input field, set its margin to auto along with display: block;
Below is the outcome of the above code:
As you can see, the input is centered inside the div. The main advantage of this method over the previous one is that it only centers those elements on which we apply the margin: auto; . The remaining elements remain untouched.
Method 3: Center an input field using CSS Grids
CSS Grids are a layout system that allows developers to create two-dimensional layouts with rows and columns. We can also use them for alignment purposes.
Let’s say we have a div element which contains an input field. We have also assigned a grid-container class to the div.
To center the input element inside the div, we have to first make the div a grid container which can be done by applying display: grid; property on it.
When you set the display property of an element to grid , the element starts behaving like a grid container. This means that we can now use any grid property on this element.
Now, to horizontally center the input element inside this grid container, you can set the justify-content property to center .
But there is one problem with this method, by default, the grid items take up the full height of the grid container. To stop this, you have to set the align-items property to start . The align-items property is used to align items vertically inside the container.
… And here is the result:
Method 4: Center Input Fields using CSS Flexbox(Modern Way)
Now a days, CSS flexbox has become the most preffered method when it comes to centering things. CSS flexbox is basically a flexible box layout module that lets you create flexible and responsive layouts without using the float and position properties.
You can also use this method to center input elements with ease. Centering is almost similar to the grids.
If you want to use CSS flexbox, you have to simply set the display property of the element to flex . Aftering applying the display: flex; property, the element starts behaving like a flex container.
Let’s say we have a div element with a class flex-container , which contains an input element:
Now, if we want to center align the input element inside the flex container, we can set the justify-content property to center just like the grids.
Here also, we have to set the align-items property to start or flex-start , so that the flex items do not take the full height of the flex container.
Here is the result of the above code:
If you also want to center the input box vertically, you can set the align-items property to center :
Here is the outcome of the above CSS:
Conclusion
In this article, we learned four different ways to center align input fields, the text-align: center; , the margin: auto , the grids module and the flexbox module of CSS.
You can use any method based on your requirements. However, the modern and simplest way to center things is the flexbox module.
