- How to Center an Image Vertically and Horizontally with CSS
- Here’s an interactive scrim about how to center an image vertically and horizontally:
- Centering an Image Horizontally
- Text-Align
- Margin: Auto
- Display: Flex
- Centering an Image Vertically
- Display: Flex
- Position: Absolute & Transform Properties
- Step 1: Define Position Absolute
- Step 2: Define Top & Left Properties
- Step 3: Define the Transform Property
- How to Center an Image in HTML
- Aligning in Text
- Aligning in a Center Tag
- Community Q&A
- HTML Center Image – CSS Align Img Center Example
- Table of Contents
- How to Center an Image With the Text Align Property
- How to Center an Image with Flexbox
- How to Center an Image with CSS Grid
- How to Center an Image with the Margin Property
How to Center an Image Vertically and Horizontally with CSS
Cem Eygi
Many developers struggle while working with images. Handling responsiveness and alignment is particularly tough, especially centering an image in the middle of the page.
So in this post, I will be showing some of the most common ways to center an image both vertically and horizontally using different CSS properties.
Here’s an interactive scrim about how to center an image vertically and horizontally:
I’ve gone over the CSS Position and Display properties in my previous post. If you’re not familiar with those properties, I recommend checking out those posts before reading this article.
Here’s a video version if you want to check it out:
Centering an Image Horizontally
Let’s begin with centering an image horizontally by using 3 different CSS properties.
Text-Align
The first way to center an image horizontally is using the text-align property. However, this method only works if the image is inside a block-level container such as a :
Margin: Auto
Another way to center an image is by using the margin: auto property (for left-margin and right-margin).
However, using margin: auto alone will not work for images. If you need to use margin: auto , there are 2 additional properties you must use as well.
The margin-auto property does not have any effects on inline-level elements. Since the tag is an inline element, we need to convert it to a block-level element first:
Secondly, we also need to define a width. So the left and right margins can take the rest of the empty space and auto-align themselves, which does the trick (unless we give it a width of 100%):
Display: Flex
The third way to center an image horizontally is by using display: flex . Just like we used the text-align property for a container, we use display: flex for a container as well.
However, using display: flex alone will not be enough. The container must also have an additional property called justify-content :
The justify-content property works together with display: flex , which we can use to center the image horizontally.
Finally, the width of the image must be smaller than the width of the container, otherwise, it takes 100% of the space and then we can’t center it.
Important: The display: flex property is not supported in older versions of browsers. See here for more details.
Centering an Image Vertically
Display: Flex
For vertical alignment, using display: flex is again really helpful.
Consider a case where our container has a height of 800px, but the height of the image is only 500px:
Now, in this case, adding a single line of code to the container, align-items: center , does the trick:
The align-items property can position elements vertically if used together with display: flex .
Position: Absolute & Transform Properties
Another method for vertical alignment is by using the position and transform properties together. This one is a bit complicated, so let’s do it step by step.
Step 1: Define Position Absolute
Firstly, we change the positioning behavior of the image from static to absolute :
Also, it should be inside a relatively positioned container, so we add position: relative to its container div.
Step 2: Define Top & Left Properties
Secondly, we define the top and left properties for the image, and set them to 50%. This will move the starting point(top-left) of the image to the center of the container:
Step 3: Define the Transform Property
But the second step has moved the image partially outside of its container. So we need to bring it back inside.
Defining a transform property and adding -50% to its X and Y axis does the trick:
There are other ways to center things horizontally and vertically, but I’ve explained the most common ones. I hope this post helped you understand how to align your images in the center of the page.
If you want to learn more about Web Development, feel free to visit my Youtube Channel for more.
How to Center an Image in HTML
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions.
This article has been viewed 163,126 times.
Image alignment is an important skill to learn when coding webpages. Unfortunately, as code changes, some HTML tags are deprecated and are not recognized by all web browsers. Try these methods to center an image in HTML. If they don’t work, consider coding in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
Aligning in Text
Don’t use the word “center” in your tag. In HTML coding, you can center text, but you must identify image alignment with the word “middle.” An image is not a line element, so it is identified in relation to other elements.
Start a new line of code. Use a paragraph tag to indicate that a text line is beginning. Start your tag with
then write your text.
Insert the image by typing gif”. Then include your image description by typing alt=”image description”.
- The “src” section tells the web page the URL of the image.
- The alt section tells the web page what it should be called.
Specify the alignment of your image. Type align=”middle”> This is the end of the image portion of your tag. [1] X Research source
Add more text. Then, close the tag with
. For example, your entire tag could look like this:
We’re learning about HTML. Our example is complete.
Aligning in a Center Tag
Create a new element and center that element. You can contain the image within that centered element. However, it will create extra spaces around your element.
Add your image tag. Type .
Specify the height and width of the image. Enter height=”200”width=”200”> or another size of your choice. This is the end of your image portion of the tag.
Community Q&A
The align attribute of is not supported in HTML 5. Use CSS instead. For the image to align middle, top, or bottom use the CSS property vertical-align. For the image to align left or right use the CSS property float.
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The align tribute of HTML is not supported by in HTML5. So you should use CSS instead. So that you can align the middle, top, and sides of an image. To do this use the CSS property vertical-sign, which makes the image align to the left or right use the CSS property float.
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Use this code. You can either use this method or try putting the image in a container, like div with and style the container to align it’s content to center.
Thanks! We’re glad this was helpful.
Thank you for your feedback.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy! Claim Your Gift If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
HTML Center Image – CSS Align Img Center Example
Kolade Chris
If you’re making websites with HTML and CSS, you will be working with images a lot.
Developers often struggle with image alignment in CSS, especially when trying to figure out how to center an image.
Centering anything in CSS is not really a straightforward thing — especially for beginners. This is why people brag about being able to center a div. 🙂
Since the img element is an inline element, this makes it a little bit harder to center. But don’t worry, you can convert the image to a block element and then center it.
In this article, I’m going to show you 4 different ways you can align an image to the center.
Table of Contents
How to Center an Image With the Text Align Property
You can center an image with the text-align property.
One thing you should know is that the tag for bringing in images – img – is an inline element. Centering with the text-align property works for block-level elements only.
So how do you center an image with the text-align property? You wrap the image in a block-level element like a div and give the div a text-align of center .
How to Center an Image with Flexbox
The introduction of CSS Flexbox made it easier to center anything.
Flexbox works by putting what you want to center in a container and giving the container a display of flex . Then it sets justify-content to center as shown in the code snippet below:
P.S.: A justify-content property set to center centers an image horizontally. To center the image vertically too, you need to set align-items to center .
How to Center an Image with CSS Grid
CSS Grid works like Flexbox, with the added advantage that Grid is multidimensional, as opposed to Flexbox which is 2-dimensional.
To center an image with CSS Grid, wrap the image in a container div element and give it a display of grid . Then set the place-items property to center.
P.S.: place-items with a value of center centers anything horizontally and vertically.
How to Center an Image with the Margin Property
You can also center an image by setting a left and right margin of auto for it. But just like the text-align property, margin works for block-level elements only.
So, what you need to do is convert the image to a block-level element first by giving it a display of block.
Those 2 properties could be enough. But sometimes, you have to set a width for the image, so the left and right margin of auto would have spaces to take.
P.S.: You might not have to go as low as 40% for the width. The image was distorted at a 60+ percentage, that’s why I went as low as 40%.
I hope this article helps you choose which method works best for you in centering an image.
Kolade Chris
Web developer and technical writer focusing on frontend technologies. I also dabble in a lot of other technologies.
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