How do I vertically center text with CSS?

Question

I have a <div> element which contains text and I want to align the contents of this <div> vertically center.

Here is my <div> style:

#box {
  height: 170px;
  width: 270px;
  background: #000;
  font-size: 48px;
  color: #FFF;
  text-align: center;
}

<div id="box">
  Lorem ipsum dolor sit
</div>

Answer 1

If CSS3 is an option (or you have a fallback) you can use transform:

.center {
    right: 50%;
    bottom: 50%;
    transform: translate(50%,50%);
    position: absolute;
}

Unlike the first approach above, you don't want to use left:50% with the negative translation because there's an overflow bug in IE9+. Utilize a positive right value and you won't see horizontal scrollbars.

Answer 2

The best way to center a box both vertically and horizontally, is to use two containers :

##The outher container :

• should have display: table;

##The inner container :

• should have display: table-cell;
• should have vertical-align: middle;
• should have text-align: center;

##The content box :

• should have display: inline-block;
• should adjust the horizontal text-alignment, unless you want text to be centered

##Demo :

body {
    margin : 0;
}

.outer-container {
    display: table;
    width: 80%;
    height: 120px;
    background: #ccc;
}

.inner-container {
    display: table-cell;
    vertical-align: middle;
    text-align: center;
}

.centered-content {
    display: inline-block;
    text-align: left;
    background: #fff;
    padding : 20px;
    border : 1px solid #000;
}

<div class="outer-container">
   <div class="inner-container">
     <div class="centered-content">
        Center this!
     </div>
   </div>
</div>

Answer 3

Vertical Centering in CSS

For a CSS 2 browser, one can use display:table/display:table-cell to center content.

div { border:1px solid green;}

<div style="display: table; height: 400px; overflow: hidden;">
  <div style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle;">
    <div>
      everything is vertically centered in modern IE8+ and others.
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

It is possible to merge hacks for old browsers (Internet Explorer 6/7) into styles with using # to hide styles from newer browsers:

div { border:1px solid green;}

<div style="display: table; height: 400px; #position: relative; overflow: hidden;">
  <div style=
    "#position: absolute; #top: 50%;display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle;">
    <div style=" #position: relative; #top: -50%">
      everything is vertically centered
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 4

You need to add the line-height attribute and that attribute must match the height of the div. In your case:

.center {
  height: 309px;
  line-height: 309px; /* same as height! */
}

<div class="center">
  A single line.
</div>

In fact, you could probably remove the height attribute altogether.

This only works for one line of text though, so be careful.