CSS vertical alignment: Best practices and examples

Back in the good old days, the limits of CSS made even “simple” things like vertical centering a challenge, with some developers even relying on JavaScript solutions. It was fragile and very constrained, and there was always that one exception that made it fail.

Whether we were trying to align an icon or image beside the text, create one of those popular hero banners, or create a modal overlay, centering things on the vertical axis was always a struggle.

But CSS has come a long way since, providing many methods that make vertical centering easier every time. In this article, we will look at a summary of some of them, along with their use cases and limitations.

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Editor’s note: This post was last updated by Rishi Purwar in March 2025 to offer a direct comparison of different alignment techniques (vertical-align, flexbox, grid), add interactive CodePen examples, and expand on browser compatibility.

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What is CSS vertical alignment?

Vertical alignment can be seen everywhere in an application, from navigation menus, form fields, product listings, and so on. To vertically align a text or an element means to arrange it within a container or block along its vertical/y-axis. The image below demonstrates this:

The diagram explains the concept of vertical alignment in this way:

• Top-Alignment — The element or text is at the top of the container or block
• Middle-Alignment — The element or text is centered vertically, and must have an equal distance from the top and bottom of the container or block
• Bottom-Alignment — The element or text is at the bottom of the container or block

Unless explicitly stated, each strategy highlighted below will work with inline elements as well. This makes sense, given that we’ll be directly transforming their position or display properties.

Quick reference: Best methods for vertical alignment

This table provides a high-level comparison of the different approaches, helping you choose the best method based on your layout needs:

Method	CSS properties used	Works with	Key advantages	Browser support
CSS Flexbox	align-items, justify-content, align-self, align-content	Flex containers	Flexible, responsive, minimal extra markup	All modern browsers
CSS Grid	align-items, justify-content, align-self, place-items, grid-template-rows	Grid containers	Precise placement, single-line centering with place-items	All modern browsers
Absolute positioning	position: absolute, top: 50%, transform: translateY(-50%)	Any positioned parent	Works without Flex or Grid	Wide browser compatibility
Inline & table-based	vertical-align, display: table-cell, line-height	Inline/text elements, tables	Works with inline and text elements, table-based layouts	Wide browser compatibility

Vertical alignment using Flexbox

CSS Flexbox introduced great alignment properties (that are now forked into their own box alignment module).

These properties allow us to control how items are placed and how empty space is distributed. Previously, this would have required either magic numbers in CSS for a specific number of elements, or clever JavaScript for dynamic amounts. Now, with a few Flexbox properties, we can control how items are placed and how empty space is distributed.

The way you align items using Flexbox depends on the flex-direction property.

When using flex-direction: row, justify-content controls horizontal alignment, while align-items controls vertical alignment.

When using flex-direction: column, it’s the opposite. justify-content aligns items vertically and align-items aligns them horizontally.

Example 1: Aligning items vertically with align-items and justify-content

In this example, we use align-items and justify-content to center items vertically and horizontally within a Flex container. This approach ensures consistent alignment, making it a go-to method for flexible layouts:

Browser support for align-items and justify-content:

Browser	display: flex	justify-content	align-items
Chrome	21–28 (partial, -webkit- prefix), 28+	21–51 (partial), 52+	21–51 (partial), 51+
Firefox	20+	20+	20+
Edge	12+	12+	12+
Safari	7–8 (partial, -webkit- prefix), 8+	7+	7+

Example 2: Aligning Flex items vertically with align-self

In this example, we use align-self to vertically align a flex item within its container. This is useful when individual flex items need different alignments:

Browser support for align-self

Browser	align-self
Chrome	21–35 (partial), 35+
Firefox	20+
Edge	12+
Safari	7+

Example 3: Aligning Flex items vertically with margin: auto

One of the simplest and most reliable ways to vertically center a flex item is by applying margin: auto. This approach automatically adjusts the margins around the Flex item, distributing the remaining space evenly and perfectly centering it within the container:

This tactic is one of my favorites because of its simplicity. The only major limitation is that it’ll only work with a single element.

Example 4: Aligning Flex items vertically with align-content

According to the CSS Box Alignment Module Level 3 specification, align-content can be used to control alignment along the block axis in block and multicol containers. This allows centering content within these containers, similar to how it’s done in Flex and Grid layouts:

Browser support for align-content:

Browser	align-content
Chrome	21+
Firefox	28+
Edge	12+
Safari	9+

Example 5: Aligning Flex items vertically using pseudo-elements

In this example, pseudo-elements (::before and ::after) are used to distribute space evenly within the Flex container. By setting their flex: 1, they push the Flex item to the center, achieving vertical alignment without extra markup. However, this approach is not very practical for most layouts:

Browser support for pseudo-elements:

Browser	Pseudo-elements (:before & :after)	flex-direction: column
Chrome	4+	21+
Firefox	2+	72+
Edge	12+	12+
Safari	3.1+	7+

Vertical alignment using CSS Grid

CSS Grid makes vertical alignment just as easy as Flexbox, giving you great control over content placement. With properties like align-items, justify-items, and place-items, you can quickly center elements within a grid container—no extra tricks needed! Let’s explore how to align items vertically using Grid.

Example 1: Aligning Grid items vertically with align-items and justify-content

In this example, we use align-items: center to vertically align grid items and justify-content: center to center them horizontally within the grid container. This approach ensures the item stays perfectly centered without needing extra spacing tricks:

Browser support for align-items and justify-content:

Browser	display: grid	justify-content (Grid Layout)	align-items (Grid Layout)
Chrome	57+	57+	57+
Firefox	52+	52+	52+
Edge	12–15 (partial, -webkit- prefix), 15+	16+	16+
Safari	10.1+	10.1+	10.1+

Example 2: Aligning Grid items vertically with align-self and justify-self

In this example, we use align-self and justify-self to center a grid item within its cell. align-self: center vertically centers the item, while justify-self: center does the same horizontally. This approach is great for precise control over individual grid items without affecting the entire grid layout:

Browser support for align-self and justify-self:

Browser	align-self (Grid Layout)	justify-self (Grid Layout)
Chrome	57+	57+
Firefox	52+	45+
Edge	16+	16+
Safari	10.1+	10.1+

Example 3: One-line centering with place-items: center

Another beautiful and straightforward grid implementation is applying the center value to a place-items property in the same grid element. All of its child elements are magically centered:

Browser support for place-items: center:

Browser	place-items (Grid Layout)
Chrome	60+
Firefox	46+
Edge	79+
Safari	11+

Example 4: Aligning Grid items vertically with margin: auto on a grid item

Similar to the Flexbox example above, using margin: auto on a grid item allows it to automatically take up available space, centering it both vertically and horizontally within the grid container. This method is simple and requires no extra properties.

Example 5: Aligning Grid items vertically with grid-row

When you need to place an element at a specific vertical position within a grid, grid-row is the way to go. In this example, the item is placed in the second row to achieve vertical alignment within the grid layout:

Browser support for grid-row:

Browser	grid-template-columns	grid-template-rows: repeat()
Chrome	> 57	> 57
Firefox	> 52	> 52
Edge	12-15 (partial, -ms-grid-column prefix), > 16	> 16
Safari	> 11	> 10

Example 6: Aligning Grid items vertically using pseudo-elements

Just like the Flexbox approach, we can use pseudo-elements with CSS Grid to create vertical alignment. By defining a three-row grid and placing empty ::before and ::after elements in the first and third rows, we push the main element into the center without extra markup:

Vertical alignment using absolute positioning

Absolute positioning offers a reliable way to vertically align elements. By using properties like position, margin: auto, and transform, we can center elements within their containers without depending on Flexbox or Grid.

Example 1: Aligning elements vertically using position: absolute and margin: auto

One way to vertically center an element is by using position: absolute along with margin: auto. By setting inset: 0, the element is constrained within its container, and margin: auto, automatically distributes the available space, centering it:

The limitation to this approach is, of course, that the element height must be explicitly declared, or it will occupy the entire container.

Example 2: Aligning elements vertically using position: absolute and translateY(-50%)

This is one of the first tricks, and still a go-to, for many developers. By relying on absolute positioning, the inner element at 50 percent from the top and left of its parent, we can then translate it up to 50 percent of its height:

A fairly solid approach, with the only major limitation being the use of translate that might get in the way of other transforms, for example, when applying transitions or animations.

Inline and table-based vertical alignment

Inline and table-based methods offer simple ways to vertically align content, especially for text and table elements. While vertical-align works well for inline elements, display: table-cell provides a reliable way to align content within table-based layouts. However, these approaches come with limitations and are less flexible compared to modern CSS techniques like Flexbox and Grid.

Examples 1: Vertical centering with display: table-cell and vertical-align

This is a really simple approach, and one of the first (back in the day, everything was centered around tables). We’ll use the behavior of table cells and vertical-align to center an element on a container.

This can be done with actual tables or using semantic HTML, switching the display of the element to table-cell:

But, bear in mind that this totally fails on screen readers (even if your markup is based on divs, setting the CSS display to table and table-cell makes screen readers interpret it as an actual table). So, it’s far from the best when it comes to accessibility.

Browser support for this method:

display: table-cell and vertical-align CSS properties have great browser support, making it a reliable choice for vertical alignment, especially when working with table-like layouts.

Example 2: Using vertical-align for inline elements

You can also use the vertical-align property to center inline, inline-block, or table cell elements vertically. One of the many applications for this approach is to vertically align an image with text or to vertically align the contents of a table cell:

The fact that this method doesn’t work with the block element could be a deal breaker. Apart from that, it works reasonably well and is supported by older browsers.

Example 3: Centering single-line text with line-height

By default, this vertically aligns your text by sharing an equal proportion of space around the text, creating an illusion of vertical centering.

When the line-height value is greater than the font size of the text, we can, by default, get extra spacing, and the extra space is then distributed evenly above and below the text. This makes the text appear vertically centered within its containing element. The implementation of this is straightforward:

Browser Support for line-height

line-height has full support for all modern browsers; feel free to make the most of it.

Example 4: The ghost element method

Another oldie that didn’t catch up for whatever reason is using inline-block with a ghost (pseudo) element that has 100% height of the parent, then setting vertical-align: middle for both the pseudo-element and the element we want to center:

It works quite well, with the most noticeable catch being that it moves the horizontal center just a tiny bit to the right because of the always cringy behavior of white space between inline-block elements.

This can be dealt with by adjusting the margin on the pseudo-element. In our case, we’ve assigned margin-left: -0.5ch. We can also get a perfect centering by setting the font size to 0 on the container and resetting it to px or rem on the element:

Implications of vertical alignment

Accessibility

The brain has an observed pattern; it is designed to read and easily assimilate concepts from the left to the right (left aligned), which makes reading large blocks of text easier.

Vertical alignment may stand out aesthetically, but those with reading difficulties may find it challenging to work with. Vertically aligned text should be minimal for the sake of accessibility. This means it should be limited to headers to accommodate users with reading impairments.

Readability

Vertically aligned, large text is known to reduce reading speed because readers need to pause before finding the next line. This isn’t advisable for long text. If you must slow down the reading speed, it should be for the right reasons, such as emphasizing specific content. Otherwise, text alignment should be kept simple for ease of reading.

Responsiveness

For vertical alignment, it is more advisable to settle for CSS Flexbox or Grid in most cases because these tools offer a cleaner and more responsive approach compared to mimicking tables with CSS and the rest.

Conclusion

CSS has come a long way, making vertical alignment easier than ever. We’ve explored some of the best techniques, each with its use cases and limitations. Modern solutions like Flexbox and Grid offer flexibility and responsiveness, while classic methods still come in handy for compatibility. The key is knowing when to use which approach.

Got a favorite vertical alignment trick? Drop it in the comments; we’d love to hear it!