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CSS

Posted by Alexey Tseitlin
Alexey Tseitlin
5,866 Points

Centering text

I have centered the text in the middle of the screen. But why "width: 100%" makes it in the middle and not "width: 50%" (like with top: 50%;). Were does the 100% come from? Why "top: 50%; " = middle and width: "50%" not?

.midtext {
    position: absolute;
    text-align: center;
    top: 50%;
    width: 100%;

<div class="midtext">TEXT</div>

1 Answer

rydavim
rydavim
18,813 Points
rydavim
rydavim
18,813 Points

You're defining the width of the div, and then centering the text inside of the div. Think of the div as a box inside your webpage. If you define the width as 50%, the text will be centered inside the div, but the div will only be covering half the page.

If that's still confusing, try adding a border to your div. That way you can visually see its size and positioning.

.midtext {
    position: absolute;
    text-align: center;
    top: 50%;
    width: 50%;
    border: 1px solid black;
}