background-position-x

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2016.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The background-position-x CSS property sets the initial horizontal position for each background image. The position is relative to the position layer set by background-origin.

Try it

background-position-x: left;

background-position-x: center;

background-position-x: 25%;

background-position-x: 2rem;

background-position-x: right 32px;

<section class="display-block" id="default-example">
  <div class="transition-all" id="example-element"></div>
</section>

#example-element {
  background-color: navajowhite;
  background-image: url("/shared-assets/images/examples/star.png");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  height: 100%;
}

The value of this property is overridden by any declaration of the background or background-position shorthand properties applied to the element after it.

Syntax

css
/* Keyword values */
background-position-x: left;
background-position-x: center;
background-position-x: right;

/* <percentage> values */
background-position-x: 25%;

/* <length> values */
background-position-x: 0px;
background-position-x: 1cm;
background-position-x: 8em;

/* Side-relative values */
background-position-x: right 3px;
background-position-x: left 25%;

/* Multiple values */
background-position-x: 0px, center;

/* Global values */
background-position-x: inherit;
background-position-x: initial;
background-position-x: revert;
background-position-x: revert-layer;
background-position-x: unset;

The background-position-x property is specified as one or more values, separated by commas.

Values

left

Aligns the left edge of the background image with the left edge of the background position layer.

center

Aligns the center of the background image with the center of the background position layer.

Aligns the right edge of the background image with the right edge of the background position layer.

<length>

The offset of the given background image's left vertical edge from the background position layer's left vertical edge. (Some browsers allow assigning the right edge for offset).

<percentage>

The offset of the given background image's horizontal position relative to the container. A value of 0% means that the left edge of the background image is aligned with the left edge of the container, and a value of 100% means that the right edge of the background image is aligned with the right edge of the container, thus a value of 50% horizontally centers the background image.

Formal definition

Initial value0%
Applies toall elements. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line.
Inheritedno
Percentagesrefer to width of background positioning area minus width of background image
Computed valueA list, each item consisting of: an offset given as a combination of an absolute length and a percentage, plus an origin keyword
Animation typea repeatable list

Formal syntax

background-position-x = 
  [ center | [ [ left | right | x-start | x-end ]? <length-percentage>? ]! ]#  

<length-percentage> = 
  <length>      |
  <percentage>

Examples

Basic example

The following example shows a background image implementation, with background-position-x and background-position-y used to define the image's horizontal and vertical positions separately.

HTML

html
<div></div>

CSS

css
div {
  width: 300px;
  height: 300px;
  background-color: skyblue;
  background-image: url(https://mdn.dev/archives/media/attachments/2020/07/29/17350/3b4892b7e820122ac6dd7678891d4507/firefox.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position-x: center;
  background-position-y: bottom;
}

Result

Side-relative values

The following example shows support for side-relative offset syntax, which allows the developer to offset the background from any edge.

HTML

html
<div></div>

CSS

css
div {
  width: 300px;
  height: 300px;
  background-color: seagreen;
  background-image: url(https://mdn.dev/archives/media/attachments/2020/07/29/17350/3b4892b7e820122ac6dd7678891d4507/firefox.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position-x: right 20px;
  background-position-y: bottom 10px;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Backgrounds Module Level 4
# background-position-longhands

Browser compatibility

See also