`<center>` HTML centered text element

Deprecated

Avoid using this feature in new projects. This feature may be a candidate for removal from web standards or browsers.

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The <center> HTML element is a block-level element that displays its block-level or inline contents centered horizontally within its containing element. The container is usually, but isn't required to be, <body>.

This tag has been deprecated in HTML 4 (and XHTML 1) in favor of the CSS text-align property, which can be applied to the <div> element or to an individual <p>. For centering blocks, use other CSS properties like margin-left and margin-right and set them to auto (or set margin to 0 auto).

DOM interface

This element implements the HTMLElement interface.

Example 1

html

<center>
  This text will be centered.
  <p>So will this paragraph.</p>
</center>

Result

Example 2 (CSS alternative)

html

<div class="center">
  This text will be centered.
  <p>So will this paragraph.</p>
</div>

css

.center {
  text-align: center;
}

Result

Example 3 (CSS alternative)

html

<p class="center">
  This line will be centered.<br />
  And so will this line.
</p>

css

.center {
  text-align: center;
}

Result

Note: Applying text-align: center to a <div> or <p> element centers the contents of those elements while leaving their overall dimensions unchanged.