HTML <center> Tag

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The <center> tag is a block-level element, which means it can contain other block-level and inline elements. The content of the <center> tag (text, graphic elements, tables and so on) is aligned to the center.

The <center> is a deprecated HTML tag and not supported in HTML5. Instead, use the CSS text-align property which is applied to the <div> element or to <p>. When text-align: center is applied to <div> or <p>, the contents of these elements will be centered, but their total dimensions won’t change.

You can use the CSS margin-right and margin-left properties to center blocks.

Syntax

The <center> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<center>) and closing (</center>) tags.

Example of the HTML <center> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This text is aligned to the left.</p>
    <center>And this one is placed in the center.</center>
  </body>
</html>

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Result

Using CSS styles

As we’ve already mentioned, the <center> tag isn’t supported in HTML5․ Instead, we use CSS styles.

Example with the CSS text-align property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This text is aligned to the left.</p>
    <p style="text-align:center">And this one is placed in the center.</p>
  </body>
</html>

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How to style <center> tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <center> tag:

CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.

Coloring text in <center> tag:

CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.

Text layout styles for <center> tag:

CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.

Other properties worth looking at for <center> tag:

CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.