How to center three divs horizontally within a parent div?

Question

I know this question has been frequently asked but I can never seem to get it to work. Can you tell me what's wrong?

I have three divs within a #container div, which I want to centre side by side. The #container is 1000px wide (I want to keep it that way). Here is my code:

#container {
  margin-top: 500px;
  position: absolute;
  width: 1000px;
}
.related-article {
  background-color: #D6A400;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 230px;
  height: 300px;
  border-radius: 30px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.related-article > img {
  width: 200px;
  height: 150px;
  border-radius: 15px;
  margin-top: 15px;
}
.related-article > h3 {
  font-size: 15px;
  width: 180px;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  color: #f1f1f1;
  font-family: Abel, serif;
  margin-bottom: none;
}
a {
  text-decoration: none;
}
#right {
  float: right;
}
#left {
  float: left;
}
#center {
  margin-left: 385px;
  margin-right: 385px;
}

<div id="container">
  <h2>Here's what you'll do!</h2>
  <div id="left">
    <a href="#" class="related-article first" align="middle">
      <img src="download.jpeg" alt="T-rex">
      <h3>Constructing amazing fossils you never even dreamed of</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
  <div id="center">
    <a href="#" class="related-article second" align="middle">
      <img src="fossil-fish-10-lg.jpg" alt="Fish">
      <h3>Studying ancient marine biology</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
  <div id="right">
    <a href="#" class="related-article third" align="middle">
      <img src="fossil.turtle2.jpg" alt="Turtle">
      <h3>Uncovering the world's greatest mysteries</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
</div>

All help would be gladly appreciated.

Teuta Koraqi · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-15T10:25:43.547

You can do that quite simple using flexbox:

#container {
/*     margin-top: 500px; */
  width: 1000px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}
.related-article {
  background-color: #D6A400;
  display: inline-block;
  border-radius: 30px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.related-article > img {
    width: 200px;
    height: 150px;
    border-radius: 15px;
    margin-top: 15px;
}
.related-article > h3 {
  font-size: 15px;
  width: 180px;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  color: #f1f1f1;
  font-family: Abel, serif;
  margin-bottom: none;
}
a {
    text-decoration: none;
}

}
#container {
    width: 1000px;
}

.related-article {
  background-color: #D6A400;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 230px;
  height: 300px;
  border-radius: 30px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.related-article > img {
    width: 200px;
    height: 150px;
    border-radius: 15px;
    margin-top: 15px;
}
.related-article > h3 {
  font-size: 15px;
  width: 180px;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  color: #f1f1f1;
  font-family: Abel, serif;
  margin-bottom: none;
}
a {
    text-decoration: none;
}
.box {
  margin-right: 10px;
    width: 230px;
  height: 300px;
  }

.flex-container {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

<div id="container">
        <h2>Here's what you'll do!</h2>
        <div class="flex-container">
        <div id="left" class="box">
          <a href="#" class="related-article first" align="middle">
            <img src="download.jpeg" alt="T-rex">
            <h3>Constructing amazing fossils you never even dreamed of</h3>
          </a>
          </div>
          <div id="center"  class="box">
          <a href="#" class="related-article second" align="middle">
            <img src="fossil-fish-10-lg.jpg" alt="Fish">
            <h3>Studying ancient marine biology</h3>
          </a>
          </div>
          <div id="right"  class="box">
          <a href="#" class="related-article third" align="middle">
            <img src="fossil.turtle2.jpg" alt="Turtle">
            <h3>Uncovering the world's greatest mysteries</h3>
          </a>
          </div>
          </div>
        </div>

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:26

A solution using display: flex. Read more about flexbox here

Apply display: flex to the container
Add flex: 1 to all the child's which are to be centered horizontally.

h2 {
  margin-top: 500px;
}
#container {
  position: absolute;
  width: 1000px;
  display: flex;
  text-align: center;
}
#container div {
  flex: 1;
}
.related-article {
  background-color: #D6A400;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 230px;
  height: 300px;
  border-radius: 30px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.related-article > img {
  width: 200px;
  height: 150px;
  border-radius: 15px;
  margin-top: 15px;
}
.related-article > h3 {
  font-size: 15px;
  width: 180px;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  color: #f1f1f1;
  font-family: Abel, serif;
  margin-bottom: none;
}
a {
  text-decoration: none;
}

<h2>Here's what you'll do!</h2>
<div id="container">
  <div id="left">
    <a href="#" class="related-article first" align="middle">
      <img src="download.jpeg" alt="T-rex">
      <h3>Constructing amazing fossils you never even dreamed of</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
  <div id="center">
    <a href="#" class="related-article second" align="middle">
      <img src="fossil-fish-10-lg.jpg" alt="Fish">
      <h3>Studying ancient marine biology</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
  <div id="right">
    <a href="#" class="related-article third" align="middle">
      <img src="fossil.turtle2.jpg" alt="Turtle">
      <h3>Uncovering the world's greatest mysteries</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
</div>

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:55

Remove all the floats and replace them with :

display: inline-block;

Also, as much as i have tried, with that spacing between divs, you wont be able to display them the right way. Make the space between the #left, #center and #right divs less than 50px, or work with percentage(%).

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:24

You may use display:table for that..

You can have Parent div with style

display:table

and your 3 child divs as

display:table-cell

#container {
  margin-top: 500px;
  position: absolute;
  width: 1000px;
}
.related-article {
  background-color: #D6A400;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 230px;
  height: 300px;
  border-radius: 30px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.related-article > img {
  width: 200px;
  height: 150px;
  border-radius: 15px;
  margin-top: 15px;
}
.related-article > h3 {
  font-size: 15px;
  width: 180px;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  color: #f1f1f1;
  font-family: Abel, serif;
  margin-bottom: none;
}
a {
  text-decoration: none;
}
#container {
  margin-top: 500px;
  position: absolute;
  width: 1000px;
  display: table;
}
.related-article {
  background-color: #D6A400;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 230px;
  height: 300px;
  border-radius: 30px;
  margin-bottom: 0px;
}
.related-article > img {
  width: 200px;
  height: 150px;
  border-radius: 15px;
  margin-top: 15px;
}
.related-article > h3 {
  font-size: 15px;
  width: 180px;
  text-align: justify;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  color: #f1f1f1;
  font-family: Abel, serif;
  margin-bottom: none;
}
a {
  text-decoration: none;
}
#left,
#right,
#center {
  display: table-cell;
}
#center {
  margin-left: 385px;
  margin-right: 385px;
}
h2 {
  display: table-row;
}

<div id="container">
  <h2>Here's what you'll do!</h2>
  <div id="left">
    <a href="#" class="related-article first" align="middle">
      <img src="download.jpeg" alt="T-rex">
      <h3>Constructing amazing fossils you never even dreamed of</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
  <div id="center">
    <a href="#" class="related-article second" align="middle">
      <img src="fossil-fish-10-lg.jpg" alt="Fish">
      <h3>Studying ancient marine biology</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
  <div id="right">
    <a href="#" class="related-article third" align="middle">
      <img src="fossil.turtle2.jpg" alt="Turtle">
      <h3>Uncovering the world's greatest mysteries</h3>
    </a>
  </div>
</div>

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:20

1

remove float from and add display: inline-block to all three, then add text-align: center; to the container.

answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:20

Johannes

64,305
18
73
130

Lol you took my words see here https://jsfiddle.net/jsusLxoy/ – Leo the lion Jun 15 '16 at 09:25

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:27

1

Try this, and add float:left to your right,left and center div and reduce your margin left and right of center div.

#right {
float: left;
}
#left {
float: left;
}
#center {
margin-left: 85px;
margin-right: 85px;
float:left;
}

answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:27

frnt

8,455
2
22
25

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 15 '16 at 09:31

Instead adding center, left and right. Use ul and set the width of li in percentage. It will improve the code and reduce the css code.

The codepen url is http://codepen.io/SESN/pen/pbbjrb

CSS

#container { width: 100%; }
.ulContainer { margin: 0px auto; list-style: none; width: 80%; }
.ulContainer li { width: 33.33%; float: left; }

HTML

<div id="container">
        <h2>Here's what you'll do!</h2>
  <ul class="ulContainer">
  <li>
    <a href="#" class="related-article first" align="middle">
            <img src="download.jpeg" alt="T-rex">
            <h3>Constructing amazing fossils you never even dreamed of</h3>
          </a>
  </li>
    <li>
    <a href="#" class="related-article second" align="middle">
            <img src="fossil-fish-10-lg.jpg" alt="Fish">
            <h3>Studying ancient marine biology</h3>
          </a>
    </li>
    <li>
    <a href="#" class="related-article third" align="middle">
            <img src="fossil.turtle2.jpg" alt="Turtle">
            <h3>Uncovering the world's greatest mysteries</h3>
          </a>
    </li>
  </ul>
        </div>

How to center three divs horizontally within a parent div?

7 Answers7

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