How to vertically center a <span> inside a div?

Html Problem Overview

The code:

<div 
  id="theMainDiv"
  style="
    border:solid 1px gray;
    cursor:text;
    width:400px;
    padding:0px;"
>
  <span 
    id="tag1_outer" 
    style="
      background:#e2e6f0;
      padding-right:4px;
      padding-left:4px;
      border:solid 1px #9daccc;
      font:normal 11px arial;
      color:#3c3c3c"
  >as</span>
</div>

As it renders now, the span is align the bottom-left corner of the div.

Html Solutions

Solution 1 - Html

See my article on understanding vertical alignment. There are multiple techniques to accomplish what you want at the end of the discussion.

(Super-short summary: either set the line-height of the child equal to the height of the container, or set positioning on the container and absolutely position the child at top:50% with margin-top:-YYYpx, YYY being half the known height of the child.)

Solution 2 - Html

At your parent DIV add

display:table;

and at your child element add

 display:table-cell;
 vertical-align:middle;

Solution 3 - Html

Quick answer for single line span

Make the child (in this case a span) the same line-height as the parent <div>'s height

<div class="parent">
  <span class="child">Yes mom, I did my homework lol</span>
</div>

You should then add the CSS rules

.parent { height: 20px; }
.child { line-height: 20px; vertical-align: middle; }

Or you can target it with a child selector

.parent { height: 20px; }
.parent > span { line-height: 20px; vertical-align: middle; }

Background on my own use of this

I ran into this similar issue where I needed to vertically center items in a mobile menu. I made the div and spans inside the same line height. Note that this is for a meteor project and therefore not using inline css ;)

HTML

<div class="international">        
  <span class="intlFlag">
    {{flag}}        
  </span>
        
  <span class="intlCurrent">
    {{country}}
  </span>
        
  <span class="intlButton">
    <i class="fa fa-globe"></i>
  </span> 
</div>

CSS (option for multiple spans in a div)

.international {
  height: 42px;
}

.international > span {
  line-height: 42px;
}

In this case if I just had one span I could have added the CSS rule directly to that span.

CSS (option for one specific span)

.intlFlag { line-height: 42px; }

Here is how it displayed for me

enter image description here

Solution 4 - Html

As in a similar question, use display: inline-block with a placeholder element to vertically center the span inside of a block element:

html, body, #container, #placeholder { height: 100%; }

#content, #placeholder { display:inline-block; vertical-align: middle; }

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
  </head>

  <body>
    <div id="container">
      <span id="content">
        Content
      </span>
      <span id="placeholder"></span>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Vertical alignment is only applied to inline elements or table cells, so use it along with display:inline-block or display:table-cell with a display:table parent when vertically centering block elements.

References:

http://www.brunildo.org/test/img_center.html">CSS Horizontal and Vertical Centering

Solution 5 - Html

To the parent div add a height say 50px. In the child span, add the line-height: 50px; Now the text in the span will be vertically center. This worked for me.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Babiker	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Html	Phrogz	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Html	Otto Kanellis	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Html	JGallardo	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Html	Paul Sweatte	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Html	DTS	View Answer on Stackoverflow