If you’re a web developer, you already know that CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a powerful tool for controlling the layout and visual presentation of web pages. One of the most important tasks in designing a website is centering text and headers in CSS, which helps create a well-organized and visually appealing site. In this article, we’ll go over how to center text and headers in CSS using the text-align property, making it easier for you to create an attractive and effective website.
What is The Text-Align Property?
The text-align property is CSS property that defines how text is aligned within an HTML element. This includes the headers (h1 through to h6) and paragraphs. Text-align can take on different values depending on different CSS elements. This feature allows you to control whether text is centered, left-aligned, or right-aligned, depending on your preference.
How to Center Text Using The Text-Align Property?
Centering text on a web page is easy using the text-align property. Simply add the following code to the CSS selector:
text-align: center;
Apply this code on the CSS code block and it will center the text inside the selected HTML element. It could be any element, like a paragraph or a div. The syntax should look like the following for a paragraph element:
p {
text-align: center;
}
By default, text-align is set to left. Therefore centering text using the text-align property means that the text will be positioned at the center of the selected element. This principle can also apply to other elements like lists and tables. Moreover, you can mix text-align centered texts, left-aligned text, and right-aligned text on a web page.
How to Center Headers Using The Text-Align Property?
Centering headers in CSS is also easy. HTML has specific tags from h1 to h6 that define the different levels of headers. As such, you should select the heading you wish to center and apply the code. For example, if you want to center the text of h1 tag, the syntax should look like this:
h1 {
text-align: center;
}
This code changes the text-alignment for h1 tags to center. This can be done for any header tag, including h2, h3, h4 through to h6. Notably, the text-align property only aligns text within the HTML element that it’s been applied to. Therefore, if it’s applied to the h1 tag but not the other header tags, only the text within the h1 tag will be centered.
Conclusion
In summary, the text-align property is a powerful CSS tool that web developers can use to center text and headers on web pages. By applying text-align: center to an HTML element such as paragraphs and headings, you can create a well-organized, symmetrical, and visually appealing web page. Keep in mind that the text-align property only affects the currently selected element, so if you want to center multiple elements, you’ll need to apply the code block to each one.
