Bootstrap - Center a div horizontally and vertically

In this tutorial, we are going to learn about how to center a div horizontally and vertically in Bootstrap with the help of examples.

Consider, that we have the following div element in Bootstrap:

<div>
  <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

To center a div horizontaly and vertically in Bootstrap, add the utlity class d-flex and justify-content-center, align-items-center to the div element class attribute.

“justify-content-center” centers the div horizontally.

“align-items-center” centers the div vertically.

Here is an example:

<div class="d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center" style="100vh">
  <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

Note: The above utility classes use the flexbox which can work on Bootstrap 4, and 5 versions.

If you are using the bootstrap version which is below 4, then you can add the flexbox using the custom CSS class.

<div class="center">
  <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

.center{
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
    align-items: center;
    height: 100vh;
}

Centering div horizontally, vertically using absolute position

We can use the css absolute positioning in bootstrap to center a div horizontally and vertically

Here is an example:

<div class="center">
     <h1>Hello, User</h1>
</div>

.center{
   position:absolute;
   left:50%;
   top:50%;
   transform:translate(-50%, -50%);
}

1. Here we added position:absolute to the div element, so the element breaks out from the normal document flow and is positioned to its relative parent (eg: body or parent element).

2. The left:50% moves the element 50% right from its position.

3. The top:50% moves the element 50% down from its position.

4. The translate(-50%, -50%) moves the element 50% up, 50% left of it’s position.