Question

I’m trying to horizontally align a button using CSS. Here’s my markup:

<button type="button" class="primary-button download-button">Download</button>

And my relevant CSS:

.primary-button {
    font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
    font-size: 1.3em;
    color: #fff;
    border: 1px solid #004487;
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, top, bottom, from(#5288bd), to(#2f659a));
    background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #5288bd, #2f659a);
    box-shadow: inset 0px 1px 0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), inset 0px 0px 0px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), 0px 1px 0px rgba(255, 255, 255, .7);
    text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px black;
    cursor: pointer;
}

.download-button {
    padding: 10px 20px;
    border-radius: 5px;
    display: block;
    margin: 10px auto 0px auto;
}

However, it’s still aligned to the left. I thought setting margin: 10px auto 0px auto; would horizontally align it seen as it’s now a block element but apparently not.

I’ve also tried wrapping it in a div and using text-align: center but that doesn’t work either.

Answer 1

Give the button a width. See this jsFiddle example.

.download-button {
    padding: 10px 20px;
    border-radius: 5px;
    display: block;
    width: 130px;
    margin: 10px auto 0px auto;
}​

Without a width, you’re trying to center a block level element that is the full width of it’s container. By explicitly setting a width (for example 130px on your button) the margin centering rule works.