Why is the center tag deprecated in HTML

Question

I am just curious as to why the  lt center gt  tag in HTML was deprecated   The  lt center gt  was a simple way of quickly center-aligning blocks of text and images by encapsulating the container in a  lt center gt  tag  and I really cannot find any simpler way on how to do it now   Anyone know of any simple way on how to center  stuff   not the margin-left auto  margin-right auto  and width thing   something that replaces  lt center gt     And also  why was it deprecated

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CSS has a text-align  center property  and since this is purely a visual thing  not semantic  it should be relegated to CSS  not HTML

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You can still use this with XHTML 1 0 Transitional and HTML 4 01 Transitional if you like  The only other way  best way  in my opinion  is with margins    lt div style  width 200px margin auto   gt     lt p gt Hello World lt  p gt   lt  div gt    Your HTML should define the element  not govern its presentation

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For text and images you can use text-align    lt div style  text-align  center   gt      I m centered   lt  div gt

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According to W3Schools com      The center element was deprecated in HTML 4 01  and is not supported in XHTML 1 0 Strict DTD    The HTML 4 01 spec gives this reason for deprecating the tag      The CENTER element is exactly equivalent to specifying the DIV element with the align attribute set to  center

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The Least Popular Answer  A deprecated tag is not necessarily a bad tag  There are tags that deal with presentation logic  center is one of them  A center tag is not the same as a div with text-align center  The fact that you have another way to do something doesn t make it invalid   Let me explain because there are notorious downvoters here who will think I m defending oldschool HTML4 or something  No I m not  But the debate around center is simply a trend war  there is no real reason to ditch a tag that serves a valid purpose well  So let s see the major arguments against it    quot It describes presentation  not semantics  quot  No  It describes a logical arrangement - and yes  it has a default appearance  just as other tags like  lt p gt  or  lt ul gt  do  But the point is the enclosed part s relation to its surroundings  Center says  quot this is something we separate by visually different positioning quot     quot It s not valid quot  Yes it is  It s just deprecated  as in  could be removed later  For 15  years now  And it s not going anywhere  apparently  There are major sites  including google com  that use this tag because it s very readable and to the point - and those are the same reasons we like HTML5 tags for    quot It s not supported in HTML5 quot  It s one of the most widely supported tags  actually  MDN says  quot its use is discouraged since it could be removed at any time quot  - good point  but that day may never come  to quote a classic  Center was already deprecated in like 2004 or so - it s still here and still useful    quot It s oldschool quot  Shoelaces are oldschool too  New methods don t invalidate the old  You want to feel progressive and modern  fine  But don t make it the law    quot It s stupid   awkward   lame   tells a story about you quot  None of these  It s like a hammer  one tool for a specific job  There are other tools for the same job and other jobs for the same tool  but it was created to solve a certain problem and that problem is still around so we might as well just use a dedicated solution    quot You shouldn t do this  because  CSS quot  Centering can absolutely be achieved by CSS but that s just one way  not the only one  let alone the only appropriate one  Anything that s supported  working and readable should be ok to use  Also  the same argument happened before flexboxes and CSS grids  which is funny because back then there was no CSS way to achieve what center did  No  text-align center is not the same  No  margin auto is not the same  Anyone who argued against center tags before flexbox simply didn t know enough about CSS    TL DR   The only reason not to use  lt center gt  is because people will hate you

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I still use the  lt center gt  tag sometimes because nothing in CSS works as well  Examples of trying to use a  lt div gt  trick and failing    x000D   x000D   lt div style  text-align  center   gt This div is centered  but it s a simple example  lt  div gt  x000D   lt br   gt  x000D   lt div style  text-align  center   gt  lt table border  1  gt  lt tr gt  lt td gt  amp lt div style  text-align  center   amp gt  didn t center correctly  lt  td gt  lt  tr gt  lt  table gt  lt  div gt  x000D   lt br   gt  x000D   lt div style  text-align  center margin-left auto margin-right auto  gt  lt table border  1  gt  lt tr gt  lt td gt  amp lt div style  text-align  center margin-left auto margin-right auto  amp gt  still didn t center either lt  td gt  lt  tr gt  lt  table gt  lt  div gt  x000D   lt br   gt  x000D   lt center gt  lt table border  1  gt  lt tr gt  lt td gt Actually Centered with  amp lt center amp gt  tag lt  td gt  lt  tr gt  lt  table gt  lt  center gt  x000D   x000D   x000D     lt center gt  gets results  To use CSS instead  you sometimes have to put CSS in several places and mess with it to get it to center right  To answer your question  CSS has become a religion with believers and followers who shunned  lt center gt   lt b gt   lt i gt   lt u gt  as blasphemy  unholy  and much too simple for the sake of their own job security  And if they try to take your  lt table gt  away from you  ask them what the CSS equivalent of the colspan or rowspan attribute is  It is not the abstract or bookish truth  but the lived truth that counts  -- Zen

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HTML is intended for structuring data  not controlling layout  CSS is intended to control layout  You ll also find that many designers frown on using  lt table gt  for layouts for this very same reason

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What I do is take common tasks like centering or floating and make CSS classes out of them  When I do that I can use them throughout any of the pages  I can also call as many as I want on the same element    text center  text-align  center    center  margin  auto 0px    float left  float  left     Now I can use them in my HTML code to perform simple tasks    lt p class  text center  gt Some Text lt  p gt

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Food for thought  what would a text-to-speech synthesizer do with  lt center gt

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The  lt center gt  element was deprecated because it defines the presentation of its contents     it does not describe its contents   One method of centering is to set the margin-left and margin-right properties of the element to auto  and then set the parent element   s text-align property to center  This guarantees that the element will be centered in all modern browsers

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It s intended that markup  i e  the HTML tags  represent meaning and structure  not appearance  It was badly mixed up in early versions of HTML but the standards people are trying to clean that up now   One problem with letting tags control appearance is that your pages don t play well with devices for the handicapped  such as screen readers  It also leads to having lots and lots of tags in your text that don t help clarify the meaning  but rather clutter it with information of a different level   So CSS was thought up to move formatting display to a different language  which is separate from the text and can easily be kept that way  Among other things  this allows switching stylesheets to change the appearance of a Web page without touching the other markup  And to be able to do that for lots of pages in one swell foop   The tools CSS gives you to do this are not always elegant  I m on your side there  For instance  there is no way to do effective vertical centering  And horizontal centering  if it s not just text amenable to text-align  is not much better   You have the choice of doing easy  effective and muddled or clean  elegant and cumbersome  I don t understand why Web developers put up with this mess  but I guess they re happy to have at least a chance to get their stuff done

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You can add this to your css and use  lt div class  center  gt  lt  div gt    center    text-align  center    margin  auto    justify-content  center    display  flex      or if you want to keep  lt center gt  lt  center gt  and be prepared in case its ever removed  add this to your css  center    text-align  center    margin  auto    justify-content  center    display  flex

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