centercentered

Centercentered is a term used in design and layout to describe an element that is positioned at the center of its containing block along both the horizontal and vertical axes. In practice, it implies that the element's center aligns with the center of the available space, producing a symmetric arrangement that is often perceived as balanced.

In web design and UI, centercentered alignment is commonly implemented with CSS techniques such as flexbox or grid. With flexbox, a container can be configured to justify-content and align-items center, ensuring children are centered both ways. With CSS grid, properties like place-items: center place the item in the center of the grid cell. These approaches adapt to varying viewport sizes while preserving the central placement.

Applications include modals, loading indicators, hero banners, icons, and modal backdrops where content should appear centered regardless of screen size. In typography and print, optical centering may be used, where visual balance is achieved by slight adjustments to centering to account for visual weight rather than mathematical center.

Considerations for centercentered layouts include responsiveness, content size, and accessibility. Very tall or very short content can require vertical centering tricks or alternative flow for readability. Users with screen readers should encounter predictable focus order, and contrast should remain adequate when content is centered within containers of varying backgrounds.

Related concepts include horizontally centered, vertically centered, and optical centering. While "centercentered" is not a formal technical term in most specifications, it is a useful shorthand in design discussions to describe bilateral centering.