CSS The position Property
CSS Positioning
CSS positioning is about controlling the placement of elements within a web page.
With CSS positioning, you can override the normal document flow.
The CSS position Property
The position
property specifies the positioning
type for an element.
This property can have one of the following values:
static
- This is defaultrelative
fixed
absolute
sticky
Elements are then positioned to their final location with the
top
,
bottom
,
left
, and
right
properties.
CSS position: static
All HTML elements are positioned static by default.
Static positioned elements are not affected by the top, bottom, left, and right properties.
An element with position: static;
is always positioned according to the normal flow of the page:
Here is the CSS that is used:
CSS position: relative
An element with position: relative;
is positioned relative to its normal position
in the document flow.
Setting the top, right, bottom, and left properties will cause the element to be adjusted away from its normal position. Other content will not be adjusted to fit into any gap left by the element.
Here is the CSS that is used:
Example
div.relative {
position: relative;
left: 30px;
border: 3px solid #73AD21;
}
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CSS position: fixed
An element with position: fixed;
is positioned relative to the viewport, which means it always
stays in the same place even if the page is scrolled. The top,
right, bottom, and left properties are used set the final location of the element.
A fixed element does not leave a gap in the page where it would normally have been located.
position: fixed;
Notice the fixed element in the lower-right corner of the page. Here is the CSS that is used:
Example
div.fixed {
position: fixed;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
width:
300px;
border: 3px solid #73AD21;
}
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CSS position: absolute
An element with position: absolute;
is positioned relative to the nearest positioned ancestor
(with position other than static).
However; if an absolute positioned element has no positioned ancestors, it uses the document body, and moves along with page scrolling.
Note: Absolute positioned elements are removed from the normal document flow, and can overlap other elements.
Here is a simple example:
Here is the CSS that is used:
Example
div.relative {
position: relative;
width: 400px;
height: 200px;
border: 3px solid green;
}
div.absolute {
position: absolute;
top: 80px;
right: 0;
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
border: 3px solid
red;
}
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CSS position: sticky
An element with position: sticky;
toggles between
a relative
and fixed
position, depending on the scroll position.
A sticky element is positioned relative until a certain scroll position is reached - then it "sticks" in that place (like position:fixed).
Note: You must specify at least one of the top
, right
, bottom
or left
properties, for
sticky positioning to work.
In this example, when the sticky element reach the top of the page (top: 0), it sticks to this position:
Example
div.sticky {
position:
sticky;
top: 0;
background-color: green;
border: 2px solid #4CAF50;
}
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Positioning Text On an Image
How to position text on an image:
Example

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Top Left » Top Right » Bottom Left » Bottom Right » Centered »All CSS Positioning Properties
Property | Description |
---|---|
bottom | Sets the bottom margin edge for a positioned box |
clip | Clips an absolutely positioned element |
left | Sets the left margin edge for a positioned box |
position | Specifies the type of positioning for an element |
right | Sets the right margin edge for a positioned box |
top | Sets the top margin edge for a positioned box |