CSS Layout - float and clear

The CSS float property specifies how an element should float.

The CSS clear property specifies what elements can float beside the cleared element and on which side.

The float Property

The float property is used for positioning and layout on web pages.

The float property can have one of the following values:

• left - The element floats to the left of its container
• right- The element floats to the right of its container
• none - The element does not float (will be displayed just where it occurs in the text). This is default
• inherit - The element inherits the float value of its parent

In its simplest use, the float property can be used to wrap text around images.

Example - float: right;

The following example specifies that an image should float to the right in a text:

Example - float: left;

The following example specifies that an image should float to the left in a text:

Example - No float

In the following example the image will be displayed just where it occurs in the text (float: none;):

The clear Property

The clear property specifies what elements can float beside the cleared element and on which side.

The clear property can have one of the following values:

• none - Allows floating elements on both sides. This is default
• left - No floating elements allowed on the left side
• right- No floating elements allowed on the right side
• both - No floating elements allowed on either the left or the right side
• inherit - The element inherits the clear value of its parent

The most common way to use the clear property is after you have used a float property on an element.

When clearing floats, you should match the clear to the float. If an element is floated to the left, then you should clear to the left. Your floated element will continue to float, but the cleared element will appear below it on the web page.

The following example clears the float to the left. Means that no floating elements are allowed on the left side (of the div):

The clearfix Hack

If an element is taller than the element containing it, and it is floated, it will overflow outside of its container.

Without Clearfix

With Clearfix

Then we can add overflow: auto; to the containing element to fix this problem:

The overflow:auto clearfix works well as long as you are able to keep control of your margins and padding (else you might see scrollbars). The new, modern clearfix hack however, is safer to use, and the following code is used for most webpages:

Images Side By Side

With the float property, it is easy to float images side by side:

Navigation Menu

Use float with a list of hyperlinks to create a horizontal menu:

Web Layout Example

It is also common to do entire web layouts using the float property:

More Examples

An image with border and margins that floats to the right in a paragraph
Let an image float to the right in a paragraph. Add border and margins to the image.

An image with a caption that floats to the right
Let an image with a caption float to the right.

Let the first letter of a paragraph float to the left
Let the first letter of a paragraph float to the left and style the letter.

Creating a website with float
Use float to create a homepage with a navbar, header, footer, left content and main content.

All CSS Float Properties