How to Target All Font Awesome Icons and Align Them to the Center?

Font Awesome is a popular icon toolkit that provides a rich library of icons for web development. Whether you’re using social media icons, functional icons, or custom icons, ensuring they are well-aligned is essential for creating a clean, professional-looking interface. Centering icons, in particular, is a common styling task when building navigation menus, buttons, or content sections.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to target and center Font Awesome icons in your layout using various CSS techniques. We’ll also cover scenarios like centering icons within buttons, aligning multiple icons horizontally, and centering icons vertically within a text block.

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1. Targeting All Font Awesome Icons with CSS

To style all Font Awesome icons on a page, you can use a simple CSS selector that targets the Font Awesome classes. Font Awesome icons use the fa class, often combined with a specific icon class (like fa-home or fa-user). By targeting all elements with the fa class, you can apply styles universally to all icons.

Example CSS to Target All Font Awesome Icons:

.fa {
  font-size: 24px;   /* Sets a standard size for all icons */
  color: #333;       /* Sets a default color */
}

This CSS snippet applies the same font size and color to every Font Awesome icon on the page. You can adjust the font-size and color values as desired to match your site’s design.

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2. Centering Font Awesome Icons Horizontally

If you want to align Font Awesome icons horizontally within their container, you can use CSS Flexbox or text alignment, depending on the layout structure.

Method 1: Centering Icons with Flexbox

Using Flexbox is a reliable way to horizontally center icons in a container, especially if the container may have other elements or dynamic content.

<div class="icon-container">
  <i class="fa fa-home"></i>
</div>

.icon-container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center; /* Centers icon horizontally */
  align-items: center;     /* Centers icon vertically if the container has a height */
  height: 100px;           /* Optional: set height to control vertical centering */
}

• display: flex: Converts the container into a flexbox, making alignment easier.
• justify-content: center: Centers the icon horizontally.
• align-items: center: Centers the icon vertically within the container if a height is set.

Method 2: Centering Icons with Text Alignment

If your icons are within a block-level container, you can use text-align: center to align them horizontally.

<div class="icon-container text-center">
  <i class="fa fa-cog"></i>
</div>

.icon-container {
  text-align: center;
}

The text-align: center property centers the icon within its container, assuming the icon element (like <i class="fa fa-cog">) is inline or inline-block.

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3. Centering Multiple Font Awesome Icons Horizontally

When using multiple Font Awesome icons in a row, such as in a navigation bar or social media icon set, you can align them easily by making the container a flexbox.

Example: Horizontal Centering of Multiple Icons

<div class="icon-row">
  <i class="fa fa-facebook"></i>
  <i class="fa fa-twitter"></i>
  <i class="fa fa-instagram"></i>
</div>

.icon-row {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center; /* Aligns all icons to the center */
  gap: 15px;               /* Adds spacing between icons */
}

• justify-content: center: Horizontally centers all icons as a group within the container.
• gap: Creates space between icons, avoiding the need for extra margin or padding.

This approach works well for social media icons or any set of icons that you want to keep aligned and spaced evenly.

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4. Centering Font Awesome Icons Vertically

In some cases, you might want to align icons vertically within a text block or a container. This can be useful for inline icons placed next to text or within buttons. The CSS vertical-align property or Flexbox can achieve this alignment.

Method 1: Vertical Alignment with vertical-align

The vertical-align: middle property aligns inline or inline-block icons vertically within their container, often used when icons are placed next to text.

<span class="icon-text">
  <i class="fa fa-check-circle"></i> Success!
</span>

.fa {
  vertical-align: middle;  /* Aligns the icon to the middle of the text */
}

Method 2: Vertical Alignment with Flexbox

If you’re working within a flex container, you can use Flexbox for vertical alignment.

<div class="icon-button">
  <i class="fa fa-plus"></i> Add Item
</div>

.icon-button {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center; /* Centers icon and text vertically */
  gap: 8px;            /* Adds spacing between icon and text */
}

In this setup, align-items: center keeps the icon and the text in the middle, and gap controls spacing between the icon and the text.

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5. Centering Font Awesome Icons Within Buttons or Links

When adding icons to buttons, using Flexbox can keep the icon and the button text aligned perfectly, creating a professional look.

Example of Centering Icons in a Button

<a href="#" class="icon-button">
  <i class="fa fa-download"></i> Download
</a>

.icon-button {
  display: inline-flex;
  align-items: center;     /* Centers icon and text vertically */
  justify-content: center; /* Ensures text and icon are horizontally centered */
  padding: 10px 20px;
  background-color: #007bff;
  color: #fff;
  border-radius: 4px;
  gap: 8px;                /* Spacing between icon and text */
  text-decoration: none;
}

• display: inline-flex: Makes the button a flex container while preserving its inline-block behavior.
• align-items: center and justify-content: center: Center the icon and text vertically and horizontally within the button.
• gap: Adds consistent spacing between the icon and text.

This setup ensures that your icon and text remain perfectly centered in the button, with a clean, aligned look.

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Summary

Targeting and centering Font Awesome icons on a webpage is straightforward with CSS and Flexbox. Here’s a quick recap of the methods we covered:

1. Targeting All Icons: Use .fa as a CSS selector to apply universal styling to all Font Awesome icons.
2. Horizontal Centering: Use text-align: center or justify-content: center in a Flexbox container.
3. Vertical Centering: Use align-items: center in Flexbox or vertical-align: middle for inline elements.
4. Centering Icons in Buttons: Use inline-flex for buttons with icons to keep them aligned.

By combining these CSS techniques, you can ensure that your Font Awesome icons are well-aligned, creating a visually balanced and professional interface for your site or app.