Web/CSS/background-position-x

The background-position-x CSS property sets the initial horizontal position for each background image. The position is relative to the position layer set by background-origin.

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The value of this property is overridden by any declaration of the background or background-position shorthand properties applied to the element after it.

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
background-position-x: left;
background-position-x: center;
background-position-x: right;

/* <percentage> values */
background-position-x: 25%;

/* <length> values */
background-position-x: 0px;
background-position-x: 1cm;
background-position-x: 8em;

/* Side-relative values */
background-position-x: right 3px;
background-position-x: left 25%;

/* Multiple values */
background-position-x: 0px, center;

/* Global values */
background-position-x: inherit;
background-position-x: initial;
background-position-x: unset;

The background-position-x property is specified as one or more values, separated by commas.

Values

left: Aligns the left edge of the background image with the left edge of the background position layer.
center: Aligns the center of the background image with the center of the background position layer.
right: Aligns the right edge of the background image with the right edge of the background position layer.
<length>: The offset of the given background image's left vertical edge from the background position layer's left vertical edge. (Some browsers allow assigning the right edge for offset).
<percentage>: The offset of the given background image's horizontal position relative to the container. A value of 0% means that the left edge of the background image is aligned with the left edge of the container, and a value of 100% means that the right edge of the background image is aligned with the right edge of the container, thus a value of 50% horizontally centers the background image.

Formal definition

Initial value	`left`
Applies to	all elements
Inherited	no
Percentages	refer to width of background positioning area minus height of background image
Computed value	A list, each item consisting of: an offset given as a combination of an absolute length and a percentage, plus an origin keyword
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

[ center | [ [ left | right | x-start | x-end ]? <length-percentage>? ]! ]#where <length-percentage> = <length> | <percentage>

Examples

Basic example

The following example shows a simple background image implementation, with background-position-x and background-position-y used to define the image's horizontal and vertical positions separately.

HTML

<div></div>

CSS

div {
  width: 300px;
  height: 300px;
  background-color: skyblue;
  background-image: url(https://media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2020/07/29/17350/3b4892b7e820122ac6dd7678891d4507/firefox.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position-x: center;
  background-position-y: bottom 10px;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 4The definition of 'background-position-x' in that specification.	Editor's Draft	Initial specification of longhand sub-properties of `background-position` to match longstanding implementations.

Browser compatibility

The compatibility table in this page is generated from structured data. If you'd like to contribute to the data, please check out https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data and send us a pull request.

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`background-position-x`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 49	IE Full support 6	Opera Full support 15	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support ≤37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 49	Opera Android Full support 18	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
Two-value syntax (support for offsets from any edge)	Chrome No support No	Edge No support 12 — 79	Firefox Full support 49	IE Full support 9	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 49	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support