How to center text in markdown

Markdown cannot center text; it has no alignment syntax at all. Where inline HTML is allowed (GitHub READMEs, GitLab, Obsidian, most documentation generators), wrap the content in a block with the align attribute:

<div align="center">

This paragraph is centered, and **markdown inside it still renders** because of the blank lines.

</div>

On GitHub the paragraph sits in the middle of the page with the bold text rendered. That is the whole technique. What varies is which attribute each platform keeps (align survives on GitHub, style does not), whether markdown inside the block is still parsed, and which apps strip the HTML entirely so that centering is simply unavailable. Those are the questions below.

What's the most compatible way to center on GitHub?

The legacy align="center" attribute, not CSS. GitHub's sanitizer removes style= from every element, so <div style="text-align: center"> renders left-aligned, while align is on the attribute allowlist of the html-pipeline sanitizer GitHub uses and is kept on any element:

<p align="center">
  <img src="logo.png" alt="Project logo" width="200">
</p>

<p align="center">
  <a href="https://example.com/docs">Docs</a> ·
  <a href="https://example.com/discord">Community</a> ·
  <a href="LICENSE">License</a>
</p>

That pattern, a centered logo followed by a centered link or badge row, opens a large share of popular READMEs. Note the content inside <p align="center"> is HTML, not markdown: [Docs](url) inside it would print literally on GitHub, which is why the links above are <a> tags. The align attribute is obsolete in HTML5 but every browser still honours it, and that obsolescence is exactly why it slips through sanitizers that strip CSS.

Does markdown inside a centered block still render?

Only if you leave a blank line after the opening tag and before the closing tag. CommonMark's HTML block rule says a <div> starts a raw HTML block that continues until a blank line; everything before that blank line is passed through as HTML, so **bold** on the line right after <div align="center"> prints with its asterisks. Put the blank line in and the markdown between the tags is parsed normally:

<div align="center">
**Not bold on GitHub** (no blank line)
</div>

<div align="center">

**Bold on GitHub** (blank lines around the content)

</div>

GitLab follows the same rule. Obsidian does not render markdown inside HTML blocks at all, blank lines or not, so inside a <div> write HTML (<b>, <a>, <img>). MDX is the opposite case: everything inside a JSX element is still MDX, so markdown works without the blank lines.

Can you center a heading?

Yes, with the attribute directly on an HTML heading, because markdown # headings cannot take attributes:

<h1 align="center">Project Name</h1>
<p align="center"><em>A short tagline under the title</em></p>

The trade-off is anchors: GitHub generates #project-name for a markdown heading but not for a raw <h1>, so links to the section from a table of contents break, and Obsidian leaves HTML headings out of its outline. If the heading needs to be linkable, give it an explicit id (<h1 id="project-name" align="center">), which GitHub keeps, or center only the logo and keep the title as a markdown H1. The headings guide and anchor link guide cover how anchors are generated.

Can you center an image?

Yes, and it is the most common reason to center anything. Wrap the <img> in <p align="center"> as above, or on platforms with their own image attributes use those:

Platform	Center an image
GitHub, GitLab	<p align="center"><img src="x.png" width="200"></p>
Obsidian	<p align="center"><img src="x.png"></p>; a CSS snippet can also center all img
Pandoc (HTML, docx, PDF)	An image alone in a paragraph becomes a figure, which is centered by default in LaTeX and Word output
MDX / Docusaurus	<p style={{textAlign: 'center'}}><img src="x.png" width={200} /></p> or align="center"
Notion	Click the image block, choose the alignment icon; no syntax

The image guide covers sizing and dark-mode variants, which usually go in the same block.

Can you center table columns?

Table columns are the one thing markdown aligns natively. Put a colon on both sides of the hyphens in the delimiter row:

| Left | Center | Right |
| :--- | :----: | ----: |
| a    |   b    |     c |

Left	Center	Right
a	b	c

This is GFM syntax and works on GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, Reddit and every docs generator that renders tables; see the table guide for escaping and line breaks inside cells. The markdown table generator sets the alignment colons for you. A one-cell table with :---: is also a crude way to center a short line of text where HTML is stripped but tables render, such as Reddit.

Where does centering work?

Platform	align="center"	style="text-align:center"	Column :---:	Source
GitHub	Yes	Stripped	Yes	GitHub sanitizer allowlist
GitLab	Yes	Stripped	Yes	GitLab markdown
Obsidian	Yes (HTML inside is not parsed as markdown)	Yes	Yes	Obsidian HTML notes
MDX, Docusaurus, Astro	Yes	Yes, as style={{textAlign: 'center'}}	Yes with remark-gfm	MDX docs
Hugo, Jekyll, MkDocs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Raw HTML must be enabled (Hugo: Goldmark unsafe = true)
Pandoc	HTML output only	HTML output only	Yes	Use ::: {.center} fenced divs plus CSS or a LaTeX filter for other formats
Notion	No	No	No; table cells align via the block menu	Pasted HTML becomes text
Jira Cloud	No	No	Yes in the table toolbar	Legacy wiki markup has no alignment either
Reddit	No	No	Yes	HTML is escaped
Slack, Discord	No	No	No tables	No HTML, no tables

The markdown flavors comparison shows the full feature grid across these platforms.

How do you center in Pandoc, MDX and docs generators?

Pandoc has no alignment syntax, but its fenced_divs extension (::: {.center} ... :::) attaches a class you can style in HTML output; for LaTeX or docx output the class does nothing unless a Lua filter maps it to \begin{center} or a paragraph style. MDX accepts JSX, so both align="center" and style={{textAlign: 'center'}} work and markdown inside the element is parsed. Docusaurus and MkDocs additionally let you drop a CSS class in the site theme (<div className="text--center"> in Docusaurus) which is the cleanest option when you control the site. Hugo and Jekyll render raw HTML from markdown as long as it is enabled in the renderer settings.

Why doesn't centering work in my renderer?

The HTML is being stripped, or the markdown inside it is being passed through raw; it is one of four reasons:

1. The platform strips HTML. Reddit, Slack, Discord, Notion and strict-mode CommonMark drop or escape the tags, and there is no markdown fallback.
2. You used style on GitHub or GitLab. Both remove CSS; use align="center".
3. No blank lines around the content. The markdown inside the block is being passed through as raw HTML. Add a blank line after the opening tag and before the closing one.
4. A <center> tag. The old <center> element is not on GitHub's allowlist and is removed; <div align="center"> is the replacement.

Check the structure in the markdown viewer, which renders with GFM rules; if it centers there, it will on GitHub.

What are the alternatives when HTML is stripped?

Restructure instead of aligning. A short title can become a heading, which most themes already style distinctly; a tagline can go in a blockquote; a value that needs to sit in the middle of the page can be a single-column table with :---:, which renders on Reddit and in every docs tool. Centering is presentation, and in chat apps and note tools the reader's client controls presentation; fighting it costs more than it returns. For the rest of the syntax see the markdown cheat sheet.