What is the best method for getting rid of blank white space on my website?

Having some trouble removing unnecessary white space on my website.

The goal is to have the main text and logo centered on an image background, but I've been unsuccessful so far.

I've experimented with different CSS properties like overflow-x: hidden;, adjusting margin, padding, width, and height values without success. Increasing width and height did not work for screens of various sizes.

This issue is new to me and I'm unsure why it's occuring now.

My Code:

h1 {
  font-family: "times new roman";
  font-size: 2.5em;
  color: rgb(100, 181, 204);
}

#box {
  border-width: 0.25em;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: black;
  width: 50em;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  padding: 1em;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  color: black;
  background: rgb(135, 129, 140);
}

div {
  margin: 0 auto;
}

html,
body {
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0px;
  padding: 0px;
}

p {
  font-size: 1.2em;
}

.centertext {
  text-align: center;
  width: 60%;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

#logo {
  margin-top: .5em;
  margin-left: 13.7em;
  margin-right: auto;
  padding: 0em 0em 0em 0em;
}

#background {
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;
  left: -40px;
  top: -88px;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  padding: 0 0 0 0;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

footer {
  display: block;
  background: rgb(81, 40, 117);
  padding: 0.1em;
  border-width: thin;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: black;
  clear: right;
}

#mainnav {
  border-width: .1em;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: black;
  width: 40em;
  padding-left: 0em;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
  text-align: center;
  background: rgb(81, 40, 117);
}

#mainnav a:link {
  color: white;
}

#mainnav a:visited {
  color: blue;
}

#mainnav a:hover {
  color: black;
}

#mainnav a:active {
  color: light gray;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8" />
  <title> Christie Matterns Portfolio website</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="index.css" />
</head>

<body>
  <img id="logo" src="images/logo.jpg" width="840" height="200" />
  <div id="box">
    <div>
      <p id="mainnav">
        <a href="index.html">Home</a> |
        <a href="who.html">Who am I?</a> |
        <a href="question.html">Questionair</a> |
      </p>
    </div>
    <h1 class="centertext">My Portfolio</h1>
    <p class="centertext">
      Hello, My name is Christie Mattern, I am a web designer!
    </p>
    <p>
      I am based in Fort Wayne, Indiana and this website is my portfolio! I will use it to tell you a bit about me and to show my work progress.
      <footer>
        <p class="centertext">
          Christie Mattern
        </p>
      </footer>
  </div>
</body>
<img id="background" src="images/background.jpg" />
</html>

Answer №1

Your background image is located outside of your <body> tag, which is causing the issue you are experiencing.


There are more efficient and sustainable methods to achieve what you are attempting without resorting to "hacking". Let me make some modifications to your code and provide explanations through comments.

Utilizing Images as Background

When using an image as a background, it is recommended to utilize the CSS background-image Property. While there may be exceptions where your approach could be suitable, in this specific scenario, the background-image property is preferred.

.myElement {
   background-image: url("paper.jpg");
}

If you desire to center text within an element with a background image, enclose your content within a new element, place the content inside, and apply the background-image property to the new element.

<div class="newElement">
    <div class="content-wrapper">
        <h2>Your Title Goes Here</h2>
        <p>Your Description Goes Here</p>
    </div>
</div>
.newElement{
   background-image: url("paper.jpg");
}

All components combined should resemble something like this:

/* New Code Added */

.newElement {
    background-image: url(http://lorempixel.com/400/400/abstract/);
    background-repeat: no-repeat; /* Prevents background from repeating */
    background-size: cover; /* Adjusts background size to cover entire element */
    background-color: #cccccc;
    padding: 2rem; /* Define padding here instead of logo for maintaining image's 100% width consistency */
}

/* Previous Code. Check comments */

h1 {
    font-family: "times new roman";
    font-size: 2.5em;
    color: rgb(100, 181, 204);
}

#box {
    border-width: 0.25em;
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: black;
    /* width: 50em; Omitted unnecessary addition */
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    padding: 1em;
    font-family: sans-serif;
    color: black;
    background: rgb(135, 129, 140);
}

div {
    margin: 0 auto;
}

html,
body {
    width: 100%;
    height: 100%;
    margin: 0px;
    padding: 0px;
}

p {
    font-size: 1.2em;
}

.centertext {
    text-align: center;
    width: 60%;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
}

#logo {
    width: 100%;
    max-width: 840px; /* Limits max-width to match picture's width for maintaining focus on larger screens */
    height: auto; /* Automatically scales image proportionally without distortion */
    margin: 0 auto; /* Horizontally centers image */
    display: block; /* Necessary for horizontal centering */
}


footer {
    display: block;
    background: rgb(81, 40, 117);
    padding: 0.1em;
    border-width: thin;
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: black;
    clear: right;
}

#mainnav {
    border-width: .1em;
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: black;
    /* width: 40em; Omitted unnecessary addition */
    padding-left: 0em;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
    text-align: center;
    background: rgb(81, 40, 117);
}

#mainnav a:link {
    color: white;
}

#mainnav a:visited {
    color: blue;
}

#mainnav a:hover {
    color: black;
}

#mainnav a:active {
    color: light gray;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8" />
        <title> Christie Matterns Portfolio website</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="index.css" />
    </head>

    <body>

        <div class="newElement">
            <div class="content-wrapper">
                <img id="logo" src="http://lorempixel.com/840/200/food/" width="840" height="200" />
            </div>
        </div>

        <div id="box">
            <div>
                <p id="mainnav">
                    <a href="index.html">Home</a> |
                    <a href="who.html">Who am I?</a> |
                    <a href="question.html">Questionair</a> |
                </p>
            </div>
            <h1 class="centertext">My Portfolio</h1>
            <p class="centertext">
                Hello, My name is Christie Mattern, I am a web designer!
            </p>
            <p>
                I am based in Fort Wayne, Indiana and this website is my portfolio! I will use it to tell you a bit about me and to show my work progress.
            <footer>
                <p class="centertext">
                    Christie Mattern
                </p>
            </footer>
        </div>
    </body>

</html>

If you wish to set a background image for the entire website, simply transfer the background-image properties to the body tag instead.

body {
    background-image: url("paper.jpg");
}

By removing the width attributes from the box and mainnav elements, your content will become responsive, ensuring compatibility with mobile devices.

Learn more about background-image and its functionalities.

Answer №2

It seems like there might be some confusion in your question, but if you want the background image to cover the entire document, you can achieve that by wrapping it around the whole document with a CSS property.

For example, instead of using an img tag, you can do the following:

<body id="background">
    <!-- Your code goes here -->
</body>

Then, in your CSS, you can add the background-image property to target your image under the ID "background":

#background {
    background-image: url("images/background.jpg");
}

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