Images Larger than Container

PublishedApril 26, 2015 UpdatedSeptember 23, 2019

This will center the image inside of a element when the elements height and/or width is smaller than the image. This works well when you have image assets of various aspect ratios that you want to display as thumbs that are the same size.

Sandbox Demo

Images larger than container demo screen capture

HTML

<ul class="thumbnails">
  <li>
    <img src="https://via.placeholder.com/400x300/9932CC/FFFFFF">
  </li>
  <li>
    <img src="https://via.placeholder.com/500x300/7FFFD4/000000">
  </li>
  <li>
    <img src="https://via.placeholder.com/300x200/87CEFA/000000">
  </li>
  <li>
    <img src="https://via.placeholder.com/300x400/F4A460/000000">
  </li>
</ul>

CSS

ul.thumbnails {
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
}
ul.thumbnails li {
  height: 150px;
  border: 4px solid #FFF;
  overflow: hidden;
  position: relative;
  width: 150px;
}
ul.thumbnails li img {
  position: absolute;
  top: -9999px;
  bottom: -9999px;
  left: -9999px;
  right: -9999px;
  margin: auto;
  width: 250px;
}