Why is vertical-align: middle not working on my span or div?

Setting the line-height to the same height as it's containing div will also work

DEMO http://jsfiddle.net/kevinPHPkevin/gZXWC/7/

.inner {
    line-height:72px;
    border: 1px solid #000000;
}

Using CSS3:

<div class="outer">
   <div class="inner"/>
</div>

Css:

.outer {
  display : flex;
  align-items : center;
}

use "justify-content: center;" to align elements horizontally

Note: This might not work in old IE's

Try this, works for me very well:

/* Internet Explorer 10 */
display:-ms-flexbox;
-ms-flex-pack:center;
-ms-flex-align:center;

/* Firefox */
display:-moz-box;
-moz-box-pack:center;
-moz-box-align:center;

/* Safari, Opera, and Chrome */
display:-webkit-box;
-webkit-box-pack:center;
-webkit-box-align:center;

/* W3C */
display:box;
box-pack:center;
box-align:center;

This seems to be the best way - some time has passed since my original post and this is what should be done now:

.main {
  display: table;
  
  /* optional css start */
  height: 90px;
  width: 90px;
  /* optional css end */
}
        
.inner {
  border: 1px solid #000000;
  display: table-cell;
  vertical-align: middle;
}

<div class="main">
  <div class="inner"> This </div>
</div>