How to ignore an element's size (and why you'd want to)

Kevin Powell
Kevin Powell Media Inc.
Responsive Design CSS
July 16, 2025

When an image is wrapped in a figure element and the figure also contains a figcaption element, the width can be inconsistent. The figure will either use the width of the image, or if there a lot of text in the caption, the width will be based on the text. Let’s explore some techniques to “ignore” an element’s width to create more consistent layouts.