<nav> won't line up with <header>

November 21, 2022

I want my site to look like this (not with the same text layout on the img) but the won’t line up with the and there is a gap which I can’t remove.

body,
html {
  margin: 0 auto;
  font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

header {
  border: black 1px solid;
  border-top: none;
  max-width: 900px;
  font-size: 14px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  position: relative;
  max-height: 72px;
}

nav {
  font-size: 14pt;
  font-weight: bold;
  line-height: 2em;
  background-color: #6e99c9;
  max-height: 37px;
  color: white;
  border: black 1px solid;
  border-top: none;
  text-align: center;
  width: 900px;
}

a {
  text-decoration: none;
  color: white;
}

a:hover {
  text-decoration: underline;
  color: white;
}
.BannerText
{
    font-weight: bold;
    color: white;
    margin-left: auto;
    margin-right: auto;
}

#BannerText1{
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 8px;
    left: 16px;
}

#BannerText2{
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 8px;
    right: 16px;
}

<header>
  <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20070223120252im_/http://www.roblox.com/images/banner2.png">
  
  <a class="BannerText" id="BannerText1" href="/">ROBLOX.com</a>
  <a class="BannerText" id="BannerText2" href="/">Sign Up</a>
  
  <nav>
    <a href="/">Home</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp;
    <a href="/">Browse</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp;
    <a href="/">Games</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp;
  </nav>
</header>

I’ve tried messing with the CSS and got slightly closer, but still didn’t fully work. I’ve spent the past couple hours trying to fix this.

>Solution :

I guess I’d take a slightly different approach. Having the nav element outside the header’s box is a bit odd, and I don’t like letting images push my content around when they load.

Put the image on the background, and add a background color so your links are always visible.
Remove the max-height.
Adjust padding and position accordingly.

Also, in the modern web you really want to avoid fixed widths, such as you had on the nav element.

body,
html {
  margin: 0 auto;
  font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

header {
  border: black 1px solid;
  border-top: none;
  max-width: 900px;
  font-size: 14px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  position: relative;
  background-color: #397E79;
  background-image: url(https://web.archive.org/web/20070223120252im_/http://www.roblox.com/images/banner2.png);
  padding-top: 72px;
}

nav {
  font-size: 14pt;
  font-weight: bold;
  line-height: 2em;
  background-color: #6e99c9;
  max-height: 37px;
  color: white;
  border: black 1px solid;
  border-top: none;
  text-align: center;
}

a {
  text-decoration: none;
  color: white;
}

a:hover {
  text-decoration: underline;
  color: white;
}

.BannerText {
  font-weight: bold;
  color: white;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}

#BannerText1 {
  position: absolute;
  top: 48px;
  left: 16px;
}

#BannerText2 {
  position: absolute;
  top: 48px;
  right: 16px;
}

<header>
  <a class="BannerText" id="BannerText1" href="/">ROBLOX.com</a>
  <a class="BannerText" id="BannerText2" href="/">Sign Up</a>

  <nav>
    <a href="/">Home</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp;
    <a href="/">Browse</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp;
    <a href="/">Games</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp;
  </nav>
</header>