5/3/2020 A Complete Guide to Flexbox | CSS-Tricks

Guide

A Complete Guide to Flexbox

Last Updated
Apr 27, 2020

Our comprehensive guide to CSS flexbox layout. This complete guide explains everything
about flexbox, focusing on all the different possible properties for the parent element
(the flex container) and the child elements (the flex items). It also includes history,
demos, patterns, and a browser support chart.

▶ Background (#flexbox-background)

▶ Basics & Terminology (#flexbox-basics)

Properties for the Parent

(flex container)

display
This defines a flex container; inline or block depending on the given value. It
enables a flex context for all its direct children.

CSS

.container {
display: flex; /* or inline-flex */

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Note that CSS columns have no effect on a flex container.

flex-direction

This establishes the main-axis, thus defining the direction flex items are
placed in the flex container. Flexbox is (aside from optional wrapping) a
single-direction layout concept. Think of flex items as primarily laying out
either in horizontal rows or vertical columns.

CSS

.container {
flex-direction: row | row-reverse | column | column-reverse;
}

• row (default): left to right in ltr ; right to left in rtl

• row-reverse : right to left in ltr ; left to right in rtl
• column : same as row but top to bottom
• column-reverse : same as row-reverse but bottom to top

flex-wrap

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By default, flex items will all try to fit onto one line. You can change that and
allow the items to wrap as needed with this property.

CSS

.container {
flex-wrap: nowrap | wrap | wrap-reverse;
}

• nowrap (default): all flex items will be on one line

• wrap : flex items will wrap onto multiple lines, from top to bottom.
• wrap-reverse : flex items will wrap onto multiple lines from bottom to top.

There are some visual demos of flex-wrap here (https://css-

tricks.com/almanac/properties/f/flex-wrap/) .

flex-flow
This is a shorthand for the flex-direction and flex-wrap properties, which
together define the flex container’s main and cross axes. The default value is
row nowrap .

CSS

.container {
flex-flow: column wrap;
}

justify-content
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This defines the alignment along the main axis. It helps distribute extra free
space leftover when either all the flex items on a line are inflexible, or are
flexible but have reached their maximum size. It also exerts some control over
the alignment of items when they overflow the line.

CSS

.container {
justify-content: flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between |
}

• flex-start (default): items are packed toward the start of the flex-
direction.
• flex-end : items are packed toward the end of the flex-direction.
• start : items are packed toward the start of the writing-mode direction.
• end : items are packed toward the end of the writing-mode direction.
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• left : items are packed toward left edge of the container, unless that
doesn’t make sense with the flex-direction , then it behaves like start .
• right : items are packed toward right edge of the container, unless that
doesn’t make sense with the flex-direction , then it behaves like start .
• center : items are centered along the line
• space-between : items are evenly distributed in the line; first item is on the
start line, last item on the end line
• space-around : items are evenly distributed in the line with equal space
around them. Note that visually the spaces aren’t equal, since all the items
have equal space on both sides. The first item will have one unit of space
against the container edge, but two units of space between the next item
because that next item has its own spacing that applies.
• space-evenly : items are distributed so that the spacing between any two
items (and the space to the edges) is equal.

Note that that browser support for these values is nuanced. For example,
space-between never got support from some versions of Edge, and
start/end/left/right aren’t in Chrome yet. MDN has detailed charts
(https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/justify-content) . The
safest values are flex-start , flex-end , and center .

There are also two additional keywords you can pair with these values: safe
and unsafe . Using safe ensures that however you do this type of positioning,
you can’t push an element such that it renders off-screen (e.g. off the top) in
such a way the content can’t be scrolled too (called “data loss”).

align-items

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This defines the default behavior for how flex items are laid out along the
cross axis on the current line. Think of it as the justify-content version for
the cross-axis (perpendicular to the main-axis).

CSS

.container {
align-items: stretch | flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline |
}

• stretch (default): stretch to fill the container (still respect min-

width/max-width)
• flex-start / start / self-start : items are placed at the start of the
cross axis. The difference between these is subtle, and is about respecting
the flex-direction rules or the writing-mode rules.
• flex-end / end / self-end : items are placed at the end of the cross axis.
The difference again is subtle and is about respecting flex-direction
rules vs. writing-mode rules.
• center : items are centered in the cross-axis
• baseline : items are aligned such as their baselines align

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The safe and unsafe modifier keywords can be used in conjunction with all
the rest of these keywords (although note browser support
(https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/align-items) ), and deal
with helping you prevent aligning elements such that the content becomes
inaccessible.

align-content

This aligns a flex container’s lines within when there is extra space in the
cross-axis, similar to how justify-content aligns individual items within the
main-axis.

Note: this property has no effect when there is only one line of flex items.

CSS

.container {
align-content: flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between | sp
}

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• flex-start / start : items packed to the start of the container. The (more
supported) flex-start honors the flex-direction while start honors
the writing-mode direction.
• flex-end / end : items packed to the end of the container. The (more
support) flex-end honors the flex-direction while end honors the
writing-mode direction.
• center : items centered in the container
• space-between : items evenly distributed; the first line is at the start of the
container while the last one is at the end
• space-around : items evenly distributed with equal space around each line
• space-evenly : items are evenly distributed with equal space around them
• stretch (default): lines stretch to take up the remaining space

The safe and unsafe modifier keywords can be used in conjunction with all
the rest of these keywords (although note browser support
(https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/align-items) ), and deal
with helping you prevent aligning elements such that the content becomes
inaccessible.

Properties for the Children

(flex items)

order

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By default, flex items are laid out in the source order. However, the order
property controls the order in which they appear in the flex container.

CSS

.item {
order: 5; /* default is 0 */
}

flex-grow

This defines the ability for a flex item to grow if necessary. It accepts a
unitless value that serves as a proportion. It dictates what amount of the
available space inside the flex container the item should take up.

If all items have flex-grow set to 1, the remaining space in the container will
be distributed equally to all children. If one of the children has a value of 2, the
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remaining space would take up twice as much space as the others (or it will try
to, at least).

CSS

.item {
flex-grow: 4; /* default 0 */
}

Negative numbers are invalid.

flex-shrink
This defines the ability for a flex item to shrink if necessary.

CSS

.item {
flex-shrink: 3; /* default 1 */
}

Negative numbers are invalid.

flex-basis
This defines the default size of an element before the remaining space is
distributed. It can be a length (e.g. 20%, 5rem, etc.) or a keyword. The auto
keyword means “look at my width or height property” (which was temporarily
done by the main-size keyword until deprecated). The content keyword
means “size it based on the item’s content” – this keyword isn’t well supported
yet, so it’s hard to test and harder to know what its brethren max-content ,
min-content , and fit-content do.

CSS

.item {
flex-basis: | auto; /* default auto */
}

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If set to 0 , the extra space around content isn’t factored in. If set to auto , the
extra space is distributed based on its flex-grow value. See this graphic.
(https://www.w3.org/TR/css3-flexbox/images/rel-vs-abs-flex.svg)

flex
This is the shorthand for flex-grow, flex-shrink and flex-basis
combined. The second and third parameters ( flex-shrink and flex-basis )
are optional. The default is 0 1 auto , but if you set it with a single number
value, it’s like 1 0 .

CSS

.item {
flex: none | [ <'flex-grow'> <'flex-shrink'>? || <'flex-basis'> ]
}

It is recommended that you use this shorthand property rather than set
the individual properties. The shorthand sets the other values intelligently.

align-self

This allows the default alignment (or the one specified by align-items ) to be
overridden for individual flex items.

Please see the align-items explanation to understand the available values.

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CSS

.item {
align-self: auto | flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline | str
}

Note that float , clear and vertical-align have no effect on a flex item.

▶ Examples (#flexbox-examples)

▶ Prefixing Flexbox (#flexbox-sass)

▶ Related Properties (#flexbox-related)

▶ Other Resources (#flexbox-resources)

▶ Bugs (#flexbox-bugs)

Browser Support
r-
Broken up by “version” of flexbox:

• (new) means the recent syntax from the specification (e.g. display: flex; )
• (tweener) means an odd unofficial syntax from 2011 (e.g. display: flexbox; )
• (old) means the old syntax from 2009 (e.g. display: box; )

Chrome Safari Firefox Opera IE Edge Android iOS

10
3.1+ 2-21 2.1+ 3.2+
20- (old) (tweene
(old) (old) 12.1+ 17+ (old) (old)
21+ r)
6.1+ 22+ (new) (new) 4.4+ 7.1+
(new) 11+
(new) (new) (new) (new)
(new)

Blackberry browser 10+ supports the new syntax.

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