05/03/2019 A Complete Guide to Flexbox | CSS-Tricks

Guide Collection

A Complete Guide to Flexbox

Published Updated
Apr 8, 2013 Jan 31, 2019

Our comprehensive guide to CSS flexbox layout. This complete guide explains everything about flexbox,
focusing on all the di erent 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

▶ Basics & Terminology

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

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

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

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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.

flex-flow (Applies to: parent flex container element)

This is a shorthand flex-direction and flex-wrap properties, which together define the
flex container's main and cross axes. Default is row nowrap .

CSS flex-flow: <‘flex-direction’> || <‘flex-wrap’>

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justify-content

This defines the alignment along the main axis. It helps distribute extra free space left
over 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 line flex-end : items are
packed toward to end line 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.
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space-evenly : items are distributed so that the spacing between any two items (and
the space to the edges) is equal.

align-items

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 : cross-start margin edge of the items is placed on the cross-start
line flex-end : cross-end margin edge of the items is placed on the cross-end
line center : items are centered in the cross-axis baseline : items are aligned
such as their baselines align

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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
}

flex-start : lines packed to the start of the container flex-end : lines packed to
the end of the container center : lines packed to the center of the container
space-between : lines evenly distributed; the first line is at the start of the
container
while the last one is at the end
space-around : lines evenly distributed with equal space around each line
stretch (default): lines stretch to take up the remaining space

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Properties for the Children (flex

items)

order

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

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.item {
order: <integer>; /* 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 remaining
space would take up twice as much space as the others (or it will try to, at least).

CSS

.item {
flex-grow: <number>; /* default 0 */ }

Negative numbers are invalid.

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

CSS

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.item {
flex-shrink: <number>; /* 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: <length> | auto; /* default auto */ }

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.

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. Default is 0 1 auto .

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 short hand sets the other values intelligently.

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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.

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
Let's start with a very very simple example, solving an almost daily problem: perfect centering. It
couldn't be any simpler if you use flexbox.

CSS

.parent {
display: flex;

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height: 300px; /* Or whatever */ }

.child
{
width: 100px; /* Or whatever */
height: 100px; /* Or whatever */
margin: auto; /* Magic! */ }

This relies on the fact a margin set to `auto` in a flex container absorb extra space. So setting a
vertical margin of auto will make the item perfectly centered in both axis.

Now let's use some more properties. Consider a list of 6 items, all with a fixed dimensions in a
matter of aesthetics but they could be auto-sized. We want them to be evenly and nicely
distributed on the horizontal axis so that when we resize the browser, everything is fine (without
media queries!).

CSS

.flex-container { /* We first create a flex

layout context */ display: flex; /*
Then we define the flow direction and
if we allow the items to wrap * Remember
this is the same as:
* flex-direction: row;
* flex-wrap: wrap; */
flex-flow: row wrap; /* Then we define how is
distributed the remaining space */ justify-content: space-
around;
}

Done. Everything else is just some styling concern. Below is a pen featuring this example. Be sure
to go to CodePen and try resizing your windows to see what happens.

Embedded Pen Here

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Let's try something else. Imagine we have a right-aligned navigation on the very top of our
website, but we want it to be centered on medium-sized screens and single-columned on small
devices. Easy enough.

CSS

/* Large */ .navigation { display: flex; flex-

flow: row wrap; /* This aligns items to the end
line on main-axis */ justify-content: flex-end; }

/* Medium screens */ @media all and

(max-width: 800px) {
.navigation { /* When on medium sized screens, we center it by evenly
distributing em justify-content: space-around; }
}

/* Small screens */ @media all and

(max-width: 500px) {
.navigation { /* On small screens, we are no longer using row
direction but column */ flex-direction: column;

}
}

Embedded Pen Here

Let's try something even better by playing with flex items flexibility! What about a mobile-first
3columns layout with full-width header and footer. And independent from source order.

CSS

.wrapper { display:
flex; flex-flow:
row wrap; }

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/* We tell all items to be 100% width, via flex-basis

*/ .wrapper > * { flex: 1 100%; }
/* We rely on source order for mobile-first
approach * in this case:
* 1. header
* 2. article
* 3. aside 1
* 4. aside 2
* 5. footer
*/

/* Medium screens */
@media all and (min-width: 600px) { /* We
tell both sidebars to share a row */
.aside { flex: 1 auto; }
}

/* Large screens */
@media all and (min-width: 800px) {
/* We invert order of first sidebar and main * And tell the main
element to take twice as much width as the other two
*/
.main { flex: 2 0px; }
.aside-1 { order: 1; }
.main { order: 2; }
.aside-2 { order: 3; }
.footer { order: 4; }
}

Embedded Pen Here

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▶ Prefixing Flexbox

▶ Related Properties

▶ Other Resources

▶ Bugs

Browser Support
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: 20- (old) Safari: 3.1+ (old) Firefox: 2-21 (old) Opera: 12.1+ (new) IE: 10 (tweener)
21+ (new) 6.1+ (new) 22+ (new) 11+ (new)

Edge: 17+ (new)

Android: 2.1+ (old) iOS: 3.2+ (old)
4.4+ (new) 7.1+ (new)
Blackberry browser 10+ supports the new syntax.

For more informations about how to mix syntaxes in order to get the best browser support,
please refer to this article (CSS-Tricks) or this article (DevOpera).

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