CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1

Editor’s Draft,

More details about this document
This version:
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-flexbox/
Latest published version:
https://www.w3.org/TR/css-flexbox-1/
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Editors:
Tab Atkins Jr. (Google)
Elika J. Etemad / fantasai (Apple)
(Microsoft)
Former Editors:
(Microsoft Corporation)
L. David Baron (Mozilla)
(Mozilla Corporation)
(formerly of Opera Software)
(formerly of Netscape Corporation)
Suggest an Edit for this Spec:
GitHub Editor
Issues List:
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-flexbox-1/issues
Test Suite:
https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-flexbox/

Abstract

The specification describes a CSS box model optimized for user interface design. In the flex layout model, the children of a flex container can be laid out in any direction, and can “flex” their sizes, either growing to fill unused space or shrinking to avoid overflowing the parent. Both horizontal and vertical alignment of the children can be easily manipulated. Nesting of these boxes (horizontal inside vertical, or vertical inside horizontal) can be used to build layouts in two dimensions.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

Status of this document

This is a public copy of the editors’ draft. It is provided for discussion only and may change at any moment. Its publication here does not imply endorsement of its contents by W3C. Don’t cite this document other than as work in progress.

Please send feedback by filing issues in GitHub (preferred), including the spec code “css-flexbox” in the title, like this: “[css-flexbox] …summary of comment…”. All issues and comments are archived. Alternately, feedback can be sent to the (archived) public mailing list www-style@w3.org.

This document is governed by the 03 November 2023 W3C Process Document.

1. Introduction

This section is not normative.

CSS 2.1 defined four layout modes — algorithms which determine the size and position of boxes based on their relationships with their sibling and ancestor boxes:

This module introduces a new layout mode, flex layout, which is designed for laying out more complex applications and webpages.

1.1. Overview

This section is not normative.

Flex layout is superficially similar to block layout. It lacks many of the more complex text- or document-centric properties that can be used in block layout, such as floats and columns. In return it gains simple and powerful tools for distributing space and aligning content in ways that web apps and complex web pages often need. The contents of a flex container:

Here’s an example of a catalog where each item has a title, a photo, a description, and a purchase button. The designer’s intention is that each entry has the same overall size, that the photo be above the text, and that the purchase buttons are aligned at the bottom, regardless of the length of the item’s description. Flex layout makes many aspects of this design easy:
#deals {
  display: flex;        /* Flex layout so items have equal height  */
  flex-flow: row wrap;  /* Allow items to wrap into multiple lines */
}
.sale-item {
  display: flex;        /* Lay out each item using flex layout */
  flex-flow: column;    /* Lay out item’s contents vertically  */
}
.sale-item > img {
  order: -1;            /* Shift image before other content (in visual order) */
  align-self: center;   /* Center the image cross-wise (horizontally)         */
}
.sale-item > button {
  margin-top: auto;     /* Auto top margin pushes button to bottom */
}
<section id="deals">
  <section class="sale-item">
    <h1>Computer Starter Kit</h1>
    <p>This is the best computer money can buy, if you don’t have much money.
    <ul>
      <li>Computer
      <li>Monitor
      <li>Keyboard
      <li>Mouse
    </ul>
    <img src="images/computer.jpg"
         alt="You get: a white computer with matching peripherals.">
    <button>BUY NOW</button>
  </section>
  <section class="sale-item"></section></section>
You get: a white computer with matching keyboard and monitor.

Computer Starter Kit

This is the best computer money can buy, if you don’t have much money.

  • Computer
  • Monitor
  • Keyboard
  • Mouse
You get: beautiful ASCII art.

Printer

Only capable of printing ASCII art.

  • Paper and ink not included.
An example rendering of the code above.

1.2. Module interactions

This module extends the definition of the display property [CSS2], adding a new block-level and new inline-level display type, and defining a new type of formatting context along with properties to control its layout. None of the properties defined in this module apply to the ::first-line or ::first-letter pseudo-elements.

The CSS Box Alignment Module extends and supersedes the definitions of the alignment properties (justify-content, align-items, align-self, align-content) introduced here.

1.3. Value Definitions

This specification follows the CSS property definition conventions from [CSS2] using the value definition syntax from [CSS-VALUES-3]. Value types not defined in this specification are defined in CSS Values & Units [CSS-VALUES-3]. Combination with other CSS modules may expand the definitions of these value types.

In addition to the property-specific values listed in their definitions, all properties defined in this specification also accept the CSS-wide keywords as their property value. For readability they have not been repeated explicitly.

2. Flex Layout Box Model and Terminology

A flex container is the box generated by an element with a computed display of flex or inline-flex. In-flow children of a flex container are called flex items and are laid out using the flex layout model.

Unlike block and inline layout, whose layout calculations are biased to the block and inline flow directions, flex layout is biased to the flex directions. To make it easier to talk about flex layout, this section defines a set of flex flow–relative terms. The flex-flow value and the writing mode determine how these terms map to physical directions (top/right/bottom/left), axes (vertical/horizontal), and sizes (width/height).

An illustration of the various directions and sizing terms as applied to a row flex container.
main axis
main dimension
The main axis of a flex container is the primary axis along which flex items are laid out. It extends in the main dimension.
main-start
main-end
The flex items are placed within the container starting on the main-start side and going toward the main-end side.
main size
main size property
The main size of a flex container or flex item refers to its width or height, whichever is in the main dimension. Its main size property is either its width or height property, whichever is in the main dimension. Likewise, its min and max main size properties are its min-width/max-width or min-height/max-height properties, whichever are in the main dimension, and determine its min/max main size.

In flex layout, the main size is controlled by the flex property rather than directly by the main size property.

Note: This means any references to a flex item’s used size in the main dimension (width, height, inline size, block size) refers to its post-flexing main size.

cross axis
cross dimension
The axis perpendicular to the main axis is called the cross axis. It extends in the cross dimension.
cross-start
cross-end
Flex lines are filled with items and placed into the container starting on the cross-start side of the flex container and going toward the cross-end side.
cross size
cross size property
The cross size of a flex container or flex item refers to its width or height, whichever is in the cross dimension. Its cross size property is either its width or height property, whichever is in the cross dimension. Likewise, its min and max cross size properties are its min-width/max-width or min-height/max-height properties, whichever are in the cross dimension, and determine its min/max cross size.

Additional sizing terminology used in this specification is defined in CSS Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sizing. [CSS-SIZING-3]

3. Flex Containers: the flex and inline-flex display values

Name: display
New values: flex | inline-flex
flex
This value causes an element to generate a flex container box that is block-level when placed in flow layout.
Tests
inline-flex
This value causes an element to generate a flex container box that is inline-level when placed in flow layout.

A flex container establishes a new flex formatting context for its contents. This is the same as establishing a block formatting context, except that flex layout is used instead of block layout. For example, floats do not intrude into the flex container, and the flex container’s margins do not collapse with the margins of its contents. Flex containers form a containing block for their contents exactly like block containers do. [CSS2] The overflow property applies to flex containers.

Flex containers are not block containers, and so some properties that were designed with the assumption of block layout don’t apply in the context of flex layout. In particular:

If an element’s specified display is inline-flex, then its display property computes to flex in certain circumstances: the table in CSS 2.1 Section 9.7 is amended to contain an additional row, with inline-flex in the "Specified Value" column and flex in the "Computed Value" column.

4. Flex Items

Loosely speaking, the flex items of a flex container are boxes representing its in-flow contents.

Each in-flow child of a flex container becomes a flex item, and each child text sequence is wrapped in an anonymous block container flex item. However, if the entire text sequences contains only document white space characters (i.e. characters that can be affected by the white-space property) it is instead not rendered (just as if its text nodes were display:none).

Tests

Examples of flex items:

<div style="display:flex">

    <!-- flex item: block child -->
    <div id="item1">block</div>

    <!-- flex item: floated element; floating is ignored -->
    <div id="item2" style="float: left;">float</div>

    <!-- flex item: anonymous block box around inline content -->
    anonymous item 3

    <!-- flex item: inline child -->
    <span>
        item 4
        <!-- flex items do not split around blocks -->
        <q style="display: block" id=not-an-item>item 4</q>
        item 4
    </span>
</div>
Flex items determined from above code block
  1. Flex item containing block.
  2. Flex item containing float.
  3. (Anonymous, unstyleable) flex item containing anonymous item 3.
  4. Flex item containing three blocks in succession:
    • Anonymous block containing item 4.
    • <q> element block containing item 4.
    • Anonymous block containing item 4.

Note that the inter-element white space disappears: it does not become its own flex item, even though the inter-element text does get wrapped in an anonymous flex item.

Note also that the anonymous item’s box is unstyleable, since there is no element to assign style rules to. Its contents will however inherit styles (such as font settings) from the flex container.

A flex item establishes an independent formatting context for its contents. However, flex items themselves are flex-level boxes, not block-level boxes: they participate in their container’s flex formatting context, not in a block formatting context.


Note: Authors reading this spec may want to skip past the following box-generation and static position details.

If the computed display value of an element’s nearest ancestor element (skipping display:contents ancestors) is flex or inline-flex, the element’s own display value is blockified. (See CSS2.1§9.7 [CSS2] and CSS Display 3 § 2.7 Automatic Box Type Transformations for details on this type of display value conversion.)

Note: Blockification still occurs even when the flex or inline-flex element does not end up generating a flex container box, e.g. when it is replaced or in a display: none subtree.

Note: Some values of display normally trigger the creation of anonymous boxes around the original box. If such a box is a flex item, it is blockified first, and so anonymous box creation will not happen. For example, two contiguous flex items with display: table-cell will become two separate display: block flex items, instead of being wrapped into a single anonymous table.

In the case of flex items with display: table, the table wrapper box becomes the flex item, so the align-self property applies to it. The contents of any caption boxes contribute to the calculation of the table wrapper box’s min-content and max-content sizes. However, like width and height, the flex longhands apply to the table box as follows: the flex item’s final size is calculated by performing layout as if the distance between the table wrapper box’s edges and the table box’s content edges were all part of the table box’s border+padding area, and the table box were the flex item.

4.1. Absolutely-Positioned Flex Children

As it is out-of-flow, an absolutely-positioned child of a flex container does not participate in flex layout.

The cross-axis edges of the static-position rectangle of an absolutely-positioned child of a flex container are the content edges of the flex container The main-axis edges of the static-position rectangle are where the margin edges of the child would be positioned if it were the sole flex item in the flex container, assuming both the child and the flex container were fixed-size boxes of their used size. (For this purpose, auto margins are treated as zero.)

Tests
The effect of this is that if you set, for example, align-self: center; on an absolutely-positioned child of a flex container, auto offsets on the child will center it in the flex container’s cross axis.

4.2. Flex Item Margins and Paddings

The margins of adjacent flex items do not collapse.

Percentage margins and paddings on flex items, like those on block boxes, are resolved against the inline size of their containing block, e.g. left/right/top/bottom percentages all resolve against their containing block’s width in horizontal writing modes.

Auto margins expand to absorb extra space in the corresponding dimension. They can be used for alignment, or to push adjacent flex items apart. See Aligning with auto margins.

4.3. Flex Item Z-Ordering

Flex items paint exactly the same as inline blocks [CSS2], except that order-modified document order is used in place of raw document order, and z-index values other than auto create a stacking context even if position is static (behaving exactly as if position were relative).

Note: Descendants that are positioned outside a flex item still participate in any stacking context established by the flex item.

4.4. Collapsed Items

Specifying visibility:collapse on a flex item causes it to become a collapsed flex item, producing an effect similar to visibility:collapse on a table-row or table-column: the collapsed flex item is removed from rendering entirely, but leaves behind a "strut" that keeps the flex line’s cross-size stable. Thus, if a flex container has only one flex line, dynamically collapsing or uncollapsing items may change the flex container’s main size, but is guaranteed to have no effect on its cross size and won’t cause the rest of the page’s layout to "wobble". Flex line wrapping is re-done after collapsing, however, so the cross-size of a flex container with multiple lines might or might not change.

Though collapsed flex items aren’t rendered, they do appear in the formatting structure. Therefore, unlike on display:none items [CSS2], effects that depend on a box appearing in the formatting structure (like incrementing counters or running animations and transitions) still operate on collapsed items.

In the following example, a sidebar is sized to fit its content. visibility: collapse is used to dynamically hide parts of a navigation sidebar without affecting its width, even though the widest item (“Architecture”) is in a collapsed section.
Sample live rendering for example code below
Hover over the menu to the left: each section expands to show its sub-items. In order to keep the sidebar width (and this main area width) stable, visibility: collapse is used instead of display: none. This results in a sidebar that is always wide enough for the word “Architecture”, even though it is not always visible.
@media (min-width: 60em) {
  /* two column layout only when enough room (relative to default text size) */
  div { display: flex; }
  #main {
    flex: 1;         /* Main takes up all remaining space */
    order: 1;        /* Place it after (to the right of) the navigation */
    min-width: 12em; /* Optimize main content area sizing */
  }
}
/* menu items use flex layout so that visibility:collapse will work */
nav > ul > li {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column;
}
/* dynamically collapse submenus when not targeted */
nav > ul > li:not(:target):not(:hover) > ul {
  visibility: collapse;
}
<div>
  <article id="main">
    Interesting Stuff to Read
  </article>
  <nav>
    <ul>
      <li id="nav-about"><a href="#nav-about">About</a><li id="nav-projects"><a href="#nav-projects">Projects</a>
        <ul>
          <li><a href="…">Art</a>
          <li><a href="…">Architecture</a>
          <li><a href="…">Music</a>
        </ul>
      <li id="nav-interact"><a href="#nav-interact">Interact</a></ul>
  </nav>
</div>
<footer>

To compute the size of the strut, flex layout is first performed with all items uncollapsed, and then re-run with each collapsed flex item replaced by a strut that maintains the original cross-size of the item’s original line. See the Flex Layout Algorithm for the normative definition of how visibility:collapse interacts with flex layout.

Note: Using visibility:collapse on any flex items will cause the flex layout algorithm to repeat partway through, re-running the most expensive steps. It’s recommended that authors continue to use display:none to hide items if the items will not be dynamically collapsed and uncollapsed, as that is more efficient for the layout engine. (Since only part of the steps need to be repeated when visibility is changed, however, 'visibility: collapse' is still recommended for dynamic cases.)

4.5. Automatic Minimum Size of Flex Items

Note: The auto keyword, representing an automatic minimum size, is the new initial value of the min-width and min-height properties. The keyword was previously defined in this specification, but is now defined in the CSS Sizing module.

To provide a more reasonable default minimum size for flex items, the used value of a main axis automatic minimum size on a flex item that is not a scroll container is its content-based minimum size; for scroll containers the automatic minimum size is zero, as usual.

The content-based minimum size of a flex item is the smaller of its specified size suggestion and its content size suggestion if its specified size suggestion exists; otherwise, the smaller of its transferred size suggestion and its content size suggestion if the element is replaced and its transferred size suggestion exists; otherwise its content size suggestion. In all cases, the size is clamped by the maximum main size if it’s definite.

The content size suggestion, specified size suggestion, and transferred size suggestion used in this calculation account for the relevant min/max/preferred size properties so that the content-based minimum size does not interfere with any author-provided constraints, and are defined below:

specified size suggestion
If the item’s preferred main size is definite and not automatic, then the specified size suggestion is that size. It is otherwise undefined.
transferred size suggestion
If the item has a preferred aspect ratio and its preferred cross size is definite, then the transferred size suggestion is that size (clamped by its minimum and maximum cross sizes if they are definite), converted through the aspect ratio. It is otherwise undefined.
content size suggestion
The content size suggestion is the min-content size in the main axis, clamped, if it has a preferred aspect ratio, by any definite minimum and maximum cross sizes converted through the aspect ratio.

Note: The content-based minimum size is a type of intrinsic size contribution, and thus the cyclic percentage provisions in CSS Sizing 3 § 5.2 Intrinsic Contributions apply.

For the purpose of calculating an intrinsic size of the box (e.g. the box’s min-content size), a content-based minimum size causes the box’s size in that axis to become indefinite (even if e.g. its width property specifies a definite size). Note this means that percentages calculated against this size will behave as auto.

For any purpose other than calculating intrinsic sizes, a content-based minimum size (unlike an explicit min-content/etc minimum size) does not force the box’s size to become indefinite. However, if a percentage resolved against the box’s size before this minimum was applied, it must be re-resolved against the new size after it is applied.

Note that while a content-based minimum size is often appropriate, and helps prevent content from overlapping or spilling outside its container, in some cases it is not:

In particular, if flex sizing is being used for a major content area of a document, it is better to set an explicit font-relative minimum width such as min-width: 12em. A content-based minimum width could result in a large table or large image stretching the size of the entire content area into an overflow zone, and thereby making lines of text gratuitously long and hard to read.

Note also, when content-based sizing is used on an item with large amounts of content, the layout engine must traverse all of this content before finding its minimum size, whereas if the author sets an explicit minimum, this is not necessary. (For items with small amounts of content, however, this traversal is trivial and therefore not a performance concern.)

5. Ordering and Orientation

The contents of a flex container can be laid out in any direction and in any order. This allows an author to trivially achieve effects that would previously have required complex or fragile methods, such as hacks using the float and clear properties. This functionality is exposed through the flex-direction, flex-wrap, and order properties.

Note: The reordering capabilities of flex layout intentionally affect only the visual rendering, leaving speech order and navigation based on the source order. This allows authors to manipulate the visual presentation while leaving the source order intact for non-CSS UAs and for linear models such as speech and sequential navigation. See CSS Display 3 § 3.1 Reordering and Accessibility and the Flex Layout Overview for examples that use this dichotomy to improve accessibility.

Authors must not use order or the *-reverse values of flex-flow/flex-direction as a substitute for correct source ordering, as that can ruin the accessibility of the document.

5.1. Flex Flow Direction: the flex-direction property

Name: flex-direction
Value: row | row-reverse | column | column-reverse
Initial: row
Applies to: flex containers
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified keyword
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: discrete

The flex-direction property specifies how flex items are placed in the flex container, by setting the direction of the flex container’s main axis. This determines the direction in which flex items are laid out.

row
The flex container’s main axis has the same orientation as the inline axis of the current writing mode. The main-start and main-end directions are equivalent to the inline-start and inline-end directions, respectively, of the current writing mode.
row-reverse
Same as row, except the main-start and main-end directions are swapped.
column
The flex container’s main axis has the same orientation as the block axis of the current writing mode. The main-start and main-end directions are equivalent to the block-start and block-end directions, respectively, of the current writing mode.
column-reverse
Same as column, except the main-start and main-end directions are swapped.

Note: The reverse values do not reverse box ordering: like writing-mode and direction [CSS3-WRITING-MODES], they only change the direction of flow. Painting order, speech order, and sequential navigation orders are not affected.

Note: Depending on the value of justify-content, the reverse values of flex-direction can alter the initial scroll position on flex containers that are also scroll containers. See CSS Box Alignment 3 § 5.3 Overflow and Scroll Positions.

5.2. Flex Line Wrapping: the flex-wrap property

Name: flex-wrap
Value: nowrap | wrap | wrap-reverse
Initial: nowrap
Applies to: flex containers
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified keyword
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: discrete

The flex-wrap property controls whether the flex container is single-line or multi-line, and the direction of the cross-axis, which determines the direction new lines are stacked in.

nowrap
The flex container is single-line.
wrap
The flex container is multi-line.
wrap-reverse
Same as wrap.

For the values that are not wrap-reverse, the cross-start direction is equivalent to either the inline-start or block-start direction of the current writing mode (whichever is in the cross axis) and the cross-end direction is the opposite direction of cross-start. When flex-wrap is wrap-reverse, the cross-start and cross-end directions are swapped.

Note: Depending on the value of align-content, the wrap-reverse value of flex-wrap can alter the initial scroll position on flex containers that are also scroll containers. See CSS Box Alignment 3 § 5.3 Overflow and Scroll Positions.

5.3. Flex Direction and Wrap: the flex-flow shorthand

Name: flex-flow
Value: <'flex-direction'> || <'flex-wrap'>
Initial: see individual properties
Applies to: see individual properties
Inherited: see individual properties
Percentages: see individual properties
Computed value: see individual properties
Animation type: see individual properties
Canonical order: per grammar

The flex-flow property is a shorthand for setting the flex-direction and flex-wrap properties, which together define the flex container’s main and cross axes.

Some examples of valid flows in an English (left-to-right, horizontal writing mode) document:
div { flex-flow: row; }
/* Initial value. Main-axis is inline, no wrapping.
   (Items will either shrink to fit or overflow.) */
div { flex-flow: column wrap; }
/* Main-axis is block-direction (top to bottom)
   and lines wrap in the inline direction (rightwards). */
div { flex-flow: row-reverse wrap-reverse; }
/* Main-axis is the opposite of inline direction
   (right to left). New lines wrap upwards. */
Note that the flex-flow directions are writing mode sensitive. In vertical Japanese, for example, a row flex container lays out its contents from top to bottom, as seen in this example:
English Japanese
flex-flow: row wrap;        
writing-mode: horizontal-tb;
flex-flow: row wrap;        
writing-mode: vertical-rl;

5.4. Item Reordering: the order property

Flex items are, by default, displayed and laid out in the same order as they appear in the source document, which represents their logical ordering. This same order is used in rendering to non-visual media (such as speech), in the default traversal order of sequential navigation modes (such as cycling through links, see e.g. tabindex [HTML]), and when content is represented in non-CSS UAs.

The order property can be used to change flex items’ ordering, laying them out in order-modified document order instead, in order to make their spatial arrangement on the 2D visual canvas differ from their logical order in linear presentations such as speech and sequential navigation. See CSS Display 3 § 3 Display Order: the order property. [CSS-DISPLAY-3]

Note: Since visual perception is two-dimensional and non-linear, the desired box order is not always the same logical order used by non-visual media and non-CSS UAs.

Authors must use order only for visual, not logical, reordering of content. Style sheets that use order to perform logical reordering are non-conforming.

Many web pages have a similar shape in the markup, with a header on top, a footer on bottom, and then a content area and one or two additional columns in the middle. Generally, it’s desirable that the content come first in the page’s source code, before the additional columns. However, this makes many common designs, such as simply having the additional columns on the left and the content area on the right, difficult to achieve. This has been addressed in many ways over the years, often going by the name "Holy Grail Layout" when there are two additional columns. order makes this trivial. For example, take the following sketch of a page’s code and desired layout:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<header>...</header>
<main>
   <article>...</article>
   <nav>...</nav>
   <aside>...</aside>
</main>
<footer>...</footer>
In this page the header is at the top and the footer at the bottom, but the article is in the center, flanked by the nav on the right and the aside on the left.

This layout can be easily achieved with flex layout:

main { display: flex; }
main > article { order: 2; min-width: 12em; flex:1; }
main > nav     { order: 1; width: 200px; }
main > aside   { order: 3; width: 200px; }

As an added bonus, the columns will all be equal-height by default, and the main content will be as wide as necessary to fill the screen. Additionally, this can then be combined with media queries to switch to an all-vertical layout on narrow screens:

@media all and (max-width: 600px) {
  /* Too narrow to support three columns */
  main { flex-flow: column; }
  main > article, main > nav, main > aside {
    /* Return them to document order */
    order: 0; width: auto;
  }
}

(Further use of multi-line flex containers to achieve even more intelligent wrapping left as an exercise for the reader.)

6. Flex Lines

Flex items in a flex container are laid out and aligned within flex lines, hypothetical containers used for grouping and alignment by the layout algorithm. A flex container can be either single-line or multi-line, depending on the flex-wrap property:

This example shows four buttons that do not fit side-by-side horizontally, and therefore will wrap into multiple lines.
#flex {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: row wrap;
  width: 300px;
}
.item {
  width: 80px;
}
<div id="flex">
  <div class="item">1</div>
  <div class="item">2</div>
  <div class="item">3</div>
  <div class="item">4</div>
</div>

Since the container is 300px wide, only three of the items fit onto a single line. They take up 240px, with 60px left over of remaining space. Because the flex-flow property specifies a multi-line flex container (due to the wrap keyword appearing in its value), the flex container will create an additional line to contain the last item.

An example rendering of the multi-line flex container.

Once content is broken into lines, each line is laid out independently; flexible lengths and the justify-content and align-self properties only consider the items on a single line at a time.

In a multi-line flex container (even one with only a single line), the cross size of each line is the minimum size necessary to contain the flex items on the line (after alignment due to align-self), and the lines are aligned within the flex container with the align-content property. In a single-line flex container, the cross size of the line is the cross size of the flex container, and align-content has no effect. The main size of a line is always the same as the main size of the flex container’s content box.

Tests
Here’s the same example as the previous, except that the flex items have all been given flex: auto. The first line has 60px of remaining space, and all of the items have the same flexibility, so each of the three items on that line will receive 20px of extra width, each ending up 100px wide. The remaining item is on a line of its own and will stretch to the entire width of the line, i.e. 300px.
A rendering of the same as above, but with the items all given flex: auto.

7. Flexibility

The defining aspect of flex layout is the ability to make the flex items “flex”, altering their width/height to fill the available space in the main dimension. This is done with the flex property. A flex container distributes free space to its items (proportional to their flex grow factor) to fill the container, or shrinks them (proportional to their flex shrink factor) to prevent overflow.

A flex item is fully inflexible if both its flex-grow and flex-shrink values are zero, and flexible otherwise.

7.1. The flex Shorthand

Name: flex
Value: none | [ <'flex-grow'> <'flex-shrink'>? || <'flex-basis'> ]
Initial: 0 1 auto
Applies to: flex items
Inherited: no
Percentages: see individual properties
Computed value: see individual properties
Animation type: by computed value type
Canonical order: per grammar

The flex property specifies the components of a flexible size: the flex factors (grow and shrink) and the flex basis. When a box is a flex item, flex is consulted instead of the main size property to determine the main size of the box. If a box is not a flex item, flex has no effect.

Note: The initial values of the flex longhands are equivalent to flex: 0 1 auto. This differs from their defaults when omitted in the flex shorthand (effectively 1 1 0px) so that the flex shorthand can better accommodate the most common cases.

<'flex-grow'>
This <number [0,∞]> component sets flex-grow longhand and specifies the flex grow factor, which determines how much the flex item will grow relative to the rest of the flex items in the flex container when positive free space is distributed. When omitted, it is set to 1.
Tests
Flex values between 0 and 1 have a somewhat special behavior: when the sum of the flex values on the line is less than 1, they will take up less than 100% of the free space.

An item’s flex-grow value is effectively a request for some proportion of the free space, with 1 meaning “100% of the free space”; then if the items on the line are requesting more than 100% in total, the requests are rebalanced to keep the same ratio but use up exactly 100% of it. However, if the items request less than the full amount (such as three items that are each flex-grow: .25) then they’ll each get exactly what they request (25% of the free space to each, with the final 25% left unfilled). See § 9.7 Resolving Flexible Lengths for the exact details of how free space is distributed.

This pattern is required for continuous behavior as flex-grow approaches zero (which means the item wants none of the free space). Without this, a flex-grow: 1 item would take all of the free space; but so would a flex-grow: 0.1 item, and a flex-grow: 0.01 item, etc., until finally the value is small enough to underflow to zero and the item suddenly takes up none of the free space. With this behavior, the item instead gradually takes less of the free space as flex-grow shrinks below 1, smoothly transitioning to taking none of the free space at zero.

Unless this “partial fill” behavior is specifically what’s desired, authors should stick to values ≥ 1; for example, using 1 and 2 is usually better than using .33 and .67, as they’re more likely to behave as intended if items are added, removed, or line-wrapped.

<'flex-shrink'>
This <number [0,∞]> component sets flex-shrink longhand and specifies the flex shrink factor, which determines how much the flex item will shrink relative to the rest of the flex items in the flex container when negative free space is distributed. When omitted, it is set to 1.
Tests

Note: The flex shrink factor is multiplied by the flex base size when distributing negative space. This distributes negative space in proportion to how much the item is able to shrink, so that e.g. a small item won’t shrink to zero before a larger item has been noticeably reduced.

<'flex-basis'>
This component sets the flex-basis longhand, which specifies the flex basis: the initial main size of the flex item, before free space is distributed according to the flex factors.

<'flex-basis'> accepts the same values as the width and height properties (except that auto is treated differently) plus the content keyword:

auto
When specified on a flex item, the auto keyword retrieves the value of the main size property as the used flex-basis. If that value is itself auto, then the used value is content.
content
Indicates an automatic size based on the flex item’s content. (This is typically equivalent to the max-content size, but with adjustments to handle preferred aspect ratios, intrinsic sizing constraints, and orthogonal flows; see details in § 9 Flex Layout Algorithm.)

Note: This value was not present in the initial release of Flexible Box Layout, and thus some older implementations will not support it. The equivalent effect can be achieved by using auto together with a main size (width or height) of auto.

<'width'>
For all other values, flex-basis is resolved the same way as for width and height.

When omitted from the flex shorthand, its specified value is 0.

none
The keyword none expands to 0 0 auto.
A diagram showing the difference between "absolute" flex (starting from a basis of zero) and "relative" flex (starting from a basis of the item’s content size). The three items have flex factors of 1, 1, and 2, respectively: notice that the item with a flex factor of 2 grows twice as fast as the others.

A unitless zero that is not already preceded by two flex factors must be interpreted as a flex factor. To avoid misinterpretation or invalid declarations, authors must specify a zero <'flex-basis'> component with a unit or precede it by two flex factors.

7.1.1. Basic Values of flex

This section is informative.

The list below summarizes the effects of the four flex values that represent most commonly-desired effects:

flex: initial
Equivalent to flex: 0 1 auto. (This is the initial value.) Sizes the item based on the width/height properties. (If the item’s main size property computes to auto, this will size the flex item based on its contents.) Makes the flex item inflexible when there is positive free space, but allows it to shrink to its minimum size when there is insufficient space. The alignment abilities or auto margins can be used to align flex items along the main axis.
flex: auto
Equivalent to flex: 1 1 auto. Sizes the item based on the width/height properties, but makes them fully flexible, so that they absorb any free space along the main axis. If all items are either flex: auto, flex: initial, or flex: none, any positive free space after the items have been sized will be distributed evenly to the items with flex: auto.
flex: none
Equivalent to flex: 0 0 auto. This value sizes the item according to the width/height properties, but makes the flex item fully inflexible. This is similar to initial, except that flex items are not allowed to shrink, even in overflow situations.
flex: <number [1,∞]>
Equivalent to flex: <number [1,∞]> 1 0. Makes the flex item flexible and sets the flex basis to zero, resulting in an item that receives the specified proportion of the free space in the flex container. If all items in the flex container use this pattern, their sizes will be proportional to the specified flex factor.

By default, flex items won’t shrink below their minimum content size (the length of the longest word or fixed-size element). To change this, set the min-width or min-height property. (See § 4.5 Automatic Minimum Size of Flex Items.)

7.2. Components of Flexibility

Individual components of flexibility can be controlled by independent longhand properties.

Authors are encouraged to control flexibility using the flex shorthand rather than with its longhand properties directly, as the shorthand correctly resets any unspecified components to accommodate common uses.

7.2.1. The flex-grow property

Name: flex-grow
Value: <number [0,∞]>
Initial: 0
Applies to: flex items
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified number
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: by computed value type

Authors are encouraged to control flexibility using the flex shorthand rather than with flex-grow directly, as the shorthand correctly resets any unspecified components to accommodate common uses.

The flex-grow property sets the flex grow factor to the provided <number>. Negative values are not allowed.

7.2.2. The flex-shrink property

Name: flex-shrink
Value: <number [0,∞]>
Initial: 1
Applies to: flex items
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified value
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: number

Authors are encouraged to control flexibility using the flex shorthand rather than with flex-shrink directly, as the shorthand correctly resets any unspecified components to accommodate common uses.

The flex-shrink property sets the flex shrink factor to the provided <number>. Negative values are not allowed.

7.2.3. The flex-basis property

Name: flex-basis
Value: content | <'width'>
Initial: auto
Applies to: flex items
Inherited: no
Percentages: relative to the flex container’s inner main size
Computed value: specified keyword or a computed <length-percentage> value
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: by computed value type

Authors are encouraged to control flexibility using the flex shorthand rather than with flex-basis directly, as the shorthand correctly resets any unspecified components to accommodate common uses.

The flex-basis property sets the flex basis. It accepts the same values as the width and height property, plus content.

For all values other than auto and content (defined above), flex-basis is resolved the same way as width in horizontal writing modes [CSS2], except that if a value would resolve to auto for width, it instead resolves to content for flex-basis. For example, percentage values of flex-basis are resolved against the flex item’s containing block (i.e. its flex container); and if that containing block’s size is indefinite, the used value for flex-basis is content. As another corollary, flex-basis determines the size of the content box, unless otherwise specified such as by box-sizing [CSS3UI].

8. Alignment

After a flex container’s contents have finished their flexing and the dimensions of all flex items are finalized, they can then be aligned within the flex container.

The margin properties can be used to align items in a manner similar to, but more powerful than, what margins can do in block layout. Flex items also respect the alignment properties from CSS Box Alignment, which allow easy keyword-based alignment of items in both the main axis and cross axis. These properties make many common types of alignment trivial, including some things that were very difficult in CSS 2.1, like horizontal and vertical centering.

Note: While the alignment properties are defined in CSS Box Alignment [CSS-ALIGN-3], Flexible Box Layout reproduces the definitions of the relevant ones here so as to not create a normative dependency that may slow down advancement of the spec. These properties apply only to flex layout until CSS Box Alignment Level 3 is finished and defines their effect for other layout modes. Additionally, any new values defined in the Box Alignment module will apply to Flexible Box Layout; in other words, the Box Alignment module, once completed, will supersede the definitions here.

8.1. Aligning with auto margins

This section is non-normative. The normative definition of how margins affect flex items is in the Flex Layout Algorithm section.

Auto margins on flex items have an effect very similar to auto margins in block flow:

Tests

Note: If free space is distributed to auto margins, the alignment properties will have no effect in that dimension because the margins will have stolen all the free space left over after flexing.

One use of auto margins in the main axis is to separate flex items into distinct "groups". The following example shows how to use this to reproduce a common UI pattern - a single bar of actions with some aligned on the left and others aligned on the right.
Sample rendering of the code below.
nav > ul {
  display: flex;
}
nav > ul > #login {
  margin-left: auto;
}
<nav>
  <ul>
    <li><a href=/about>About</a>
    <li><a href=/projects>Projects</a>
    <li><a href=/interact>Interact</a>
    <li id="login"><a href=/login>Login</a>
  </ul>
</nav>
The figure below illustrates the difference in cross-axis alignment in overflow situations between using auto margins and using the alignment properties.
About
Authoritarianism
Blog
About
Authoritarianism
Blog
The items in the figure on the left are centered with margins, while those in the figure on the right are centered with align-self. If this column flex container was placed against the left edge of the page, the margin behavior would be more desirable, as the long item would be fully readable. In other circumstances, the true centering behavior might be better.

8.2. Axis Alignment: the justify-content property

Name: justify-content
Value: flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between | space-around
Initial: flex-start
Applies to: flex containers
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified keyword
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: discrete

The justify-content property aligns flex items along the main axis of the current line of the flex container. This is done after any flexible lengths and any auto margins have been resolved. Typically 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.

flex-start
Flex items are packed toward the start of the line. The main-start margin edge of the first flex item on the line is placed flush with the main-start edge of the line, and each subsequent flex item is placed flush with the preceding item.
flex-end
Flex items are packed toward the end of the line. The main-end margin edge of the last flex item is placed flush with the main-end edge of the line, and each preceding flex item is placed flush with the subsequent item.
Tests
center
Flex items are packed toward the center of the line. The flex items on the line are placed flush with each other and aligned in the center of the line, with equal amounts of space between the main-start edge of the line and the first item on the line and between the main-end edge of the line and the last item on the line. (If the leftover free-space is negative, the flex items will overflow equally in both directions.)
space-between
Flex items are evenly distributed in the line. If the leftover free-space is negative or there is only a single flex item on the line, this value falls back to safe flex-start. Otherwise, the main-start margin edge of the first flex item on the line is placed flush with the main-start edge of the line, the main-end margin edge of the last flex item on the line is placed flush with the main-end edge of the line, and the remaining flex items on the line are distributed so that the spacing between any two adjacent items is the same.
space-around
Flex items are evenly distributed in the line, with half-size spaces on either end. If the leftover free-space is negative or there is only a single flex item on the line, this value falls back to safe center. Otherwise, the flex items on the line are distributed such that the spacing between any two adjacent flex items on the line is the same, and the spacing between the first/last flex items and the flex container edges is half the size of the spacing between flex items.

An illustration of the five justify-content keywords and their effects on a flex container with three colored items.

8.3. Cross-axis Alignment: the align-items and align-self properties

Name: align-items
Value: flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline | stretch
Initial: stretch
Applies to: flex containers
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified keyword
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: discrete
Name: align-self
Value: auto | flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline | stretch
Initial: auto
Applies to: flex items
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified keyword
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: discrete
Tests

Flex items can be aligned in the cross axis of the current line of the flex container, similar to justify-content but in the perpendicular direction. align-items sets the default alignment for all of the flex container’s items, including anonymous flex items. align-self allows this default alignment to be overridden for individual flex items. (For anonymous flex items, align-self always matches the value of align-items on their associated flex container.)

If either of the flex item’s cross-axis margins are auto, align-self has no effect.

Values have the following meanings:

auto
Defers cross-axis alignment control to the value of align-items on the parent box. (This is the initial value of align-self.)
Tests
flex-start
The cross-start margin edge of the flex item is placed flush with the cross-start edge of the line.
Tests
flex-end
The cross-end margin edge of the flex item is placed flush with the cross-end edge of the line.
Tests
center
The flex item’s margin box is centered in the cross axis within the line. (If the cross size of the flex line is less than that of the flex item, it will overflow equally in both directions.)
Tests
baseline
The flex item participates in baseline alignment: all participating flex items on the line are aligned such that their baselines align, and the item with the largest distance between its baseline and its cross-start margin edge is placed flush against the cross-start edge of the line. If the item does not have a baseline in the necessary axis, then one is synthesized from the flex item’s border box.
Tests
stretch
If the cross size property of the flex item computes to auto, and neither of the cross-axis margins are auto, the flex item is stretched. Its used value is the length necessary to make the cross size of the item’s margin box as close to the same size as the line as possible, while still respecting the constraints imposed by min-height/min-width/max-height/max-width.

Note: If the flex container’s height is constrained this value may cause the contents of the flex item to overflow the item.

The cross-start margin edge of the flex item is placed flush with the cross-start edge of the line.

Tests

An illustration of the five align-items keywords and their effects on a flex container with four colored items.

8.4. Packing Flex Lines: the align-content property

Name: align-content
Value: flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between | space-around | stretch
Initial: stretch
Applies to: multi-line flex containers
Inherited: no
Percentages: n/a
Computed value: specified keyword
Canonical order: per grammar
Animation type: discrete

The align-content property aligns a flex container’s lines within the flex container 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 on a single-line flex container. Values have the following meanings:

flex-start
Lines are packed toward the start of the flex container. The cross-start edge of the first line in the flex container is placed flush with the cross-start edge of the flex container, and each subsequent line is placed flush with the preceding line.
flex-end
Lines are packed toward the end of the flex container. The cross-end edge of the last line is placed flush with the cross-end edge of the flex container, and each preceding line is placed flush with the subsequent line.
center
Lines are packed toward the center of the flex container. The lines in the flex container are placed flush with each other and aligned in the center of the flex container, with equal amounts of space between the cross-start content edge of the flex container and the first line in the flex container, and between the cross-end content edge of the flex container and the last line in the flex container. (If the leftover free-space is negative, the lines will overflow equally in both directions.)
space-between
Lines are evenly distributed in the flex container. If the leftover free-space is negative or there is only a single flex line in the flex container, this value falls back to safe flex-start. Otherwise, the cross-start edge of the first line in the flex container is placed flush with the cross-start content edge of the flex container, the cross-end edge of the last line in the flex container is placed flush with the cross-end content edge of the flex container, and the remaining lines in the flex container are distributed so that the spacing between any two adjacent lines is the same.
space-around
Lines are evenly distributed in the flex container, with half-size spaces on either end. If the leftover free-space is negative this value falls back to safe center. Otherwise, the lines in the flex container are distributed such that the spacing between any two adjacent lines is the same, and the spacing between the first/last lines and the flex container edges is half the size of the spacing between flex lines.
stretch
Lines stretch to take up the remaining space. If the leftover free-space is negative, this value falls back to safe flex-start. Otherwise, the free-space is split equally between all of the lines, increasing their cross size.

Note: Only multi-line flex containers ever have free space in the cross-axis for lines to be aligned in, because in a single-line flex container the sole line automatically stretches to fill the space.

An illustration of the align-content keywords and their effects on a multi-line flex container.

8.5. Flex Container Baselines

In order for a flex container to itself participate in baseline alignment (e.g. when the flex container is itself a flex item in an outer flex container), it needs to submit the position of the baselines that will best represent its contents. To this end, the baselines of a flex container are determined as follows (after reordering with order, and taking flex-direction into account):

first/last main-axis baseline set
When the inline axis of the flex container matches its main axis, its baselines are determined as follows:
  1. If any of the flex items on the flex container’s startmost/endmost flex line participate in baseline alignment, the flex container’s first/last main-axis baseline set is generated from the shared alignment baseline of those flex items.

  2. Otherwise, if the flex container has at least one flex item, the flex container’s first/last main-axis baseline set is generated from the alignment baseline of the startmost/endmost flex item. (If that item has no alignment baseline parallel to the flex container’s main axis, then one is first synthesized from its border edges.)

  3. Otherwise, the flex container has no first/last main-axis baseline set, and one is synthesized if needed according to the rules of its alignment context.

first/last cross-axis baseline set
When the inline axis of the flex container matches its cross axis, its baselines are determined as follows:
  1. If the flex container has at least one flex item, the flex container’s first/last cross-axis baseline set is generated from the alignment baseline of the startmost/endmost flex item. (If that item has no alignment baseline parallel to the flex container’s cross axis, then one is first synthesized from its border edges.)

  2. Otherwise, the flex container has no first/last cross-axis baseline set, and one is synthesized if needed according to the rules of its alignment context.

When calculating the baseline according to the above rules, if the box contributing a baseline has an overflow value that allows scrolling, the box must be treated as being in its initial scroll position for the purpose of determining its baseline.

When determining the baseline of a table cell, a flex container provides a baseline just as a line box or table-row does. [CSS2]

See CSS Writing Modes 3 § 4.1 Introduction to Baselines and CSS Box Alignment 3 § 9 Baseline Alignment Details for more information on baselines.

9. Flex Layout Algorithm

This section contains normative algorithms detailing the exact layout behavior of a flex container and its contents. The algorithms here are written to optimize readability and theoretical simplicity, and may not necessarily be the most efficient. Implementations may use whatever actual algorithms they wish, but must produce the same results as the algorithms described here.

Note: This section is mainly intended for implementors. Authors writing web pages should generally be served well by the individual property descriptions, and do not need to read this section unless they have a deep-seated urge to understand arcane details of CSS layout.

The following sections define the algorithm for laying out a flex container and its contents.

Note: Flex layout works with the flex items in order-modified document order, not their original document order.

9.1. Initial Setup

  1. Generate anonymous flex items as described in § 4 Flex Items.

9.2. Line Length Determination

  1. Determine the available main and cross space for the flex items. For each dimension, if that dimension of the flex container’s content box is a definite size, use that; if that dimension of the flex container is being sized under a min or max-content constraint, the available space in that dimension is that constraint; otherwise, subtract the flex container’s margin, border, and padding from the space available to the flex container in that dimension and use that value. This might result in an infinite value.

    For example, the available space to a flex item in a floated auto-sized flex container is:

    • the width of the flex container’s containing block minus the flex container’s margin, border, and padding in the horizontal dimension
    • infinite in the vertical dimension
  2. Determine the flex base size and hypothetical main size of each item:
    1. If the item has a definite used flex basis, that’s the flex base size.
    2. If the flex item has ... then the flex base size is calculated from its used cross size and the flex item’s aspect ratio.
    3. If the used flex basis is content or depends on its available space, and the flex container is being sized under a min-content or max-content constraint (e.g. when performing automatic table layout [CSS2]), size the item under that constraint. The flex base size is the item’s resulting main size.
    4. Otherwise, if the used flex basis is content or depends on its available space, the available main size is infinite, and the flex item’s inline axis is parallel to the main axis, lay the item out using the rules for a box in an orthogonal flow [CSS3-WRITING-MODES]. The flex base size is the item’s max-content main size.

      Note: This case occurs, for example, in an English document (horizontal writing mode) containing a column flex container containing a vertical Japanese (vertical writing mode) flex item.

    5. Otherwise, size the item into the available space using its used flex basis in place of its main size, treating a value of content as max-content. If a cross size is needed to determine the main size (e.g. when the flex item’s main size is in its block axis, or when it has a preferred aspect ratio) and the flex item’s cross size is auto and not definite, in this calculation use fit-content as the flex item’s cross size. The flex base size is the item’s resulting main size.
      Tests

    When determining the flex base size, the item’s min and max main sizes are ignored (no clamping occurs). Furthermore, the sizing calculations that floor the content box size at zero when applying box-sizing are also ignored. (For example, an item with a specified size of zero, positive padding, and box-sizing: border-box will have an outer flex base size of zero—​and hence a negative inner flex base size.)

    The hypothetical main size is the item’s flex base size clamped according to its used min and max main sizes (and flooring the content box size at zero).

  3. Determine the main size of the flex container using the rules of the formatting context in which it participates.
    The automatic block size of a block-level flex container is its max-content size.

    The Block Layout spec should define this equivalency, but it doesn’t exist yet.

9.3. Main Size Determination

  1. Collect flex items into flex lines:
    • If the flex container is single-line, collect all the flex items into a single flex line.
    • Otherwise, starting from the first uncollected item, collect consecutive items one by one until the first time that the next collected item would not fit into the flex container’s inner main size (or until a forced break is encountered, see § 10 Fragmenting Flex Layout). If the very first uncollected item wouldn’t fit, collect just it into the line.

      For this step, the size of a flex item is its outer hypothetical main size. (Note: This can be negative.)

      Repeat until all flex items have been collected into flex lines.

      Note that the "collect as many" line will collect zero-sized flex items onto the end of the previous line even if the last non-zero item exactly "filled up" the line.

  2. Resolve the flexible lengths of all the flex items to find their used main size. See § 9.7 Resolving Flexible Lengths.

9.4. Cross Size Determination

  1. Determine the hypothetical cross size of each item by performing layout as if it were an in-flow block-level box with the used main size and the given available space, treating auto as fit-content.
  2. Calculate the cross size of each flex line.

    If the flex container is single-line and has a definite cross size, the cross size of the flex line is the flex container’s inner cross size.

    Otherwise, for each flex line:

    1. Collect all the flex items whose inline-axis is parallel to the main-axis, whose align-self is baseline, and whose cross-axis margins are both non-auto. Find the largest of the distances between each item’s baseline and its hypothetical outer cross-start edge, and the largest of the distances between each item’s baseline and its hypothetical outer cross-end edge, and sum these two values.
    2. Among all the items not collected by the previous step, find the largest outer hypothetical cross size.
    3. The used cross-size of the flex line is the largest of the numbers found in the previous two steps and zero.

      If the flex container is single-line, then clamp the line’s cross-size to be within the container’s computed min and max cross sizes. Note that if CSS 2.1’s definition of min/max-width/height applied more generally, this behavior would fall out automatically.

  3. Handle 'align-content: stretch'. If the flex container has a definite cross size, align-content is stretch, and the sum of the flex lines' cross sizes is less than the flex container’s inner cross size, increase the cross size of each flex line by equal amounts such that the sum of their cross sizes exactly equals the flex container’s inner cross size.
  4. Collapse visibility:collapse items. If any flex items have visibility: collapse, note the cross size of the line they’re in as the item’s strut size, and restart layout from the beginning.

    In this second layout round, when collecting items into lines, treat the collapsed items as having zero main size. For the rest of the algorithm following that step, ignore the collapsed items entirely (as if they were display:none) except that after calculating the cross size of the lines, if any line’s cross size is less than the largest strut size among all the collapsed items in the line, set its cross size to that strut size.

    Skip this step in the second layout round.

  5. Determine the used cross size of each flex item. If a flex item has align-self: stretch, its computed cross size property is auto, and neither of its cross-axis margins are auto, the used outer cross size is the used cross size of its flex line, clamped according to the item’s used min and max cross sizes. Otherwise, the used cross size is the item’s hypothetical cross size.

    If the flex item has align-self: stretch, redo layout for its contents, treating this used size as its definite cross size so that percentage-sized children can be resolved.

    Note that this step does not affect the main size of the flex item, even if it has a preferred aspect ratio.

9.5. Main-Axis Alignment

  1. Distribute any remaining free space. For each flex line:
    1. If the remaining free space is positive and at least one main-axis margin on this line is auto, distribute the free space equally among these margins. Otherwise, set all auto margins to zero.
    2. Align the items along the main-axis per justify-content.

9.6. Cross-Axis Alignment

  1. Resolve cross-axis auto margins. If a flex item has auto cross-axis margins:
    • If its outer cross size (treating those auto margins as zero) is less than the cross size of its flex line, distribute the difference in those sizes equally to the auto margins.
    • Otherwise, if the block-start or inline-start margin (whichever is in the cross axis) is auto, set it to zero. Set the opposite margin so that the outer cross size of the item equals the cross size of its flex line.
  2. Align all flex items along the cross-axis per align-self, if neither of the item’s cross-axis margins are auto.
  3. Determine the flex container’s used cross size using the rules of the formatting context in which it participates. If a content-based cross size is needed, use the sum of the flex lines' cross sizes.
  4. Align all flex lines per align-content.

9.7. Resolving Flexible Lengths

To resolve the flexible lengths of the items within a flex line:

  1. Determine the used flex factor. Sum the outer hypothetical main sizes of all items on the line. If the sum is less than the flex container’s inner main size, use the flex grow factor for the rest of this algorithm; otherwise, use the flex shrink factor.
  2. Each item in the flex line has a target main size, initially set to its flex base size. Each item is initially unfrozen and may become frozen.

    Note: An item’s target main size doesn’t change after freezing.

  3. Size inflexible items. Freeze, setting its target main size to its hypothetical main size
  4. Calculate initial free space. Sum the outer sizes of all items on the line, and subtract this from the flex container’s inner main size. For frozen items, use their outer target main size; for other items, use their outer flex base size.
  5. Loop:
    1. Check for flexible items. If all the flex items on the line are frozen, free space has been distributed; exit this loop.
    2. Calculate the remaining free space as for initial free space, above. If the sum of the unfrozen flex items’ flex factors is less than one, multiply the initial free space by this sum. If the magnitude of this value is less than the magnitude of the remaining free space, use this as the remaining free space.
    3. If the remaining free space is non-zero, distribute it proportional to the flex factors:
      If using the flex grow factor
      For every unfrozen item on the line, find the ratio of the item’s flex grow factor to the sum of the flex grow factors of all unfrozen items on the line. Set the item’s target main size to its flex base size plus a fraction of the remaining free space proportional to the ratio.
      If using the flex shrink factor
      For every unfrozen item on the line, multiply its flex shrink factor by its inner flex base size, and note this as its scaled flex shrink factor. Find the ratio of the item’s scaled flex shrink factor to the sum of the scaled flex shrink factors of all unfrozen items on the line. Set the item’s target main size to its flex base size minus a fraction of the absolute value of the remaining free space proportional to the ratio. Note this may result in a negative inner main size; it will be corrected in the next step.
    4. Fix min/max violations. Clamp each non-frozen item’s target main size by its used min and max main sizes and floor its content-box size at zero. If the item’s target main size was made smaller by this, it’s a max violation. If the item’s target main size was made larger by this, it’s a min violation.
    5. Freeze over-flexed items. The total violation is the sum of the adjustments from the previous step ∑(clamped size - unclamped size). If the total violation is:
      Zero
      Freeze all items.
      Positive
      Freeze all the items with min violations.
      Negative
      Freeze all the items with max violations.

      Note: This freezes at least one item, ensuring that the loop makes progress and eventually terminates.

    6. Return to the start of this loop.
  6. Set each item’s used main size to its target main size.

9.8. Definite and Indefinite Sizes

Although CSS Sizing [CSS-SIZING-3] defines definite and indefinite lengths, Flexbox has several additional cases where a length can be considered definite:

  1. If the flex container has a definite main size, then the post-flexing main sizes of its flex items are treated as definite.

  2. If a flex item’s flex basis is definite, then its post-flexing main size is also definite.

  3. If a single-line flex container has a definite cross size, the automatic preferred outer cross size of any stretched flex items is the flex container’s inner cross size (clamped to the flex item’s min and max cross size) and is considered definite.

  4. Once the cross size of a flex line has been determined, the cross sizes of items in auto-sized flex containers are also considered definite for the purpose of layout; see step 11.

Note: This means that within flex layout, “definite” sizes can require performing layout. This was done to allow percentages inside of flex items to resolve where authors expected them to resolve.

9.9. Intrinsic Sizes

The intrinsic sizing of a flex container is used to produce various types of content-based automatic sizing, such as shrink-to-fit logical widths (which use the fit-content formula) and content-based logical heights (which use the max-content size). For these computations, auto margins on flex items are treated as 0.

See [CSS-SIZING-3] for a definition of the terms in this section.

9.9.1. Flex Container Intrinsic Main Sizes

The max-content main size of a flex container is, fundamentally, the smallest size the flex container can take such that when flex layout is run with that container size, each flex item ends up at least as large as its max-content contribution, to the extent allowed by the items’ flexibility.

It is calculated, considering only non-collapsed flex items, by:

  1. For each flex item, subtract its outer flex base size from its max-content contribution size. If that result is positive, divide it by the item’s flex grow factor if the flex grow factor is ≥ 1, or multiply it by the flex grow factor if the flex grow factor is < 1; if the result is negative, divide it by the item’s scaled flex shrink factor (if dividing by zero, treat the result as negative infinity). This is the item’s desired flex fraction.
  2. Place all flex items into lines of infinite length. Within each line, find the greatest (most positive) desired flex fraction among all the flex items. This is the line’s chosen flex fraction.
  3. If the chosen flex fraction is positive, and the sum of the line’s flex grow factors is less than 1, divide the chosen flex fraction by that sum.

    If the chosen flex fraction is negative, and the sum of the line’s flex shrink factors is less than 1, multiply the chosen flex fraction by that sum.

  4. Add each item’s flex base size to the product of its flex grow factor (scaled flex shrink factor, if shrinking) and the chosen flex fraction, then clamp that result by the max main size floored by the min main size.
  5. The flex container’s max-content size is the largest sum (among all the lines) of the afore-calculated sizes of all items within a single line.

The min-content main size of a single-line flex container is calculated identically to the max-content main size, except that the flex itemsmin-content contributions are used instead of their max-content contributions.

However, for a multi-line container, the min-content main size is simply the largest min-content contribution of all the non-collapsed flex items in the flex container. For this purpose, each item’s contribution is capped by the item’s flex base size if the item is not growable, floored by the item’s flex base size if the item is not shrinkable, and then further clamped by the item’s min and max main sizes.

Implications of this algorithm when the sum of flex is less than 1

The above algorithm is designed to give the correct behavior for two cases in particular, and make the flex container’s size continuous as you transition between the two:

  1. If all items are inflexible, the flex container is sized to the sum of their flex base size. (An inflexible flex base size basically substitutes for a width/height, which, when specified, is what a max-content contribution is based on in Block Layout.)

  2. When all items are flexible with flex factors ≥ 1, the flex container is sized to the sum of the max-content contributions of its items (or perhaps a slightly larger size, so that every flex item is at least the size of its max-content contribution, but also has the correct ratio of its size to the size of the other items, as determined by its flexibility).

For example, if a flex container has a single flex item with flex-basis: 100px; but a max-content size of 200px, then when the item is flex-grow: 0, the flex container (and flex item) is 100px wide, but when the item is flex-grow: 1 or higher, the flex container (and flex item) is 200px wide.

There are several possible ways to make the overall behavior continuous between these two cases, but all of them have drawbacks. We chose one we feel has the least bad implications; unfortunately, it "double-applies" the flexibility in cases with flex factors that are < 1. In the above example, if the item has flex-grow: .5, then the flex container ends up 150px wide, but the item then sizes normally into that available space, ending up 125px wide.

Even more involved notes on the specific behavior chosen

Principles:

  1. Don’t explode any sizes, whether growing or shrinking, as inputs approach zero.

  2. When flex factors are all >=1, return the minimum size necessary for every item to be >= max-content size.

  3. Items with a zero flex shouldn’t affect the sizes at all.

  4. Keep it continuous over variance of flex factors and item sizes.

  5. Keep sizing variance as linear as possible with respect to linear changes to any input variable (size, flex factor).

  6. When the sum of flex factors is >=1, return the minimum size necessary for every item to be >= max-content size.

To get these all to work together, we have to apply some correction when either flex factors or the sum of flex factors on a line is < 1.

For shrink our behavior is somewhat easier; since the explosive case of 0 shrink results in a negative infinity desired fraction which we’ll never choose (since we always take the largest), we can just apply the correction at the line level, giving us double-application only when the sum is < 1.

For positives it’s more complicated. 0 grow naively explodes into *positive* infinity, which we’d choose, so we need to apply the correction at the individual item level. We do that by multiplying the space by the factor when factor is <1. Leaving it at that would result in a double-application for items < 1 but sum >= 1, but a *triple*-application when the sum is < 1. To avoid *that* ridiculousness, we apply a *reverse* correction when the sum is 1, dividing by the sum instead. This leaves us with a double correction in all cases for items with factors < 1.

We can’t eliminate the double-applications entirely without giving up other, more important principles (in particular, principle 3 —​try to come up with rules that don’t double-apply when you have two items with flex-grow: .5, but also don’t give a flex-grow: 0 item any power over a flex-grow: 1 sibling; you can’t, as far as we can tell.)

9.9.2. Flex Container Intrinsic Cross Sizes

The min-content/max-content cross size of a single-line flex container is the largest min-content contribution/max-content contribution (respectively) of its flex items.

For a multi-line flex container, the behavior depends on whether it’s a row or column flexbox:

row multi-line flex container cross-size

The min-content/max-content cross size is the sum of the flex line cross sizes resulting from sizing the flex container under a cross-axis min-content constraint/max-content constraint (respectively).

column multi-line flex container cross-size

The min-content cross size is the largest min-content contribution among all of its flex items.

Note: This heuristic effectively assumes a single flex line, in order to guarantee that the min-content size is smaller than the max-content size. If the flex container has a height constraint, this will result in overflow, but if the flex container is also a scroll container, it will at least be large enough to fit any given column entirely within its scrollport.

The max-content cross size is the sum of the flex line cross sizes resulting from sizing the flex container under a cross-axis max-content constraint, using the largest max-content cross-size contribution among the flex items as the available space in the cross axis for each of the flex items during layout.

Note: This heuristic gives a reasonable approximation of the size that the flex container should be, with each flex item laid out at its max-content contribution or larger, and each flex line no larger than its largest flex item. It’s not a perfect fit in some cases, but doing it completely correct is insanely expensive, and this works reasonably well.

9.9.3. Flex Item Intrinsic Size Contributions

The main-size min-content contribution of a flex item is the larger of its outer min-content size and outer preferred size if that is not auto, clamped by its min/max main size.

The main-size max-content contribution of a flex item is the larger of its outer max-content size and outer preferred size if that is not auto, clamped by its min/max main size.

10. Fragmenting Flex Layout

Flex containers can break across pages between items, between lines of items (in multi-line mode), and inside items. The break-* properties apply to flex containers as normal for block-level or inline-level boxes. This section defines how they apply to flex items and the contents of flex items. See the CSS Fragmentation Module for more context [CSS3-BREAK].

The following breaking rules refer to the fragmentation container as the “page”. The same rules apply in any other fragmentation context. (Substitute “page” with the appropriate fragmentation container type as needed.) For readability, in this section the terms "row" and "column" refer to the relative orientation of the flex container with respect to the block flow direction of the fragmentation context, rather than to that of the flex container itself.

The exact layout of a fragmented flex container is not defined in this level of Flexible Box Layout. However, breaks inside a flex container are subject to the following rules (interpreted using order-modified document order):

10.1. Sample Flex Fragmentation Algorithm

This informative section presents a possible fragmentation algorithm for flex containers. Implementors are encouraged to improve on this algorithm and provide feedback to the CSS Working Group.

This algorithm assumes that pagination always proceeds only in the forward direction; therefore, in the algorithms below, alignment is mostly ignored prior to pagination. Advanced layout engines may be able to honor alignment across fragments.

single-line column flex container
  1. Run the flex layout algorithm (without regards to pagination) through Cross Sizing Determination.
  2. Lay out as many consecutive flex items or item fragments as possible (but at least one or a fragment thereof), starting from the first, until there is no more room on the page or a forced break is encountered.
  3. If the previous step ran out of room and the free space is positive, the UA may reduce the distributed free space on this page (down to, but not past, zero) in order to make room for the next unbreakable flex item or fragment. Otherwise, the item or fragment that does not fit is pushed to the next page. The UA should pull up if more than 50% of the fragment would have fit in the remaining space and should push otherwise.
  4. If there are any flex items or fragments not laid out by the previous steps, rerun the flex layout algorithm from Line Length Determination through Cross Sizing Determination with the next page’s size and all the contents (including those already laid out), and return to the previous step, but starting from the first item or fragment not already laid out.
  5. For each fragment of the flex container, continue the flex layout algorithm from Main-Axis Alignment to its finish.

It is the intent of this algorithm that column-direction single-line flex containers paginate very similarly to block flow. As a test of the intent, a flex container with justify-content:start and no flexible items should paginate identically to a block with in-flow children with same content, same used size and same used margins.

multi-line column flex container
  1. Run the flex layout algorithm with regards to pagination (limiting the flex container’s maximum line length to the space left on the page) through Cross Sizing Determination.
  2. Lay out as many flex lines as possible (but at least one) until there is no more room in the flex container in the cross dimension or a forced break is encountered:
    1. Lay out as many consecutive flex items as possible (but at least one), starting from the first, until there is no more room on the page or a forced break is encountered. Forced breaks within flex items are ignored.
    2. If this is the first flex container fragment, this line contains only a single flex item that is larger than the space left on the page, and the flex container is not at the top of the page already, move the flex container to the next page and restart flex container layout entirely.
    3. If there are any flex items not laid out by the first step, rerun the flex layout algorithm from Main Sizing Determination through Cross Sizing Determination using only the items not laid out on a previous line, and return to the previous step, starting from the first item not already laid out.
  3. If there are any flex items not laid out by the previous step, rerun the flex layout algorithm from Line Sizing Determination through Cross Sizing Determination with the next page’s size and only the items not already laid out, and return to the previous step, but starting from the first item not already laid out.
  4. For each fragment of the flex container, continue the flex layout algorithm from Main-Axis Alignment to its finish.

If a flex item does not entirely fit on a single page, it will not be paginated in multi-line column flex containers.

single-line row flex container
  1. Run the entire flex layout algorithm (without regards to pagination), except treat any align-self other than flex-start or baseline as flex-start.
  2. If an unbreakable item doesn’t fit within the space left on the page, and the flex container is not at the top of the page, move the flex container to the next page and restart flex container layout entirely.
  3. For each item, lay out as much of its contents as will fit in the space left on the page, and fragment the remaining content onto the next page, rerunning the flex layout algorithm from Line Length Determination through Main-Axis Alignment into the new page size using all the contents (including items completed on previous pages).

    Any flex items that fit entirely into previous fragments still take up space in the main axis in later fragments.

  4. For each fragment of the flex container, rerun the flex layout algorithm from Cross-Axis Alignment to its finish. For all fragments besides the first, treat align-self and align-content as being flex-start for all item fragments and lines.
  5. If any item, when aligned according to its original align-self value into the combined cross size of all the flex container fragments, would fit entirely within a single flex container fragment, it may be shifted into that fragment and aligned appropriately.
multi-line row flex container
  1. Run the flex layout algorithm (without regards to pagination), through Cross Sizing Determination.
  2. Lay out as many flex lines as possible (but at least one), starting from the first, until there is no more room on the page or a forced break is encountered.

    If a line doesn’t fit on the page, and the line is not at the top of the page, move the line to the next page and restart the flex layout algorithm entirely, using only the items in and following this line.

    If a flex item itself causes a forced break, rerun the flex layout algorithm from Main Sizing Determination through Main-Axis Alignment, using only the items on this and following lines, but with the item causing the break automatically starting a new line in the line breaking step, then continue with this step. Forced breaks within flex items are ignored.

  3. If there are any flex items not laid out by the previous step, rerun the flex layout algorithm from Line Length Determination through Main-Axis Alignment with the next page’s size and only the items not already laid out. Return to the previous step, but starting from the first line not already laid out.
  4. For each fragment of the flex container, continue the flex layout algorithm from Cross Axis Alignment to its finish.

Appendix A: Axis Mappings

This appendix is non-normative.

Axis Mappings for ltr + horizontal-tb Writing Mode (e.g. English)
flex-flow main axis start end cross axis start end
row + nowrap/wrap horizontal left right vertical top bottom
row-reverse + nowrap/wrap right left
row + wrap-reverse left right bottom top
row-reverse + wrap-reverse right left
column + nowrap/wrap vertical top bottom horizontal left right
column-reverse + nowrap/wrap bottom top
column + wrap-reverse top bottom right left
column-reverse + wrap-reverse bottom top
Axis Mappings for rtl + horizontal-tb Writing Mode (e.g. Farsi)
flex-flow main axis main-start main-end cross axis cross-start cross-end
row + nowrap/wrap horizontal right left vertical top bottom
row-reverse + nowrap/wrap left right
row + wrap-reverse right left bottom top
row-reverse + wrap-reverse left right
column + nowrap/wrap vertical top bottom horizontal right left
column-reverse + nowrap/wrap bottom top
column + wrap-reverse top bottom left right
column-reverse + wrap-reverse bottom top
Axis Mappings for ltr + vertical-rl Writing Mode (e.g. Japanese)
flex-flow main axis start end cross axis start end
row + nowrap/wrap vertical top bottom horizontal right left
row-reverse + nowrap/wrap bottom top
row + wrap-reverse top bottom left right
row-reverse + wrap-reverse bottom top
column + nowrap/wrap vertical right left horizontal top bottom
column-reverse + nowrap/wrap left right
column + wrap-reverse right left bottom top
column-reverse + wrap-reverse left right

Appendix B: -webkit- Legacy Properties

This appendix is normative.

These aliases are deprecated and authors should not use them unless their content needs to support actively-used legacy UAs.

For compatibility with general Web content, UAs that are Web browsers must and other UAs may implement the following legacy name aliases:

Alias Standard
-webkit-align-content align-content
-webkit-align-items align-items
-webkit-align-self align-self
-webkit-flex flex
-webkit-flex-basis flex-basis
-webkit-flex-direction flex-direction
-webkit-flex-flow flex-flow
-webkit-flex-grow flex-grow
-webkit-flex-shrink flex-shrink
-webkit-flex-wrap flex-wrap
-webkit-justify-content justify-content
-webkit-order order

Acknowledgments

Thanks for feedback and contributions to

Erik Anderson, Christian Biesinger, Tony Chang, Phil Cupp, Arron Eicholz, James Elmore, Andrew Fedoniouk, Brian Heuston, Shinichiro Hamaji, Daniel Holbert, Ben Horst, John Jansen, Brad Kemper, Kang-hao Lu, Markus Mielke, Peter Moulder, Robert O’Callahan, Christoph Päper, Ning Rogers, Peter Salas, Elliott Sprehn, Morten Stenshorne, Christian Stockwell, Ojan Vafai, Eugene Veselov, Greg Whitworth, Boris Zbarsky.

Changes

This section documents the changes since previous publications.

Changes since the 19 November 2018 CR

A Disposition of Comments is available. Significant changes include:

Changes since the 16 October 2017 CR

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Changes since the 26 May 2016 CR

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Substantive Changes and Bugfixes

Clarifications

Changes since the 1 March 2016 CR

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Substantive Changes and Bugfixes

Clarifications

Changes since the 14 May 2015 LCWD

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Substantive Changes and Bugfixes

Clarifications

Changes since the 25 September 2014 LCWD

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Substantive Changes and Bugfixes

Clarifications

Changes since the 25 March 2014 LCWD

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Substantive Changes and Bugfixes

The following significant changes were made since the 25 March 2014 Last Call Working Draft

Clarifications

The following significant changes were made since the 25 March 2014 Last Call Working Draft

Changes since the 18 September 2012 Candidate Recommendation

A Disposition of Comments is also available.

Substantive Changes and Bugfixes

The following significant changes were made since the 18 September 2012 Candidate Recommendation:

Clarifications

The following significant clarifications were also made:

11. Privacy and Security Considerations

Flexbox introduces no new privacy leaks, or security considerations beyond "implement it correctly".

Tests

Conformance

Document conventions

Conformance requirements are expressed with a combination of descriptive assertions and RFC 2119 terminology. The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in the normative parts of this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119. However, for readability, these words do not appear in all uppercase letters in this specification.

All of the text of this specification is normative except sections explicitly marked as non-normative, examples, and notes. [RFC2119]

Examples in this specification are introduced with the words “for example” or are set apart from the normative text with class="example", like this:

This is an example of an informative example.

Informative notes begin with the word “Note” and are set apart from the normative text with class="note", like this:

Note, this is an informative note.

Advisements are normative sections styled to evoke special attention and are set apart from other normative text with <strong class="advisement">, like this: UAs MUST provide an accessible alternative.

Tests

Tests relating to the content of this specification may be documented in “Tests” blocks like this one. Any such block is non-normative.


Conformance classes

Conformance to this specification is defined for three conformance classes:

style sheet
A CSS style sheet.
renderer
A UA that interprets the semantics of a style sheet and renders documents that use them.
authoring tool
A UA that writes a style sheet.

A style sheet is conformant to this specification if all of its statements that use syntax defined in this module are valid according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature defined in this module.

A renderer is conformant to this specification if, in addition to interpreting the style sheet as defined by the appropriate specifications, it supports all the features defined by this specification by parsing them correctly and rendering the document accordingly. However, the inability of a UA to correctly render a document due to limitations of the device does not make the UA non-conformant. (For example, a UA is not required to render color on a monochrome monitor.)

An authoring tool is conformant to this specification if it writes style sheets that are syntactically correct according to the generic CSS grammar and the individual grammars of each feature in this module, and meet all other conformance requirements of style sheets as described in this module.

Partial implementations

So that authors can exploit the forward-compatible parsing rules to assign fallback values, CSS renderers must treat as invalid (and ignore as appropriate) any at-rules, properties, property values, keywords, and other syntactic constructs for which they have no usable level of support. In particular, user agents must not selectively ignore unsupported component values and honor supported values in a single multi-value property declaration: if any value is considered invalid (as unsupported values must be), CSS requires that the entire declaration be ignored.

Implementations of Unstable and Proprietary Features

To avoid clashes with future stable CSS features, the CSSWG recommends following best practices for the implementation of unstable features and proprietary extensions to CSS.

Non-experimental implementations

Once a specification reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage, non-experimental implementations are possible, and implementors should release an unprefixed implementation of any CR-level feature they can demonstrate to be correctly implemented according to spec.

To establish and maintain the interoperability of CSS across implementations, the CSS Working Group requests that non-experimental CSS renderers submit an implementation report (and, if necessary, the testcases used for that implementation report) to the W3C before releasing an unprefixed implementation of any CSS features. Testcases submitted to W3C are subject to review and correction by the CSS Working Group.

Further information on submitting testcases and implementation reports can be found from on the CSS Working Group’s website at http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Test/. Questions should be directed to the public-css-testsuite@w3.org mailing list.

Index

Terms defined by this specification

Terms defined by reference

References

Normative References

[CSS-ALIGN-3]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Box Alignment Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-align/
[CSS-BOX-4]
Elika Etemad. CSS Box Model Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-box-4/
[CSS-BREAK-4]
Rossen Atanassov; Elika Etemad. CSS Fragmentation Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-break-4/
[CSS-CASCADE-5]
Elika Etemad; Miriam Suzanne; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 5. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-cascade-5/
[CSS-DISPLAY-3]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Display Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-display/
[CSS-DISPLAY-4]
CSS Display Module Level 4. Editor's Draft. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-display-4/
[CSS-FLEXBOX-1]
Tab Atkins Jr.; et al. CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-flexbox-1/
[CSS-IMAGES-3]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad; Lea Verou. CSS Images Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-images-3/
[CSS-INLINE-3]
Elika Etemad. CSS Inline Layout Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-inline-3/
[CSS-OVERFLOW-3]
Elika Etemad; Florian Rivoal. CSS Overflow Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-overflow-3/
[CSS-POSITION-3]
Elika Etemad; Tab Atkins Jr.. CSS Positioned Layout Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-position-3/
[CSS-PSEUDO-4]
Daniel Glazman; Elika Etemad; Alan Stearns. CSS Pseudo-Elements Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-pseudo-4/
[CSS-SIZING-3]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad. CSS Box Sizing Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-sizing-3/
[CSS-SIZING-4]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad; Jen Simmons. CSS Box Sizing Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-sizing-4/
[CSS-TEXT-4]
Elika Etemad; et al. CSS Text Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-text-4/
[CSS-VALUES-3]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad. CSS Values and Units Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-values-3/
[CSS-VALUES-4]
Tab Atkins Jr.; Elika Etemad. CSS Values and Units Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-values-4/
[CSS-WRITING-MODES-4]
Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. CSS Writing Modes Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-writing-modes-4/
[CSS2]
Bert Bos; et al. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css2/
[CSS22]
Bert Bos. Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 2 (CSS 2.2) Specification. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css2/
[CSS3-BREAK]
Rossen Atanassov; Elika Etemad. CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-break/
[CSS3-WRITING-MODES]
Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. CSS Writing Modes Level 3. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-writing-modes-3/
[CSSOM-1]
Daniel Glazman; Emilio Cobos Álvarez. CSS Object Model (CSSOM). URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/cssom/
[RFC2119]
S. Bradner. Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. March 1997. Best Current Practice. URL: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2119

Informative References

[CSS-TEXT-DECOR-4]
Elika Etemad; Koji Ishii. CSS Text Decoration Module Level 4. URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-text-decor-4/
[CSS3UI]
Tantek Çelik; Florian Rivoal. CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3 (CSS3 UI). URL: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-ui-3/
[HTML]
Anne van Kesteren; et al. HTML Standard. Living Standard. URL: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/

Property Index

Name Value Initial Applies to Inh. %ages Anim­ation type Canonical order Com­puted value
align-content flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between | space-around | stretch stretch multi-line flex containers no n/a discrete per grammar specified keyword
align-items flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline | stretch stretch flex containers no n/a discrete per grammar specified keyword
align-self auto | flex-start | flex-end | center | baseline | stretch auto flex items no n/a discrete per grammar specified keyword
flex none | [ <'flex-grow'> <'flex-shrink'>? || <'flex-basis'> ] 0 1 auto flex items no see individual properties by computed value type per grammar see individual properties
flex-basis content | <'width'> auto flex items no relative to the flex container’s inner main size by computed value type per grammar specified keyword or a computed <length-percentage> value
flex-direction row | row-reverse | column | column-reverse row flex containers no n/a discrete per grammar specified keyword
flex-flow <'flex-direction'> || <'flex-wrap'> see individual properties see individual properties see individual properties see individual properties see individual properties per grammar see individual properties
flex-grow <number [0,∞]> 0 flex items no n/a by computed value type per grammar specified number
flex-shrink <number [0,∞]> 1 flex items no n/a number per grammar specified value
flex-wrap nowrap | wrap | wrap-reverse nowrap flex containers no n/a discrete per grammar specified keyword
justify-content flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between | space-around flex-start flex containers no n/a discrete per grammar specified keyword
MDN

align-content

In all current engines.

Firefox28+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera?Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile?
MDN

align-items

In all current engines.

Firefox20+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera?Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView?Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile?

align-self

In all current engines.

Firefox20+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE10+
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView?Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

flex-basis

In all current engines.

Firefox22+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

flex-direction

In all current engines.

Firefox81+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

flex-flow

In all current engines.

Firefox28+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

flex-grow

In all current engines.

Firefox20+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

flex-shrink

In all current engines.

Firefox20+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE10+
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

flex-wrap

In all current engines.

Firefox28+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera17+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IENone
Firefox for Android52+iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile18+
MDN

flex

In all current engines.

Firefox20+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android20+iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView4.4+Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+
MDN

justify-content

In all current engines.

Firefox20+Safari9+Chrome29+
Opera12.1+Edge79+
Edge (Legacy)12+IE11
Firefox for Android?iOS Safari?Chrome for Android?Android WebView?Samsung Internet?Opera Mobile12.1+