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CSS Flexbox arranges items along one axis at a time, making it a practical choice for navigation bars, toolbars, and other layouts where elements need to share space in a row or column. Set display: flex on a parent, then use axis-aware alignment, wrapping, and sizing rules to control its children.
How Flexbox works: containers, items, and axes
A flex layout begins with a parent element set to display: flex or display: inline-flex. Its in-flow children become flex items. The parent is the flex container; the children are the items it arranges.
Flexbox is one-dimensional. The container’s flex-direction sets its main axis, and the cross axis runs perpendicular to it. The default direction is row, so the main axis follows the row direction and the cross axis runs across it. With column, those roles turn: the main axis follows the column direction.
Thinking in terms of main and cross axes is more reliable than equating a property with “horizontal” or “vertical.” Direction can change, and writing modes can affect how row and column directions map to the screen.
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A small navigation example
Here, the nav is the container and its links are flex items:
<nav class="site-nav">
<a href="/">Home</a>
<a href="/guides">Guides</a>
<a href="/about">About</a>
</nav>.site-nav {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
align-items: center;
gap: 1rem;
}For a quick visual check, inspect the nav in your browser’s developer tools. Confirm that the parent has a flex layout and identify which children are items. Change flex-direction from row to column and watch which axis changes. MDN’s Flexbox learning guide assumes basic HTML and CSS knowledge.
How to space and align flex items
Use justify-content to distribute items along the main axis. Use align-items to align them along the cross axis. The relevant screen direction depends on flex-direction; these properties are not fixed synonyms for horizontal and vertical alignment.
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.toolbar {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
align-items: center;
gap: 1rem;
}This places the toolbar items along its main axis with space between them and aligns them across the cross axis. The gap property adds spacing between items without adding margins to their outside edges. Use align-self on an individual item when it needs a different cross-axis alignment from the container’s other items.
Center a component
To center a child both across and along the available space, give the parent a definite height and use both alignment properties:
.stage {
min-height: 20rem;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}With the default row direction, justify-content centers along the row’s main axis and align-items centers across it. If you switch the direction to column, the axes—and therefore the properties’ roles—switch too.
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How to wrap items onto multiple lines
Flex items stay on one line by default. Set flex-wrap: wrap when a row or column should continue on another line rather than force every item to remain on one line:
.tag-list {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
gap: 0.5rem;
}Each wrapped flex line is handled as a line in the cross direction. Wrapping is useful for groups such as tags or buttons, but it does not create a fully coordinated two-dimensional grid: items on different lines are not generally controlled as shared rows and columns.
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How flexible sizing works
Flex items’ sizes are influenced by three properties:
flex-basissets an item’s initial main-size basis before available space is distributed.flex-growsets how much an item can grow relative to other items when there is positive free space.flex-shrinksets how much an item can shrink relative to other items when there is not enough space.
The flex shorthand combines these values. For example, flex: 1 1 12rem means a grow factor of 1, a shrink factor of 1, and a basis of 12rem. Items with equal grow factors share positive free space proportionally; the shorthand is not simply a fixed width.
Common shorthand values
| Value | Equivalent factors | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
flex: initial |
0 1 auto |
Does not grow, can shrink, and uses the item’s automatic basis. |
flex: auto |
1 1 auto |
Can grow and shrink, using the automatic basis. |
flex: none |
0 0 auto |
Does not grow or shrink, using the automatic basis. |
A numeric factor, such as flex: 2 |
Grow factor 2, with a zero basis in the specification’s basic values |
Uses the factor to participate in distribution of available space. |
The W3C specification describes the grow factor as determining an item’s relative share of positive free space and the shrink factor as controlling reduction when space is insufficient. Its current published CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1 is a Candidate Recommendation Draft dated 14 October 2025; W3C cautions that this work-in-progress draft may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted. The specification’s abstract says: “The specification describes a CSS box model optimized for user interface design.”
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When to use Flexbox instead of Grid
Choose the layout method based on the relationships the design needs. MDN describes Flexbox as one-dimensional and Grid as two-dimensional: Grid controls rows and columns together.
| Design need | Usually the better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Arrange items in one row or one column, with flexible sizing or alignment | Flexbox | The items relate primarily along one axis. |
| Control a coordinated set of rows and columns together | Grid | The layout needs two-dimensional track control or explicit placement. |
| Let a sequence of items continue onto another line when space runs out | Flexbox with wrapping | Wrapping creates additional flex lines, not a shared two-dimensional track system. |
For patterns where either method may work, compare the layout recipes in MDN’s CSS layout cookbook. A design can also use both: Grid for the overall page structure and Flexbox inside a component that lays out its contents in one direction.
How to debug a Flexbox layout
- Select the intended parent. In DevTools, check whether it has
display: flexordisplay: inline-flex. If not, its children are not flex items for that layout. - Check the direction and axes. Inspect the computed
flex-direction. Work out which direction is the main axis before adjustingjustify-contentor cross-axis alignment. - Check available space and wrapping. Inspect the container’s size and
flex-wrap. If items unexpectedly overflow or remain on one line, check whether wrapping is enabled and whether the items can shrink. - Inspect item sizing. Review each relevant item’s
flex-basis,flex-grow, andflex-shrink, including anyflexshorthand that sets them together. - Change one value at a time. Use DevTools’ style editor to adjust the property and observe the result before changing another variable. This makes it easier to identify the rule responsible.
MDN’s CSS debugging guide covers browser developer tools and compatibility information. Check compatibility information for the browsers and features your project needs rather than assuming one browser’s behavior settles every case.
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