align-content

The align-content property is a sub-property of the Flexible Box Layout module.

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

Note, this property has no effect when the flexbox has only a single line.

The align-content property accepts 6 different values:

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

The following figure helps understand how the lines are stacked up in a flex container depending on the align-content value:

Syntax

align-content: flex-start | flex-end | center | space-between | space-around | stretch

.flex-container {
  align-content: space-around;
}

Demo

The following demo shows how lines are stacked out depending on the `align-content` value:

• The red list is set to flex-start
• The yellow list is set to flex-end
• The blue list is set to center
• The green list is set to space-between
• The pink list is set to space-around
• The brown list is set to stretch

<ul class="flex-container flex-start">
  <li class="flex-item">1</li>
  <li class="flex-item">2</li>
  <li class="flex-item">3</li>
  <li class="flex-item">4</li>
  <li class="flex-item">5</li>
  <li class="flex-item">6</li>
</ul>

<ul class="flex-container flex-end">
  <li class="flex-item">1</li>
  <li class="flex-item">2</li>
  <li class="flex-item">3</li>
  <li class="flex-item">4</li>
  <li class="flex-item">5</li>
  <li class="flex-item">6</li>
</ul>

<ul class="flex-container center">
  <li class="flex-item">1</li>
  <li class="flex-item">2</li>
  <li class="flex-item">3</li>
  <li class="flex-item">4</li>
  <li class="flex-item">5</li>
  <li class="flex-item">6</li>
</ul>

<ul class="flex-container space-between">
  <li class="flex-item">1</li>
  <li class="flex-item">2</li>
  <li class="flex-item">3</li>
  <li class="flex-item">4</li>
  <li class="flex-item">5</li>
  <li class="flex-item">6</li>
</ul>

<ul class="flex-container space-around">
  <li class="flex-item">1</li>
  <li class="flex-item">2</li>
  <li class="flex-item">3</li>
  <li class="flex-item">4</li>
  <li class="flex-item">5</li>
  <li class="flex-item">6</li>
</ul>

<ul class="flex-container stretch">
  <li class="flex-item">1</li>
  <li class="flex-item">2</li>
  <li class="flex-item">3</li>
  <li class="flex-item">4</li>
  <li class="flex-item">5</li>
  <li class="flex-item">6</li>
</ul>

.flex-container {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  list-style: none;
  float: left;
  width: 120px;
  height: 300px;
  padding: 10px;
  border: 1px solid silver;
  margin-top: 10px;
  
  -ms-box-orient: horizontal;
  display: -webkit-box;
  display: -moz-box;
  display: -ms-flexbox;
  display: -moz-flex;
  display: -webkit-flex;
  display: flex;
  
  -webkit-flex-flow: row wrap;
  flex-flow: row wrap;
}

.flex-start { 
  -webkit-align-content: flex-start; 
  align-content: flex-start; 
}

.flex-end { 
  -webkit-align-content: flex-end; 
  align-content: flex-end; 
}
.flex-end li {
  background: gold;
}

.center { 
  -webkit-align-content: center; 
  align-content: center; 
}
.center li {
  background: deepskyblue;
}

.space-between { 
  -webkit-align-content: space-between; 
  align-content: space-between; 
}  
.space-between li {
  background: lightgreen;
}

.space-around { 
  -webkit-align-content: space-around; 
  align-content: space-around; 
}
.space-around li {
  background: hotpink;
}

.stretch { 
  -webkit-align-content: stretch; 
  align-content: stretch; 
}
.stretch li {
  background: chocolate;
}

.flex-item {
  background: tomato;
  padding: 5px;
  width: 50px;
  height: 50px;
  
  line-height: 50px;
  color: white;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 2em;
  text-align: center;
}

Related Properties

• display (flex)
• justify-content
• flex-direction
• flex-flow
• flex-wrap
• align-items

Browser Support

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

Blackberry browser 10+ supports the new syntax.