align-content

The CSS align-content property sets the distribution of space between and around content items along a flexbox's cross axis, or a grid or block-level element's block axis.

This property has no effect on single line flex containers (i.e., ones with flex-wrap: nowrap).

The interactive example below uses grid layout to demonstrate some of the values of this property.

{{InteractiveExample("CSS Demo: align-content")}}

align-content: start;

align-content: center;

align-content: space-between;

align-content: space-around;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div class="example-container">
    <div class="transition-all" id="example-element">
      <div>One</div>
      <div>Two</div>
      <div>Three</div>
    </div>
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  border: 1px solid #c5c5c5;
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 60px 60px;
  grid-auto-rows: 40px;
  column-gap: 10px;
  height: 180px;
}

#example-element > div {
  background-color: rgb(0 0 255 / 0.2);
  border: 3px solid blue;
}

Syntax

/* Normal alignment */
align-content: normal;

/* Basic positional alignment */
/* align-content does not take left and right values */
align-content: start;
align-content: center;
align-content: end;
align-content: flex-start;
align-content: flex-end;

/* Baseline alignment */
align-content: baseline;
align-content: first baseline;
align-content: last baseline;

/* Distributed alignment */
align-content: space-between;
align-content: space-around;
align-content: space-evenly;
align-content: stretch;

/* Overflow alignment */
align-content: safe center;
align-content: unsafe center;

/* Global values */
align-content: inherit;
align-content: initial;
align-content: revert;
align-content: revert-layer;
align-content: unset;

Values

• normal

  • : The items are packed in their default position as if no align-content value was set.

• start

  • : The items are packed flush to each other against the start edge of the alignment container in the cross axis.

• center

  • : The items are packed flush to each other in the center of the alignment container along the cross axis.

• end

  • : The items are packed flush to each other against the end edge of the alignment container in the cross axis.

• flex-start

  • : The items are packed flush to each other against the edge of the alignment container depending on the flex container's cross-start side. This only applies to flex layout items. For items that are not children of a flex container, this value is treated like start.

• flex-end

  • : The items are packed flush to each other against the edge of the alignment container depending on the flex container's cross-end side. This only applies to flex layout items. For items that are not children of a flex container, this value is treated like end.

• baseline, first baseline, last baseline

  • : Specifies participation in first- or last-baseline alignment: aligns the alignment baseline of the box's first or last baseline set with the corresponding baseline in the shared first or last baseline set of all the boxes in its baseline-sharing group.

    The fallback alignment for first baseline is start, the one for last baseline is end.

• space-between

  • : The items are evenly distributed within the alignment container along the cross axis. The spacing between each pair of adjacent items is the same. The first item is flush with the start edge of the alignment container in the cross axis, and the last item is flush with the end edge of the alignment container in the cross axis.

• space-around

  • : The items are evenly distributed within the alignment container along the cross axis. The spacing between each pair of adjacent items is the same. The empty space before the first and after the last item equals half of the space between each pair of adjacent items.

• space-evenly

  • : The items are evenly distributed within the alignment container along the cross axis. The spacing between each pair of adjacent items, the start edge and the first item, and the end edge and the last item, are all exactly the same.

• stretch

  • : If the combined size of the items along the cross axis is less than the size of the alignment container, any auto-sized items have their size increased equally (not proportionally), while still respecting the constraints imposed by {{cssxref("max-height")}}/{{cssxref("max-width")}} (or equivalent functionality), so that the combined size exactly fills the alignment container along the cross axis.

• safe

  • : Used alongside an alignment keyword. If the chosen keyword means that the item overflows the alignment container causing data loss, the item is instead aligned as if the alignment mode were start.

• unsafe

  • : Used alongside an alignment keyword. Regardless of the relative sizes of the item and alignment container and whether overflow which causes data loss might happen, the given alignment value is honored.

[!NOTE] The <content-distribution> values (space-between, space-around, space-evenly, and stretch) have no effect in block layout as all the content in that block is treated as a single alignment-subject.

Formal definition

{{CSSInfo}}

Formal syntax

{{csssyntax}}

Examples

Effects of different align-content values

In this example, you can switch between three different {{cssxref("display")}} property values, including flex, grid, and block. You can also switch between the different values for align-content.

HTML

<section>
  <div class="olive">Olive</div>
  <div class="coral">Coral</div>
  <div class="deepskyblue">Deep
sky
blue</div>
  <div class="orchid">Orchid</div>
  <div class="slateblue">Slateblue</div>
  <div class="maroon">Maroon</div>
</section>

<fieldset class="controls">
  <legend>Controls</legend>
  <div class="row">
    <label for="display">display: </label>
    <select id="display">
      <option value="block" selected>block</option>
      <option value="flex">flex</option>
      <option value="grid">grid</option>
    </select>
  </div>
  <div class="row">
    <label for="alignContent">align-content: </label>
    <select id="alignContent">
      <option value="normal" selected>normal</option>
      <option value="start">start</option>
      <option value="center">center</option>
      <option value="end">end</option>
      <option value="flex-start">flex-start</option>
      <option value="flex-end">flex-end</option>
      <option value="space-between">space-between</option>
      <option value="space-around">space-around</option>
      <option value="space-evenly">space-evenly</option>
    </select>
  </div>
  <p>CSS applied</p>
  <pre>
section {
  display: <span id="displayStyle">block</span>;
  align-content: <span id="align">normal</span>
}
  </pre>
</fieldset>

CSS

body {
  font-size: 1.25rem;
  display: flex;
  gap: 1rem;
}
section div {
  font-family: monospace;
  padding: 3px;
}

section {
  border: solid 1.5px tomato;
  height: 300px;
  width: 300px;
  flex-wrap: wrap; /* used by flex only */
  gap: 0.2rem; /* not used by block */
}
.olive {
  background-color: olive;
}
.coral {
  background-color: coral;
}
.deepskyblue {
  background-color: deepskyblue;
}
.orchid {
  background-color: orchid;
}
.slateblue {
  background-color: slateblue;
  color: white;
}
.maroon {
  background-color: maroon;
  color: white;
}

const alignContent = document.querySelector("#alignContent");
const display = document.querySelector("#display");
const container = document.querySelector("section");
const displayStyle = document.querySelector("#displayStyle");
const alignStyle = document.querySelector("#align");

alignContent.addEventListener("change", () => {
  updatePage();
});
display.addEventListener("change", () => {
  updatePage();
});
function updatePage() {
  const alVal = alignContent.value;
  const dVal = display.value;
  container.style.alignContent = alVal;
  container.style.display = dVal;
  alignStyle.innerText = alVal;
  displayStyle.innerText = dVal;
}
updatePage();

Result

Try changing the display value and the align-content value.

{{EmbedLiveSample("Examples", 260, 310)}}

In block layout, child elements are treated as a single element, meaning space-between, space-around, and space-evenly behave differently.

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• Basic concepts of flexbox
• Aligning items in a flex container
• Box alignment in grid layout
• CSS box alignment
• Block and inline layout in normal flow
• Block-level content
• {{CSSXRef("display")}}