What s the difference between align-content and align-items

Question

Can anybody show me the difference between align-items and align-content

User · Answer

The align-items property of flex-box aligns the items inside a flex container along the cross axis just like justify-content does along the main axis   For the default flex-direction  row the cross axis corresponds to vertical and the main axis corresponds to horizontal  With flex-direction  column those two are interchanged respectively    Here s an example of how align-items center looks     But align-content is for multi line flexible boxes  It has no effect when items are in a single line  It aligns the whole structure according to its value  Here s an example for align-content  space-around     And here s how align-content  space-around  with align-items center looks    Note the 3rd box and all other boxes in first line change to vertically centered in that line   Here are some codepen links to play with   http   codepen io asim-coder pen MKQWbb  http   codepen io asim-coder pen WrMNWR  Here s a super cool pen which shows and lets you play with almost everything in flexbox

User · Answer

What I have learned from every answer and visiting the blog is  what is the cross axis and main axis   main axis is horizontal row and cross axis is vertical column - for flex-direction  row main axis is vertical column and cross axis is horizontal row - for flex-direction  column   Now align-content and align-items  align-content is for the row  it works if the container has  more than one row  Properties of align-content  container     align-content  flex-start   flex-end   center   space-between   space-around   space-evenly   stretch   start   end   baseline   first baseline   last baseline       safe   unsafe     align-items is for the items in row Properties of align-items  container     align-items  stretch   flex-start   flex-end   center   baseline   first baseline   last baseline   start   end   self-start   self-end       safe   unsafe     For more reference visit to flex

User · Answer

align-content  align-content controls the cross-axis  i e  vertical direction if the flex-direction is row  and horizontal if the flex-direction is column  positioning of multiple lines relative to each other    Think lines of a paragraph being vertically spread out  stacked toward the top  stacked toward the bottom  This is under a flex-direction row paradigm    align-items  align-items controls the cross-axis  of an individual line of flex elements    Think how an individual line of a paragraph is aligned  if it contains some normal text and some taller text like math equations  In that case  will it be the bottom  top  or center of each type of text in a line that will be aligned

User · Answer

Having read some of the answers  they identify correctly that align-content takes no affect if the flex content is not wrapped  However what they don t understand is align-items still plays an important role when there is wrapped content  In the following two examples  align-items is used to center the items within each row  then we change align-content to see it s effect  Example 1  align-content  flex-start    Example 2      align-content  flex-end    Here s the code   lt div class  quot container quot  gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  30px  quot  gt 1 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  50px  quot  gt 2 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  60px  quot  gt 3 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  40px  quot  gt 4 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  50px  quot  gt 5 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  20px  quot  gt 6 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  90px  quot  gt 7 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  50px  quot  gt 8 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  30px  quot  gt 9 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  40px  quot  gt 10 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  30px  quot  gt 11 lt  div gt       lt div class  quot child quot  style  quot height  60px  quot  gt 12 lt  div gt   lt  div gt    lt style gt   container       display  flex      width  300px      flex-flow  row wrap      justify-content  space-between      align-items  center      align-content  flex-end      background  lightgray      height  400px     child       padding  12px      background  red      border  solid 1px black     lt  style gt

User · Answer

Well I have examined them on my browser   align-content can change a line s height for row direction or width for column when it s value is stretch  or add empty space between or around the lines for space-between  space-around  flex-start  flex-end values   align-items can change items height or position inside the line s area  When items are not wrapped they have only one line which it s area is always stretched to the flex-box area  even if the items overflow   and align-content has no effect on a single line  So it has no effect on items that are not wrapped and only align-items can change items position or stretch them when all of them are on a single line   However  if they are wrapped you have multiple lines and items inside each line  And if all items of each line have the same height  for row direction  that line s height will be equal to those items height and you don t see any effect by changing align-items value   So if you want to affect items by align-items when your items are wrapped and have the same height  for row direction  first you have to use align-content with stretch value in order to expand the lines area

User · Answer

The main difference is when the height of the elements are not the same  Then you can see how in the row  they are all center end start

User · Answer

First  align-items is for items in a single row  So for a single row of elements on main axis  align-items will align these items respective of each other and it will start with fresh perspective from the next row   Now  align-content doesn t interfere with items in a row but with rows itself  Hence  align-content will try to align rows with respect to each other and flex container    Check this fiddle   https   jsfiddle net htym5zkn 8

User · Answer

according to what I understood from here   when you use align-item or justify-item  you are adjusting  the content inside a grid item along the  column axis or row  axis respectively   But  if you use align-content or justify-content  you are setting the position a grid along the column axis or the  row  axis  it occurs when you have a grid in a bigger container and width or height are inflexible  using px

User · Answer

From the example at flexboxfroggy com   align-content determines the spacing between lines align-items determines how the items as a whole are aligned within the container  When there is only one line  align-content has no effect

User · Answer

I had the same confusion  After some tinkering based on many of the answers above  I can finally see the differences  In my humble opinion  the distinction is best demonstrated with a flex container that satisfies the following two conditions    The flex container itself has a height constraint  e g   min-height  60rem  and thus can become too tall for its content The child items enclosed in the container have uneven heights     Condition 1 helps me understand what content means relative to its parent container  When the content is flush with the container  we will not be able to see any positioning effects coming from align-content  It is only when we have extra space along the cross axis  we start to see its effect  It aligns the content relative to the boundaries of the parent container   Condition 2 helps me visualize the effects of align-items  it aligns items relative to each other     Here is a code example  Raw materials come from Wes Bos  CSS Grid tutorial  21  Flexbox vs  CSS Grid    Example HTML       lt div class  flex-container  gt       lt div class  item  gt Short lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt Longerrrrrrrrrrrrrr lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt  lt  div gt       lt div class  item  id  tall  gt This is Many Words lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt Lorem  ipsum  lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt 10 lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt Snickers lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt Wes Is Cool lt  div gt       lt div class  item  gt Short lt  div gt     lt  div gt     Example CSS     flex-container     display  flex      dictates a min-height     min-height  60rem    flex-flow  row wrap    border  5px solid white    justify-content  center    align-items  center    align-content  flex-start       tall       intentionally made tall     min-height  30rem      item     margin  10px    max-height  10rem        Example 1  Let s narrow the viewport so that the content is flush with the container  This is when align-content  flex-start  has no effects since the entire content block is tightly fit inside the container  no extra room for repositioning    Also  note the 2nd row--see how the items are center aligned among themselves     Example 2  As we widen the viewport  we no longer have enough content to fill the entire container  Now we start to see the effects of align-content  flex-start --it aligns the content relative to the top edge of the container      These examples are based on flexbox  but the same principles are applicable to CSS grid  Hope this helps

[css] What's the difference between align-content and align-items?

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