justify-content

The CSS justify-content property defines how the browser distributes space between and around content items along the main-axis of a flex container, and the inline axis of a grid container.

The interactive example below demonstrates some of the values using Grid Layout.

The alignment is done after the lengths and auto margins are applied, meaning that, if in a Flexbox layout there is at least one flexible element, with flex-grow different from 0, it will have no effect as there won't be any available space.

Syntax

/* Positional alignment */
justify-content: center; /* Pack items around the center */
justify-content: start; /* Pack items from the start */
justify-content: end; /* Pack items from the end */
justify-content: flex-start; /* Pack flex items from the start */
justify-content: flex-end; /* Pack flex items from the end */
justify-content: left; /* Pack items from the left */
justify-content: right; /* Pack items from the right */

/* Baseline alignment */
/* justify-content does not take baseline values */

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

/* Distributed alignment */
justify-content: space-between; /* Distribute items evenly
                                   The first item is flush with the start,
                                   the last is flush with the end */
justify-content: space-around; /* Distribute items evenly
                                   Start and end gaps are half the size of the space
                                   between each item */
justify-content: space-evenly; /* Distribute items evenly
                                   Start, in-between, and end gaps have equal sizes */
justify-content: stretch; /* Distribute items evenly
                                   Stretch 'auto'-sized items to fit
                                   the container */

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

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

Values

start: The items are packed flush to each other toward the start edge of the alignment container in the main axis.
end: The items are packed flush to each other toward the end edge of the alignment container in the main axis.
flex-start: The items are packed flush to each other toward the edge of the alignment container depending on the flex container's main-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 toward the edge of the alignment container depending on the flex container's main-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.
center: The items are packed flush to each other toward the center of the alignment container along the main axis.
left: The items are packed flush with each other toward the left edge of the alignment container. When the property's horizontal axis is not parallel with the inline axis, such as when flex-direction: column; is set, this value behaves like start.
right: The items are packed flush to each other toward the right edge of the alignment container in the appropriate axis. If the property's axis is not parallel with the inline axis (in a grid container) or the main-axis (in a flexbox container), this value behaves like start.
normal: Behaves as stretch, except in the case of multi-column containers with a non-auto column-width, in which case the columns take their specified column-width rather than stretching to fill the container. As stretch behaves as start in flex containers, normal also behaves as start.
space-between: The items are evenly distributed within the alignment container along the main axis. The spacing between each pair of adjacent items is the same. The first item is flush with the main-start edge, and the last item is flush with the main-end edge.
space-around: The items are evenly distributed within the alignment container along the main 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 main axis. The spacing between each pair of adjacent items, the main-start edge and the first item, and the main-end edge and the last item, are all exactly the same.
stretch: If the combined size of the items along the main 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 max-height/max-width (or equivalent functionality), so that the combined size exactly fills the alignment container along the main axis.

Note: While stretch is supported by flexible boxes (flexbox), when applied on a flexbox, as stretching is controlled by flex, stretch behaves as start.
safe: If the item overflows the alignment container, then the item is aligned as if the alignment mode is start. The desired alignment will not be implemented.
unsafe: Even if the item overflows the alignment container, the desired alignment will be implemented. Unlike safe, which will ignore the desired alignment in favor of preventing overflow.

Formal definition

Initial value	normal
Applies to	multicol containers, flex containers, and grid containers
Inherited	no
Computed value	specified keyword(s)
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

normal | <content-distribution> | <overflow-position>? [ <content-position> | left | right ]

Examples

Setting flex item distribution

CSS

#container {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between; /* Can be changed in the live sample */
}

#container > div {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  background: linear-gradient(-45deg, #788cff, #b4c8ff);
}

<div id="container">
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
  <div></div>
</div>
<select id="justifyContent">
  <option value="start">start</option>
  <option value="end">end</option>
  <option value="flex-start">flex-start</option>
  <option value="flex-end">flex-end</option>
  <option value="center">center</option>
  <option value="left">left</option>
  <option value="right">right</option>
  <option value="space-between" selected>space-between</option>
  <option value="space-around">space-around</option>
  <option value="space-evenly">space-evenly</option>
  <option value="stretch">stretch</option>
</select>

const justifyContent = document.getElementById("justifyContent");
justifyContent.addEventListener("change", (evt) => {
  document.getElementById("container").style.justifyContent = evt.target.value;
});

css properties justify-content