CSS flex-direction

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The CSS flex-direction property specifies the direction of flex items. It works by setting the direction of the flex container's main axis.

Syntax

Possible Values

row: The flex container's main axis has the same orientation as the inline axis of the current writing mode (i.e. horizontal axis for horizontal writing modes and vertical axis for vertical writing modes). The main-start and main-end directions are equivalent to the inline-start and inline-end directions, respectively, of the current writing mode.
row-reverse: Same as row, except the main-start and main-end directions are swapped.
column: The flex container's main axis has the same orientation as the block axis of the current writing mode (i.e. the vertical axis in horizontal writing modes and the horizontal axis in vertical writing modes).
column-reverse: Same as column, except the main-start and main-end directions are swapped.

The reverse values (i.e. row-reverse and column-reverse) affect only the visual rendering. Speech order and navigation is based on the order of the source code. The same applies to the flexbox order property.

The reverse values don't reverse box ordering. They simply change the direction of the flow. Therefore, painting order, speech order, and sequential navigation orders are not affected by these values.

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial: Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit: Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset: This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

Basic Property Information

Initial Value: row
Applies To: Flex containers
Inherited?: No
Media: Visual
Computed Value: Specified value
Animatable: No

Example Code

Basic CSS

Working Example within an HTML Document

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CSS Specifications

The flex-direction property is defined in CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1 (W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot).

About Flexbox

Flexbox refers to the Flexible Box Layout module introduced in CSS3. A flex container is an element with either display: flex or display: inline-flex.

In the flex layout model, the children of a flex container can be laid out in any direction, and can "flex" their sizes, either growing to fill unused space or shrinking to avoid overflowing the parent.

For more information on flex items, see the flex property.

Browser Support

Browser support for CSS properties can vary, particularly for newer or experimental features. Check current browser compatibility before using a property in production, especially when supporting older browsers.

The following table provided by Caniuse.com shows the level of browser support for this feature.

Initial Value

CSS properties have an initial value that applies when the property has not been explicitly set. The initial value is different from the value inherited from a parent element and may vary between properties.

Inheritance

Some CSS properties inherit their computed value from their parent element by default, while others do not. The inherit, initial, unset, and revert keywords can also be used to control how a property gets its value.

Vendor Prefixes

Most modern CSS properties use the standard, unprefixed syntax. Vendor-prefixed properties such as -webkit- are mainly relevant to older browser versions or specific features and should only be used when required by your browser support targets.