CSS Flexbox Centering Guide & Generator
Center elements horizontally, vertically, or both with CSS Flexbox. Visually configure centering and copy clean, production-ready CSS — all generated client-side in your browser.
CSS Flexbox Generator
Build CSS flexbox layouts visually. Configure container and item properties, preview live, and copy the CSS.
Container Properties
Live Preview
Click an item to configure its flex properties
CSS Output
.container {
display: flex;
flex-direction: row;
justify-content: flex-start;
align-items: stretch;
flex-wrap: nowrap;
gap: 12px;
}Layout Presets
About CSS Flexbox
Flexbox is a one-dimensional layout model that distributes space among items in a container and controls their alignment.
flex-direction sets the main axis. row is horizontal (default), column is vertical.
justify-content aligns items along the main axis. align-items aligns items along the cross axis.
flex-grow controls how much an item grows relative to siblings. flex-shrink controls how much it shrinks. flex-basis sets the initial size before growing or shrinking.
flex-wrap allows items to flow onto multiple lines when they exceed the container width. align-content controls spacing between wrapped lines.
gap adds consistent spacing between flex items without needing margins.
What is Flexbox centering?
Flexbox provides the simplest and most reliable way to center elements in CSS. By combining display: flex with justify-content and align-items, you can center content along one or both axes with just three lines of CSS. This replaced decades of hacks involving margin: auto, absolute positioning, transforms, and table-cell displays.
Common use cases
Flexbox centering is used for centering hero text over background images, vertically centering content in cards of varying heights, centering icons inside buttons, positioning modal dialogs in the viewport center, and centering form elements. It is the go-to technique for any centering task in modern CSS.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the simplest way to center a div with Flexbox?
Apply 'display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center;' to the parent container. This centers the child element both horizontally and vertically within the parent.
Should I use Flexbox or Grid for centering?
Both work well. Flexbox centering uses three properties (display, justify-content, align-items). Grid can do it in two (display: grid; place-items: center). For simple centering either is fine — Flexbox has slightly broader browser support.