In CSS Flexbox, Why Are There No "Justify-Items" and "Justify-Self" Properties

In CSS Flexbox, why are there no justify-items and justify-self properties?

Methods for Aligning Flex Items along the Main Axis

As stated in the question:

To align flex items along the main axis there is one property: justify-content

To align flex items along the cross axis there are three properties: align-content, align-items and align-self.

The question then asks:

Why are there no justify-items and justify-self properties?

One answer may be: Because they're not necessary.

The flexbox specification provides two methods for aligning flex items along the main axis:

  1. The justify-content keyword property, and
  2. auto margins

justify-content

The justify-content property aligns flex items along the main axis of the flex container.

It is applied to the flex container but only affects flex items.

There are five alignment options:

  • flex-start ~ Flex items are packed toward the start of the line.

    enter image description here

  • flex-end ~ Flex items are packed toward the end of the line.

    enter image description here

  • center ~ Flex items are packed toward the center of the line.

    enter image description here

  • space-between ~ Flex items are evenly spaced, with the first item aligned to one edge of the container and the last item aligned to the opposite edge. The edges used by the first and last items depends on flex-direction and writing mode (ltr or rtl).

    enter image description here

  • space-around ~ Same as space-between except with half-size spaces on both ends.

    enter image description here


Auto Margins

With auto margins, flex items can be centered, spaced away or packed into sub-groups.

Unlike justify-content, which is applied to the flex container, auto margins go on flex items.

They work by consuming all free space in the specified direction.


Align group of flex items to the right, but first item to the left

Scenario from the question:

  • making a group of flex items align-right (justify-content: flex-end)
    but have the first item align left (justify-self: flex-start)

    Consider a header section with a group of nav items and a logo. With
    justify-self the logo could be aligned left while the nav items stay
    far right, and the whole thing adjusts smoothly ("flexes") to
    different screen sizes.

enter image description here

enter image description here


Other useful scenarios:

enter image description here

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Place a flex item in the corner

Scenario from the question:

  • placing a flex item in a corner .box { align-self: flex-end; justify-self: flex-end; }

enter image description here


Center a flex item vertically and horizontally

enter image description here

margin: auto is an alternative to justify-content: center and align-items: center.

Instead of this code on the flex container:

.container {
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
}

You can use this on the flex item:

.box56 {
margin: auto;
}

This alternative is useful when centering a flex item that overflows the container.


Center a flex item, and center a second flex item between the first and the edge

A flex container aligns flex items by distributing free space.

Hence, in order to create equal balance, so that a middle item can be centered in the container with a single item alongside, a counterbalance must be introduced.

In the examples below, invisible third flex items (boxes 61 & 68) are introduced to balance out the "real" items (box 63 & 66).

enter image description here

enter image description here

Of course, this method is nothing great in terms of semantics.

Alternatively, you can use a pseudo-element instead of an actual DOM element. Or you can use absolute positioning. All three methods are covered here: Center and bottom-align flex items

NOTE: The examples above will only work – in terms of true centering – when the outermost items are equal height/width. When flex items are different lengths, see next example.


Center a flex item when adjacent items vary in size

Scenario from the question:

  • in a row of three flex items, affix the middle item to the center of the container (justify-content: center) and align the adjacent
    items to the container edges (justify-self: flex-start and
    justify-self: flex-end).

    Note that values space-around and space-between on justify-content property will not keep the middle item centered in relation to the container if the adjacent items have different widths (see demo).

As noted, unless all flex items are of equal width or height (depending on flex-direction), the middle item cannot be truly centered. This problem makes a strong case for a justify-self property (designed to handle the task, of course).

#container {  display: flex;  justify-content: space-between;  background-color: lightyellow;}.box {  height: 50px;  width: 75px;  background-color: springgreen;}.box1 {  width: 100px;}.box3 {  width: 200px;}#center {  text-align: center;  margin-bottom: 5px;}#center > span {  background-color: aqua;  padding: 2px;}
<div id="center">  <span>TRUE CENTER</span></div>
<div id="container"> <div class="box box1"></div> <div class="box box2"></div> <div class="box box3"></div></div>
<p>The middle box will be truly centered only if adjacent boxes are equal width.</p>

flexbox justify-self: flex-end not working?

You could use margin-left: auto on right element instead. Also when you use display: flex on parent element display: inline-block on child elements is not going to work.

.row {  border: 1px solid black;  display: flex;  align-items: center;}.left,.right {  background-color: yellow;}.right {  margin-left: auto;}
<div class="row">  <!--<div class="left">left</div>-->  <div class="right">right</div></div>

CSS Flex-box justify-self / align-self not working

If you have defined your layout using display: flex.

justify-self will be ignored, i.e it will have no effect.

It will only have effect when you have used block or grid or have positioned an element using absolute.

You can read more on that here.

With display:flex, following properties are supported.

justify-content: flex-end; // horizontal axis when flex direction is row.
align-items: flex-end: // vertical axis when flex direction is row.

So if you are trying to place the footer at right-bottom of your parent container i.e content.

Try this :

.footer{
padding-top: 2vh !important;
border-top: 1px solid rgba(0,173,181,1) !important;
justify-content: flex-end !important;
align-items: flex-end !important;

}

What is difference between justify-self, justify-items and justify-content in CSS grid?

To answer your questions:

1

As reiallenramos mentioned, "The justify-self and justify-items properties are not implemented in flexbox. This is due to the one-dimensional nature of flexbox, and that there may be multiple items along the axis, making it impossible to justify a single item. To align items along the main, inline axis in flexbox you use the justify-content property." - MDN

2-3

This screen shot from W3 does an excellent job of showing what they do and the differences between them.
enter image description here

Good To Knows:

For more information and example, I would suggest you check out:

  • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/CSS_Grid_Layout/Box_Alignment_in_CSS_Grid_Layout
  • https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/06/building-production-ready-css-grid-layout/
  • https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/12/grid-inspector/

And for some inspiration:

  • https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/10/css-grid-challenge-2017-winners/

How to justify a single flexbox item (override justify-content)

There doesn't seem to be justify-self, but you can achieve similar result setting appropriate margin to auto¹. E. g. for flex-direction: row (default) you should set margin-right: auto to align the child to the left.

.container {  height: 100px;  border: solid 10px skyblue;    display: flex;  justify-content: flex-end;}.block {  width: 50px;  background: tomato;}.justify-start {  margin-right: auto;}
<div class="container">  <div class="block justify-start"></div>  <div class="block"></div></div>

Justify-self is not working when I want to align content in the center

You could take the a element out of normal flow positioning it relative to it's parent div.

See below for a demo and the documentation is in the comments:

div {  background: #121212;  font-size: 100%;  display: flex;  position: relative; /*Make sure the anchor tag is positioned relative to this div*/}a {  color: #fff;/*   padding: 2%; remove the padding */  display: flex; /*Make the element a flex container to center it's contents*/  justify-content: center;  align-items: center;  background: linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(18, 18, 18, 0.8) 0%, rgba(18, 18, 18, 0.5) 66.66%), url('https://cml.sad.ukrd.com/image/714544.png');  background-size: cover;  background-position: top;  white-space: nowrap;  font-size: 18px;/* Position the element absolutely taking it out of the normal flow of the document   */  position: absolute;  top: 0;  left: 0;  height: 100%;}img {  height: 100%;  width: auto;  display: flex;  align-self: center;  max-height: 50px;  margin: 0 auto;  /* fails justify-self: center; */}
<div>  <a href="#">⟵ Some Text Goes Here</a>  <img src="https://cml.sad.ukrd.com/image/714824.png"></div>

In flexbox I can't put items to right using justify-self: flex-end;

You could do justify-content: space-between on the parent div, then remove the justify-self property on both .signout and .profilepic class.

Is there a way to have different justify-content values for different rows inside a flexbox-container?

The answer is no.

In grid, there is the justify-self property in which this would be true. However, in flex there is no support for this style as of May 2022.

flex does support align-self for aligning flex item's on the y-axis (align-items), but not for the x-axis (justify-content).

The good news.

You can still replicate these styles in your stylesheet but they will have to be done manually. You can target the first and second flex-item and use width: calc(100%/2) for the first two flex items that you want to each take 50%. Then you can add flex-wrap: wrap on to your flex-container so the image flex-items wrap onto a new row. Then you can replicate justify-content: space-between; by adding margin: auto; to those respective flex-items.

See below:

.flex-container {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
}

.flex-item:first-child,
.flex-item:nth-child(2) {
width: calc(100%/2);
outline: dotted 1px black;
}

.flex-item:nth-child(3),
.flex-item:nth-child(4),
.flex-item:nth-child(5) {
outline: solid 1px;
background: orange;
padding: 10px;
}
<div class="wrapper flex-container">
<div class="flex-item">
<h2>Text</h2>
<p>Text</p>
</div>
<div class="flex-item">
<h2>Text</h2>
<p>Text</p>
</div>
<figure class="flex-item" style="margin-right: auto;"><img src="https://dummyimage.com/100/000/fff" alt="junckers"></figure>
<figure class="flex-item" style="margin: auto;"><img src="https://dummyimage.com/100/000/fff" alt="byg-garanti"></figure>
<figure class="flex-item" style="margin-left: auto;"><img src="https://dummyimage.com/100/000/fff" alt="gulvbranchen"></figure>
</div>


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