Flexbox Utilities

Flexbox utility classes and mixins to make working with flexbox easier.

Flexbox Utilities

Flexbox makes horizontal and vertical alignment painless, through the CSS properties align-items, align-self, and justify-content. Foundation includes a handful of classes for these properties, which work with any flexbox-enabled component.

To understand how these classes work, you need to understand the parent-child relationship created with flexbox. An element with display: flex is a flex parent, and can horizontally or vertically align its children. All immediate children of the flex parent are flex children. A flex child can vertically align itself.

In the below examples we are using XY Grid classes instead of Legacy Flex Grid's row and column. These examples will work for row and column but then again the Legacy Flex Grid will be deprecated from Foundation 7 so we recommend to use XY Grid.

Here's a basic example: when using the grid, a grid-x or grid-y is a flex parent, and a cell is a flex child. Use grid-margin-x or grid-padding-x for adding gutters

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x">
  <div class="cell small-4">Cell 1</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">Cell 2</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">Cell 3</div>
</div>

Cell 1

Cell 2

Cell 3

Horizontal Alignment

Horizontal alignment classes are applied to flex parents. Left alignment is the default, but you can use one of these classes to change this:

.align-right
.align-center
.align-justify
.align-spaced

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x"> <!-- Aligned to the left -->
  <div class="cell small-4">Aligned to</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">the left</div>
</div>
<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-right"> <!-- Aligned to the right -->
  <div class="cell small-4">Aligned to</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">the right</div>
</div>
<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-center"> <!-- Aligned to the center -->
  <div class="cell small-4">Aligned to</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">the center</div>
</div>
<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-justify"> <!-- Aligned to the edges -->
  <div class="cell small-4">Aligned to</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">the edges</div>
</div>
<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-spaced"> <!-- Aligned to the space around -->
  <div class="cell small-4">Aligned to</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">the space around</div>
</div>

Aligned to

the left

Aligned to

the right

Aligned to

the center

Aligned to

the edges

Aligned to

the space around

You might be wondering what the difference between .align-justify and .align-spaced is. A justified grid (justify-content: space-between) evenly distributes the space between each column. The first and last columns pin to the edge of the grid.

A spaced grid (justify-content: space-around) evenly distributes the space around each column. This means there will always be space to the left of the first column, and to the right of the last column.

The horizontal alignment classes are shorthands for the justify-content CSS property. Learn more about justify-content.

Vertical Alignment

Vertical alignment can be applied to a flex parent—which will align all the children automatically—or to a flex child, which will align only that element.

Stretch alignment is the default. To set parent alignment, use these classes:

.align-top
.align-middle
.align-bottom
.align-stretch

Note that with vertical alignment, we use the term "middle" for the midpoint, while with horizontal alignment, we use the term "center". As we can't have two CSS classes with the same name, thus we are using different terms.

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-top">
  <div class="cell small-4">I'm at the top (default)</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptatum, tempora. Impedit eius officia possimus laudantium? Molestiae eaque, sapiente atque doloremque placeat! In sint, fugiat saepe sunt dolore tempore amet cupiditate.</div>
</div>

I'm at the top (default)

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptatum, tempora. Impedit eius officia possimus laudantium? Molestiae eaque, sapiente atque doloremque placeat! In sint, fugiat saepe sunt dolore tempore amet cupiditate.

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-middle">
  <div class="cell small-4">I'm in the middle</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptatum, tempora. Impedit eius officia possimus laudantium? Molestiae eaque, sapiente atque doloremque placeat! In sint, fugiat saepe sunt dolore tempore amet cupiditate.</div>
</div>

I'm in the middle

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-bottom">
  <div class="cell small-4">I'm at the bottom</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptatum, tempora. Impedit eius officia possimus laudantium? Molestiae eaque, sapiente atque doloremque placeat! In sint, fugiat saepe sunt dolore tempore amet cupiditate.</div>
</div>

I'm at the bottom

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-stretch">
  <div class="cell small-4">These cells have the same height</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptatum, tempora. Impedit eius officia possimus laudantium? Molestiae eaque, sapiente atque doloremque placeat! In sint, fugiat saepe sunt dolore tempore amet cupiditate.</div>
</div>

These cells have the same height

To align an individual child, use the below classes. They use the same alignment terms as the parent-level classes, but the classes start with .align-self- instead of .align-.

.align-self-top
.align-self-middle
.align-self-bottom
.align-self-stretch

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x">
    <div class="cell small-3 align-self-bottom"><div class="demo">Align bottom</div></div>
    <div class="cell small-3 align-self-middle"><div class="demo">Align middle</div></div>
    <div class="cell small-3 align-self-stretch"><div class="demo">Align stretch</div></div>
    <div class="cell small-3 align-self-top"><div class="demo">Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?</div></div>
  </div>

Align bottom

Align middle

Align stretch

Central Alignment

Central alignment can be applied to a flex parent, which will centrally align all children horizontally and vertically automatically. To set this to your layout, simply use the class: .align-center-middle.

We are using .text-center class just for demo purposes here.

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x align-center-middle text-center" style="height: 200px;">
  <div class="cell small-4">I am in the center-middle</div>
  <div class="cell small-4">I am also centrally located</div>
</div>

I am in the center-middle

I am also centrally located

Vanilla Flexbox Helper Classes

Foundation also includes some helper classes for quickly applying flex container & direction attributes to elements.

To make something a flex container, simply apply

.flex-container

And to change its flex direction from row to column you can use the helper classes:

.flex-dir-row (default)
.flex-dir-row-reverse
.flex-dir-column
.flex-dir-column-reverse

For children, there are 3 quick helper classes to apply the flex property. These control how the containers take up space relative to their siblings:

.flex-child-auto (auto size flex child)
.flex-child-grow (flex child that will grow to take up all possible space)
.flex-child-shrink (flex child that will shrink to minimum possible space)

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x">
  <div class="cell small-4 flex-container flex-dir-column">
    <div class="callout primary flex-child-auto">Auto</div>
    <div class="callout primary flex-child-auto">Auto</div>
    <div class="callout primary flex-child-shrink">Shrink</div>
  </div>
  <div class="cell small-4">
  </div>
  <div class="cell small-4 align-self-top">Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?</div>
</div>

Auto

Shrink

Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?

Responsive Classes

Deprecation Notice: From v6.5.x, we are disabling responsive classes by default. You would be able to re-enable it though, with setting that $flexbox-responsive-breakpoints to true .

All of these helper classes come in responsive varieties, prefixed with all of your named breakpoints.

These vanilla flexbox helper classes also have an optional mobile first responsive classes so that setting a class will apply to the small breakpoint and large unless overridden by a class for a larger breakpoint.. Example: class="flex-child-shrink large-flex-child-auto" will be shrink on the small and medium breakpoints and then auto on large.

These optional responsive classes can be disabled by setting $flexbox-responsive-breakpoints to false. See here

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x">
  <div class="cell small-12 flex-container flex-dir-column large-flex-dir-row">
    <div class="callout primary flex-child-auto">Auto</div>
    <div class="callout primary flex-child-auto">Auto</div>
    <div class="callout primary flex-child-shrink large-flex-child-auto">Auto on Large</div>
  </div>
  <div class="cell small-12 align-self-top">Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?Align top. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Non harum laborum cum voluptate vel, eius adipisci similique dignissimos nobis at excepturi incidunt fugit molestiae quaerat, consequuntur porro temporibus. Nisi, ex?</div>
</div>

Auto

Auto on Large

Source Ordering

Flexbox supports source ordering, making it easy to rearrange columns on different screen sizes without weird relative positioning tricks.

The CSS property is easy enough to remember.

.element {
  order: 1;
}

Columns within a row will be sorted by their order property. Lower numbers are placed first. If multiple columns have the same number, they're sorted in the order they appear in the HTML.

We have a set of classes that make it easy to setup source ordering in your HTML. They also come in responsive flavors, allowing you to reorder a grid on different screen sizes.

Watch this part in video

<div class="grid-x grid-padding-x">
  <div class="cell small-6 small-order-2 medium-order-1">
    This column will come second on small, and first on medium and larger.
  </div>
  <div class="cell small-6 small-order-1 medium-order-2">
    This column will come first on small, and second on medium and larger.
  </div>
</div>

This column will come second on small, and first on medium and larger.

This column will come first on small, and second on medium and larger.

Helper Mixins

If you're using the Sass version of Foundation, you can access the above helpers as mixins as well.

For parent-level alignment, use flex-align(). You can pass in a horizontal alignment ($x), vertical alignment ($y), or both.

.container {
  @include flex-align($x: center, $y: stretch);
}

For child-level alignment, use flex-align-self(). You can pass in any vertical alignment.

.sidebar {
  @include flex-align-self(bottom);
}

Interested in building your own flexbox-ey component? Use the flex() mixin to get started.

.flexish-thang {
  @include flex;
  @include flex-align(center, middle);
}

Sass Reference

Variables

The default styles of this component can be customized using these Sass variables in your project's settings file.

Name	Type	Default Value	Description
`$flex-source-ordering-count`	Number	`6`	Default value for the count of source ordering`
`$flexbox-responsive-breakpoints`	Boolean	`true`	Quickly disable/enable Responsive breakpoints for Vanilla Flex Helpers.
`$xy-grid`	Boolean	`true`	Enables the XY grid.
`$grid-container`	Number	`$global-width`	The maximum width of a grid container.
`$grid-columns`	Number	`12`	The number of columns used in the grid.
`$grid-margin-gutters`	Map or Length	`small: 20px medium: 30px`	The amount of margin between cells at different screen sizes when using the margin grid. To use just one size, set the variable to a number instead of a map.
`$grid-padding-gutters`	Map or Length	`$grid-margin-gutters`	The amount of padding in cells at different screen sizes when using the padding grid. To use just one size, set the variable to a number instead of a map.
`$grid-container-padding`	Map or Length	`$grid-padding-gutters`	The amount of padding to use when padding the grid-container.
`$grid-container-max`	Number	`$global-width`	The maximum width to apply to a grid container
`$xy-block-grid-max`	Number	`8`	The maximum number of cells in an XY block grid.

Mixins

We use these mixins to build the final CSS output of this component. You can use the mixins yourself to build your own class structure out of our components.

flex

@include flex;

Enables flexbox by adding display: flex to the element.

flex-align

@include flex-align($x, $y);

Horizontally or vertically aligns the items within a flex container.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$x`	Keyword	`null`	Horizontal alignment to use. Can be `left`, `right`, `center`, `justify`, or `spaced`. Or, set it to `null` (the default) to not set horizontal alignment.
`$y`	Keyword	`null`	Vertical alignment to use. Can be `top`, `bottom`, `middle`, or `stretch`. Or, set it to `null` (the default) to not set vertical alignment.

flex-align-self

@include flex-align-self($y);

Vertically align a single column within a flex row. Apply this mixin to a flex column.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$y`	Keyword	`null`	Vertical alignment to use. Can be `top`, `bottom`, `middle`, or `stretch`. Or, set it to `null` (the default) to not set vertical alignment.

flex-order

@include flex-order($order);

Changes the source order of a flex child. Children with lower numbers appear first in the layout.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$order`	Number	`0`	Order number to apply.

flex-direction

@include flex-direction($direction);

Change flex-direction

Parameter Type Default Value Description

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$direction`	Keyword	`row`	Flex direction to use. Can be row (default): same as text direction row-reverse: opposite to text direction column: same as row but top to bottom column-reverse: same as row-reverse top to bottom

$direction

Keyword

row

Flex direction to use. Can be

row (default): same as text direction
row-reverse: opposite to text direction
column: same as row but top to bottom
column-reverse: same as row-reverse top to bottom

xy-grid-frame

@include xy-grid-frame($vertical, $nested, $gutters, $breakpoint, $include-base);

Modifies a grid to give it "frame" behavior (no overflow, no wrap, stretch behavior)

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Is grid vertical or horizontal. Should match grid.
`$nested`	Boolean	`false`	Is grid nested or not. If nested is true this sets the frame to 100% height, otherwise will be 100vh.
`$gutters`	Number or Map	`null`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$breakpoint`	String	`null`	The name of the breakpoint size in your gutters map to get the size from.
`$include-base`	Boolean	`true`	Include the base styles that don't vary per breakpoint.

xy-cell-block

@include xy-cell-block($vertical);

Modifies a cell to give it "block" behavior (overflow auto, inertial scrolling)

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Is grid vertical or horizontal. Should match grid.

xy-cell-block-container

@include xy-cell-block-container;

Container for inside a grid frame containing multiple blocks. Typically used as a modifier for a .cell to allow the cell to pass along flex sizing constraints / from parents to children.

xy-cell-base

@include xy-cell-base($size);

Sets base flex properties for cells.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$size`	Keyword	`full`	The size of your cell. Accepts `full`, `auto`, `shrink` or `grow`.

xy-cell-reset

@include xy-cell-reset($vertical);

Resets a cells width (or height if vertical is true) as well as strips its gutters.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Set to true to output vertical (height) styles rather than widths.

xy-cell

@include xy-cell($size, $gutter-output, $gutters, $gutter-type, $gutter-position, $breakpoint, $vertical);

Creates a cell for your grid.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$size`	Keyword or Number	`full`	The size of your cell. Can be `full` (default) for 100% width, `auto` to use up available space and `shrink` to use up only required space.
`$gutter-output`	Boolean	`true`	Whether or not to output gutters
`$gutters`	Number or Map	`$grid-margin-gutters`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$gutter-type`	Keyword	`margin`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$gutter-position`	List	`right left`	The position to apply gutters to. Accepts `top`, `bottom`, `left`, `right` in any combination.
`$breakpoint`	String	`null`	The name of the breakpoint size in your gutters map to get the size from. If using with the `breakpoint()` mixin this will be set automatically unless manually entered.
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Set to true to output vertical (height) styles rather than widths.

xy-cell-static

@include xy-cell-static($size, $gutter-output, $gutters, $gutter-type, $breakpoint, $vertical);

Creates a single breakpoint sized grid. Used to generate our grid classes.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$size`	Keyword or Number	`full`	The size of your cell. Can be `full` (default) for 100% width, `auto` to use up available space and `shrink` to use up only required space.
`$gutter-output`	Boolean	`true`	Whether or not to output gutters
`$gutters`	Number or Map	`$grid-margin-gutters`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$gutter-type`	Keyword	`margin`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$breakpoint`	String	`null`	The name of the breakpoint size in your gutters map to get the size from. If using with the `breakpoint()` mixin this will be set automatically unless manually entered.
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Set to true to output vertical (height) styles rather than widths.

xy-grid-collapse

@include xy-grid-collapse($selector, $gutter-type, $gutter-position, $min-breakpoint);

Collapses the grid a cells within it.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$selector`	String	`.cell`	The child element to remove the gutter from.
`$gutter-type`	Keyword	`margin`	The type of gutter to remove.
`$gutter-position`	List	`right left`	The positions to remove gutters from. Accepts `top`, `bottom`, `left`, `right` in any combination.
`$min-breakpoint`	Keyword	`$-zf-zero-breakpoint`	Minimum breakpoint in `$breakpoint-classes` for which to collapse the gutter.

xy-grid-container

@include xy-grid-container($width, $padding);

Creates a max width container, designed to house your grid content.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$width`	Number	`$grid-container`	a width to limit the container to.
`$padding`	Number	`$grid-container-padding`	paddings of the container.

xy-grid

@include xy-grid($direction, $wrap);

Creates a container for your flex cells.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$direction`	Keyword	`horizontal`	Either horizontal or vertical direction of cells within.
`$wrap`	Boolean	`true`	If the cells within should wrap or not.

xy-gutters

@include xy-gutters($gutters, $gutter-type, $gutter-position, $negative);

Create gutters for a cell/container.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$gutters`	Number or Map	`$grid-margin-gutters`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$gutter-type`	Keyword	`margin`	Type of gutter to output. Accepts either margin or padding.
`$gutter-position`	List	`right left`	The position to apply gutters to. Accepts `top`, `bottom`, `left`, `right` in any combination.
`$negative`	Boolean	`false`	Whether to apply the gutter as a negative value. Commonly used for nested grids.

xy-grid-layout

@include xy-grid-layout($n, $selector, $gutter-output, $gutters, $gutter-type, $gutter-position, $breakpoint, $vertical);

Sizes child elements so that $n number of items appear on each row.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$n`	Number	`None`	Number of elements to display per row.
`$selector`	String	`'.cell'`	Selector(s) to use for child elements.
`$gutter-output`	Boolean	`true`	Whether or not to output gutters
`$gutters`	Number or Map	`$grid-margin-gutters`	Map or single value for gutters.
`$gutter-type`	Keyword	`margin`	Type of gutter to output. Accepts `margin` or `padding`.
`$gutter-position`	List	`right left`	The position to apply gutters to. Accepts `top`, `bottom`, `left`, `right` in any combination.
`$breakpoint`	String	`null`	The breakpoint to use for the cell generation.
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Set to true to output vertical (height) styles rather than widths.

xy-cell-offset

@include xy-cell-offset($n, $gutters, $gutter-type, $breakpoint, $vertical);

Offsets a column to the right/bottom by $n columns.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$n`	Number or List	`None`	Size to offset by. You can pass in any value accepted by the `zf-cell()` mixin, such as `6`, `50%`, or `1 of 2`.
`$gutters`	Number or Map	`$grid-margin-gutters`	Map of gutters or single value to use for responsive gutters.
`$gutter-type`	Keyword	`margin`	The type of gutter to use. Can be `margin` or `padding`
`$breakpoint`	Number or Array or Keyword	`$-zf-zero-breakpoint`	Single value, breakpoint name, or list of breakpoint names to use for `$gutters`. See `-zf-breakpoint-value()`.
`$vertical`	Boolean	`false`	Sets the direction of the offset. If set to true will apply margin-top instead.

Functions

xy-cell-size

xy-cell-size($size)

Calculate the percentage size of a cell.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
`$size`	Number or List	`$grid-columns`	Size to make the cell. You can pass a value in multiple formats, such as `6`, `50%`, `1 of 2` or `1/3`.

Flexbox Utilities