CSS Flexbox: difference between align-items and align-content

Question

I find the difference between align-items and align-content in CSS Flexbox properties extremely confusing. I've been looking at the documentation, and several examples online for hours, but I still can't fully grasp it.

To be more precise, align-items makes total sense to me and it's completely clear how it behaves. On the other hand, align-content is not clear at all. In particular, I don't understand why we should use two different properties depending on whether the content all fits in one line or multiple ones.

What is the explanation in layman's terms?

Answer 1

As described in 6. Flex Lines,

Flex items in a flex container are laid out and aligned within flex lines, hypothetical containers used for grouping and alignment by the layout algorithm. A flex container can be either single-line or multi-line, depending on the flex-wrap property

Then, you can set different alignments:

• The justify-content property applies to all flex containers, and sets the alignment of the flex items along the main axis of each flex line.

  

• The align-items property applies to all flex containers, and sets the default alignment of the flex items along the cross axis of each flex line. The align-self applies to all flex items, allows this default alignment to be overridden for individual flex items.

  

• The align-content property only applies to multi-line flex containers, and aligns the flex lines within the flex container when there is extra space in the cross-axis.

  

Here you have a snippet to play:

var form = document.forms[0],
    flex = document.getElementById('flex');
form.addEventListener('change', function() {
  flex.style.flexDirection = form.elements.fd.value;
  flex.style.justifyContent = form.elements.jc.value;
  flex.style.alignItems = form.elements.ai.value;
  flex.style.alignContent = form.elements.ac.value;
});

ul {
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: row wrap;
  padding: 0;
  list-style: none;
}
li {
  padding: 0 15px;
}
label {
  display: block;
}
#flex {
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  height: 240px;
  width: 240px;
  border: 1px solid #000;
  background: yellow;
}
#flex > div {
  min-width: 60px;
  min-height: 60px;
  border: 1px solid #000;
  background: blue;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  color: #fff;
}
#flex > .big {
  font-size: 1.5em;
  min-width: 70px;
  min-height: 70px;
}

<form>
  <ul>
    <li>flex-direction
      <label><input type="radio" name="fd" value="row" checked /> row</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="fd" value="row-reverse" /> row-reverse</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="fd" value="column" /> column</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="fd" value="column-reverse" /> column-reverse</label>
    </li>
    <li>justify-content
      <label><input type="radio" name="jc" value="flex-start" checked /> flex-start</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="jc" value="flex-end" /> flex-end</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="jc" value="center" /> center</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="jc" value="space-between" /> space-between</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="jc" value="space-around" /> space-around</label>
    </li>
    <li>align-items
      <label><input type="radio" name="ai" value="flex-start" /> flex-start</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ai" value="flex-end" /> flex-end</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ai" value="center" /> center</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ai" value="baseline" /> baseline</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ai" value="stretch" checked /> stretch</label>
    </li>
    <li>align-content
      <label><input type="radio" name="ac" value="flex-start" /> flex-start</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ac" value="flex-end" /> flex-end</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ac" value="center" /> center</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ac" value="space-between" /> space-between</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ac" value="space-around" /> space-around</label>
      <label><input type="radio" name="ac" value="stretch" checked /> stretch</label>
    </li>
  </ul>
</form>
<div id="flex">
  <div>1</div>
  <div class="big">2</div>
  <div>3</div>
  <div>4</div>
  <div class="big">5</div>
  <div>6</div>
</div>

Answer 2

First you need to understand how the Flexible box structure works. The below image is part of the Cheatsheet.

Flexbox Structure

Flexbox was built to adapt both as a row and column.

Main-axis:

When flex-direction is row: the x-axis as on a graph. When flex-direction is column: the y-axis on a graph

Cross-axis:

When flex-direction is column: the x-axis as on a graph. When flex-direction is row: the y-axis on a graph

Justify-Content

justify-content is used to align the items along with the main-axis.

.justify-content {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  height: 500px;
  width: 500px;
  background: lightgray;
  padding: 5px;
}
.box {
  background: tomato;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  margin: 10px;
}

<div class="justify-content">
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
</div>

Align-content

align-content is used to align the items inside the flexbox along the cross-axis. Note that it applies to Multi-line containers

.align-content {
  display: flex;
  align-content: center;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  height: 500px;
  width: 500px;
  background: lightgray;
  padding: 5px;
}
.box {
  background: tomato;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  margin: 10px;
}

<div class="align-content">
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
</div>

Align-items

align-items has the same functionality as align-content but the difference is that it works to center every single-line container instead of centering the whole container. Check that in the snippet, the whole container is divided into 250 pixels height each and centered within, while in align-content it is centered within 500 pixels height of the row.

.align-items {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  height: 500px;
  width: 500px;
  background: lightgray;
  padding: 5px;
}
.box {
  background: tomato;
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  margin: 10px;
}

<div class="align-items">
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
  <div class="box"></div>
</div>