display

The display CSS property sets whether an element is treated as a block or inline element and the layout used for its children, such as flow layout, grid or flex.

Formally, the display property sets an element's inner and outer display types. The outer type sets an element's participation in flow layout; the inner type sets the layout of children. Some values of display are fully defined in their own individual specifications; for example the detail of what happens when display: flex is declared is defined in the CSS Flexible Box Model specification.

The CSS display property is specified using keyword values.

/* legacy values */
display: block;
display: inline;
display: inline-block;
display: flex;
display: inline-flex;
display: grid;
display: inline-grid;
display: flow-root;

/* box generation */
display: none;
display: contents;

/* two-value syntax */
display: block flow;
display: inline flow;
display: inline flow-root;
display: block flex;
display: inline flex;
display: block grid;
display: inline grid;
display: block flow-root;

/* other values */
display: table;
display: table-row; /* all table elements have an equivalent CSS display value */
display: list-item;

/* Global values */
display: inherit;
display: initial;
display: revert;
display: unset;

The keyword values can be grouped into six value categories.

<display-outside>

These keywords specify the element's outer display type, which is essentially its role in flow layout:

block

The element generates a block element box, generating line breaks both before and after the element when in the normal flow.

inline

The element generates one or more inline element boxes that do not generate line breaks before or after themselves. In normal flow, the next element will be on the same line if there is space

<display-inside>

These keywords specify the element's inner display type, which defines the type of formatting context that its contents are laid out in (assuming it is a non-replaced element):

flow

The element lays out its contents using flow layout (block-and-inline layout).

If its outer display type is inline or run-in, and it is participating in a block or inline formatting context, then it generates an inline box. Otherwise it generates a block container box.

Depending on the value of other properties (such as position, float, or overflow) and whether it is itself participating in a block or inline formatting context, it either establishes a new block formatting context (BFC) for its contents or integrates its contents into its parent formatting context.

flow-root

The element generates a block element box that establishes a new block formatting context, defining where the formatting root lies.

table

These elements behave like HTML <table> elements. It defines a block-level box.

flex

The element behaves like a block element and lays out its content according to the flexbox model.

grid

The element behaves like a block element and lays out its content according to the grid model.

ruby

The element behaves like an inline element and lays out its content according to the ruby formatting model. It behaves like the corresponding HTML <ruby> elements.

<display-listitem>

The element generates a block box for the content and a separate list-item inline box.

A single value of list-item will cause the element to behave like a list item. This can be used together with list-style-type and list-style-position.

list-item can also be combined with any <display-outside> keyword and the flow or flow-root <display-inside> keywords.

<display-internal>

Some layout models such as table and ruby have a complex internal structure, with several different roles that their children and descendants can fill. This section defines those "internal" display values, which only have meaning within that particular layout mode.

table-row-group

These elements behave like <tbody> HTML elements.

table-header-group

These elements behave like <thead> HTML elements.

table-footer-group

These elements behave like <tfoot> HTML elements.

table-row

These elements behave like <tr> HTML elements.

table-cell

These elements behave like <td> HTML elements.

table-column-group

These elements behave like <colgroup> HTML elements.

table-column

These elements behave like <col> HTML elements.

table-caption

These elements behave like <caption> HTML elements.

ruby-base

These elements behave like <rb> HTML elements.

ruby-text

These elements behave like <rt> HTML elements.

ruby-base-container

These elements behave like <rbc> HTML elements generated as anonymous boxes.

ruby-text-container

These elements behave like <rtc> HTML elements.

<display-box>

These values define whether an element generates display boxes at all.

contents

These elements don't produce a specific box by themselves. They are replaced by their pseudo-box and their child boxes. Please note that the CSS Display Level 3 spec defines how the contents value should affect "unusual elements" — elements that aren't rendered purely by CSS box concepts such as replaced elements. See Appendix B: Effects of display: contents on Unusual Elements for more details.

Due to a bug in browsers, this will currently remove the element from the accessibility tree — screen readers will not look at what's inside. See the Accessibility concerns section below for more details.

none

Turns off the display of an element so that it has no effect on layout (the document is rendered as though the element did not exist). All descendant elements also have their display turned off. To have an element take up the space that it would normally take, but without actually rendering anything, use the visibility property instead.

<display-legacy>

CSS 2 used a single-keyword syntax for the display property, requiring separate keywords for block-level and inline-level variants of the same layout mode.

inline-block

The element generates a block element box that will be flowed with surrounding content as if it were a single inline box (behaving much like a replaced element would).

It is equivalent to inline flow-root.

inline-table

The inline-table value does not have a direct mapping in HTML. It behaves like an HTML <table> element, but as an inline box, rather than a block-level box. Inside the table box is a block-level context.

It is equivalent to inline table.

inline-flex

The element behaves like an inline element and lays out its content according to the flexbox model.

It is equivalent to inline flex.

inline-grid

The element behaves like an inline element and lays out its content according to the grid model.

It is equivalent to inline grid.

The Level 3 specification details two values for the display property — enabling the specification of the outer and inner display type explicitly — but this is not yet well-supported by browsers.

The <display-legacy> methods allow the same results with single keyword values, and should be favoured by developers until the two keyword values are better supported. For example, using two values you might specify an inline flex container as follows:

.container {
  display: inline flex;
}

This can currently be specified using a single value.

.container {
  display: inline-flex;
}

For more information on these changes to the specification, see the article Adapting to the new two-value syntax of display.

The individual pages for the different types of value that display can have set on it feature multiple examples of those values in action — see the Syntax section. In addition, see the following material, which covers the various values of display in depth.

• Adapting to the new two-value syntax of display

• Block and Inline Layout in Normal Flow
• Flow Layout and Overflow
• Flow Layout and Writing Modes
• Formatting Contexts Explained
• In Flow and Out of Flow

• Basic concepts of flexbox
• Aligning Items in a Flex Container
• Controlling Ratios of Flex Items Along the Main Axis
• Cross-browser Flexbox mixins
• Mastering Wrapping of Flex Items
• Ordering Flex Items
• Relationship of flexbox to other layout methods
• Backwards Compatibility of Flexbox
• Typical use cases of Flexbox

• Basic Concepts of Grid Layout
• Relationship to other layout methods
• Line-based placement
• Grid template areas
• Layout using named grid lines
• Auto-placement in grid layout
• Box alignment in grid layout
• Grids, logical values and writing modes
• CSS Grid Layout and Accessibility
• CSS Grid Layout and Progressive Enhancement
• Realizing common layouts using grids

Using a display value of none on an element will remove it from the accessibility tree. This will cause the element and all its descendant elements to no longer be announced by screen reading technology.

If you want to visually hide the element, a more accessible alternative is to use a combination of properties to remove it visually from the screen but keep it parsable by assistive technology such as screen readers.

Current implementations in most browsers will remove from the accessibility tree any element with a display value of contents (but descendants will remain). This will cause the element itself to no longer be announced by screen reading technology. This is incorrect behavior according to the CSS specification.

• More accessible markup with display: contents | Hidde de Vries
• Display: Contents Is Not a CSS Reset | Adrian Roselli

Changing the display value of a <table> element to block, grid, or flex will alter its representation in the accessibility tree. This will cause the table to no longer be announced properly by screen reading technology.

• Short note on what CSS display properties do to table semantics — The Paciello Group
• Hidden content for better a11y | Go Make Things
• MDN Understanding WCAG, Guideline 1.3 explanations
• Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1 | W3C Understanding WCAG 2.0

[ <display-outside> || <display-inside> ] | <display-listitem> | <display-internal> | <display-box> | <display-legacy>
where 
<display-outside> = block | inline | run-in
<display-inside> = flow | flow-root | table | flex | grid | ruby
<display-listitem> = <display-outside>? && [ flow | flow-root ]? && list-item
<display-internal> = table-row-group | table-header-group | table-footer-group | table-row | table-cell | table-column-group | table-column | table-caption | ruby-base | ruby-text | ruby-base-container | ruby-text-container
<display-box> = contents | none
<display-legacy> = inline-block | inline-list-item | inline-table | inline-flex | inline-grid

In this example we have two block-level container elements, each one with three inline children. Below that, we have a select menu that allows you to apply different display values to the containers, allowing you to compare and contrast how the different values affect the element's layout, and that of their children.

We've included padding and background-color on the containers and their children, so that it is easier to see the effect the display values are having.

HTML

<article class="container">
  <span>First</span>
  <span>Second</span>
  <span>Third</span>
</article>

<article class="container">
  <span>First</span>
  <span>Second</span>
  <span>Third</span>
</article>

<div>
  <label for="display">Choose a display value:</label>
  <select id="display">
    <option selected>block</option>
    <option>inline</option>
    <option>inline-block</option>
    <option>none</option>
    <option>flex</option>
    <option>inline-flex</option>
    <option>grid</option>
    <option>inline-grid</option>
    <option>table</option>
    <option>list-item</option>
  </select>
</div>

CSS

html {
  font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
  padding-top: 10px;
}

article {
  background-color: red;
}

article span {
  background-color: black;
  color: white;
  margin: 1px;
}

article, span {
  padding: 10px;
  border-radius: 7px;
}

article, div {
  margin: 20px;
}

JavaScript

const articles = document.querySelectorAll('.container');
const select = document.querySelector('select');

function updateDisplay() {
  articles.forEach((article) => {
    article.style.display = select.value;
  });
}

select.addEventListener('change', updateDisplay);

updateDisplay();

Result

• Block and inline layout in normal flow
• Introduction to formatting contexts
• visibility, float, position
• grid, flex