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Flutter for web developers

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This page is for users who are familiar with the HTML and CSS syntax for arranging components of an application's UI. It maps HTML/CSS code snippets to their Flutter/Dart code equivalents.

Flutter is a framework for building cross-platform applications that uses the Dart programming language. To understand some differences between programming with Dart and programming with Javascript, see Learning Dart as a JavaScript Developer.

One of the fundamental differences between designing a web layout and a Flutter layout, is learning how constraints work, and how widgets are sized and positioned. To learn more, see Understanding constraints.

The examples assume:

  • The HTML document starts with <!DOCTYPE html>, and the CSS box model for all HTML elements is set to border-box, for consistency with the Flutter model.

    css
    {
    box-sizing: border-box;
}

  • In Flutter, the default styling of the 'Lorem ipsum' text is defined by the bold24Roboto variable as follows, to keep the syntax simple:

    dart
    TextStyle bold24Roboto = const TextStyle(
  color: Colors.white,
  fontSize: 24,
  fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
);

Performing basic layout operations

#

The following examples show how to perform the most common UI layout tasks.

Styling and aligning text

#

Font style, size, and other text attributes that CSS handles with the font and color properties are individual properties of a TextStyle child of a Text widget.

For text-align property in CSS that is used for aligning text, there is a textAlign property of a Text widget.

In both HTML and Flutter, child elements or widgets are anchored at the top left, by default.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Georgia;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: const Text(
    'Lorem ipsum',
    style: TextStyle(
      fontFamily: 'Georgia',
      fontSize: 24,
      fontWeight: FontWeight.bold,
    ),
    textAlign: TextAlign.center,
  ),
);

Setting background color

#

In Flutter, you set the background color using the color property or the decoration property of a Container. However, you cannot supply both, since it would potentially result in the decoration drawing over the background color. The color property should be preferred when the background is a simple color. For other cases, such as gradients or images, use the decoration property.

The CSS examples use the hex color equivalents to the Material color palette.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Text(
    'Lorem ipsum',
    style: bold24Roboto,
  ),
);
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  decoration: BoxDecoration(
    color: Colors.grey[300],
  ),
  child: Text(
    'Lorem ipsum',
    style: bold24Roboto,
  ),
);

Centering components

#

A Center widget centers its child both horizontally and vertically.

To accomplish a similar effect in CSS, the parent element uses either a flex or table-cell display behavior. The examples on this page show the flex behavior.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  Lorem ipsum
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Text(
      'Lorem ipsum',
      style: bold24Roboto,
    ),
  ),
);

Setting container width

#

To specify the width of a Container widget, use its width property. This is a fixed width, unlike the CSS max-width property that adjusts the container width up to a maximum value. To mimic that effect in Flutter, use the constraints property of the Container. Create a new BoxConstraints widget with a minWidth or maxWidth.

For nested Containers, if the parent's width is less than the child's width, the child Container sizes itself to match the parent.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    width: 100%;
    max-width: 240px;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      width: 240, // max-width is 240
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
      ),
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: bold24Roboto,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Manipulating position and size

#

The following examples show how to perform more complex operations on widget position, size, and background.

Setting absolute position

#

By default, widgets are positioned relative to their parent.

To specify an absolute position for a widget as x-y coordinates, nest it in a Positioned widget that is, in turn, nested in a Stack widget.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    position: relative;
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    position: absolute;
    top: 24px;
    left: 24px;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Stack(
    children: [
      Positioned(
        // red box
        left: 24,
        top: 24,
        child: Container(
          padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
          decoration: BoxDecoration(
            color: Colors.red[400],
          ),
          child: Text(
            'Lorem ipsum',
            style: bold24Roboto,
          ),
        ),
      ),
    ],
  ),
);

Rotating components

#

To rotate a widget, nest it in a Transform widget. Use the Transform widget's alignment and origin properties to specify the transform origin (fulcrum) in relative and absolute terms, respectively.

For a simple 2D rotation, in which the widget is rotated on the Z axis, create a new Matrix4 identity object and use its rotateZ() method to specify the rotation factor using radians (degrees × π / 180).

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    transform: rotate(15deg);
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Transform(
      alignment: Alignment.center,
      transform: Matrix4.identity()..rotateZ(15 * 3.1415927 / 180),
      child: Container(
        // red box
        padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
        decoration: BoxDecoration(
          color: Colors.red[400],
        ),
        child: Text(
          'Lorem ipsum',
          style: bold24Roboto,
          textAlign: TextAlign.center,
        ),
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Scaling components

#

To scale a widget up or down, nest it in a Transform widget. Use the Transform widget's alignment and origin properties to specify the transform origin (fulcrum) in relative or absolute terms, respectively.

For a simple scaling operation along the x-axis, create a new Matrix4 identity object and use its scale() method to specify the scaling factor.

When you scale a parent widget, its child widgets are scaled accordingly.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    transform: scale(1.5);
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Transform(
      alignment: Alignment.center,
      transform: Matrix4.identity()..scale(1.5),
      child: Container(
        // red box
        padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
        decoration: BoxDecoration(
          color: Colors.red[400],
        ),
        child: Text(
          'Lorem ipsum',
          style: bold24Roboto,
          textAlign: TextAlign.center,
        ),
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Applying a linear gradient

#

To apply a linear gradient to a widget's background, nest it in a Container widget. Then use the Container widget's decoration property to create a BoxDecoration object, and use BoxDecoration's gradient property to transform the background fill.

The gradient "angle" is based on the Alignment (x, y) values:

  • If the beginning and ending x values are equal, the gradient is vertical (0° | 180°).
  • If the beginning and ending y values are equal, the gradient is horizontal (90° | 270°).

Vertical gradient

#
css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    background: linear-gradient(180deg, #ef5350, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 80%);
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      decoration: const BoxDecoration(
        gradient: LinearGradient(
          begin: Alignment.topCenter,
          end: Alignment(0.0, 0.6),
          colors: <Color>[
            Color(0xffef5350),
            Color(0x00ef5350),
          ],
        ),
      ),
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: bold24Roboto,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Horizontal gradient

#
css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    background: linear-gradient(90deg, #ef5350, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 80%);
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      decoration: const BoxDecoration(
        gradient: LinearGradient(
          begin: Alignment(-1.0, 0.0),
          end: Alignment(0.6, 0.0),
          colors: <Color>[
            Color(0xffef5350),
            Color(0x00ef5350),
          ],
        ),
      ),
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: bold24Roboto,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Manipulating shapes

#

The following examples show how to make and customize shapes.

Rounding corners

#

To round the corners of a rectangular shape, use the borderRadius property of a BoxDecoration object. Create a new BorderRadius object that specifies the radius for rounding each corner.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    border-radius: 8px;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red circle
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
        borderRadius: const BorderRadius.all(
          Radius.circular(8),
        ),
      ),
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: bold24Roboto,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Adding box shadows

#

In CSS you can specify shadow offset and blur in shorthand, using the box-shadow property. This example shows two box shadows, with properties:

  • xOffset: 0px, yOffset: 2px, blur: 4px, color: black @80% alpha
  • xOffset: 0px, yOffset: 06x, blur: 20px, color: black @50% alpha

In Flutter, each property and value is specified separately. Use the boxShadow property of BoxDecoration to create a list of BoxShadow widgets. You can define one or multiple BoxShadow widgets, which can be stacked to customize the shadow depth, color, and so on.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    box-shadow: 0 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8),
              0 6px 20px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  margin: const EdgeInsets.only(bottom: 16),
  decoration: BoxDecoration(
    color: Colors.grey[300],
  ),
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
        boxShadow: const <BoxShadow>[
          BoxShadow(
            color: Color(0xcc000000),
            offset: Offset(0, 2),
            blurRadius: 4,
          ),
          BoxShadow(
            color: Color(0x80000000),
            offset: Offset(0, 6),
            blurRadius: 20,
          ),
        ],
      ),
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: bold24Roboto,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Making circles and ellipses

#

Making a circle in CSS requires a workaround of applying a border-radius of 50% to all four sides of a rectangle, though there are basic shapes.

While this approach is supported with the borderRadius property of BoxDecoration, Flutter provides a shape property with BoxShape enum for this purpose.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-circle">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-circle {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    text-align: center;
    width: 160px;
    height: 160px;
    border-radius: 50%;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red circle
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
        shape: BoxShape.circle,
      ),
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      width: 160,
      height: 160,
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: bold24Roboto,
        textAlign: TextAlign.center,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Manipulating text

#

The following examples show how to specify fonts and other text attributes. They also show how to transform text strings, customize spacing, and create excerpts.

Adjusting text spacing

#

In CSS, you specify the amount of white space between each letter or word by giving a length value for the letter-spacing and word-spacing properties, respectively. The amount of space can be in px, pt, cm, em, etc.

In Flutter, you specify white space as logical pixels (negative values are allowed) for the letterSpacing and wordSpacing properties of a TextStyle child of a Text widget.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    letter-spacing: 4px;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
      ),
      child: const Text(
        'Lorem ipsum',
        style: TextStyle(
          color: Colors.white,
          fontSize: 24,
          fontWeight: FontWeight.w900,
          letterSpacing: 4,
        ),
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Making inline formatting changes

#

A Text widget lets you display text with some formatting characteristics. To display text that uses multiple styles (in this example, a single word with emphasis), use a RichText widget instead. Its text property can specify one or more TextSpan objects that can be individually styled.

In the following example, "Lorem" is in a TextSpan with the default (inherited) text styling, and "ipsum" is in a separate TextSpan with custom styling.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem <em>ipsum</em>
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
}
.red-box em {
    font: 300 48px Roboto;
    font-style: italic;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
      ),
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      child: RichText(
        text: TextSpan(
          style: bold24Roboto,
          children: const <TextSpan>[
            TextSpan(text: 'Lorem '),
            TextSpan(
              text: 'ipsum',
              style: TextStyle(
                fontWeight: FontWeight.w300,
                fontStyle: FontStyle.italic,
                fontSize: 48,
              ),
            ),
          ],
        ),
      ),
    ),
  ),
);

Creating text excerpts

#

An excerpt displays the initial line(s) of text in a paragraph, and handles the overflow text, often using an ellipsis.

In Flutter, use the maxLines property of a Text widget to specify the number of lines to include in the excerpt, and the overflow property for handling overflow text.

css
<div class="grey-box">
  <div class="red-box">
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consec etur
  </div>
</div>

.grey-box {
    background-color: #e0e0e0; /* grey 300 */
    width: 320px;
    height: 240px;
    font: 900 24px Roboto;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
}
.red-box {
    background-color: #ef5350; /* red 400 */
    padding: 16px;
    color: #ffffff;
    overflow: hidden;
    display: -webkit-box;
    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
    -webkit-line-clamp: 2;
}
dart
final container = Container(
  // grey box
  width: 320,
  height: 240,
  color: Colors.grey[300],
  child: Center(
    child: Container(
      // red box
      decoration: BoxDecoration(
        color: Colors.red[400],
      ),
      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(16),
      child: Text(
        'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consec etur',
        style: bold24Roboto,
        overflow: TextOverflow.ellipsis,
        maxLines: 1,
      ),
    ),
  ),
);