Web/CSS/break-inside

The break-inside CSS property sets how page, column, or region breaks should behave inside a generated box. If there is no generated box, the property is ignored.

/* Keyword values */
break-inside: auto;
break-inside: avoid;
break-inside: avoid-page;
break-inside: avoid-column;
break-inside: avoid-region;

/* Global values */
break-inside: inherit;
break-inside: initial;
break-inside: unset;

Each possible break point (in other words, each element boundary) is affected by three properties: the break-after value of the previous element, the break-before value of the next element, and the break-inside value of the containing element.

To determine if a break must be done, the following rules are applied:

If any of the three concerned values is a forced break value (always, left, right, page, column, or region), it has precedence. If more than one of them are such a break, the value of the element that appears the latest in the flow is used. Thus, the break-before value has precedence over the break-after value, which in turn has precedence over the break-inside value.
If any of the three concerned values is an avoid break value (avoid, avoid-page, avoid-region, or avoid-column), no such break will be applied at that point.

Once forced breaks have been applied, soft breaks may be added if needed, but not on element boundaries that resolve in a corresponding avoid value.

Syntax

The break-inside property is specified as one of the keyword values from the list below.

Values

auto: Allows, but does not force, any break (page, column, or region) to be be inserted within the principal box.
avoid: Avoids any break (page, column, or region) from being inserted within the principal box.
avoid-page: Avoids any page break within the principal box.
avoid-column: Avoids any column break within the principal box.
avoid-region ': Avoids any region break within the principal box.

Page break aliases

For compatibility reasons, the legacy page-break-inside property should be treated by browsers as an alias of break-inside. This ensures that sites using page-break-inside continue to work as designed. A subset of values should be aliased as follows:

page-break-inside	break-inside
`auto`	`auto`
`avoid`	`avoid`

Formal definition

Initial value	`auto`
Applies to	block-level elements
Inherited	no
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

auto | avoid | avoid-page | avoid-column | avoid-region

Examples

Avoiding breaking inside a figure

In the following example we have a container that contains an <h1> spanning all columns (achieved using column-span: all) and a series of paragraphs laid out in multiple columns using column-width: 200px. We also have a <figure> containing an image and a caption.

By default, it is possible for you to get a break between the image and its caption, which is not what we want. To avoid this, we have set break-inside: avoid on the <figure>, which causes them to always stay together.

HTML

<article>
  <h1>Main heading</h1>

  <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla vitae fringilla mauris. Quisque commodo eget nisi sed pretium. Mauris luctus nec lacus in ultricies. Mauris vitae hendrerit arcu, ac scelerisque lacus. Aliquam lobortis in lacus sit amet posuere. Fusce iaculis urna id neque dapibus, eu lacinia lectus dictum.</p>

  <figure>
    <img src="https://media.prod.mdn.mozit.cloud/attachments/2020/07/29/17350/3b4892b7e820122ac6dd7678891d4507/firefox.png">
    <figcaption>The Firefox logo — fox wrapped around the world</figcaption>
  </figure>

  <p>Praesent condimentum dui dui, sit amet rutrum diam tincidunt eu. Cras suscipit porta leo sit amet rutrum. Sed vehicula ornare tincidunt. Curabitur a ipsum ac diam mattis volutpat ac ut elit. Nullam luctus justo non vestibulum gravida. Morbi metus libero, pharetra non porttitor a, molestie nec nisi.</p>

  <p>In finibus viverra enim vel suscipit. Quisque consequat velit eu orci malesuada, ut interdum tortor molestie. Proin sed pellentesque augue. Nam risus justo, faucibus non porta a, congue vel massa. Cras luctus lacus nisl, sed tincidunt velit pharetra ac. Duis suscipit faucibus dui sed ultricies.</p>
</article>

CSS

html {
  font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;
}

body {
  width: 80%;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

h1 {
  font-size: 3rem;
  letter-spacing: 2px;
  column-span: all;
}

h1 + p {
  margin-top: 0;
}

p {
  line-height: 1.5;
  break-after: column;
}

figure {
  break-inside: avoid;
}

img {
  max-width: 70%;
  display: block;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

figcaption {
  font-style: italic;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
  width: 70%;
}

article {
  column-width: 200px;
  gap: 20px;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3The definition of 'break-inside' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation	No change.
CSS Regions Module Level 1The definition of 'break-inside' in that specification.	Working Draft	Extends the property to handle region breaks.
CSS Multi-column Layout ModuleThe definition of 'break-inside' in that specification.	Working Draft	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
Supported in Multi-column Layout	Chrome Full support 50	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 65	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 37 Full support 37 No support 11.1 — 12.1	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android Full support 50	Chrome Android Full support 50	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 37 Full support 37 No support 11.1 — 12.1	Safari iOS Full support 10	Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0
`multicol_context`: `column` and `avoid-column`	Chrome Full support 50	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support No	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 37	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android Full support 50	Chrome Android Full support 50	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support 37	Safari iOS Full support 10	Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0
Supported in Paged Media	Chrome Full support 50	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 65	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 37 Full support 37 No support 11.1 — 12.1	Safari Full support 10	WebView Android Full support 50	Chrome Android Full support 50	Firefox Android Full support 65	Opera Android Full support 37 Full support 37 No support 11.1 — 12.1	Safari iOS Full support 10	Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0
`paged_context`: `page` and `avoid-page`	Chrome Full support 51	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera Full support 38 Full support 38 No support 11.1 — 12.1	Safari No support No	WebView Android Full support 51	Chrome Android Full support 51	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android Full support 41 Full support 41 No support 11.1 — 12.1	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0
Supported in CSS Regions Experimental'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox No support No	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.': Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.

Notes on compatibility

Prior to Firefox 65, the older property of page-break-inside will work in Firefox to prevent breaks in columns, as well as pages. Add both properties for backwards compatibility.

For older WebKit-based browsers, the prefixed property -webkit-column-break-inside can be used to control column breaks.

break-inside by Mozilla Contributors is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.5.