Web/CSS/column-width

The column-width CSS property sets the ideal column width in a multi-column layout. The container will have as many columns as can fit without any of them having a width less than the column-width value. If the width of the container is narrower than the specified value, the single column's width will be smaller than the declared column width.

The source for this interactive example is stored in a GitHub repository. If you'd like to contribute to the interactive examples project, please clone https://github.com/mdn/interactive-examples and send us a pull request.

This property can help you create responsive designs that fit different screen sizes. Especially in the presence of the column-count property (which has precedence), you must specify all related length values to achieve an exact column width. In horizontal text these are width, column-width, column-gap, and column-rule-width.

Syntax

/* Keyword value */
column-width: auto;

/* <length> values */
column-width: 60px;
column-width: 15.5em;
column-width: 3.3vw;

/* Global values */
column-width: inherit;
column-width: initial;
column-width: unset;

The column-width property is specified as one of the values listed below.

Values

<length>: Indicates the optimal column width. The actual column width may differ from the specified value: it may be wider when necessary to fill available space, and narrower when the available space is too small. The value must be strictly positive or the declaration is invalid. Percentage values are also invalid.
auto: The width of the column is determined by other CSS properties, such as column-count.

Formal definition

Initial value	`auto`
Applies to	Block containers except table wrapper boxes
Inherited	no
Computed value	the absolute length, zero or larger
Animation type	a length

Formal syntax

<length> | auto

Examples

Setting column width in pixels

HTML

<p class="content-box">
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
</p>

CSS

.content-box {
  column-width: 100px;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 3The definition of 'column-width' in that specification.	Working Draft	Adds intrinsic sizes via the keywords `min-content`, `max-content`, and `fit-content`.
CSS Multi-column Layout ModuleThe definition of 'column-width' 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
`column-width`	Chrome Full support 50 Full support 50 Full support 1 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Edge Full support 12 Full support 12 Full support 12 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Firefox Full support 50 Full support 50 No support 1.5 — 74 Prefixed' Notes' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -moz- Notes' Prior to version 37, multiple columns didn't work with `display: table-caption` elements.	IE Full support 10	Opera Full support 11.1 Full support 11.1 Full support 15 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Safari Full support 9 Full support 9 Full support 3 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	WebView Android Full support 50 Full support 50 Full support ≤37 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Chrome Android Full support 50 Full support 50 Full support 18 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Firefox Android Full support 50 Full support 50 Full support 4 Prefixed' Notes' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -moz- Notes' Prior to version 37, multiple columns didn't work with `display: table-caption` elements.	Opera Android Full support 11.1 Full support 11.1 Full support 15 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Safari iOS Full support 9 Full support 9 Full support 1 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-	Samsung Internet Android Full support 5.0 Full support 5.0 Full support 1.0 Prefixed' Prefixed' Implemented with the vendor prefix: -webkit-
Intrinsic sizes 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.
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.
Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.': Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.