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css property

`column-fill` CSS property

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The column-fill CSS property controls how an element’s contents are balanced when broken into columns.

Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.
column-fill: auto;

column-fill: balance;

<section id="default-example">
  <p id="example-element">
    London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in
    Lincoln's Inn Hall. Implacable November weather.
  </p>
</section>

#example-element {
  width: 100%;
  height: 90%;
  columns: 3;
  text-align: left;
}

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
column-fill: auto;
column-fill: balance;

/* Global values */
column-fill: inherit;
column-fill: initial;
column-fill: revert;
column-fill: revert-layer;
column-fill: unset;

The column-fill property is specified as one of the keyword values listed below. The initial value is balance so the content will be balanced across the columns.

Values

  • auto
    • : Columns are filled sequentially. Content takes up only the room it needs, possibly resulting in some columns remaining empty.
  • balance
    • : Content is equally divided between columns. In fragmented contexts, such as paged media, only the last fragment is balanced. Therefore in paged media, only the last page would be balanced.

The specification defines a balance-all value, in which content is equally divided between columns in fragmented contexts, such as paged media. This value is not yet supported in any browser.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

Examples

Balancing column content

HTML

<p class="fill-auto">
  This paragraph fills columns one at a time. Since all of the text can fit in
  the first column, the others are empty.
</p>

<p class="fill-balance">
  This paragraph attempts to balance the amount of content in each column.
</p>

CSS

p {
  height: 7em;
  background: #ffff99;
  columns: 3;
  column-rule: 1px solid;
}

p.fill-auto {
  column-fill: auto;
}

p.fill-balance {
  column-fill: balance;
}

Result

Interactive exampleOpen the canonical MDN source to run this embedded demo.

Specifications

SpecificationsStandards references are available on the canonical MDN page.

Browser compatibility

Browser compatibilityCompatibility data is available on the canonical MDN page.

[!WARNING] There are some interoperability issues and bugs with column-fill across browsers, due to unresolved issues in the specification.

In particular, when using column-fill: auto to fill columns sequentially, Chrome will only consult this property if the multicol container has a size in the block dimension (e.g., height in a horizontal writing mode). Firefox will always consult this property, therefore filling the first column with all of the content in cases where there is no size.

See also