The columns CSS shorthand property sets the number of columns to use when drawing an element's contents, as well as those columns' widths.

Try it

columns: 2;

columns: 6rem auto;

columns: 12em;

columns: 3;

<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. As much mud in the streets
    as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it
    would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so,
    waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.
  </p>
</section>

#example-element {
  min-width: 21rem;
  text-align: left;
}

Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

• column-count
• column-width

Syntax

/* Column width */
columns: 18em;

/* Column count */
columns: auto;
columns: 2;

/* Both column width and count */
columns: 2 auto;
columns: auto 12em;
columns: auto auto;

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

The columns property may be specified as one or two of the values listed below, in any order.

Values

<'column-width'>

The ideal column width, defined as a <length> or the keyword auto. The actual width may be wider or narrower to fit the available space. See column-width.

<'column-count'>

The ideal number of columns into which the element's content should be flowed, defined as an <integer> or the keyword auto. If neither this value nor the column's width are auto, it merely indicates the maximum allowable number of columns. See column-count.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

columns = 
  [ <'column-width'> || <'column-count'> ] [ / <'column-height'> ]?  

<column-width> = 
  auto                                |
  <length [0,∞]>                      |
  min-content                         |
  max-content                         |
  fit-content( <length-percentage> )  

<column-count> = 
  auto             |
  <integer [1,∞]>  

<column-height> = 
  auto            |
  <length [0,∞]>  

<length-percentage> = 
  <length>      |
  <percentage>  

Examples

Setting three equal columns

HTML

<p class="content-box">
  This is a bunch of text split into three columns using the CSS `columns`
  property. The text is equally distributed over the columns.
</p>

CSS

.content-box {
  columns: 3 auto;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• widows
• orphans
• Paged media
• Learn: Multiple-column Layout