CSS multi-column layout

<article>
 <div class="title">
 <h1>A Lament for Confederation</h1>
 <p>&mdash;Chief Dan George, 1967</p>
 </div>
 <p>
 How long have I known you, Oh Canada? A hundred years? Yes, a hundred years.
 And many, many tides more. And today, when you celebrate your hundred years,
 Oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land.
 </p>
 <p>
 For I have known you when your forests were mine; when they gave me my meat
 and my clothing. I have known you in your fruits and rivers where your fish
 flashed and danced in the sun, where the waters said ‘come and eat of my
 abundance.’ I have known you in the freedom of your winds. And my spirit,
 like your winds, once roamed this good lands.
 </p>
 <blockquote>
 <p>
 But in long the hundred years since the white man came, I have seen that
 freedom disappear just like the salmon going mysteriously out to sea.
 </p>
 </blockquote>
 <p>
 The white man’s strange customs I could not understand, pressed down upon me
 until I could no longer breathe.
 </p>
 <p>
 When I fought to protect my home and my land, I was called a savage. When I
 neither understood nor welcomed this new way of life, I was called lazy.
 When I tried to rule my people, I was stripped of my authority.
 </p>
 <p>
 My nation was ignored in your history textbooks – we were less important in
 the history of Canada than the buffalo that ranged the plains. I was
 ridiculed in your plays and motion pictures, and when I drank your
 fire-water, I got drunk – very, very drunk. And I forgot.
 </p>
 <p>
 Oh Canada, how can I celebrate with you this centenary, this hundred years?
 Shall I thank you for the reserves that are left me of my beautiful forests?
 Shall I thank you for the canned fish of my rivers? Shall I thank you for
 the loss of my pride and authority, even among my own people? For the lack
 of my will to fight back? No! I must forget what is past and gone.
 </p>
 <p>
 Oh God in heaven! Give me the courage of the olden chiefs. Let me wrestle
 with my surroundings. Let me once again, as in the days of old, dominate my
 environment. Let me humbly accept this new culture and through it rise up
 and go on.
 </p>
 <p>
 Oh god, like the thunderbird of old, I shall rise again out of the sea. I
 shall grab the instruments of the white man’s success – his education, his
 skills, and with these new tools I shall build my race into the proudest
 segment of your society. And, before I follow the great chiefs who have gone
 before us, I shall see these things come to pass.
 </p>
 <p>
 I shall see our young braves and our chiefs sitting in the house of law and
 government, ruling and being ruled by the knowledge and freedoms of our
 great land. So shall we shatter the barriers of our isolation. So shall the
 next hundred years be the greatest in the proud history of our tribes and
 nations.
 </p>
</article>
<fieldset id="options">
 <legend role="button" aria-expanded="true" aria-controls="controls">
 Column options
 </legend>
 <div id="controls">
 <p>
 <input type="range" min="0" max="5" value="5" id="colCount" />
 <label for="colCount">Max # of columns:</label>
 </p>
 <p>
 <input type="range" min="2" max="40" value="10" step="2" id="colWidth" />
 <label for="colWidth">Min width of columns:</label>
 </p>
 <p>
 <input type="range" min="0" max="10" value="1" step="0.5" id="gapSize" />
 <label for="gapSize">Gap size:</label>
 </p>
 <p>
 <input type="checkbox" checked id="colSpan" />
 <label for="colSpan">Byline spans all columns</label>
 </p>
 <p>
 <input type="checkbox" id="blockSpan" />
 <label for="blockSpan">Blockquote spans all columns</label>
 </p>
 <p>
 <input type="checkbox" id="colFill" />
 <label for="colFill">Balance columns</label>
 </p>
 <p>
 <input type="checkbox" id="break" />
 <label for="break">Don't break paragraphs</label>
 </p>
 </div>
</fieldset>

const page = document.querySelector("article");
const title = document.querySelector(".title");
const options = document.querySelector("#options");
const legend = document.querySelector("#options > legend");
const blockquote = document.getElementsByTagName("blockquote")[0];
const colCount = document.getElementById("colCount");
const colWidth = document.getElementById("colWidth");
const gapSize = document.getElementById("gapSize");
const colSpan = document.getElementById("colSpan");
const blockSpan = document.getElementById("blockSpan");
const colFill = document.getElementById("colFill");
const breakP = document.getElementById("break");
// make options visible if js is enabled
options.style.display = "revert";
legend.addEventListener("click", () => {
 showAndHideMenu();
});
colCount.addEventListener("change", () => {
 page.style.columnCount = colCount.value;
});
colWidth.addEventListener("change", () => {
 page.style.columnWidth = `${colWidth.value}em`;
});
gapSize.addEventListener("change", () => {
 page.style.gap = `${gapSize.value}em`;
});
colSpan.addEventListener("change", () => {
 setColSpan(colSpan, title);
});
blockSpan.addEventListener("change", () => {
 setColSpan(blockSpan, blockquote);
});
colFill.addEventListener("change", () => {
 if (colFill.checked) {
 page.style.columnFill = "balance";
 } else {
 page.style.columnFill = "auto";
 }
});
breakP.addEventListener("change", () => {
 if (breakP.checked) {
 page.classList.add("breakInside");
 } else {
 page.classList.remove("breakInside");
 }
});
function showAndHideMenu() {
 if (legend.getAttribute("aria-expanded") === "true") {
 // close it
 legend.setAttribute("aria-expanded", "false");
 } else {
 // open it
 legend.setAttribute("aria-expanded", "true");
 }
}
function setColSpan(control, element) {
 if (control.checked) {
 element.style.columnSpan = "all";
 } else {
 element.style.columnSpan = "none";
 }
}

article {
 column-count: 5;
 column-width: 8em;
 widows: 3;
 orphans: 3;
 gap: 1em;
 column-rule: 2px dashed #666666;
 height: 50em;
}
.title {
 column-span: all;
 display: flex;
 align-items: baseline;
 gap: 1em;
 flex-wrap: wrap;
}
p {
 margin: 0 0 1em 0;
 line-height: 1.4;
}
.breakInside * {
 break-inside: avoid;
}
#options {
 position: fixed;
 top: 1rem;
 right: 1rem;
 background: white;
 display: none;
}
fieldset p {
 margin-bottom: 0.25em;
}
[aria-expanded] {
 position: relative;
 top: 0;
 transition: 200ms;
}
[aria-expanded="false"] {
 top: 0.75em;
}
[aria-expanded="false"] + #controls {
 display: none;
}
legend {
 background-color: #dedede;
 padding: 0.5em;
}
[aria-expanded="false"] {
 margin: -1em;
 display: inline-block;
}
blockquote {
 border: 2px dashed red;
 margin: 0 0 0.25em 0;
}
blockquote p {
 margin-bottom: 0;
}
blockquote p::before,
blockquote p::after {
 content: '"';
 font-size: 1.2em;
 vertical-align: baseline;
 color: red;
}

Note: Multiple-column layout is closely related to paged media. Each column box is a fragment, much like each printed page is a fragment of a document. Using the properties defined in the CSS fragmentation module, you can control how content breaks between columns and pages.

Note: Bear in mind that setting container height and line length can pose challenges for people with visual or cognitive disabilities. WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.8 states that even when the text size is doubled, content should not need to be scrolled.

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This page was last modified on ⁨Sep 1, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.