column-count

The column-count CSS property breaks an element's content into the specified number of columns.

The {{cssxref("columns")}} shorthand property can be used to set the column-count, {{cssxref("column-height")}}, and {{cssxref("column-width")}} property values in a single declaration.

css

column-count: 2;

css

column-count: 3;

css

column-count: 4;

css

column-count: auto;
column-width: 8rem;

html

<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>

css

#example-element {
  width: 100%;
  text-align: left;
}

Syntax

css

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

/* <integer> value */
column-count: 3;

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

Values

auto
- : The number of columns is determined by other CSS properties, such as {{cssxref("column-width")}}.
{{cssxref("<integer>")}}
- : Is a strictly positive {{cssxref("<integer>")}} describing the ideal number of columns into which the content of the element will be flowed. If the {{cssxref("column-width")}} is also set to a non-auto value, it merely indicates the maximum allowed number of columns.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

Examples

Splitting a paragraph across three columns

HTML

html

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

CSS

css

.content-box {
  column-count: 3;
}

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample('Splitting_a_paragraph_across_three_columns', 'auto', 120)}}