`column-count` CSS property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It's been available across browsers since March 2017.

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

Try it

column-count: 2;

column-count: 3;

column-count: 4;

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

<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 {
  width: 100%;
  text-align: left;
}

Syntax

/* 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

This property is specified as a single value from the following list:

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

Description

Setting the column-count to a value greater than 1 creates a multi-column layout. The element's content will be evenly distributed between the specified number of columns.

The column-count property, along with the column-height and column-width properties, can also be set by using the columns shorthand.

Formal definition

Initial value	auto
Applies to	Block containers except table wrapper boxes
Inherited	no
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	an <a href="/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference/Values/integer#interpolation" title="Values of the <integer> CSS data type are interpolated via integer discrete steps. The calculation is done as if they were real, floating-point numbers and the discrete value is obtained using the floor function.">integer</a>

Formal syntax

column-count = 
  <integer> |
  auto

<integer> = 
  <number-token>

Examples

Splitting a paragraph across three columns

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

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

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Multi-column Layout Module Level 1 # cc

Browser compatibility

	Desktop					Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`column-count`	50 1	12 12	52 1.5–74 Before version 37, multiple columns didn't work with `display: table-caption` elements.	37 15	9 3	50 18	52 4–79 Before version 37, multiple columns didn't work with `display: table-caption` elements.	37 14	9 2	5.0 1.0	50 4.4	9 2
`auto`	1	12	1.5	15	3	18	4	14	2	1.0	4.4	2