`white-space` CSS property

The white-space CSS shorthand property sets how white space inside an element is handled.

Try it

white-space: normal;

white-space: pre;

white-space: pre-wrap;

white-space: pre-line;

white-space: wrap;

white-space: collapse;

white-space: preserve nowrap;

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <div id="example-element">
    <p>
      But ere she from the church-door stepped She smiled and told us why: 'It
      was a wicked woman's curse,' Quoth she, 'and what care I?' She smiled, and
      smiled, and passed it off Ere from the door she stept—
    </p>
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  width: 16rem;
}

#example-element p {
  border: 1px solid #c5c5c5;
  padding: 0.75rem;
  text-align: left;
}

The property specifies two things:

• Whether and how white space is collapsed.
• Whether and how lines wrap.

Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

• white-space-collapse
• text-wrap-mode

Syntax

/* Single keyword values */
white-space: normal;
white-space: pre;
white-space: pre-wrap;
white-space: pre-line;

/* white-space-collapse and text-wrap-mode shorthand values */
white-space: nowrap;
white-space: wrap;
white-space: break-spaces;
white-space: collapse;
white-space: preserve nowrap;

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

Values

The white-space property values can be specified as one or two keywords representing the values for the white-space-collapse and text-wrap-mode properties, or the following special keywords:

normal

Sequences of white space are collapsed. Newline characters in the source are handled the same as other white spaces. Lines are broken as necessary to fill line boxes. Equivalent to collapse wrap.

pre

Sequences of white space are preserved. Lines are only broken at newline characters in the source and at <br> elements. Equivalent to preserve nowrap.

pre-wrap

Sequences of white space are preserved. Lines are broken at newline characters, at <br>, and as necessary to fill line boxes. Equivalent to preserve wrap.

pre-line

Sequences of white space are collapsed. Lines are broken at newline characters, at <br>, and as necessary to fill line boxes. Equivalent to preserve-breaks wrap.

The following table summarizes the behavior of these four white-space keyword values:

A tab defaults to 8 spaces and can be configured using the tab-size property. In the case of normal, nowrap, and pre-line values, every tab is converted to a space (U+0020) character.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

white-space = 
  normal |
  pre |
  pre-wrap |
  pre-line |
  <'white-space-collapse'> ||
  <'text-wrap-mode'>

Examples

Basic example

code {
  white-space: pre;
}

Line breaks inside <pre> elements

pre {
  white-space: pre-wrap;
}

In action

<div id="css-code" class="box">
  p { white-space:
  <select>
    <option>normal</option>
    <option>nowrap</option>
    <option>pre</option>
    <option>pre-wrap</option>
    <option>pre-line</option>
    <option>break-spaces</option>
  </select>
  }
</div>
<div id="results" class="box">
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
    tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam,
    quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
    consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
    cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat
    non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
  </p>
</div>

.box {
  width: 350px;
  padding: 16px;
}

#css-code {
  background-color: gainsboro;
  font-size: 16px;
  font-family: monospace;
}

#css-code select {
  font-family: inherit;
  width: 100px;
}

#results {
  background-color: rgb(230 230 230);
  overflow-x: scroll;
  white-space: normal;
  font-size: 14px;
}

const select = document.querySelector("#css-code select");
const results = document.querySelector("#results p");
select.addEventListener("change", (e) => {
  results.style.setProperty("white-space", e.target.value);
});

Controlling line wrapping in tables

HTML

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>Very long content that splits</td>
      <td class="nw">Very long content that don't split</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="nw">white-space:</td>
      <td>normal</td>
      <td>nowrap</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border: solid black 1px;
  width: 250px;
  height: 150px;
}
td {
  border: solid 1px black;
  text-align: center;
}
.nw {
  white-space: nowrap;
}

Result

Multiple lines in SVG text element

The white-space CSS property can be used to create multiple lines in a <text> element, which does not wrap by default.

HTML

The text inside the <text> element needs to be split into multiple lines for the new lines to be detected. After the first line the rest need to have their whitespace removed.

<svg viewBox="0 0 320 150">
  <text y="20" x="10">Here is an English paragraph
that is broken into multiple lines
in the source code so that it can
be more easily read and edited
in a text editor.
  </text>
</svg>

CSS

text {
  white-space: break-spaces;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Properties that define how words break within themselves: overflow-wrap, word-break, hyphens
• tab-size
• Handling whitespace in CSS