white-space-collapse

Baseline 2024

Newly available

Since March 2024, this feature works across the latest devices and browser versions. This feature might not work in older devices or browsers.

The white-space-collapse CSS property controls how white space inside an element is collapsed.

Note: The white-space-collapse and text-wrap properties can be declared together using the white-space shorthand property.

Syntax

css
/* Keyword values */
white-space-collapse: collapse;
white-space-collapse: preserve;
white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;
white-space-collapse: preserve-spaces;
white-space-collapse: break-spaces;

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

The white-space-collapse property is specified as a single keyword chosen from the list of values below.

Values

collapse

White space sequences are collapsed.

preserve

White space sequences and segment break characters are preserved.

preserve-breaks

White space sequences are collapsed, while segment break characters are preserved.

preserve-spaces

White space sequences are preserved, while tabs and segment break characters are converted to spaces.

break-spaces

The behavior is identical to preserve, except that:

  • Any sequence of preserved white space always takes up space, including at the end of the line.
  • A line-breaking opportunity exists after every preserved white space character, including between white space characters.
  • Preserved spaces take up space and do not hang, thus affecting the box's intrinsic sizes (min-content size and max-content size).

Note: Segment break characters are characters such as line feeds that cause text to break onto new lines.

Collapsing of white space

User agents handle white space collapsing as follows:

  • Tabs are generally converted to spaces.
  • If segment breaks are to be collapsed:
    • Sequences of segment breaks are collapsed down to a single segment break.
    • They are converted to spaces in the case of languages that separate words with spaces (like English), or removed altogether in the case of languages that do not separate words with spaces (like Chinese).
  • If spaces are to be collapsed:
    • Spaces or tabs before or after segment breaks are removed.
    • Sequences of spaces are converted, or "collapsed", to a single space.
  • When spaces are preserved, sequences of spaces are treated as non-breaking except that they will soft-wrap at the end of each sequence — i.e. the next line will always start with the next non-space character. In the case of the break-spaces value however, a soft wrap could potentially occur after each space, so the next line may start with one or more spaces.

Formal definition

Initial valuecollapse
Applies toall elements
Inheritedyes
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete

Formal syntax

white-space-collapse = 
  collapse         |
  discard          |
  preserve         |
  preserve-breaks  |
  preserve-spaces  |
  break-spaces

Examples

HTML

html
<h2 class="collapse">Default behavior;
  all   whitespace   is   collapsed
  in    the          heading       .</h2>

<h2 class="preserve">In this case
  all   whitespace   is   preserved
  in    the          heading       .</h2>

<h2 class="preserve-breaks">In this case only
  the   line breaks  are  preserved
  in    the          heading       .</h2>

<h2 class="preserve-spaces">In this case only
  the   spaces       are  preserved
  in    the          heading       .</h2>

CSS

css
.collapse {
  white-space-collapse: collapse;
}

.preserve {
  white-space-collapse: preserve;
}

.preserve-breaks {
  white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;
}

.preserve-spaces {
  white-space-collapse: preserve-spaces;
}

h2 {
  font-size: 1.6rem;
  font-family: monospace;
  border-bottom: 1px dotted #ccc;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Text Module Level 4
# white-space-collapsing

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also