width - CSS: Cascading Style Sheets

The width CSS property sets an element's width. By default, it sets the width of the content area, but if box-sizing is set to border-box, it sets the width of the border area.

The min-width and max-width properties override width.

Syntax

/* <length> values */
width: 300px;
width: 25em;

/* <percentage> value */
width: 75%;

/* Keyword values */
width: max-content;
width: min-content;
width: fit-content(20em);
width: auto;

/* Global values */
width: inherit;
width: initial;
width: unset;

Values

<length>: Defines the width as an absolute value.
<percentage>: Defines the width as a percentage of the containing block's width.
auto: The browser will calculate and select a width for the specified element.
max-content: The intrinsic preferred width.
min-content: The intrinsic minimum width.
fit-content(<length-percentage>): Uses the fit-content formula with the available space replaced by the specified argument, i.e. min(max-content, max(min-content, <length-percentage>)).

Accessibility concerns

Ensure that elements set with a width aren't truncated and/or don't obscure other content when the page is zoomed to increase text size.

Formal definition

Initial value	`auto`
Applies to	all elements but non-replaced inline elements, table rows, and row groups
Inherited	no
Percentages	refer to the width of the containing block
Computed value	a percentage or `auto` or the absolute length
Animation type	a length, percentage or calc();

Formal syntax

auto | <length> | <percentage> | min-content | max-content | fit-content(<length-percentage>)where <length-percentage> = <length> | <percentage>

Examples

Default width

p.goldie {
  background: gold;
}

<p class="goldie">The Mozilla community produces a lot of great software.</p>

Pixels and ems

.px_length {
  width: 200px;
  background-color: red;
  color: white;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

.em_length {
  width: 20em;
  background-color: white;
  color: red;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

<div class="px_length">Width measured in px</div>
<div class="em_length">Width measured in em</div>

Percentage

.percent {
  width: 20%;
  background-color: silver;
  border: 1px solid red;
}

<div class="percent">Width in percentage</div>

max-content

p.maxgreen {
  background: lightgreen;
  width: intrinsic;           /* Safari/WebKit uses a non-standard name */
  width: -moz-max-content;    /* Firefox/Gecko */
  width: -webkit-max-content; /* Chrome */
  width: max-content;
}

<p class="maxgreen">The Mozilla community produces a lot of great software.</p>

min-content

p.minblue {
  background: lightblue;
  width: -moz-min-content;    /* Firefox */
  width: -webkit-min-content; /* Chrome */
  width: min-content;
}

<p class="minblue">The Mozilla community produces a lot of great software.</p>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 4 The definition of 'width' in that specification.	Editor's Draft
CSS Box Sizing Module Level 3 The definition of 'width' in that specification.	Working Draft	Added the `max-content`, `min-content`, `fit-content` keywords.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'width' in that specification.	Recommendation	Precises on which element it applies to.
CSS Level 1 The definition of 'width' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser