white-space
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
The white-space
CSS property sets how white space inside an element is handled.
Try it
The property specifies two things:
- Whether and how white space is collapsed.
- Whether and how lines wrap.
Note: To make words break within themselves, use overflow-wrap
, word-break
, or hyphens
instead.
Syntax
/* Single keyword values */
white-space: normal;
white-space: nowrap;
white-space: pre;
white-space: pre-wrap;
white-space: pre-line;
white-space: break-spaces;
/* white-space-collapse and text-wrap shorthand values */
white-space: collapse balance;
white-space: preserve nowrap;
/* Global values */
white-space: inherit;
white-space: initial;
white-space: revert;
white-space: revert-layer;
white-space: unset;
Values
white-space
property values can be specified as a single keyword chosen from the list of values below, or two values representing shorthand for the white-space-collapse
and text-wrap
properties.
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.
nowrap
-
Collapses white space as the
normal
value does, but suppresses line breaks (text wrapping) within the source. pre
-
Sequences of white space are preserved. Lines are only broken at newline characters in the source and at
<br>
elements. pre-wrap
-
Sequences of white space are preserved. Lines are broken at newline characters, at
<br>
, and as necessary to fill line boxes. pre-line
-
Sequences of white space are collapsed. Lines are broken at newline characters, at
<br>
, and as necessary to fill line boxes. break-spaces
-
The behavior is identical to that of
pre-wrap
, 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.
- Such preserved spaces take up space and do not hang, thus affecting the box's intrinsic sizes (
min-content
size andmax-content
size).
The following table summarizes the behavior of the various white-space
keyword values:
New lines | Spaces and tabs | Text wrapping | End-of-line spaces | End-of-line other space separators | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
normal |
Collapse | Collapse | Wrap | Remove | Hang |
nowrap |
Collapse | Collapse | No wrap | Remove | Hang |
pre |
Preserve | Preserve | No wrap | Preserve | No wrap |
pre-wrap |
Preserve | Preserve | Wrap | Hang | Hang |
pre-line |
Preserve | Collapse | Wrap | Remove | Hang |
break-spaces |
Preserve | Preserve | Wrap | Wrap | Wrap |
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.
Note: There is a distinction made between spaces and other space separators. These are defined as follows:
- spaces
-
Spaces (U+0020), tabs (U+0009), and segment breaks (such as newlines).
- other space separators
-
All other space separators defined in Unicode, other than those already defined as spaces.
Where white space is said to hang, this can affect the size of the box when measured for intrinsic sizing.
Collapsing of white space
The white-space-collapse
property page explains the browser algorithm for collapsing white space.
Formal definition
Initial value | normal |
---|---|
Applies to | all elements |
Inherited | yes |
Computed value | as specified |
Animation type | discrete |
Formal syntax
Examples
Basic example
code {
white-space: pre;
}
Line breaks inside <pre> elements
pre {
white-space: pre-wrap;
}
In action
Controlling line wrapping in tables
HTML
<table>
<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>
</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
Specification |
---|
CSS Text Module Level 3 # white-space-property |
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
- Properties that define how words break within themselves:
overflow-wrap
,word-break
,hyphens
tab-size