Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-multicol] Do we need column-wrap as well as column-height (#11754)

I really think that we want `column-wrap`. Wrapping automatically if `column-height` is non-auto (and small enough) seems too magical to me.

> What is the behavior, if the author sets column-wrap: wrap, a height on the multicol container, but column-height is auto. I think the two options are:
>
> 1. Do nothing, column-wrap: wrap only does something if column-height is not auto.
> 2. Create new rows, if there is overflow, essentially resolving column-height to the available height of the multicol container, and creating new rows of that same size in the block direction.
>
> My preference is 2, as then we maintain the trigger behavior of column-wrap, and it feels reasonable logical, but we'd need a decision one way or another should we adopt column-wrap and column-height.

I agree. The two properties should be set completely independently and not affect each other.

Meaning that what https://drafts.csswg.org/css-multicol-2/#cwr says for `column-wrap` needs to go away:

> The property only takes effect if [column-height](https://drafts.csswg.org/css-multicol-2/#propdef-column-height) is not auto, [...]

I wonder if `column-wrap` should have a third value `auto`, to support the current behavior, and always honor the value, regardless of media type.

As the spec seems to be aware of, for paged media we always wrap. But this is also true for nested multicol.

```html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<div style="line-height:50px; orphans:1; widows:1;">
  <div style="columns:2; column-fill:auto; height:100px; background:yellow;">
    <div style="height:50px;"></div>
    <div style="columns:2; column-fill:auto; background:cyan;">
      A<br>
      B<br>
      C<br>
      D<br>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
```

This renders like:

![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4f8ddcb7-0b61-4036-85fd-da668f6f0930)

Not like this:

![Image](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/128b562f-59f1-4946-899e-b02d7161f293)

Columns currently wrap if the multicol container lives inside another fragmentation context, be it paged media or another ancestor multicol.

-- 
GitHub Notification of comment by mstensho
Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/11754#issuecomment-2717735744 using your GitHub account


-- 
Sent via github-notify-ml as configured in https://github.com/w3c/github-notify-ml-config

Received on Wednesday, 12 March 2025 12:31:35 UTC