[csswg-drafts] [css-gaps] Multicol: Allow column rules to go through row gaps created by `wrap` (#13453)

jav099 has just created a new issue for https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts:

== [css-gaps] Multicol: Allow column rules to go through row gaps created by `wrap` ==
As per the discussion and resolution in https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13127, we decided to allow column rules to "go through" spanners in multicol when specified with `rule-break: none;`

However, after some more thought and discussion, we realized that what was not explicitly discussed is if we want to allow column rules to "go though" row gaps created by `column-wrap: wrap;`. 

On one hand, as @fantasai mentioned in the discussion, since multicol visually looks grid-like (right now), authors might view it as such so then it make sense to treat it as grid as much as possible. Which in this case means that `rule-break: none` "goes through" row gaps same as it goes through spanners.

```css
.multicol {
  gap-rule-overlap: columns-over-rows;
  column-rule: 10px solid blue;
  column-rule-break: none;
  
  row-rule: 10px solid gold;
  row-rule-break: normal;
}
```

<img width="217" height="215" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f8cc1ed5-bfa2-4a06-bb15-e7530424d624" />

On the other hand, as @tabatkins alluded to, it might make more sense to treat the columns wrapping a little more "flex-like" where `rule-break: none` does not go through row gaps (decorations are contained within their rows).

```css
.multicol {
  gap-rule-overlap: columns-over-rows;
  column-rule: 10px solid blue;
  column-rule-break: none;
  
  row-rule: 10px solid gold;
  row-rule-break: normal;
}
```

<img width="213" height="209" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/93fef72d-faf7-4de7-8a23-afbcad887e1f" />

We would like to propose something along the latter, where  with `rule-break: none` decorations _can_ go through spanners BUT _can't_ punch through row gaps.





Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13453 using your GitHub account


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Received on Wednesday, 4 February 2026 20:01:44 UTC