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

My perspective on this issue is greatly influenced by the discussion and resolution in issues [13135 ](https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13135) and [13127](https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13127). Particularly @fantasai's emphasis on the importance of evaluating behavior from a web author's POV. As implementers, what may feel obvious or internally inconsistent to us is not necessarily how authors reason about layout unless they are deeply familiar with the underlying model.

Viewed through that lens, and looking at the two examples in the image, I struggle to see a strong author-facing reason why in the layout shown, specifying `rule-break: none` should not result in a decoration that paints continuously from container edge to container edge, even across columns `[Option 1]`. Today, when authors use multi col (even with wrapping), they effectively get a grid-like visual structure, and it's reasonable for them to expect that they can achieve grid-like decoration behavior somewhat easily (as long as this is an opt-in and not the default).  This mirrors the reasoning behind resolutions in issue [13135 ](https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13135) and [13127](https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13127): the default preserves readability and existing expectations, but authors are given the tools to opt into more behaviors to match their intent.

The one case where I do see a strong argument against continuous painting is when column box widths differ across rows. In that scenario, breaking decorations in a flex-like manner feels more consistent and reasonable `[Option 2]`. If this is the major motivating case here, I think it'll be helpful to know that this is a concrete exploration for the multi col layout based on the web authors feedback and not some hypothetical concerns we might be coming up with for this issue.



-- 
GitHub Notification of comment by oSamDavis
Please view or discuss this issue at https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/13453#issuecomment-3881077273 using your GitHub account


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

Received on Tuesday, 10 February 2026 22:28:05 UTC