Intent to Ship: Column wrapping for multicol

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Morten Stenshorne

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Nov 27, 2025, 6:34:33 AM (yesterday) Nov 27
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Contact emails
mste...@chromium.org

Explainer
https://github.com/mstensho/column-wrap

Specification
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-multicol-2

Summary
Add support for the `column-wrap` and `column-height` CSS properties, from multicol Level 2. https://drafts.csswg.org/css-multicol-2/#cwr https://drafts.csswg.org/css-multicol-2/#ch This allows for vertical column layout, or even 2D column layout. Columns can have an explicit constrained height, apart from being derived from the content-box height of the multicol container, and wrap to a new row of columns when all columns have been filled for one row, rather than creating overflowing columns in the inline direction.

Blink component
Blink>Layout>MultiCol

Web Feature ID
multi-column

Motivation
The primary motivation for introducing the new CSS properties `column-height` and `column-wrap` into the Multi-column Layout module is to gain greater control over the height of columns and enable the creation of content "rows" when the content overflows. Currently, the CSS Multi-column Layout module (multicol) is designed primarily for a single, continuous stream of content that flows down one column and then continues at the top of the next column, similar to a newspaper layout. This behavior is confined to a single "row" of columns.

Initial public proposal
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-multicol-2/

TAG review
https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/1073

TAG review status
Issues addressed

Risks


Interoperability and Compatibility
No information provided

Gecko: No signal (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1201)

WebKit: No signal (https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/477)

Web developers: No signals

Other signals:

WebView application risks

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications?

No information provided


Debuggability
No information provided

Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?
Yes

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?
Yes


Flag name on about://flags
MulticolColumnWrapping

Finch feature name
MulticolColumnWrapping

Rollout plan
Will ship enabled for all users

Requires code in //chrome?
False

Tracking bug
https://issues.chromium.org/issues/403183884

Estimated milestones
Shipping on desktop144
Shipping on Android144
Shipping on WebView144


Anticipated spec changes

Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of the API in a non-backward-compatible way).

No information provided

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5176206485618688?gate=5179956763820032

Links to previous Intent discussions
Intent to Prototype: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAKWZFm6Fq87884oWbi%2BMT0XDipMWWxm0G%2Bk6M1s%3Dp8fmgyqL5w%40mail.gmail.com


This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.
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