Intent to Ship: Column wrapping for multicol

[Morten Stenshorne]

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 desktop	144
Shipping on Android	144
Shipping on WebView	144

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.

[TAMURA, Kent]

LGTM1.

The risk looks low.

On Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 8:33 PM Morten Stenshorne <mste...@chromium.org> wrote:

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

I think it would be better to get a new ID. https://github.com/web-platform-dx/web-features/issues/new?template=new-feature.yml

 

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TAMURA Kent
Software Engineer, Google

[Yoav Weiss (@Shopify)]

LGTM2

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAGH7WqECRi7iRbnA9_q5CJhJeB4yY2waUu-yqrC1oW4aUmeSmA%40mail.gmail.com.