index.md

title	slug	page-type	browser-compat
white-space	Web/CSS/white-space	css-property	css.properties.white-space

{{CSSRef}}

The white-space CSS property sets how {{Glossary("whitespace", "white space")}} inside an element is handled.

{{EmbedInteractiveExample("pages/css/white-space.html")}}

The property specifies two things:

• Whether and how white space is collapsed.
• Whether and how lines wrap.

Note: To make words break within themselves, use {{CSSxRef("overflow-wrap")}}, {{CSSxRef("word-break")}}, or {{CSSxRef("hyphens")}} instead.

Syntax

/* Single keyword values */
white-space: normal;
white-space: nowrap;
white-space: pre;
white-space: pre-wrap;
white-space: pre-line;
white-space: break-spaces;

/* white-space-collapse and text-wrap shorthand values */
white-space: collapse balance;
white-space: preserve nowrap;

/* Global values */
white-space: inherit;
white-space: initial;
white-space: revert;
white-space: revert-layer;
white-space: unset;

Values

white-space property values can be specified as a single keyword chosen from the list of values below, or two values representing shorthand for the {{CSSxRef("white-space-collapse")}} and {{cssxref("text-wrap")}} properties.

• normal

  • : Sequences of white space are collapsed. Newline characters in the source are handled the same as other white space. Lines are broken as necessary to fill line boxes.

• nowrap

  • : Collapses white space as for normal, but suppresses line breaks (text wrapping) within the source.

• pre

  • : Sequences of white space are preserved. Lines are only broken at newline characters in the source and at {{HTMLElement("br")}} elements.

• pre-wrap

  • : Sequences of white space are preserved. Lines are broken at newline characters, at {{HTMLElement("br")}}, and as necessary to fill line boxes.

• pre-line

  • : Sequences of white space are collapsed. Lines are broken at newline characters, at {{HTMLElement("br")}}, and as necessary to fill line boxes.

• break-spaces

  • : The behavior is identical to that of pre-wrap, except that:

    • Any sequence of preserved white space always takes up space, including at the end of the line.
    • A line-breaking opportunity exists after every preserved white space character, including between white space characters.
    • Such preserved spaces take up space and do not hang, thus affecting the box's intrinsic sizes (min-content size and max-content size).

The following table summarizes the behavior of the various white-space keyword values:

	New lines	Spaces and tabs	Text wrapping	End-of-line spaces	End-of-line other space separators
normal	Collapse	Collapse	Wrap	Remove	Hang
nowrap	Collapse	Collapse	No wrap	Remove	Hang
pre	Preserve	Preserve	No wrap	Preserve	No wrap
pre-wrap	Preserve	Preserve	Wrap	Hang	Hang
pre-line	Preserve	Collapse	Wrap	Remove	Hang
break-spaces	Preserve	Preserve	Wrap	Wrap	Wrap

Note: There is a distinction made between spaces and other space separators. These are defined as follows:

• spaces
  • : Spaces (U+0020), tabs (U+0009), and segment breaks (such as newlines).
• other space separators
  • : All other space separators defined in Unicode, other than those already defined as spaces.

Where white space is said to hang, this can affect the size of the box when measured for intrinsic sizing.

Collapsing of white space

The {{cssxref("white-space-collapse")}} property page explains the browser algorithm for collapsing white space.

Formal definition

{{CSSInfo}}

Formal syntax

{{CSSSyntax}}

Examples

Basic example

code {
  white-space: pre;
}

Line breaks inside <pre> elements

pre {
  white-space: pre-wrap;
}

In action

<div id="css-code" class="box">
  p { white-space:
  <select>
    <option>normal</option>
    <option>nowrap</option>
    <option>pre</option>
    <option>pre-wrap</option>
    <option>pre-line</option>
    <option>break-spaces</option>
    <option>preserve nowrap</option>
  </select>
  }
</div>
<div id="results" class="box">
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod
    tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam,
    quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo
    consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse
    cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat
    non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
  </p>
</div>

.box {
  width: 300px;
  padding: 16px;
}

#css-code {
  background-color: rgb(220 220 220);
  font-size: 16px;
  font-family: monospace;
}

#css-code select {
  font-family: inherit;
}

#results {
  background-color: rgb(230 230 230);
  overflow-x: scroll;
  white-space: normal;
  font-size: 14px;
}

const select = document.querySelector("#css-code select");
const results = document.querySelector("#results p");
select.addEventListener("change", (e) => {
  results.setAttribute("style", `white-space: ${e.target.value}`);
});

{{EmbedLiveSample("In_action", "100%", 350)}}

Multiple lines in SVG text element

The {{CSSXRef("white-space")}} CSS property can be used to create multiple lines in a {{SVGElement("text")}} element, which does not wrap by default.

Note: At time of writing this feature has limited support.

HTML

The text inside the <text> element needs to be split into multiple lines for the new-lines to be detected. After the first line the rest need to have their whitespace removed.

<svg viewBox="0 0 320 150">
  <text y="20" x="10">Here is an English paragraph
that is broken into multiple lines
in the source code so that it can
be more easily read and edited
in a text editor.
  </text>
</svg>

CSS

text {
  white-space: break-spaces;
}

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample("multiple_lines_in_svg_text_element", "100%", 150)}}

Specifications

{{Specifications}}

Browser compatibility

{{Compat}}

See also

• Properties that define how words break within themselves: {{CSSxRef("overflow-wrap")}}, {{CSSxRef("word-break")}}, {{CSSxRef("hyphens")}}