CSS white-space Property
Topic: CSS3 Properties ReferencePrev|Next
Description
The white-space CSS property specifies how white-space such as spaces, tabs, and newline characters are handled inside the elements.
The following table summarizes the usages context and the version history of this property.
| Default value: | normal |
|---|---|
| Applies to: | All elements |
| Inherited: | yes |
| Animatable: | No. See animatable properties. |
| Version: | CSS 1, 2, 3 |
Syntax
The syntax of the property is given with:
The example below shows the white-space property in action.
Example
Try this code »code {
white-space: pre;
}
p {
white-space: nowrap;
}Property Values
The following table describes the values of this property.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
normal |
Sequences of whitespace will collapse into a single whitespace. Line breaks will occur wherever necessary to fill line boxes. This is default value. |
nowrap |
Collapses whitespace as for normal, but suppresses line breaks within text. |
pre |
Sequences of whitespace are preserved. Lines are only broken at preserved newline characters. Acts like the <pre> tag in HTML |
pre-line |
Sequences of whitespace will collapse into a single space character. Line breaks will occur at preserved newline characters, and wherever necessary to fill line boxes. |
pre-wrap |
Sequences of whitespace are preserved. Line breaks will occur at preserved newline characters, and wherever necessary to fill line boxes. |
initial |
Sets this property to its default value. |
inherit |
If specified, the associated element takes the computed value of its parent element white-space property. |
Browser Compatibility
The white-space property is supported in all major modern browsers.
 |
Basic Support—
|
Warning: The value pre-line is not supported in versions prior to Firefox 3.5, Safari 3.0 and Opera 9.5. The values pre-line, pre-wrap and inherit are not supported in Internet Explorer 7 and earlier.
Further Reading
See tutorial on: HTML Text Formatting.
Related properties: letter-spacing, word-spacing.
