Equal height columns have been a need of web designers forever. If all the columns share the same background, equal height is irrelevant because you can set that background on a parent element. But if one or more columns need to have their own background, it becomes very important to the visual integrity of the design.


If a design is NON-fluid width, this task becomes considerably easier. The best technique for a fixed width layout is Dan Cederholm’s Faux Columns where the columns are wrapped in a container element (which you probably already have anyway) and that container has an image background applied to it which repeats vertically to simulate the look of equal height columns, even if the elements themselves haven’t actually grown.
When fluid width and multiple columns comes into play, this task becomes more difficult. We can no longer use a static image to simulate the look of multiple columns. All hope is not lost though. Below we will investigate a number of different techniques for accomplishing fluid width equal height columns.
Doug Neiner Method
Doug came up with this on the fly a few month ago during a little nerd chat we had. The idea is to use CSS3 gradients to create the columns. Gradients?! Indeed. We normally think of gradients as a color morphing into another color over distance. However, we create gradients with CSS by declaring “color-stops” which are specific locations where the color will be exactly as specified at that point. The trick is to use overlapping color stops. That way you can get one color to stop and another to begin with no visible “gradient”.
Check out how you can get a five-column background, by declaring one color stop at the 0% and 100% mark, and doubles at the 20%/40%/60%/80% marks.
.five-columns {
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear,
left top,
right top,
color-stop(0, #eee),
color-stop(20%, #eee),
color-stop(20%, #ccc),
color-stop(40%, #ccc),
color-stop(40%, #eee),
color-stop(60%, #eee),
color-stop(60%, #ccc),
color-stop(80%, #ccc),
color-stop(80%, #eee),
color-stop(100%, #eee)
);
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(
left,
#eee,
#eee 20%,
#ccc 20%,
#ccc 40%,
#eee 40%,
#eee 60%,
#ccc 60%,
#ccc 80%,
#eee 80%,
#eee 100%
);
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(
left,
#eee,
#eee 20%,
#ccc 20%,
#ccc 40%,
#eee 40%,
#eee 60%,
#ccc 60%,
#ccc 80%,
#eee 80%,
#eee 100%
);
background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(
left,
#eee,
#eee 20%,
#ccc 20%,
#ccc 40%,
#eee 40%,
#eee 60%,
#ccc 60%,
#ccc 80%,
#eee 80%,
#eee 100%
);
background-image: -o-linear-gradient(
left,
#eee,
#eee 20%,
#ccc 20%,
#ccc 40%,
#eee 40%,
#eee 60%,
#ccc 60%,
#ccc 80%,
#eee 80%,
#eee 100%
);
}
This CSS is applied to a wrapper of all the columns. Because we are using percentages for these color stops, this simulated five-column background-image will stretch and shrink just as you expect it to in a fluid width design. You can think of this as a modern day extension of Faux Columns.
The markup itself is a series of columns inside that wrapper.
<div class="five-columns group">
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
</div>
Notice the “group” class which is the clearfix class to make the parent wrapper retains its height despite containing only floated children (it would normally collapse).
I think this is a rather clever take on the idea. Do note that that only modern Gecko and WebKit browsers support CSS3 gradients so your Opera and Older IE visitors will not see the column backgrounds. However, the column structure should remain intact even down to IE 6.
This method allows for source order independence by using negative and positive left margins to jockey columns into position. Here’s a demo of the Doug Neiner method where the column that is first in the source order is moved to the middle.
Nicolas Gallagher Method
Nicolas Gallagher published a gem of an article about using CSS2 pseudo elements to achieve a number of effects that are otherwise difficult to pull off or that require additional HTML clutter.
The idea is to set the parent wrapper with relative positioning. This sets the context for absolute positioning within. Then, we make each of three columns one-third the width of the parent and position them relatively within, pushing them over with relative positioning as needed. This also allows for source order independence.
Two of the visible background coloration columns are generated by absolutely positioned block-level pseudo elements (:before and :after) which are again one-third of the width, but 100% of the height of the parent. These two “columns” have a negative z-index value so they can sit below the visible text content of the column. The third “column” is actually just the background color of the wrapper showing through. Since the height of the wrapper will be set by the height of the tallest column, this works.
.pseudo-three-col {
position: relative;
background: #eee;
z-index: 1;
width: 100%;
}
.pseudo-three-col .col {
position: relative;
width: 27%;
padding: 3%;
float: left;
}
.pseudo-three-col .col:nth-child(1) { left: 33%; }
.pseudo-three-col .col:nth-child(2) { left: -33.3%; }
.pseudo-three-col .col:nth-child(3) { left: 0; }
.pseudo-three-col:before, .pseudo-three-col:after {
content: " ";
position: absolute;
z-index: -1;
top: 0;
left: 33.4%;
width: 33.4%;
height: 100%;
background: #ccc;
}
.pseudo-three-col:after {
left: 66.667%;
background: #eee;
}
Using Tables
Sometimes a tried and true method that gets the job done is the way to go. One way to sure-fire accomplish the idea of fluid width equal height columns is a dang ol’ row of table cells. Just in case you forgot how that looks, it’s like this:
<table id="actual-table">
<tr>
<td>
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Give each table cell a percentage width that totals up to 100% and you’ll be set. Even if you then apply padding to the cells, the table will arrange itself correctly.
#actual-table { border-collapse: collapse; }
#actual-table td {
width: 20%;
padding: 10px;
vertical-align: top;
}
#actual-table td:nth-child(even) {
background: #ccc;
}
#actual-table td:nth-child(odd) {
background: #eee;
}
Now let’s say that table markup gives you the heebie-jeebies. You can actually use plain ol’ div markup but still force it to behave like a table. In that case we’d do something like this:
<div id="css-table">
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p></div>
</div>
And then use CSS tables:
#css-table {
display: table;
}
#css-table .col {
display: table-cell;
width: 25%;
padding: 10px;
}
#css-table .col:nth-child(even) {
background: #ccc;
}
#css-table .col:nth-child(odd) {
background: #eee;
}
Besides using comfortable markup, we actually save some markup because we can go right from the table to the table cells. No element needs to simulate a table-row.
So are CSS tables the answer to our dreams? They are kinda cool, but they aren’t supported in IE 7 so if you are interested in going this route I’d recommend just using actual table markup instead. There is really no significant advantages to using CSS tables.
The most significant disadvantage of both table methods is source-order dependance. There is really no way to have the first column in the source order appear anywhere else than the first column.
One True Layout Method
One of the most classic layouts of all time is the one true layout. In one of the demos, equal height columns is tackled. It’s a rather clever technique that still works great today. The idea, as usual, uses a wrapping element for all the columns. This wrapper is set to have hidden overflow, which not only clears the floated columns, but hides anything sticking outside of it. This is particularly important, because we are going to be forcing the height of the columns to be extremely tall, and then cutting them off with the hidden overflow. The magical voodoo here is that while we force the columns taller with a huge amount of bottom padding, we suck the height of the wrapper back up with an equal amount of negative bottom margin. This gives us just the effect we need.
The markup is nothing we haven’t seen before:
<div id="one-true" class="group">
<div class="col"><h3>I am listed first in source order.</h3><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
</div>
Then the CSS is just floated columns with the margin/padding trick.
#one-true { overflow: hidden; }
#one-true .col {
width: 27%;
padding: 30px 3.15% 0;
float: left;
margin-bottom: -99999px;
padding-bottom: 99999px;
}
#one-true .col:nth-child(1) { margin-left: 33.3%; background: #ccc; }
#one-true .col:nth-child(2) { margin-left: -66.3%; background: #eee; }
#one-true .col:nth-child(3) { left: 0; background: #eee; }
#one-true p { margin-bottom: 30px; } /* Bottom padding on col is busy */
Note that the padding on the bottoms of the columns is generated by the content within pushing down, as we can’t count on bottom padding on the column itself, as it’s busy with its fancy trick. Source order independence here is just like we’ve already covered, with jockeying around with left margins.
Flexbox Method
Flexbox can handle this situation readily. Here is a reference for all the features and browser support and such.
The markup, again, is perfectly clean:
<div class="flexbox">
<div class="col"><h3>I am listed first in source order.</h3><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p></div>
<div class="col"><p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas.</p></div>
</div>
The CSS requires a few vendor prefixes (or use Autoprefixer) to kick off the flex layout:
.flexbox {
display: -webkit-flex;
display: -ms-flexbox;
display: flex;
overflow: hidden;
}
From there, we can equalize their widths pretty easily:
.flexbox .col {
flex: 1;
}
The align-items
property can be set to stretch to make sure they are equal height, but that’s the default! So we don’t have to set it at all.
Saving the best for last, we can alter the location of the columns just by setting their order to the desired location. It’s best to explicitly set all columns where you want them to be; I found setting only certain ones was problematic. Still, being able to change location without layout hacks is awesome.
.flexbox .col:nth-child(1) {
background: #ccc;
order: 1;
}
.flexbox .col:nth-child(2) {
background: #eee;
order: 0;
}
.flexbox .col:nth-child(3) {
background: #eee;
order: 2;
}
JavaScript Options
Of course there are also JavaScript solutions for equal heights columns. We explored that a bit in “Equal Height Blocks in Rows”, and there’s a good CodePen demo by Michah Godbolt that illustrates this method.
If you’d like to go the jQuery plugin route, check out matchHeight, which helps you equalize the height of selected elements.
Quick Notes
- Using percentages for layout isn’t perfect in WebKit
- In this demo I used things like :nth-child to target some columns. You’ll likely get better cross browser compatibility if you give your columns specific class names and use those class names instead. I was more interested in investigating the theory here, and some of the fancy modern techniques only work in browsers where :nth-child would work anyway.
- Bonus tip: you can use a Faux Columns-like technique with fluid width columns if you only have two columns. This is in use on the current (v7) design of CSS-Tricks. The layout is 2-column fluid, and the background color of the sidebar comes from this image. The column is able to grow, because the placement of that background uses percentages to get it to adjust correctly as the container element grows in width.
background: url(sidebar.png) repeat-y 61.7% 0;
- Flexible layout model is very different from the CSS3 layout module. Apparently the wind is blowing toward flexible layout as far as actual implementation.
This is so comprehensive! Great work and a great reference.
Quick note: your Nicolas Gallagher Method link is 404’d Chris.I recall one method that I’ve used before and is pretty similar to what Nicolas’ sounds like where you use absolute positioning but the part I never knew was that you can use Absolute positioning on both sides of an element to “suck” it to the edge of it’s relative container. So say if you did absolute with top: 0; and bottom: 0; it will pull the column all the way to the bottom. I’m not sure on browser compatibility but as far as I know it works in IE, which, if it works there … well you know the rest.
Btw I see you’re doing the JQuery summit Nov. 16, sounds interesting.
Chris, awesome stuff as always man! I’ll definitely be bookmarking this page. Thanks
Ad. “Nicolas Gallagher Method”
I would rather code the pseudo-elements like this:
Why
bottom: 0;
is better thanheight: 100%
? Because it’s so much more flexible. You have control over distances; e.g.bottom: 1px;
(try this with height :)).I’ve learned this mechanism thanks to Google.
You should also look out for IE7, gecko 1.9x (K-Meleon, FF2.x) and FF3.0 (though I’m not sure about the latter). You can’t fully control positioning of pseudo-elements in those browsers. They will brake your layout. At least explicitly declared height should be avoided and border (though you could declare border color with rgba or better – hsla, because I think that FF3.0 would ignore that declaration). It may be also healthier to declare
content: '';
instead ofcontent: ' ';
, but that probably depends :).Thanks Chris for this comprehensive article!
I am a big fan of cross browsers solutions for this kind of “job” so I prefer “Faux Columns” and/or “table” method.
here is a good example of such a layout
http://chikuyonok.ru/2010/01/liquid-site-markup/
Hi Chris,
what’s about the solution by matthew james taylor?
http://matthewjamestaylor.com/blog/ultimate-multi-column-liquid-layouts-em-and-pixel-widths
I used it time ago and it was really useful.
This technique I used a little while ago and it worked so slick. At first I was going to rely solely on a js solution.
I really like Matthew’s layouts. I have quibbles with some of their design elements, but overall they are excellent.
OK if example works fine on all major browsers.
None of the solutions work in IE7 at least not for me. I can’t be bothered trying out anything that even IE7 can’t handle.
Amazing! Only problem i’m seeing is that it doesn’t work on IE6, i was about to completely lose it if it did work there haha. Go figure, why would it work!
My god IE6 needs to go away already, getting so bored with it
Great article. I’m using javaScript to do my columns.. obviously this isn’t idea – but I felt this was the cleanest method to use.
What’s your opinion on using jS for this?
One True Layout method has always worked for me.
I know this is picky but I just feel weird using #css-table {display: table;}. If it HAS to display exactly as a table there may be a good reason it could just be a table?
What will come next?
h2.paragraph { display: table; }
span.heading { display: h2 }
Great roundup though!! Really useful.
What’s really sad is that the one solution that seems to work across all browsers, yes even back to IE6, are tables. No hacks, no vendor-specific selectors, nada. Sad.
Hi, what about a jQuery plugin? I usually use http://www.cssnewbie.com/equal-height-columns-with-jquery/ . It’s simple and fast.
“Just in case you forgot how that looks, it’s like this”
Bwhahaha!
The flexbox method works perfectly in Firefox with some changes to the code. First you need to define the childs as boxes too, by setting their display to “(prefix-)box”. To make sure boxes are able to wrap without setting a specific width, you need to set the (prefix-)box-flex attribute, with can be 1 or higher if you want a specific box bigger than the others. After that, setting (prefix-)box-orient to vertical in the child boxes will leave you with boxes of different horizontal sizes, but able to be smaller than their content. I’m not sure if it is a bug in Firefox (and Google Chrome), but setting any size on the boxes after these steps will make them all equal width.
To make all boxes equal height without any additional method, all you need to do is remove the (prefix-)box-align property (or change it to “stretch”), making all boxes equal height without any margins/paddings or overflow clipping.
Here is a fixed CSS for this to work in both Firefox or Webkit:
#flexbox {
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: horizontal;
-webkit-box-align: stretch;
display: -moz-box;
-moz-box-orient: horizontal;
-moz-box-align: stretch;
display: box;
box-orient: horizontal;
box-align: stretch;
}
#flexbox .col {
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;
-webkit-box-flex: 1;
display: -moz-box;
-moz-box-orient: vertical;
-moz-box-flex: 1;
display: box;
box-orient: vertical;
box-flex: 1;
padding: 30px 3%;
width: 300px; /* This could be any value in pixels that it would remain the same, from what I see so far */
}
Elastic CSS Framework has been doing this for a while, also resolving the subpixel rounding in all browsers correctly.
jQuery needs to be one of the options. As others have mentioned it can easily be used to solve this. The fallback is simply uneven columns.
Also, use jQuery for cross-browser nth-child.
I think it takes 3, maybe 4 lines of jquery to make this dynamic and work across all browsers. nth-child ftw!
I read about Paul Irish’s Flexbox method, and I am really digging the simplicity of it. The problem with solutions like that is that it is so damn limited in browser support. I wonder if someone has something like PIE that will handle those kind of properties.
The CSS framework YAML provides a production ready crossbrowser solution for flexible columns with equal heights since almost two years now (January 2009), based on CSS-tables (for modern browsers) and the One true Layout-Method for IE.
http://www.yaml.de/fileadmin/examples/06_layouts_advanced/equal_height_boxes.html
Chris,
Great article, I’ve been designing for about 2 years, and this has always stumped me.
Also, Very nice site update… I don’t know how long the new look has been up, but it looks great!
Cheers!
There was quite a nasty bug with the ‘one true layout’ in Firefox. Page anchors can cause the page content to disappear. It was definitely present in version 3, but it could have been fixed by now. Aside from that it’s the best method of the lot IMO.
You want a bunch of columns in a table to behave as you expect them to. Use the good old element! Sure it might not be sexy and funky and everything else but it .
JS, CSS and Javascript ‘methods’ ffs?! Why do we need so many complicated and creative solutions to something that’s not a problem in the first place?
Why do we forget the simplest of solutions? It’s like using a plasma cutter to cut out a piece of paper? Did we forget how to use scissors?
Some of us don’t have time to reinvent the wheel….
I totally get the desire to use a simple, time-proven method. I included two methods for using tables for this in the article. However, one significant reason to look for CSS methods is the reason we use CSS at all, abstraction of layout and design from markup. The class example: let’s say you have 1,000 pages of HTML marked up using a three column layout with tables. Now the design needs to change and left and right columns need to be swapped. If your layout was CSS, you could do it with one change to the CSS. If your layout is tables right in the markup, you’ll be making 1,000 changes.
Use the good old <TABLE< element! Sure it might not be sexy and funky and everything else but it works everywhere.
Good stuff, the simulated table using divs actually helped me resolve an issue I had in one of my sites. I was having to resort to a table within a div which i know is a no no but, this takes care of having to use that workaround.
Thank you for sharing the code for the different methods, the link in the comments to Matthew James Taylor was fantastic, Thank you Dennis. LT
Great article, Chris.
Wasn’t aware of the various types of methods to accomplish equal height columns!
Why didn’t you mention Javascript solutions?
jQuery gives you the height of a box. You can compare the heights of all your elements, get the highest, then set the rest of the elements to that height. Simple.
I used this technique for work;
http://www.webanywhere.co.uk/education/products
Click “View Products”
You can the View Source of the Javascript file and search for “#packages .package-fold” to see the actual technique.
This example are not working in any IE (IE6, IE7, IE8) Browser.
I ran into this a year or two ago and ended up using a neat little jQuery plugin by Tom Deater http://www.tomdeater.com/jquery/equalize_columns/ The client needed the site to work in ie6 so this seemed like the most easily implemented and robust solution.
The following technique does not use images, nor extra markup, nor CSS3, nor pseudo-classes, nor Javascript, nor absolute positioning.
All it uses is border and negative margin:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/08/equal-height-columns-using-borders-and-negative-margins-with-css
Great roundup… I’ve come up with a new pure CSS cross browser solution that you may be interested in: http://thelucid.com/2010/12/03/the-solution-to-fluid-inconsistencies-and-equal-height-columns/
Forgot to mention, it works in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and IE6 and up.
The method I wrote about years ago is to use two wrappers, each with it’s own background image on it, using percentage background-position values. You can see the tutorial at http://www.communitymx.com/abstract.cfm?cid=AFC58. It’s not necessarily the cleanest solution, but it still works and has very broad browser support.
Great, works as expected. i especially like the padding and negative margin method. helped me solve a question posted on Stack-Overflow. Kudos!
Note that the gradient method is not reliable in Chrome (currently v35) as they optimise using a 256 scale giving rounding errors – so the colour breaks are not in the correct position.
See this pen ( http://codepen.io/elliz/pen/fCsay ) for cool animated demonstration (if you are using Chrome) and links to SO questions/discussion and chrome bug listing.
anyone knows how to solve this issue:
in the “One True Layout Method” if you have a particular
<p>
with an id likelipsum
and then load the page as mypage.html#target, the rest of the content is overflowed:hidden so, there isn’t more in page…