Width Property

The width property sets the width of an element’s content area. In case, the box-sizing is set to border-box, the property width sets the width of the border area.

The value specified by the width property remains within the values defined by min-width and max-width properties.

Refer the image for the understanding of width of an element.

Possible Values

<length>: A specific length value such as pixels (px), centimeters (cm), inches (in), etc.
<percentage>: A percentage of the width of the containing element.
auto: The browser will calculate the width automatically based on the content. It is the default value.
max-content: Defines the intrinsic preferred width.
min-content: Defines the intrinsic minimum width.
fit-content: Fits the content in the available space, but never more than max-content.
fit-content: fit-content formula is used, i.e, min(max-content, max(min-content, <length-percentage>)).

Applies to

All the HTML elements except non-replaced inline elements, table rows, and row groups.

DOM Syntax

object.style.width = "100px";

CSS Width – Length Unit

Here is an example of adding a width to a div element in length units:

<html><head><style>
   div {
      border: 1px solid black;
      margin-bottom: 5px;
   }

   div.a {
      width: 100px;
      background-color: rgb(230, 230, 203);
   }
   div.b {
      width: 5em;
      background-color: rgb(230, 230, 203);
   }
</style></head><body><div class="a">This div element has a width of 100px.</div><div class="b">This div element has a width of 5em.</div></body></html>

CSS Width – Percentage Value

Here is an example of adding a width to a div element in percentage values:

<html><head><style>
   div {
      border: 1px solid black;
      margin-bottom: 5px;
   }
   div.a {
      width: 120%;
      background-color: yellow;
   }
   div.b {
      width: 20%;
      background-color: rgb(236, 190, 190);
   }

</style></head><body><div class="a">This div element has a width of 120%.</div><div class="b">This div element has a width of 20%.</div></body></html>

CSS Width – Auto

Here is an example of adding a width to a div element as auto:

<html><head><style>
   div {
      border: 1px solid black;
      margin-bottom: 5px;
   }
   div.auto {
      width: auto;
      background-color: yellow;
   }
</style></head><body><div class="auto">This div element has a width set as auto.</div></body></html>

CSS Width – Using max-content and min-content

Here is an example of width equal to max-content and min-content:

<html><head><style>
   div {
      border: 1px solid black;
      margin-bottom: 5px;
   }
   div.c {
      width: max-content;
      background-color: bisque;
   }
   div.d {
      width: min-content;
      background-color: darkseagreen;
   }
</style></head><body><div class="c">This div element has a width as max-content.</div><div class="d">This div element has a width of min-content.</div></body></html>

CSS width – Image

Here is an example of adding width to an image:

<html><head><style>
   div {
      border: 1px solid black;
      margin-bottom: 5px;
   }

   .demoImg {
      margin-top: 15px;
      width: 300px;
      margin-right: 0.5in;
   }
</style></head><body><img class="demoImg" src="images/scancode.png" alt="image-width"></body></html>

CSS width – Using fit-content

Here is an example of fit-content value set for width of a list:

<html><head><style>
   ul {
      background-color: beige;
      width: fit-content;
      padding: 1.5em;
      border: 2px solid black;
   }
   li {
      display: inline-flex;
      background-color: orange;
      border: 2px solid black;
      padding: 0.5em;
   }
</style><body><ul><li>Item1</li><li>Item2</li><li>Item3</li><li>Item4</li></ul></body></html>

CSS Width – Related Properties

Following is the list of related CSS properties of width:

property	value
max-width	Sets an upper bound on the width of an element.
min-width	Sets a lower bound on the width of an element.
min-content	Sets intrinsic minimum width of the content.
max-content	Sets intrinsic maximum width of the content.
fit-content	Fits the content depending on the available size.
fit-content()	Clamps a given size based on the formula min(maximum size, max(minimum size, argument)).