Thebreak-afterCSS property sets how page, column, or region breaks should behave after a generated box. If there is no generated box, the property is ignored.

Try it

break-after: auto;

break-after: page;

<div>  <p>    The effect of this property can be noticed when the document is being    printed or a preview of a print is displayed.  </p>  <button>Show Print Preview</button>  <div>    <div>Content before the property</div>    <div>Content with 'break-after'</div>    <div>Content after the property</div>  </div></div>

.box {  border: solid #5b6dcd 5px;  background-color: #5b6dcd;  margin: 10px 0;  padding: 5px;}#example-element {  border: solid 5px #ffc129;  background-color: #ffc129;  color: black;}

const btn = document.getElementById("print-btn");btn.addEventListener("click", () => {  window.print();});

Syntax

/* Generic break values */break-after: auto;break-after: avoid;break-after: always;break-after: all;/* Page break values */break-after: avoid-page;break-after: page;break-after: left;break-after: right;break-after: recto;break-after: verso;/* Column break values */break-after: avoid-column;break-after: column;/* Region break values */break-after: avoid-region;break-after: region;/* Global values */break-after: inherit;break-after: initial;break-after: revert;break-after: revert-layer;break-after: unset;

Each possible break point (in other words, each element boundary) is affected by three properties: thebreak-after value of the previous element, thebreak-before value of the next element, and thebreak-inside value of the containing element.

To determine if a break must be done, the following rules are applied:

1. If any of the three concerned values is aforced break value (always,left,right,page,column, orregion), it has precedence. If more than one of them are such a break, the one of the element that appears the latest in the flow is taken (i.e., thebreak-before value has precedence over thebreak-after value, which itself has precedence over thebreak-inside value).
2. If any of the three concerned values is anavoid break value (avoid,avoid-page,avoid-region, oravoid-column), no such break will be applied at that point.

Once forced breaks have been applied, soft breaks may be added if needed, but not on element boundaries that resolve in a correspondingavoid value.

Values

Generic break values

auto

Allows, but does not force, any break (page, column, or region) to be inserted right after the principal box.

avoid

Avoids any break (page, column, or region) from being inserted right after the principal box.

always

Forces a page break right after the principal box. The type of this break is that of the immediately-containing fragmentation context. If we are inside a multicol container then it would force a column break, inside paged media (but not inside a multicol container) a page break.

all

Forces a page break right after the principal box. Breaking through all possible fragmentation contexts. So a break inside a multicol container, which was inside a page container would force a column and page break.

Page break values

avoid-page

Avoids any page break right after the principal box.

page

Forces a page break right after the principal box.

left

Forces one or two page breaks right after the principal box, whichever will make the next page into a left page. It's the page placed on the left side of the spine of the book or the back side of the page in duplex printing.

right

Forces one or two page breaks right after the principal box, whichever will make the next page into a right page. It's the page placed on the right side of the spine of the book or the front side of the page in duplex printing.

recto

Forces one or two page breaks right after the principal box, whichever will make the next page into a recto page. (A recto page is a right page in a left-to-right spread or a left page in a right-to-left spread.)

verso

Forces one or two page breaks right after the principal box, whichever will make the next page into a verso page. (A verso page is a left page in a left-to-right spread or a right page in a right-to-left spread.)

Column break values

avoid-column

Avoids any column break right after the principal box.

column

Forces a column break right after the principal box.

Region break values

avoid-region

Avoids any region break right after the principal box.

region

Forces a region break right after the principal box.

Page break aliases

For compatibility reasons, the legacypage-break-after property should be treated by browsers as an alias ofbreak-after. This ensures that sites usingpage-break-after continue to work as designed. A subset of values should be aliased as follows:

Formal definition

Formal syntax

break-after =
auto|
avoid|
always|
all|
avoid-page|
page|
left|
right|
recto|
verso|
avoid-column|
column|
avoid-region|
region

Examples

Breaking into neat columns

In the following example we have a container that contains an<h1> spanning all columns (achieved usingcolumn-span: all) and a series of<h2>s and paragraphs laid out in multiple columns usingcolumn-width: 200px.

By default, the subheadings and paragraphs were laid out rather messily because the headings were not in a uniform place. However, we usedbreak-after: column on the<p> elements to force a column break after each one, meaning that you end up with an<h2> neatly at the top of each column.

HTML

<article>  <h1>Main heading</h1>  <h2>Subheading</h2>  <p>    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla vitae    fringilla mauris. Quisque commodo eget nisi sed pretium. Mauris luctus nec    lacus in ultricies. Mauris vitae hendrerit arcu, ac scelerisque lacus.    Aliquam lobortis in lacus sit amet posuere. Fusce iaculis urna id neque    dapibus, eu lacinia lectus dictum.  </p>  <h2>Subheading</h2>  <p>    Praesent condimentum dui dui, sit amet rutrum diam tincidunt eu. Cras    suscipit porta leo sit amet rutrum. Sed vehicula ornare tincidunt. Curabitur    a ipsum ac diam mattis volutpat ac ut elit. Nullam luctus justo non    vestibulum gravida. Morbi metus libero, pharetra non porttitor a, molestie    nec nisi.  </p>  <h2>Subheading</h2>  <p>    Vivamus eleifend metus vitae neque placerat, eget interdum elit mattis.    Donec eu vulputate nibh. Ut turpis leo, malesuada quis nisl nec, volutpat    egestas tellus.  </p>  <h2>Subheading</h2>  <p>    In finibus viverra enim vel suscipit. Quisque consequat velit eu orci    malesuada, ut interdum tortor molestie. Proin sed pellentesque augue. Nam    risus justo, faucibus non porta a, congue vel massa. Cras luctus lacus nisl,    sed tincidunt velit pharetra ac. Duis suscipit faucibus dui sed ultricies.  </p></article>

CSS

html {  font-family: "Helvetica", "Arial", sans-serif;}h1 {  font-size: 3rem;  letter-spacing: 2px;  column-span: all;}h2 {  font-size: 1.2rem;  color: red;  letter-spacing: 1px;}p {  line-height: 1.5;  break-after: column;}article {  column-width: 200px;  gap: 20px;}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• Learn: Multiple-column Layout
• Breaking Boxes With CSS Fragmentation