orphans

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

The orphans CSS property sets the minimum number of lines in a block container that must be shown at the bottom of a page, region, or column.

In typography, an orphan is the first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page. (The paragraph continues on a following page.)

Syntax

css
/* <integer> values */
orphans: 2;
orphans: 3;

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

Values

<integer>

The minimum number of lines that can stay by themselves at the bottom of a fragment before a fragmentation break. The value must be positive.

Formal definition

Initial value2
Applies toblock container elements
Inheritedyes
Computed valueas specified
Animation typeby computed value type

Formal syntax

orphans = 
  <integer [1,∞]>

Examples

Setting a minimum orphan size of three lines

HTML

html
<div>
  <p>This is the first paragraph containing some text.</p>
  <p>
    This is the second paragraph containing some more text than the first one.
    It is used to demonstrate how orphans work.
  </p>
  <p>
    This is the third paragraph. It has a little bit more text than the first
    one.
  </p>
</div>

CSS

css
div {
  background-color: #8cffa0;
  height: 150px;
  columns: 3;
  orphans: 3;
}

p {
  background-color: #8ca0ff;
}

p:first-child {
  margin-top: 0;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Fragmentation Module Level 3
# widows-orphans

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also