CSS - tab-size Property

CSS tab-size property is used to specify the width of tab characters ((U+0009)) within an element. It allows you to control the visual spacing of tab characters, which can be useful when displaying code or other content where tab characters are significant.

Possible Values

  • <integer> − Specifies the width of tab characters as a multiple of the width of a single space character. For example, a value of 4 would make tab characters four times wider than a space character. It cannot be negative.

  • <length> − Specifies the width of tab characters using a fixed length value, such as pixels (px), points (pt), or ems (em). It cannot be negative.

Applies to

Block containers.

Syntax

<integer> Values

tab-size: 4;
tab-size: 0;

<length> Values

tab-size: 10px;
tab-size: 2em;

CSS tab-size - Expanding By Character Count

The following example demonstrates how the tab-size property sets tab size to the 8 characters and tab size of 12 characters −

<html>
<head>
<style> 
   .tab1 {
      -moz-tab-size: 8; 
      tab-size: 8;
   }
   .tab2 {
      -moz-tab-size: 12; 
      tab-size: 12;
   }
</style>
</head>
<body>

<pre class="tab1">
CSS	 tab-size with    8.
</pre>

<pre class="tab2">
CSS	 tab-size        with 12.
</pre>

</body>
</html>

CSS tab-size - Comparing To The Default Size

The following example demonstrates the default tab size, tab size of 3 characters, and tab size of 3 spaces. The white-space: pre keeps the tabs from collapsing. −

<html>
<head>
<style> 
   p {
      white-space: pre;
   }
   .tab1 {
      tab-size: 3;
   }
</style>
</head>
<body>
   <p>Without tab-size</p>
   <p>	Default tab-size to 8 characters.</p>
   <p class="tab1">	tab-size with 3 characters.</p>
   <p>   tab-size with 3 spaces.</p>
</body>
</html>
Advertisements