columnfill

Columnfill refers to a typographic or layout technique that directs how content is distributed across the vertical columns of a page or screen. In traditional print publishing, columnfill is the process of adjusting spacing, hyphenation, and line breaks so that each column appears visually balanced, avoiding large gaps or ragged bottoms. Editors may insert or delete filler text, modify paragraph breaks, or employ stretchable spaces to achieve a uniform column height, enhancing readability and aesthetic consistency.

In digital media, columnfill appears as the CSS property column‑fill, which controls the flow of content within multi‑column layouts created with the column-count or column-width properties. The property accepts two values: auto, which fills each column sequentially, and balance, which distributes content evenly across all columns, attempting to minimize height differences. Browser support for column‑fill varies, with older versions of some browsers ignoring the property or defaulting to auto, while modern browsers generally implement the balance behaviour. Designers use column‑fill to create newspaper‑style layouts, magazines, or responsive designs where balanced columns improve visual harmony across devices.

The concept is also present in typesetting systems such as LaTeX, where commands and packages (e.g., \columnfill or the multicol environment) manage column balancing. These tools automate the adjustment of inter‑line glue and penalties to produce evenly filled columns without manual intervention. Overall, columnfill is a fundamental consideration in both print and web design for achieving orderly, aesthetically pleasing columnar text arrangements.