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Customizing CSS Tabs

Reading time 1 min
Published Aug 8, 2017
Updated Sep 27, 2019

Setting the width for CSS tabs

By using the CSS tab-size property, you can define a custom size for the tab character:

Example
pre {
    tab-size: 24;
}

Note: due to the whitespace collapse principle, CSS tabs or multiple spaces can only be displayed in preformatted text.

Syntax for customizing CSS tabs

The CSS tab-size property only takes one value that define the width of the tab character:

tab-size: width;

You can specify it in two ways:

  • Length units can be used to define exact width
  • A unitless number defines how many spaces the tab will be equal to in width

Browser support

Browser image
Chrome
21+
Browser image
Edge
-
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Firefox
4+
Browser image
IE
-
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Opera
15+
Browser image
Safari
6.1+

Mobile browser support

Chrome
25+
Firefox
4+
Opera
14+
Safari
7.1+