The min-width property in CSS is used to set the minimum width of a specified element. The min-width property always overrides the width property whether followed before or after width in your declaration. Authors may use any of the length values as long as they are a positive value.
.wrapper {
width: 100%;
min-width: 20em; /* Will be AT LEAST 20em wide */
}Be mindful when assuming min-width is inherited as this property does not inherit from other parent elements. If authors define a width using an absolute value (px, pt, in, cm, mm), the min-width will not take affect as the width has been defined indefinitely. For example, if a value of 200px is used as a width length, your min-width value of 100px will not be neccessary as you have already specified an absolute value for the width (i.e. 200px). The best way to use min-width is to define a width value as a percentage and use an absolute value for the min-width property otherwise using a percentage value for for both min-width and width will not produce the expected result.
Browser support
| Chrome | Safari | Firefox | Opera | IE | Android | iOS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24+ | 5.1+ | 18+ | 12.1+ | 8+ | 2.1+ | 3.2+ |
Is there some work around about one should be aware of for older browsers?
Are there any* Gosh…
Carl,
In this time where majority of users are on modern browsers I would not worry about this anymore.
I come from the IE 5 & 6 days where you had this make sure you plan this through but not anymore.
@Chris, I am surprised that you dont have the default value here set as an easy reference.
what example to set min-width css?
Thank you very much, could not find my answer anywhere to why my min-width wasnt working. It was because i was using a percentage for both width and min-width but found my mistake. Thank you :)
Hi,
There’s a way to put a min-width to table columns, or table cells?
Please clarify why to use width: 100%; along with absolute value for min-width ?