📏 CSS width — Control the Width of Elements

The width property specifies the width of an element’s content area. It’s one of the most fundamental properties for controlling layout and sizing in CSS.

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🔹 What Does width Do?

• Sets the horizontal size of block-level elements, replaced elements (images, videos), and some inline-block elements.
• Works alongside padding, border, and margin to determine total element size.
• Helps create responsive, fixed, or fluid layouts.

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📘 Syntax

selector {
  width: auto | <length> | <percentage> | max-content | min-content | fit-content;
}

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✅ Common Values Explained

Value	Description
auto	Default. Width determined by content or parent.
<length>	Fixed width (e.g., 100px, 50em, 10rem).
<percentage>	Width relative to the parent element’s width (e.g., 50%).
max-content	Width fits the largest content without wrapping.
min-content	Width fits the smallest content without overflow.
fit-content	Width fits content but limits to a maximum size.

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✍️ Examples

1. Fixed Width

.box {
  width: 300px;
  background-color: lightblue;
}

✅ The .box element is always 300 pixels wide.

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2. Percentage Width

.container {
  width: 80%;
  background-color: lightgreen;
}

✅ The .container takes 80% of its parent’s width, resizing responsively.

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3. Using max-content and min-content

.text {
  width: max-content;
  background-color: lightcoral;
}

✅ The .text box expands to fit its longest line without wrapping.

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🖼️ Image Idea: Width Behavior

Visualize boxes with different widths inside containers:

• Fixed width box (300px)
• Percentage width box (50%)
• max-content vs min-content boxes
• Auto width adapting to content

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💡 Tips for Using width

• Remember the box-sizing model affects total width (content-box vs border-box).
• Use percentages for fluid layouts that adapt to screen sizes.
• Combine with max-width and min-width for flexible control.
• Avoid fixed widths on small screens for responsive design.

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✅ Summary

Property	width
Purpose	Set the horizontal size of elements
Default value	auto (size depends on content/parent)
Units	Length units (px, em, rem), percentage, keywords
Use cases	Layout design, responsive sizing, element fitting

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🔚 Final Thought

The width property is key to shaping your webpage’s layout — whether fixed, fluid, or content-based. Master it to build clean, responsive designs.