How Do `width` and `max-width` Interact with Text Wrapping in CSS?

Text Wrapping and Width Control in CSS

In CSS, the width and max-width properties determine the width of an element. When an element's content wraps to multiple lines, a discrepancy arises in the behavior of these properties.

Expected Behavior:

Based on the provided CSS:

#tooltip {
  position: absolute;
  width: auto;
  min-width: 50px;
  max-width: 250px;
  padding: 10px;
  background-color: #eee;
  border: 1px solid #aaa;
}

One might expect the tooltip's width to adapt to its content, shrinking or growing within the specified limits.

Actual Behavior:

However, when content wraps to the next line, the max-width property overrides the width property, resulting in a tooltip width of 250px. This creates the appearance of excess padding when the last word on a line is relatively long.

Reason for the Behavior:

A browser attempts to display content inline until it reaches the maximum allowed width, in this case 250px. If the content does not reach the maximum width, the width: auto rule allows the tooltip to shrink to fit the content.

However, once the content wraps, the tooltip's width is set to 250px, as specified by max-width. This is because text wrapping does not trigger a recalculation of the element's width. The tooltip's width remains at 250px, regardless of the content width after wrapping.

Conclusion:

This behavior is inherent in how browsers handle text wrapping and is not something that can be easily customized. Thus, one must be aware of this potential aesthetic issue when working with width-constrained elements that may wrap their content.

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