Implement "overflow-wrap: anywhere"

• Component: Text
• Status: NEW ---

[Javier Fernandez]

The CSS WG has resolved [1] add a deprecated note to prevent the usage of 'overflow-wrap: break-word' in favor of 'overflow-wrap: anywhere'.

The new value is described as follows:

https://www.w3.org/TR/css-text-3/#valdef-overflow-wrap-anywhere


[1] https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/2390

[Javier Fernandez]

Firefox already shipped this feature
  - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1505786

Chrome plans to implement this feature
  - https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=905315

[Javier Fernandez]

I have sent the "intent to implement" request for Blink. Showing some public support in this bug would help to get the request approved.

[Myles C. Maxfield]

Implementing this is a good idea. (You can consider this "public support.")

We already implement (the deprecated) word-break:break-word, which is defined[1] to "have the same effect as word-break: normal and overflow-wrap: anywhere." Therefore, implementing this should be fairly straightforward.

From looking at WebKit source code (RenderStyle::breakWords()), it appears that word-break:break-word is currently treated identically to overflow-wrap:break-word, which I think is incorrect according to the spec text quoted above. It would be cool if this project fixed this, too (though, of course, fixing this could be tracked in a separate bug).

[1] https://www.w3.org/TR/css-text-3/#word-break-property

[Florian Rivoal]

@Myles, The wrapping behavior of word-break:break-word / overflow-wrap: anywhere is the same as that of overflow-wrap:break-word, but the effect on intrinsic sizing is different. A quick bit of testing shows that safari has the expected sizing behavior difference between word-break:break-word and overflow-wrap:break-word.

To test, you can try this:

  <section style=width:0>
    <div style=float:left>longword</div>
  </section>

If you put overflow-wrap:break-word on the div, the longword will not wrap, but if you put word-break:break-word instead, it will.

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/77791159>

It would be really nice to see this implemented so it can be used across the board - other major browsers support this since 2019 (Firefox) / 2020 (Chrome, Edge).

https://caniuse.com/mdn-css_properties_overflow-wrap_anywhere

Cheers

[nanto_vi (TOYAMA Nao)]

This bug seems to be fixed.
https://github.com/mdn/browser-compat-data/issues/17012

[Ahmad Saleem]

I think this is implemented and we pass 'WPT' tests as well: https://wpt.fyi/results/css/css-text/overflow-wrap?label=master&label=experimental&aligned=&q=overflow-wrap-anywhere

Do we need anything more here?