Text poured into columns

One long passage poured into three columns, each fitting the lines its height allows and handing the rest to the next.

One passage, three columns, and text that carries on from the foot of each into the head of the next. The passage is broken once to the column width, then set column by column: each column fits as many lines as its height allows, draws that slice, and the next one takes up where it stopped.

Breaking once and filling many times is what makes this cheap. The long work — measuring every word in the font — happens once for the whole passage, and each column then costs no more than a place in the lines already broken. A thin line surrounds each column, so the text can be seen reaching its foot and carrying on.

What this example shows

• Text flowing from one column into the next, in order.
• One breaking pass, shared by every column of the same width.
• Each column taking exactly the lines its own height allows.

The code, in full

The same document is written twice, once in each language. Both files are shown in full, with the code coloured on the server, and can be copied in one click.

The document itself

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What this document weighs

Before	109,635 bytes
Now	38,993 bytes
Saved	64.4 %

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