Skip to content

[css-grid-3] Rename 'item-tolerance' to 'flow-tolerance' #13313

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
nt1m merged 3 commits into from
Jan 8, 2026
Merged

[css-grid-3] Rename 'item-tolerance' to 'flow-tolerance' #13313

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
3 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
a256a33
[css-grid-3] Rename 'item-tolerance' to 'flow-tolerance'
nt1m Jan 8, 2026
b35a762
Update old IDs for placement tolerance header
nt1m Jan 8, 2026
9f96ce0
drop fixup
nt1m Jan 8, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
53 changes: 26 additions & 27 deletions css-grid-3/Overview.bs
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ Reordering and Accessibility</h3>
(placing the next item endward of the current item in at least one axis,
matching the natural “reading order”),
it can switch between endward in the inline or block axis in a seemingly arbitrary manner.
In simple cases, the 'item-tolerance' property can help reduce
In simple cases, the 'flow-tolerance' property can help reduce
the feeling of backtracking due to small sizing differences in the [=stacking axis=]
when laying out auto-placed items.
But when [[#grid-lanes-layout-algorithm|auto-placement]] is mixed with [=definite position|explicit placement=] or spanning items,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -321,7 +321,7 @@ Reordering and Accessibility</h3>

<div class=note>
Techniques for reducing backtracking include:
* Using appropriate values for 'item-tolerance',
* Using appropriate values for 'flow-tolerance',
i.e. values large enough to avoid gratuitous differentiation among similarly-sized tracks,
but not so large that meaningful differences get ignored.
* Using explicit placement in ways that help group related items together,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -761,10 +761,10 @@ Specifying Grid Axis Item Placement: the 'grid-column-*' and 'grid-row-*' proper
and establish placement just as in regular [=grid layout=].

<h3 id=placement-tolerance oldids="item-slack">
Placement Precision: the 'item-tolerance' property</h3>
Placement Precision: the 'flow-tolerance' property</h3>

<pre class=propdef>
Name: item-tolerance
Name: flow-tolerance
Value: normal | <<length-percentage>> | infinite
Initial: normal
Percentages: relative to the [=grid-axis=] [=content box=] size of the [=grid lanes container=]
Expand All @@ -783,11 +783,11 @@ Placement Precision: the 'item-tolerance' property</h3>
it can look strange to have them not fill in order,
as the height differences aren't perceived as <em>meaningfully</em> different.

The 'item-tolerance' property specifies what the threshold is
The 'flow-tolerance' property specifies what the threshold is
for considering tracks to be “the same height”,
causing them to fill in order.

<dl dfn-type=value dfn-for=item-slack>
<dl dfn-type=value dfn-for=flow-tolerance>
: <dfn><<length-percentage>></dfn>
:: Specifies the <dfn dfn for="grid lanes">tie threshold</dfn>
for the [=grid lanes container=].
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -836,8 +836,6 @@ Placement Precision: the 'item-tolerance' property</h3>
only the fourth column is a possible placement.
</div>

ISSUE(10884): The CSSWG is open to better names for this property.

Note: We expect to apply this property to [=flex layout=] in the future also,
see <a href='https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/3071'>discussions</a>
on how that might work.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1332,8 +1330,8 @@ Appendix A: Generic Layout Item Flow Controls: the 'item-*' properties</h2>
<td>
<td>'grid-auto-flow'
<tr>
<td>'item-tolerance'
<td>'item-tolerance'
<td>'flow-tolerance'
<td>'flow-tolerance'
<td>normal | <<length-percentage>> | infinite
<td>
Defines a layout-specific amount of “slack” in placement decisions.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1534,7 +1532,7 @@ Item Placement Shorthand: the 'item-flow' shorthand</h3>

<pre class="propdef shorthand">
Name: item-flow
Value: <<'item-direction'>> || <<'item-wrap'>> || <<'item-pack'>> || <<'item-tolerance'>>
Value: <<'item-direction'>> || <<'item-wrap'>> || <<'item-pack'>> || <<'flow-tolerance'>>
</pre>

This [=shorthand property=] sets all its 'item-*' [=longhand properties=]
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1598,7 +1596,6 @@ Recent Changes</h3>

The following changes have been made since the
<a href='https://www.w3.org/TR/2025/WD-css-grid-3-20250917/'>17 September 2025 Working Draft</a>:

* Defined a new inner display type, ''display/grid-lanes'', to establish [=grid lanes layout=],
and updated spec vocabulary to match.
(<a href="https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12022">Issue 12022</a>)
Expand All @@ -1608,6 +1605,8 @@ Recent Changes</h3>
(<a href="https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12899">Issue 12899</a>)
* Floored the contribution of items to a track's [=running position=] at zero.
(<a href="https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/12918">Issue 12918</a>)
* Renamed ''item-tolerance'' to ''flow-tolerance''.
(<a href="https://github.com/w3c/csswg-drafts/issues/10884">Issue 10884</a>)

See also <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2025/WD-css-grid-3-20250917/#recent-changes">earlier changes</a>.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1782,18 +1781,18 @@ item-placement/grid-lanes-item-placement-006.html
item-placement/grid-lanes-item-placement-007.html
item-placement/grid-lanes-item-placement-008.html
item-placement/grid-lanes-rows-with-grid-width-changed.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/column-initial-item-tolerance.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/column-item-tolerance-infinite.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-column-001.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-column-002.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-column-003.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-column-004.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-row-001.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-row-002.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-row-003.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/item-tolerance-row-004.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/row-initial-item-tolerance.html
item-placement/item-tolerance/row-item-tolerance-infinite.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/column-initial-flow-tolerance.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/column-flow-tolerance-infinite.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-column-001.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-column-002.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-column-003.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-column-004.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-row-001.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-row-002.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-row-003.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/flow-tolerance-row-004.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/row-initial-flow-tolerance.html
item-placement/flow-tolerance/row-flow-tolerance-infinite.html
item-placement/row-auto-placement-001.html
item-placement/row-auto-placement-002.html
item-placement/row-auto-placement-max-content.html
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -1866,9 +1865,9 @@ parsing/grid-lanes-shorthand-computed.html
parsing/grid-lanes-shorthand-invalid.html
parsing/grid-lanes-shorthand-serialization.html
parsing/grid-lanes-shorthand-valid.html
parsing/item-tolerance-computed.html
parsing/item-tolerance-invalid.html
parsing/item-tolerance-valid.html
parsing/flow-tolerance-computed.html
parsing/flow-tolerance-invalid.html
parsing/flow-tolerance-valid.html
row-empty-grid-lanes-container-001.html
row-empty-grid-lanes-container-002.html
row-min-max-content-container.html
Expand Down