Simon Willison’s Weblog

3 column CSS layouts: Easier than you might think

18th August 2003

In a recent issue of the Sitepoint Tech Times newsletter, Kevin Yank explains (in detail, with pictures) the recurring problem in CSS of trying to create a three column layout with columns of equal height and a footer spanning all three. If you don’t yet understand the problem, you will once you’ve read his article. Kevin suggests a javascript fix for the problem, but fails to mention that by using floats instead of absolutely positioned divs for the side columns a three column layout with a full width footer can be achieved without resorting to javascript. Pixy’s 3 columns, no hacks demonstrates this technique in action. In addition, the CSS-Discuss Wiki has a comprehensive list of 3 column layouts that demonstrate a number of other techniques for solving the same problem.