border-collapse

The border-collapse CSS property sets whether cells inside a <table> have shared or separate borders.

When cells are collapsed, the border-style value of inset behaves like groove, and outset behaves like ridge.

When cells are separated, the distance between cells is defined by the border-spacing property.

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
border-collapse: collapse;
border-collapse: separate;

/* Global values */
border-collapse: inherit;
border-collapse: initial;
border-collapse: revert;
border-collapse: unset;

The border-collapse property is specified as a single keyword, which may be chosen from the list below.

Values

collapse: Adjacent cells have shared borders (the collapsed-border table rendering model).
separate: Adjacent cells have distinct borders (the separated-border table rendering model).

Formal definition

Initial value	`separate`
Applies to	`table` and `inline-table` elements
Inherited	yes
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

collapse | separate

Examples

A colorful table of browser engines

HTML

<table class="separate">
  <caption><code>border-collapse: separate</code></caption>
  <tbody>
    <tr><th>Browser</th> <th>Layout Engine</th></tr>
    <tr><td class="fx">Firefox</td> <td class="gk">Gecko</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="ed">Edge</td> <td class="tr">EdgeHTML</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="sa">Safari</td> <td class="wk">Webkit</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="ch">Chrome</td> <td class="bk">Blink</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="op">Opera</td> <td class="bk">Blink</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table class="collapse">
  <caption><code>border-collapse: collapse</code></caption>
  <tbody>
    <tr><th>Browser</th> <th>Layout Engine</th></tr>
    <tr><td class="fx">Firefox</td> <td class="gk">Gecko</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="ed">Edge</td> <td class="tr">EdgeHTML</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="sa">Safari</td> <td class="wk">Webkit</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="ch">Chrome</td> <td class="bk">Blink</td></tr>
    <tr><td class="op">Opera</td> <td class="bk">Blink</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

.collapse {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}

.separate {
  border-collapse: separate;
}

table {
  display: inline-table;
  margin: 1em;
  border: dashed 5px;
}

table th,
table td {
  border: solid 3px;
}

.fx { border-color: orange blue; }
.gk { border-color: black red; }
.ed { border-color: blue gold; }
.tr { border-color: aqua; }
.sa { border-color: silver blue; }
.wk { border-color: gold blue; }
.ch { border-color: red yellow green blue; }
.bk { border-color: navy blue teal aqua; }
.op { border-color: red; }

Result

Specifications

Specification
Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification # propdef-border-collapse

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser