Google has started rolling out Chrome 114 for those willing to test the browser's latest under-the-hood improvements in the Beta channel. With Chrome 114, developers can access two new CSS features and utilize additional web APIs. In case you missed it, the previous beta release delivered long-anticipated WebGPU support.
The latest Google Chrome Beta version adds CSS headline balancing. It allows adjusting the line length in an element for better readability by avoiding typographic orphans or short lines of text separated from the rest of the paragraph. According to Google, the new technique will make elements like headlines more visually appealing. You can learn more about headline balancing in a blog post on the Chrome Developers website.
The second CSS change in Chrome 114 is the overflow:overlay alias. It prevents content from extending into the scrollbar when the operating system uses fixed, non-overlay scrollbars.
Another noteworthy addition in Chrome 114 is the "scrollend" event. It lets developers know when the user has completed a scroll through event listeners. Google says scroll-listening APIs help invoke new animations, fetch extra content, and make end-of-scroll events simpler and consistent. More information about the scrollend JavaScript event is available on the Chrome Developers website.
You can download Chrome 114 from the official website. Full release notes with more details are available in the blog.
