Split an array into roughly even sized columns - index style. You could use flex-box css to do this on the client side.

splitter.js

// format an array into columns as sub arrays
var splitter = function (columns, data) {
    try {
        var out = [], col = [];
        var colSize = Math.ceil(data.length / columns);
        var count = 0;
        for (key in data) {
            if (count > colSize) {
                out.push(col);
                col = [];
                count = 0;
            }
            var item = data[key];
            col.push(item);
            count++
        }
        if (col.length < columns) {
            out.push(col);
        }
    } catch (e) {
        cl({splitter: e})
    }
    return out;
}