diff --git a/docs/_static/custom.css b/docs/_static/custom.css
index 9dbd6d5..29247e0 100644
--- a/docs/_static/custom.css
+++ b/docs/_static/custom.css
@@ -1,6 +1,124 @@
+/* Pandas tables. Pulled from the Jupyter / nbsphinx CSS
+   Included with MyST-NB until removal in v1.4.0 (Mar 2026).
+*/
+div.cell_output table {
+  border: none;
+  border-collapse: collapse;
+  border-spacing: 0;
+  color: var(--color-foreground-primary);
+  font-size: 1em;
+  table-layout: fixed;
+}
+div.cell_output thead {
+  border-bottom: 1px solid var(--color-table-border);
+  vertical-align: bottom;
+}
+div.cell_output tr,
+div.cell_output th,
+div.cell_output td {
+  text-align: right;
+  vertical-align: middle;
+  padding: 0.5em 0.5em;
+  line-height: normal;
+  white-space: normal;
+  max-width: none;
+  border: none;
+}
+div.cell_output th {
+  font-weight: bold;
+  /* background: var(--color-table-header-background); */
+}
+div.cell_output tbody tr:nth-child(odd) {
+  background: var(--color-background-secondary);
+}
+div.cell_output tbody tr:hover {
+  background: var(--color-background-hover);
+}
+
+/* ipywidgets dark mode support.
+   The widgets CSS uses --jp-* variables throughout, but Furo doesn't define them.
+   The embed bundle injects the --jp-* defaults in :root *after* page load, so
+   remapping them is unreliable. Instead we directly override the widget selectors
+   with Furo's --color-* variables, which already adapt to light/dark mode.
+   noUiSlider (used for sliders) has entirely hardcoded colors, so those are
+   also overridden here.
+*/
+
+/* Text / label colors */
+.jupyter-widgets,
+.widget-label, .jupyter-widget-label,
+.widget-label-basic, .jupyter-widget-label-basic,
+.widget-readout, .jupyter-widget-readout {
+    color: var(--color-foreground-primary) !important;
+}
+
+/* Input / textarea / select backgrounds */
+.jupyter-widgets input[type="text"],
+.jupyter-widgets input[type="number"],
+.jupyter-widgets input[type="password"],
+.jupyter-widgets textarea,
+.jupyter-widgets select {
+    background-color: var(--color-background-secondary) !important;
+    color: var(--color-foreground-primary) !important;
+    border-color: var(--color-background-border) !important;
+}
+
+/* Checkboxes: use brand color for the check/tick instead of bright white/blue */
+.jupyter-widgets input[type="checkbox"] {
+    accent-color: var(--color-brand-primary) !important;
+}
+
+/* Checkbox body: render native checkbox in dark style in dark mode */
+body[data-theme="dark"] .jupyter-widgets input[type="checkbox"] {
+    color-scheme: dark;
+}
+@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
+    body:not([data-theme="light"]) .jupyter-widgets input[type="checkbox"] {
+        color-scheme: dark;
+    }
+}
+
+/* Color picker: tone down the bright border */
+.jupyter-widgets input[type="color"] {
+    background-color: var(--color-background-secondary) !important;
+    border-color: var(--color-background-border) !important;
+}
+
+/* Buttons */
+.jupyter-button {
+    background-color: var(--color-background-secondary) !important;
+    color: var(--color-foreground-primary) !important;
+    border-color: var(--color-background-border) !important;
+}
+.jupyter-button.mod-primary {
+    background-color: var(--color-brand-primary) !important;
+    color: white !important;
+}
+
+/* noUiSlider track, handle, and active range */
+.widget-slider .noUi-target,
+.jupyter-widget-slider .noUi-target {
+    background: var(--color-background-secondary) !important;
+    border-color: var(--color-background-border) !important;
+    box-shadow: none !important;
+}
+.widget-slider .noUi-handle,
+.jupyter-widget-slider .noUi-handle {
+    background: var(--color-background-primary) !important;
+    border-color: var(--color-background-border) !important;
+    box-shadow: none !important;
+}
+.widget-slider .noUi-connect,
+.jupyter-widget-slider .noUi-connect {
+    background: var(--color-brand-primary) !important;
+}
+
+/* Misc. overrides */
+
 table.dataframe {
     font-size: 0.8em !important;
 }
+
 figcaption p {
     font-size: 85%;
     line-height: 1.3;
diff --git a/docs/changes.md b/docs/changes.md
index 4b388de..dff3c09 100644
--- a/docs/changes.md
+++ b/docs/changes.md
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
 # Release notes
 
+## v0.1.3 (unreleased)
+
+* Improve styling of abcjs containers, pandas dataframes, and ipywidgets
+  in the docs ({pull}`103`).
+  You can now activate abcjs responsive mode in
+  {class}`~pyabc2.abcjs.widget.ABCJSWidget`,
+  but non-responsive is still the default.
+
 ## v0.1.2 (2026-02-03)
 
 * Update Norbeck to the current 2026-01 version ({pull}`96`)
diff --git a/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/__init__.py b/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/__init__.py
index 9ddb999..9e47a90 100644
--- a/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/__init__.py
+++ b/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/__init__.py
@@ -82,6 +82,13 @@ class ABCJSWidget(anywidget.AnyWidget):
         740,
         help="Width of the staff in pixels.",
     ).tag(sync=True)
+    responsive = traitlets.Bool(
+        False,
+        help=(
+            "Whether the rendering should be responsive to container width "
+            "(up to `staff_width` + some padding)."
+        ),
+    ).tag(sync=True)
     transpose = traitlets.Integer(
         0,
         help="Visual transpose in half steps.",
@@ -115,6 +122,11 @@ def interactive(abc: str = "", **kwargs) -> "ipywidgets.Widget":  # pragma: no c
         description="Staff width (px)",
         **slider_kws,
     )
+    responsive_cbox = ipw.Checkbox(
+        value=False,
+        description="Responsive",
+        indent=True,
+    )
     line_thickness_slider = ipw.FloatSlider(
         min=-0.4,
         max=2,
@@ -152,6 +164,7 @@ def interactive(abc: str = "", **kwargs) -> "ipywidgets.Widget":  # pragma: no c
 
     ipw.link((w, "abc"), (input_box, "value"))
     ipw.link((w, "staff_width"), (width_slider, "value"))
+    ipw.link((w, "responsive"), (responsive_cbox, "value"))
     ipw.link((w, "scale"), (scale_slider, "value"))
     ipw.link((w, "line_thickness_increase"), (line_thickness_slider, "value"))
     ipw.link((w, "transpose"), (transpose_slider, "value"))
@@ -196,6 +209,7 @@ def save(_):
         [
             input_box,
             width_slider,
+            responsive_cbox,
             scale_slider,
             line_thickness_slider,
             transpose_slider,
diff --git a/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.css b/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.css
index 5a5f1bd..8e23b7d 100644
--- a/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.css
+++ b/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.css
@@ -1,12 +1,23 @@
-div.container.debug {
+div.abcjs-widget-container {
+    max-width: var(--staff-max-width, none);
+    overflow-x: auto;
+}
+
+div.abcjs-widget-container.debug {
     color: forestgreen;
     border: 1px solid forestgreen;
 }
 
-div.music.debug {
+div.abcjs-widget-container div.music {
+    /* ABCJS seems to set `overflow: hidden` on the music div,
+       which prevents the container's auto overflow from working. */
+    overflow: visible !important;
+}
+
+div.abcjs-widget-container div.music.debug {
     border: 1px dashed grey;
 }
 
-div.container code {
+div.abcjs-widget-container code {
     white-space: pre-wrap;
 }
diff --git a/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.js b/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.js
index 7ec5050..a8e909b 100644
--- a/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.js
+++ b/pyabc2/abcjs/widget/index.js
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ function render({ model, el }) {
     let showDebugInput = () => model.get('debug_input');
     let showLogo = () => model.get('logo');
     let staffwidth = () => model.get('staff_width');
+    let doResize = () => model.get('responsive');
     let visualTranspose = () => model.get('transpose');
 
     let active_music_ids = model.get("_active_music_ids");
@@ -60,7 +61,7 @@ function render({ model, el }) {
     console.log(`first_load ${first_load}`);
 
     let container = el;
-    container.classList.add('container');
+    container.classList.add('abcjs-widget-container');
 
     if ((first_load || showLogo()) && !hide()) {
         let logo = document.createElement('img');
@@ -94,6 +95,12 @@ function render({ model, el }) {
             music.innerHTML = '';
         };
 
+        // Clear any inline styles ABCJS may have been set on the music div
+        // (e.g. height/position from responsive mode's ResizeObserver),
+        // which would otherwise persist across re-renders and cause
+        // phantom empty space when toggling responsive on/off.
+        music.removeAttribute('style');
+
         head.innerHTML = '';
         if (showDebugInput() && !hide()) {
             let code = document.createElement('code');
@@ -113,6 +120,19 @@ function render({ model, el }) {
         if (showDebugBox()) {showDebug.push('box')};
         if (showDebugGrid()) {showDebug.push('grid')};
 
+        // Responsive setting
+        let responsive = doResize() ? "resize" : undefined;
+        // We drive max-width via a CSS custom property so ABCJS's async ResizeObserver
+        // (which may clear inline max-width) cannot override it.
+        // ABCJS docs say left and right padding in the SVG are 15 and 50,
+        // so we try to give enough space for that, but note that in practice
+        // the results are not identical to responsive-off.
+        if (doResize()) {
+            container.style.setProperty('--staff-max-width', (staffwidth() + 65) + 'px');
+        } else {
+            container.style.removeProperty('--staff-max-width');
+        }
+
         // NOTE: doesn't work with `music_id` passed as target,
         // even though it should, still not sure why
         let tunes = ABCJS.renderAbc(
@@ -121,6 +141,7 @@ function render({ model, el }) {
             {
                 foregroundColor: foregroundColor(),
                 lineThickness: lineThickness(),
+                responsive: responsive,
                 scale: scale(),
                 showDebug: showDebug,
                 staffwidth: staffwidth(),