@deutronomium: Sorry, I misunderstood you. The prefWidth on your first column works because the default resize policy indeed respects the prefWidth of the TableColumn. When you override cellFormat and set prefWidth you're setting the width of a TableCell. The default resize policy doesn't care about the prefWidth of a single TableCell, just the prefWidth of the TableColumn. Think about it: If you set different prefWidths for each TableCell in a row, which one should the TableView respect?