W3cubDocs

/CSS

text-overflow

The text-overflow CSS property determines how overflowed content that is not displayed is signaled to users. It can be clipped, display an ellipsis ('', U+2026 Horizontal Ellipsis), or display a custom string.

The text-overflow property doesn't force an overflow to occur. To make text overflow its container you have to set other CSS properties: overflow and white-space. For example:

overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;

The text-overflow property only affects content that is overflowing a block container element in its inline progression direction (not text overflowing at the bottom of a box, for example).

Syntax

The text-overflow property may be specified using one or two values. If one value is given, it specifies overflow behavior for the end of the line (the right end for left-to-right text, the left end for right-to-left text). If two values are given, the first specifies overflow behavior for the left end of the line, and the second specifies it for the right end of the line.

Each value is specified as one of:

Values

clip
The default for this property. This keyword value will truncate the text at the limit of the content area, therefore the truncation can happen in the middle of a character. To clip at the transition between characters you can specify text-overflow as an empty string, if that is supported in your target browsers: text-overflow: '';.
ellipsis
This keyword value will display an ellipsis ('…', U+2026 Horizontal Ellipsis) to represent clipped text. The ellipsis is displayed inside the content area, decreasing the amount of text displayed. If there is not enough space to display the ellipsis, it is clipped.
<string>
The <string> to be used to represent clipped text. The string is displayed inside the content area, shortening the size of the displayed text. If there is not enough space to display the string itself, it is clipped.
fade
This keyword clips the overflowing inline content and applies a fade-out effect near the edge of the line box with complete transparency at the edge.
fade( <length> | <percentage> )
This function clips the overflowing inline content and applies a fade-out effect near the edge of the line box with complete transparency at the edge.
The argument determines the distance over which the fade effect is applied. The <percentage> is resolved against the width of the line box. Values lower than 0 are clipped to 0. Values greater than the width of the line box are clipped to the width of the line box.

Formal syntax

[ clip | ellipsis | <string> ]{1,2}

Examples

CSS

p {
  width: 200px;
  border: 1px solid;
  padding: 2px 5px;

  /* BOTH of the following are required for text-overflow */
  white-space: nowrap;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.overflow-visible {
  white-space: initial;
}

.overflow-clip {
  text-overflow: clip;
}

.overflow-ellipsis {
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

.overflow-string {
  /* Not supported in most browsers, 
     see the 'Browser compatibility' section below */
  text-overflow: " [..]"; 
}

HTML

<p class="overflow-visible">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>
<p class="overflow-clip">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>
<p class="overflow-ellipsis">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>
<p class="overflow-string">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>

Result

CSS value direction: ltr direction: rtl
Expected Result Live result Expected Result Live result
visible overflow 1234567890 1234567890 0987654321 1234567890
text-overflow: clip t-o_clip.png 123456 t-o_clip_rtl.png 1234567890
text-overflow: '' 12345 123456 54321 1234567890
text-overflow: ellipsis 1234… 1234567890 …4321 1234567890
text-overflow: '.' 1234. 1234567890 .4321 1234567890
text-overflow: clip clip 123456 1234567890 654321 1234567890
text-overflow: clip ellipsis 1234… 1234567890 6543… 1234567890
text-overflow: clip '.' 1234. 1234567890 6543. 1234567890
text-overflow: ellipsis clip …3456 1234567890 …4321 1234567890
text-overflow: ellipsis ellipsis …34… 1234567890 …43… 1234567890
text-overflow: ellipsis '.' …34. 1234567890 …43. 1234567890
text-overflow: ',' clip ,3456 1234567890 ,4321 1234567890
text-overflow: ',' ellipsis ,34… 1234567890 ,43… 1234567890
text-overflow: ',' '.' ,34. 1234567890 ,53. 1234567890

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 4
The definition of 'text-overflow' in that specification.
Working Draft Added the values <string> and fade and the fade() function
CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 3
The definition of 'text-overflow' in that specification.
Recommendation Initial definition

A previous version of this interface reached the Candidate Recommendation status. As some not-listed-at-risk features needed to be removed, the spec was demoted to the Working Draft level, explaining why browsers implemented this property unprefixed, though not at the CR state.

Initial value clip
Applies to block container elements
Inherited no
Media visual
Computed value as specified
Animation type discrete
Canonical order the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

Desktop
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 1 12 7
7
Until Firefox 10, handling of text-overflow on blocks with inline overflow on both horizontal sides was incorrect. Before Firefox 10, if only one value was specified (such as text-overflow: ellipsis;), text was ellipsed on both sides of the block, instead of only the end edge based on the block's text direction.
6
6
8
Prefixed
Prefixed Requires the vendor prefix: -ms-
11
11
9
Prefixed
Prefixed Requires the vendor prefix: -o-
1.3
Two-value syntax No No 9 No No No
<string> No No 9 No No No
fade No No No No No No
fade() No No No No No No
Mobile
Android webview Chrome for Android Edge Mobile Firefox for Android Opera for Android iOS Safari Samsung Internet
Basic support Yes ? Yes 7
7
Until Firefox 10, handling of text-overflow on blocks with inline overflow on both horizontal sides was incorrect. Before Firefox 10, if only one value was specified (such as text-overflow: ellipsis;), text was ellipsed on both sides of the block, instead of only the end edge based on the block's text direction.
Yes Yes ?
Two-value syntax No ? No 9 No No No
<string> No ? No 9 No No No
fade No ? No No No No No
fade() No ? No No No No No

See also

© 2005–2018 Mozilla Developer Network and individual contributors.
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-overflow