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.

Clipping happens at the border of the box; to clip at the character limit an empty custom string can be used ('').

This 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). Text can overflow when it is prevented from wrapping (e.g., due to ‘white-space: nowrap’) or a single word being too long to fit.

This CSS property doesn't force an overflow to occur; to do so and make text-overflow to be applied, the author must apply some additional properties on the element, like setting overflow to hidden.

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

Syntax

/* Overflow behavior at line end
   Right end if ltr, left end if rtl */
text-overflow: clip;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
text-overflow: "…";

/* Overflow behavior at left end | at right end
   Directionality has no influence */
text-overflow: clip ellipsis;
text-overflow: "…" "…";

/* Global values */
text-overflow: inherit;
text-overflow: initial;
text-overflow: unset;

Values

clip

This keyword value indicates to truncate the text at the limit of the content area, therefore the truncation can happen in the middle of a character. To truncate at the transition between two characters, the empty string value ('') must be used. The value clip is the default for this property.

ellipsis

This keyword value indicates to 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 more the size of the displayed text. If there is not enough place to display the string itself, it is clipped.

Formal syntax

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

Examples

CSS content

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 content

<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		123456		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 3 The definition of 'text-overflow' in that specification.	Candidate 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.

Browser compatibility

[1] Starting in Gecko 10.0 (Firefox 10.0 / Thunderbird 10.0 / SeaMonkey 2.7), handling of text-overflow on blocks with inline overflow on both horizontal sides has been corrected; previously, if you specified only one value (such as text-overflow:ellipsis;), ellipsing was happening on both sides instead of just the end edge based on the block's text direction.

[2] Internet Explorer 8 introduced the prefixed version, -ms-text-overflow, synonymous with text-overflow. Do not use this prefixed version.

[3] Opera 9 and 10 require the prefixed version, -o-text-overflow.

See also

• Related CSS properties: overflow, white-space