Web/CSS/overflow

The overflow CSS shorthand property sets the desired behavior for an element's overflow — i.e. when an element's content is too big to fit in its block formatting context — in both directions.

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Constituent properties

This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
overflow: visible;
overflow: hidden;
overflow: clip;
overflow: scroll;
overflow: auto;
overflow: hidden visible;

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

The overflow property is specified as one or two keywords chosen from the list of values below. If two keywords are specified, the first applies to overflow-x and the second to overflow-y. Otherwise, both overflow-x and overflow-y are set to the same value.

Values

visible: Content is not clipped and may be rendered outside the padding box.
hidden: Content is clipped if necessary to fit the padding box. No scrollbars are provided, and no support for allowing the user to scroll (such as by dragging or using a scroll wheel) is allowed. The content can be scrolled programmatically (for example, by setting the value of a property such as offsetLeft), so the element is still a scroll container.
clip ': Like for hidden, the content is clipped to the element's padding box. The difference between clip and hidden is that the clip keyword also forbids all scrolling, including programmatic scrolling. The box is not a scroll container, and does not start a new formatting context. If you wish to start a new formatting context, you can use display: flow-root to do so.
scroll: Content is clipped if necessary to fit the padding box. Browsers always display scrollbars whether or not any content is actually clipped, preventing scrollbars from appearing or disappearing as content changes. Printers may still print overflowing content.
auto: Depends on the user agent. If content fits inside the padding box, it looks the same as visible, but still establishes a new block formatting context. Desktop browsers provide scrollbars if content overflows.

overlay ': Behaves the same as auto, but with the scrollbars drawn on top of content instead of taking up space. Only supported in WebKit-based (e.g., Safari) and Blink-based (e.g., Chrome or Opera) browsers.

Mozilla extensions

-moz-scrollbars-none ' [1]: Use overflow: hidden instead.
-moz-scrollbars-horizontal ' [1]: Use overflow-x: scroll and overflow-y: hidden, or overflow: hidden scroll instead.
-moz-scrollbars-vertical ' [1]: Use overflow-x: hidden and overflow-y: scroll, or overflow: scroll hidden instead.
-moz-hidden-unscrollable ': Use overflow: clip instead.

[1] As of Firefox 63, this feature is behind a feature preference setting. In about:config, set layout.css.overflow.moz-scrollbars.enabled to true

Description

Overflow options include clipping, showing scrollbars, or displaying the content flowing out of its container into the surrounding area.

Specifying a value other than visible (the default) creates a new block formatting context. This is necessary for technical reasons — if a float intersected with the scrolling element it would forcibly rewrap the content after each scroll step, leading to a slow scrolling experience.

In order for overflow to have an effect, the block-level container must have either a set height (height or max-height) or white-space set to nowrap.

Setting one axis to visible (the default) while setting the other to a different value results in visible behaving as auto.

The JavaScript Element.scrollTop property may be used to scroll an HTML element even when overflow is set to hidden.

Formal definition

Initial value	`visible`
Applies to	Block-containers, flex containers, and grid containers
Inherited	no
Computed value	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `overflow-x`: as specified, except with `visible`/`clip` computing to `auto`/`hidden` respectively if one of `overflow-x` or `overflow-y` is neither `visible` nor clip `overflow-y`: as specified, except with `visible`/`clip` computing to `auto`/`hidden` respectively if one of `overflow-x` or `overflow-y` is neither `visible` nor clip
Animation type	discrete

Formal syntax

[ visible | hidden | clip | scroll | auto ]{1,2}

Examples

Setting different overflow values for text

p {
  width: 12em;
  height: 6em;
  border: dotted;
  overflow: visible; /* content is not clipped */ 
}

visible (default) Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.

p { overflow: hidden; /* no scrollbars are provided */ }

overflow: hidden Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.

p { overflow: scroll; /* always show scrollbars */ }

overflow: scroll Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.

p { overflow: auto; /* append scrollbars if necessary */ }

overflow: auto Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Overflow Module Level 3The definition of 'overflow' in that specification.	Working Draft	Changed syntax to allow one or two keywords instead of only one
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)The definition of 'overflow' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`overflow`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' After Firefox 3.6, the `overflow` property is correctly applied to table group elements (`<thead>`, `<tbody>`, `<tfoot>`).	IE Full support 4 Notes' Full support 4 Notes' Notes' From version 4 to 6, Internet Explorer enlarges an element with `overflow: visible` (default value) to fit the content inside it. `height` and `width` behave like `min-height` and `min-width`, respectively.	Opera Full support 7	Safari Full support 1	WebView Android Full support 37	Chrome Android Full support 18	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support 14	Safari iOS Full support 1	Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0
`clip` value Experimental'	Chrome No support No	Edge No support No	Firefox Full support 81 Full support 81 No support 1.5 — 81 Alternate Name' Alternate Name' Uses the non-standard name: `-moz-hidden-unscrollable`	IE No support No	Opera No support No	Safari No support No	WebView Android No support No	Chrome Android No support No	Firefox Android Full support 81 Full support 81 No support 4 — 81 Alternate Name' Alternate Name' Uses the non-standard name: `-moz-hidden-unscrollable`	Opera Android No support No	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android No support No
Multiple keyword syntax for `overflow-x` and `overflow-y`	Chrome Full support 68	Edge Full support 79	Firefox Full support 61	IE No support No	Opera Full support 55	Safari No support No	WebView Android Full support 68	Chrome Android Full support 68	Firefox Android Full support 61	Opera Android Full support 48	Safari iOS No support No	Samsung Internet Android Full support 10.0

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.': Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.
Uses a non-standard name.': Uses a non-standard name.