overflow-x

The overflow-x CSS property sets what shows when content overflows a block-level element's left and right edges. This may be nothing, a scroll bar, or the overflow content. This property may also be set by using the overflow shorthand property.

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Syntax

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

/* Global values */
overflow-x: inherit;
overflow-x: initial;
overflow-x: revert;
overflow-x: revert-layer;
overflow-x: unset;

The overflow-x property is specified as a single <overflow> keyword value.

If overflow-y is hidden, scroll, or auto, and the overflow-x property is visible (default), the value will be implicitly computed as auto.

Values

visible: Overflow content is not clipped and may be visible outside the element's padding box on left and right edges. The element box is not a scroll container.
hidden: Overflow content is clipped if necessary to fit horizontally in the elements' padding box. No scroll bars are provided.
clip: Overflow content is clipped at the element's overflow clip edge that is defined using the overflow-clip-margin property. As a result, content overflows the element's padding box by the <length> value of overflow-clip-margin or by 0px if not set. The difference between clip and hidden is that the clip keyword also forbids all scrolling, including programmatic scrolling. No new formatting context is created. To establish a formatting context, use overflow: clip along with display: flow-root. The element box is not a scroll container.
scroll: Overflow content is clipped if necessary to fit horizontally inside the element's padding box. Browsers display scroll bars in the horizontal direction whether or not any content is actually clipped. (This prevents scroll bars from appearing or disappearing when the content changes.) Printers may still print overflowing content.
auto: Overflow content is clipped at the element's padding box, and overflow content can be scrolled into view. Unlike scroll, user agents display scroll bars only if the content is overflowing and hide scroll bars by default. If content fits inside the element's padding box, it looks the same as with visible, but still establishes a new block-formatting context. Desktop browsers provide scroll bars if content overflows.

Note: The keyword value overlay is a legacy value alias for auto. With overlay, the scroll bars are drawn on top of the content instead of taking up space.

Formal definition

Initial value	`visible`
Applies to	Block-containers, flex containers, and grid containers
Inherited	no
Computed value	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

overflow-x = 
  visible  |
  hidden   |
  clip     |
  scroll   |
  auto

Examples

HTML

<ul>
  <li>
    <code>overflow-x:hidden</code> — hides the text outside the box
    <div id="div1">ABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ</div>
  </li>

  <li>
    <code>overflow-x:scroll</code> — always adds a scrollbar
    <div id="div2">ABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ</div>
  </li>

  <li>
    <code>overflow-x:visible</code> — displays the text outside the box if
    needed
    <div id="div3">ABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ</div>
  </li>

  <li>
    <code>overflow-x:auto</code> — on most browsers, equivalent to
    <code>scroll</code>
    <div id="div4">ABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ</div>
  </li>
</ul>

CSS

#div1,
#div2,
#div3,
#div4 {
  border: 1px solid black;
  width: 250px;
  margin-bottom: 12px;
}

#div1 {
  overflow-x: hidden;
}
#div2 {
  overflow-x: scroll;
}
#div3 {
  overflow-x: visible;
}
#div4 {
  overflow-x: auto;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Overflow Module Level 3 # overflow-properties

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser