overflow-x

Summary

The overflow-x CSS property specifies whether to clip content, render a scroll bar or display overflow content of a block-level element, when it overflows at the left and right edges.

• Initial value visible
• Applies to non-replaced block-level elements and non-replaced inline-block elements
• Inherited no
• Media visual
• Computed value as specified
• Animatable no
• Canonical order the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

Formal syntax: visible | hidden | scroll | auto

overflow-x: visible
overflow-x: hidden
overflow-x: scroll
overflow-x: auto

overflow-x: inherit

Values

visible

Content is not clipped, it may be rendered outside the content box.

hidden

The content is clipped and no scrollbars are provided.

scroll

The content is clipped and desktop browsers use scrollbars, whether or not any content is clipped. This avoids any problem with scrollbars appearing and disappearing in a dynamic environment. Printers may print overflowing content.

auto

Depends on the user agent. Desktop browsers like Firefox provide scrollbars if content overflows.

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> — add a scrollbar if needed
    <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 browser, 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

Browser compatibility

[1] IE8 introduced -ms-overflow-x as a  synonym for overflow-x. Don't use the -ms- prefix.

See also

• Related CSS properties: text-overflow, white-space, overflow, overflow-y, clip, display