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.

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: unset;

The overflow-x property is specified as a single keyword chosen from the list of values below.

Values

visible

Content is not clipped and may be rendered outside the padding box's left and right edges. If overflow-y is hidden, scroll or auto and this property is visible, it will implicitly compute to auto.

hidden

Content is clipped if necessary to fit horizontally in the padding box. No scrollbars are provided.

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 horizontally in the padding box. Browsers display scrollbars whether or not any content is actually clipped. (This prevents scrollbars from appearing or disappearing when the 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.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

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

Browser compatibility

See also

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