The text-decoration
shorthand CSS property sets the appearance of decorative lines on text. It is a shorthand for text-decoration-line
, text-decoration-color
, text-decoration-style
, and the newer text-decoration-thickness
property.
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Text decorations are drawn across descendant text elements. This means that if an element specifies a text decoration, then a child element can't remove the decoration. For example, in the markup <p>This text has <em>some emphasized words</em> in it.</p>
, the style rule p { text-decoration: underline; }
would cause the entire paragraph to be underlined. The style rule em { text-decoration: none; }
would not cause any change; the entire paragraph would still be underlined. However, the rule em { text-decoration: overline; }
would cause a second decoration to appear on "some emphasized words".
Constituent properties
This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:
Syntax
The text-decoration
property is specified as one or more space-separated values representing the various longhand text-decoration properties.
Values
text-decoration-line
- Sets the kind of decoration used, such as
underline
orline-through
. text-decoration-color
- Sets the color of the decoration.
text-decoration-style
- Sets the style of the line used for the decoration, such as
solid
,wavy
, ordashed
. text-decoration-thickness
- Sets the thickness of the line used for the decoration.
Formal definition
Initial value | as each of the properties of the shorthand:
|
---|---|
Applies to | all elements. It also applies to ::first-letter and ::first-line . |
Inherited | no |
Computed value | as each of the properties of the shorthand:
|
Animation type | as each of the properties of the shorthand:
|
Formal syntax
<'text-decoration-line'> | <'text-decoration-style'> | <'text-decoration-color'> | <'text-decoration-thickness'>
Examples
.under { text-decoration: underline red; } .over { text-decoration: wavy overline lime; } .line { text-decoration: line-through; } .plain { text-decoration: none; } .underover { text-decoration: dashed underline overline; } .thick { text-decoration: solid underline purple 4px; } .blink { text-decoration: blink; }
<p class="under">This text has a line underneath it.</p> <p class="over">This text has a line over it.</p> <p class="line">This text has a line going through it.</p> <p>This <a class="plain" href="#">link will not be underlined</a>, as links generally are by default. Be careful when removing the text decoration on anchors since users often depend on the underline to denote hyperlinks.</p> <p class="underover">This text has lines above <em>and</em> below it.</p> <p class="thick">This text has a really thick purple underline in supporting browsers.</p> <p class="blink">This text might blink for you, depending on the browser you use.</p>
Specifications
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
CSS Text Decoration Module Level 4 | Working Draft | Adds text-decoration-thickness ; note that this isn't yet officially part of the shorthand — this is as yet unspecified. |
CSS Text Decoration Module Level 3 The definition of 'text-decoration' in that specification. |
Candidate Recommendation | Transformed into a shorthand property. Added support for the value of text-decoration-style . |
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'text-decoration' in that specification. |
Recommendation | No significant changes. |
CSS Level 1 The definition of 'text-decoration' in that specification. |
Recommendation | Initial definition. |
Browser compatibility
Desktop | Mobile | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
text-decoration | Chrome Full support 1 | Edge Full support 12 | Firefox Full support 1 | IE Full support 3 | Opera Full support 3.5 | Safari Full support 1 | WebView Android Full support ≤37 | Chrome Android Full support 18 | Firefox Android Full support 4 | Opera Android Full support 10.1 | Safari iOS Full support 1 | Samsung Internet Android Full support 1.0 |
blink | Chrome No support No | Edge No support No | Firefox No support 1 — 23 | IE No support No | Opera No support 4 — 15 | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support 4 — 23 | Opera Android No support 10.1 — 14 | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
Shorthand | Chrome Full support 57 | Edge Full support 79 | Firefox
Full support
36
| IE No support No | Opera Full support 44 | Safari
Full support
8
| WebView Android Full support 57 | Chrome Android Full support 57 | Firefox Android
Full support
36
| Opera Android Full support 43 | Safari iOS
Full support
8
| Samsung Internet Android Full support 7.0 |
text-decoration-thickness included in shorthand | Chrome No support No | Edge No support No | Firefox Full support 70 | IE No support No | Opera No support No | Safari No support No | WebView Android No support No | Chrome Android No support No | Firefox Android No support No | Opera Android No support No | Safari iOS No support No | Samsung Internet Android No support No |
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.
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
- Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
- Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
- Requires a vendor prefix or different name for use.
See also
- The individual text-decoration properties are
text-decoration-line
,text-decoration-color
, andtext-decoration-style
. - The
list-style
attribute controls the appearance of items in HTML<ol>
and<ul>
lists.