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overflow

The overflow CSS property sets what to do when an element's content is too big to fit in its block formatting context. It is a shorthand for overflow-x and overflow-y.

The 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.

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

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

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
overflow: visible;
overflow: hidden;
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.
scroll: Content is clipped if necessary to fit 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.

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: Intended mainly for internal use and by themes. Disables scrolling of XML root elements, <html>, and <body> with the keyboard's arrow keys and the mouse wheel.

[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

Formal syntax

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

Examples

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 3 The definition of 'overflow' in that specification.	Working Draft	Changed syntax to allow one or two keywords instead of only one
CSS Basic Box Model The definition of 'overflow' in that specification.	Working Draft	No change.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'overflow' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Initial value	`visible`
Applies to	Block-containers, flex containers, and grid containers
Inherited	no
Media	visual
Computed value	as specified
Animation type	discrete
Canonical order	the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Browser compatibilityUpdate compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	1	12	1 1 After Firefox 3.6, the `overflow` property is correctly applied to table group elements (`<thead>`, `<tbody>`, `<tfoot>`).	4 4 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.	7	1
Multiple keyword syntax for `overflow-x` and `overflow-y`	68	No	61	No	55	No

	Mobile
	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Edge Mobile	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	iOS Safari	Samsung Internet
Basic support	?	?	Yes	4	?	?	?
Multiple keyword syntax for `overflow-x` and `overflow-y`	68	68	No	61	55	No	No