- overflow-y
- Try it
- Syntax
- Values
- Formal definition
- Formal syntax
- Examples
- Setting overflow-y behavior
- HTML
- CSS
- Result
- Specifications
- Browser compatibility
- overflow
- Try it
- Constituent properties
- Syntax
- Values
- Description
- Formal definition
- Formal syntax
- Examples
- Demonstrating results of various overflow keywords
- HTML
- CSS
- Result
- Accessibility concerns
- Specifications
- Browser compatibility
- See also
- Found a content problem with this page?
- CSS overflow Property
- Browser Support
- CSS Syntax
- Property Values
overflow-y
The overflow-y CSS property sets what shows when content overflows a block-level element’s top and bottom edges. This may be nothing, a scroll bar, or the overflow content. This property may also be set by using the overflow shorthand property.
Try it
Syntax
/* Keyword values */ overflow-y: visible; overflow-y: hidden; overflow-y: clip; overflow-y: scroll; overflow-y: auto; /* Global values */ overflow-y: inherit; overflow-y: initial; overflow-y: revert; overflow-y: revert-layer; overflow-y: unset;
The overflow-y property is specified as a single keyword value.
If overflow-x is hidden , scroll , or auto and the overflow-y property is visible (default), the value will be implicitly computed as auto .
Values
Overflow content is not clipped and may be visible outside the element’s padding box at the top and bottom edges. The element box is not a scroll container.
Overflow content is clipped if necessary to fit vertically in the elements’ padding box. No scroll bars are provided.
Overflow content is clipped if necessary to fit vertically inside the element’s padding box. Browsers display scroll bars in the vertical 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.
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, hiding 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.
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-y =
visible |
hidden |
clip |
scroll |
auto
Examples
Setting overflow-y behavior
HTML
ul> li> code>overflow-y:hiddencode> — hides the text outside the box div id="div1"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. div> li> li> code>overflow-y:scrollcode> — always adds a scrollbar div id="div2"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. div> li> li> code>overflow-y:visiblecode> — displays the text outside the box if needed div id="div3"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. div> li> li> code>overflow-y:autocode> — equivalent to code>scrollcode> on most browsers div id="div4"> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. div> li> ul>
CSS
div border: 1px solid black; width: 250px; height: 100px; > #div1 overflow-y: hidden; margin-bottom: 12px; > #div2 overflow-y: scroll; margin-bottom: 12px; > #div3 overflow-y: visible; margin-bottom: 120px; > #div4 overflow-y: auto; margin-bottom: 120px; >
Result
Specifications
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
overflow
The overflow CSS shorthand property sets the desired behavior when content does not fit in the parent element box (overflows) in the horizontal and/or vertical direction.
Try it
Constituent properties
This property is a shorthand for the following CSS properties:
Syntax
/* Keyword values */ overflow: visible; overflow: hidden; overflow: clip; overflow: scroll; overflow: auto; overflow: hidden visible; /* Global values */ overflow: inherit; overflow: initial; overflow: revert; overflow: revert-layer; overflow: unset;
Values
Overflow content is not clipped and may be visible outside the element’s padding box. The element box is not a scroll container. This is the default value of the overflow property.
Overflow content is clipped at the element’s padding box. There are no scroll bars, and the clipped content is not visible (i.e., clipped content is hidden), but the content still exists. User agents do not add scroll bars and also do not allow users to view the content outside the clipped region by actions such as dragging on a touch screen or using the scroll wheel on a mouse. The content can be scrolled programmatically (for example, by setting the value of the scrollLeft property or the scrollTo() method), in which case. The element box is a scroll container.
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 value of overflow-clip-margin or by 0px if not set. Overflow content outside the clipped region is not visible, user agents do not add a scroll bar, and programmatic scrolling is also not supported. 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.
Overflow content is clipped at the element’s padding box, and overflow content can be scrolled into view using scroll bars. User agents display scroll bars in both horizontal and vertical directions if only one value is set, whether or not any content is overflowing or clipped. The use of this keyword, therefore, can prevent scroll bars from appearing and disappearing as content changes. Printers may still print overflowing content. The element box is a scroll container.
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 formatting context. The element box is a scroll container.
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.
Description
Overflow options include hiding overflowing content, enabling scroll bars to view overflow content or displaying the content flowing out of an element box into the surrounding area, and combinations there of.
The following nuances should be kept in mind while using the various keywords for overflow :
- Specifying a value other than visible (the default) or clip for overflow creates a new block formatting context. This is necessary for technical reasons; if a float intersects with a scrolling element, it would forcibly rewrap the content after each scroll step, leading to a slow scrolling experience.
- For an overflow setting to create the desired effect, the block-level element must have either a set height ( height or max-height ) or white-space set to nowrap .
- Setting one axis to visible (the default) while setting the other to a different value results in visible behaving as auto .
- The JavaScript Element.scrollTop property may be used to scroll through content in a scroll container, including when overflow is set to hidden .
Formal definition
- overflow-x : as specified, except with visible / clip computing to auto / hidden respectively if one of overflow-x or overflow-y is neither visible nor clip
- overflow-y : as specified, except with visible / clip computing to auto / hidden respectively if one of overflow-x or overflow-y is neither visible nor clip
Formal syntax
overflow =
[ visible | hidden | clip | scroll | auto ]
Examples
Demonstrating results of various overflow keywords
HTML
div> code>visiblecode> p class="visible"> Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." p> div> div> code>hiddencode> p class="hidden"> Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." p> div> div> code>clipcode> p class="clip"> Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." p> div> div> code>scrollcode> p class="scroll"> Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." p> div> div> code>autocode> p class="auto"> Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." p> div> div> code>overlaycode> p class="overlay"> Maya Angelou: "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." p> div>
CSS
body display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: start; > div margin: 2em; font-size: 1.2em; > p width: 5em; height: 5em; border: dotted; margin-top: 0.5em; > div:nth-of-type(5), div:nth-of-type(6) margin-top: 200px; >
p.visible overflow: visible; > p.hidden overflow: hidden; > p.clip overflow: clip; overflow-clip-margin: 1em; > p.scroll overflow: scroll; > p.auto overflow: auto; > p.overlay overflow: overlay; >
Result
Accessibility concerns
A scrolling content area cannot be scrolled by a keyboard-only user, with the exception of users on Firefox (which makes the container keyboard focusable by default).
As a developer, to allow non-Firefox keyboard-only users to scroll the container, you will need to give it a tabindex using tabindex=»0″ . Unfortunately, when a screen reader encounters this tab-stop, they will have no context for what it is and their screen reader will likely announce the entirety of its contents. Giving it an appropriate WAI-ARIA role ( role=»region» , for example) and an accessible name (via aria-label or aria-labelledby ) can mitigate this.
Specifications
Browser compatibility
BCD tables only load in the browser
See also
Found a content problem with this page?
This page was last modified on Jul 18, 2023 by MDN contributors.
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CSS overflow Property
The overflow property specifies what should happen if content overflows an element’s box.
This property specifies whether to clip content or to add scrollbars when an element’s content is too big to fit in a specified area.
Note: The overflow property only works for block elements with a specified height.
Default value: | visible |
---|---|
Inherited: | no |
Animatable: | no. Read about animatable |
Version: | CSS2 |
JavaScript syntax: | object.style.overflow=»scroll» Try it |
Browser Support
The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully supports the property.
Note: In OS X Lion (on Mac), scrollbars are hidden by default and only shown when being used (even though «overflow:scroll» is set).
CSS Syntax
Property Values
Value | Description | Demo |
---|---|---|
visible | The overflow is not clipped. It renders outside the element’s box. This is default | Demo ❯ |
hidden | The overflow is clipped, and the rest of the content will be invisible. Content can be scrolled programmatically (e.g. by setting scrollLeft or scrollTo()) | Demo ❯ |
clip | The overflow is clipped, and the rest of the content will be invisible. Forbids scrolling, including programmatic scrolling. | Demo ❯ |
scroll | The overflow is clipped, but a scroll-bar is added to see the rest of the content | Demo ❯ |
auto | If overflow is clipped, a scroll-bar should be added to see the rest of the content | Demo ❯ |
initial | Sets this property to its default value. Read about initial | |
inherit | Inherits this property from its parent element. Read about inherit |