CSS overflow-y Property

The overflow-y property specifies whether the content should be hidden, visible or scrolls vertically when the content overflows the element’s top and bottom edges. This property is one of the CSS3 properties.

The overflow-y property has four main values: visible, hidden, auto and scroll.

If the value of overflow-y is set to visible, the value of overflow-x, by default, will be set to visible. If the value of overflow-y is set to scroll, auto, or hidden, the value of overflow-x will be set to auto.
Initial Value visible
Applies to Block-containers, flex containers and grid containers.
Inherited No.
Animatable No.
Version CSS3
DOM Syntax object.style.overflowY = "auto";

The overflow-x property can be used to define clipping the right and left sides.

Syntax

overflow-y: visible | hidden | scroll | auto | initial | inherit;

Example of the overflow-y property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.scroll {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        height: 60px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: scroll;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: scroll</h3>
    <div class="scroll">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Result

CSS overflow-y visible

Example of the overflow-y property with the "visible" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.visible {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        color: #666;
        height: 40px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: visible;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: visible</h3>
    <div class="visible">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Example of the overflow-y property with the "hidden" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.hidden {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        height: 60px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: hidden;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: hidden</h3>
    <div class="hidden">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Example of the overflow-y property with the "auto" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.auto {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        height: 60px;
        width: 200px;
        overflow-y: auto;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-y: auto</h3>
    <div class="auto">Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Example of the overflow-y property with all the values:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.scroll {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: scroll;
      }
      div.hidden {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: hidden;
      }
      div.auto {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: auto;
      }
      div.visible {
        background-color: #8ebf42;
        height: 70px;
        width: 150px;
        overflow-y: visible;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-y property example</h2>
    <h3>overflow-y: scroll</h3>
    <div class="scroll">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-y: hidden</h3>
    <div class="hidden">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-y: auto</h3>
    <div class="auto">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-y: visible</h3>
    <div class="visible">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Values

Value Description Play it
visible The content is not clipped and renders outside the padding box's top and bottom edges. This is the default value of this property. Play it »
hidden The content is clipped to fit vertically in the padding box. No scrollbar is added. Play it »
scroll The content is clipped to fit vertically in the padding box. The scrollbar is added to see the rest of the content. Play it »
auto The content is clipped to fit vertically in the padding box. Depends on the browser. If content overflows, scrollbar is added. Play it »
initial Makes the property use its default value. Play it »
inherit Inherits the property from its parents element.

Browser support

chrome edge firefox safari opera
1.0+ 12.0+ 1.5+ 3.0+ 9.5+

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