CSS overflow-x Property

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The overflow-x property specifies whether the content should be hidden, visible or scrolls horizontally when the content overflows the element’s left and right edges. This property is one of the CSS3 properties.

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

If the overflow-y property is hidden, scroll or auto, and the overflow-x is visible by default, it will compute to auto.

Initial Value	visible
Applies to	Block-containers, flex containers and grid containers.
Inherited	No.
Animatable	No.
Version	CSS3
DOM Syntax	object.style.overflowX = "visible";

Syntax

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

Example of the overflow-x property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.example {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        width: 40px;
        overflow-x: scroll;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-x property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-x: scroll</h3>
    <div class="example">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

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

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.example {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #cccccc;
        width: 40px;
        overflow-x: visible;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-x property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-x: visible</h3>
    <div class="example">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

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

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.example {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        width: 40px;
        overflow-x: hidden;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-x property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-x: hidden</h3>
    <div class="example">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

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

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.example {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #fff;
        width: 40px;
        overflow-x: auto;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-x property example</h2>
    <h3>Overflow-x: auto</h3>
    <div class="example">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

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

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.scroll {
        background-color: #ccc;
        width: 50px;
        overflow-x: scroll;
      }
      div.hidden {
        background-color: #ccc;
        width: 50px;
        overflow: hidden;
      }
      div.auto {
        background-color: #ccc;
        width: 50px;
        overflow: auto;
      }
      div.visible {
        background-color: #ccc;
        width: 50px;
        overflow: visible;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>Overflow-x property example</h2>
    <h3>overflow-x: scroll</h3>
    <div class="scroll">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-x: hidden</h3>
    <div class="hidden">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-x: auto</h3>
    <div class="auto">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
    <h3>overflow-x: visible</h3>
    <div class="visible">
      Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Values

Value	Description	Play it
visible	The content is not clipped and renders outside the padding box's left and right edges. This is the default value of this property.	Play it »
hidden	The content is clipped to fit horizontally in the padding box. No scrollbar is added.	Play it »
scroll	The content is clipped to fit horizontally in the padding box. The scrollbar is added to see the rest of the content.	Play it »
auto	The content is clipped to fit horizontally 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.