CSS overflow property

Definition and Usage

overflow This attribute specifies what happens when the content overflows the element box.

Description

This property defines how the content of the overflow element content area is handled. If the value is scroll, the user agent will provide a scrolling mechanism regardless of whether it is needed. Therefore, there may be a scrollbar even if all the content can fit in the element box.

See also:

CSS Tutorial:CSS Positioning

HTML DOM Reference Manual:overflow property

Example

Set the overflow property:

div
  {
  width:150px;
  height:150px;
  overflow:scroll;
  }

Try it yourself

CSS Syntax

overflow: visible|hidden|clip|scroll|auto|initial|inherit;

Attribute Value

Value Description
visible Default Value. The content will not be clipped and will be displayed outside the element box.
hidden The content will be clipped, and the rest of the content will be invisible.
scroll The content will be clipped, but the browser will display a scrollbar to view the rest of the content.
auto If the content is clipped, the browser will display a scrollbar to view the rest of the content.
inherit Specifies that the overflow property value should be inherited from the parent element.

Technical Details

Default Value: visible
Inheritance: no
Version: CSS2
JavaScript Syntax: object.style.overflow="scroll"

More examples

How to use scroll bars to display the overflow content within the element
This example demonstrates how to set the overflow property to specify the corresponding action when the element content is too large to exceed the specified area.
How to hide the overflow content in overflow elements
This example demonstrates how to set the overflow property to hide the content when the content in the element is too large to fit the specified area.
How to set the browser to automatically handle overflow
This example demonstrates how to set the browser to automatically handle overflow.

Browser support

The numbers in the table indicate the first browser version that fully supports this attribute.

Chrome IE / Edge Firefox Safari Opera
1.0 4.0 1.0 1.0 7.0