---
title: box-decoration-break
slug: Web/CSS/box-decoration-break
tags:
  - CSS
  - CSS Fragmentation
  - CSS Property
  - Experimental
  - Reference
translation_of: Web/CSS/box-decoration-break
---
<p>{{CSSRef}}{{SeeCompatTable}}</p>

<h2 id="Summary">Summary</h2>

<p>The <strong><code>box-decoration-break</code></strong> CSS property specifies how the {{ Cssxref("background") }}, {{ Cssxref("padding") }}, {{ Cssxref("border") }}, {{ Cssxref("border-image") }}, {{ Cssxref("box-shadow") }}, {{ Cssxref("margin") }} and {{ Cssxref("clip") }} of an element is applied when the box for the element is fragmented.  Fragmentation occurs when an inline box wraps onto multiple lines, or when a block spans more than one column inside a column layout container, or spans a page break when printed.  Each piece of the rendering for the element is called a fragment.</p>

<p>{{cssinfo}}</p>

<h2 id="Syntax">Syntax</h2>

<pre class="brush:css">box-decoration-break: slice;
box-decoration-break: clone;

box-decoration-break: initial;
box-decoration-break: inherit;
box-decoration-break: unset;
</pre>

<h3 id="Values">Values</h3>

<dl>
 <dt><code>slice</code></dt>
 <dd>The element is rendered as if its box were not fragmented, and then the rendering for this hypothetical box is sliced into pieces for each line/column/page. Note that the hypothetical box can be different for each fragment since it uses its own height if the break occurs in the inline direction, and its own width if the break occurs in the block direction. See the CSS specification for details.</dd>
 <dt><code>clone</code></dt>
 <dd>Each box fragment is rendered independently with the specified border, padding and margin wrapping each fragment. The {{ Cssxref("border-radius") }}, {{ Cssxref("border-image") }} and {{ Cssxref("box-shadow") }}, are applied to each fragment independently. The background is drawn independently in each fragment which means that a background image with {{ Cssxref("background-repeat") }}: <code>no-repeat</code> may be repeated multiple times.</dd>
</dl>

<h3 id="Formal_syntax">Formal syntax</h3>

{{csssyntax}}

<h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2>

<h3 id="Inline_box_fragments">Inline box fragments</h3>

<p>An inline element that contains line-breaks styled with:</p>

<pre class="brush:css">.example {
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom right, yellow, green);
  box-shadow:
    8px 8px 10px 0px deeppink,
    -5px -5px 5px 0px blue,
    5px 5px 15px 0px yellow;
  padding: 0em 1em;
  border-radius: 16px;
  border-style: solid;
  margin-left: 10px;
  font: 24px sans-serif;
  line-height: 2;
}

...
&lt;span class="example"&gt;The&lt;br&gt;quick&lt;br&gt;orange fox&lt;/span&gt;</pre>

<p>Results in:</p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot of the rendering of an inline element styled with box-decoration-break:slice and styles given in the example." src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8167/box-decoration-break-inline-slice.png" style="height: 177px; width: 191px;"></p>

<p>Adding <code>box-decoration-break:clone</code> to the above styles:</p>

<pre class="brush:css">  -webkit-box-decoration-break: clone;
  -o-box-decoration-break: clone;
  box-decoration-break: clone;
</pre>

<p>Results in:</p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot of the rendering of an inline element styled with box-decoration-break:clone and styles given in the example" src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8169/box-decoration-break-inline-clone.png" style="height: 180px; width: 231px;"></p>

<p>You can <a href="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8179/box-decoration-break-inline.html">try the two inline examples above</a> in your browser.</p>

<p>Here's an example of an inline element using a large <code>border-radius</code> value. The second <code>"iM"</code> has a line-break between the <code>"i"</code> and the <code>"M"</code>. For comparison, the first <code>"iM"</code> is without line-breaks. Note that if you stack the rendering of the two fragments horizontally next to each other it will result in the non-fragmented rendering.</p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot of the rendering of the second inline element example." src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8189/box-decoration-break-slice-inline-2.png" style="height: 184px; width: 108px;"></p>

<p><a href="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8191/box-decoration-break-inline-extreme.html">Try the above example</a> in your browser.</p>

<h3 id="Block_box_fragments">Block box fragments</h3>

<p>A block element with similar styles as above, first without any fragmentation:</p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot of the rendering of the block element used in the examples without any fragmentation." src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8181/box-decoration-break-block.png" style="height: 149px; width: 333px;"></p>

<p>Fragmenting the above block into three columns results in:</p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot of the rendering of the fragmented block used in the examples styled with box-decoration-break:slice." src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8183/box-decoration-break-block-slice.png" style="height: 55px; max-width: none; width: 1025px;"></p>

<p>Note that stacking these pieces vertically will result in the non-fragmented rendering.</p>

<p>Now the same example styled with <code>box-decoration-break:clone</code></p>

<p><img alt="A screenshot of the rendering of the fragmented block used in the examples styled with box-decoration-break:clone." src="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8185/box-decoration-break-block-clone.png" style="height: 61px; max-width: none; width: 1023px;"></p>

<p>Note here that each fragment has an identical replicated border, box-shadow and background.</p>

<p>You can <a href="https://mdn.mozillademos.org/files/8187/box-decoration-break-block.html">try the block examples above</a> in your browser.</p>

<h2 id="Specifications">Specifications</h2>

<table class="standard-table">
 <thead>
  <tr>
   <th scope="col">Specification</th>
   <th scope="col">Status</th>
   <th scope="col">Comment</th>
  </tr>
 </thead>
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td>{{ SpecName('CSS3 Fragmentation', '#break-decoration', 'box-decoration-break') }}</td>
   <td>{{ Spec2('CSS3 Fragmentation') }}</td>
   <td>Initial definition</td>
  </tr>
 </tbody>
</table>

<h2 id="Browser_compatibility">Browser compatibility</h2>

{{Compat("css.properties.box-decoration-break")}}

<h2 id="See_also">See also</h2>

<ul>
 <li><a href="/en-US/docs/CSS/CSS_Reference" title="CSS Reference">CSS Reference</a></li>
</ul>