--- title: text-overflow slug: Web/CSS/text-overflow translation_of: Web/CSS/text-overflow ---

La propiedad de CSS text-overflow determina como el contenido que se desborda y que no es mostrado, va a hacérsele notar a los usuarios. Puede ser cortado, mostrar una elipsis ('…', U+2026 Horizontal Ellipsis), o mostrar una cadena de texto personalizada.

La propiedad text-overflow no fuerza a que ocurra un desbordamiento. Para hacer que un texto desborde a su contenedor debes poner algunas otras propiedades de CSS. Por ejemplo:

overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;

La propiedad text-overflow solo afecta al contenido que está rebasando un elemento de contenedor en bloque en su dirección de progresión inline (no así, a un texto que rebase por el bottom del contenedor, por).

Sintaxis

La propiedad text-overflow ha de ser especificada usando uno o dos valores. Si se define solo un valor, este determinará el comportamiento del overflow para el final de la línea (el extremo derecho en un texto izquierda-a-derecha o el extremo izquierdo en un texto derecha-a-izquierda). Si se definen dos valores, el primero hará referencia al comportamiento overflow para para el extremo izquierdo y el segundo al extremo derecho de la línea.

Cada valor se especificará como una de las siguientes opciones:

Una palabra clave: clip, ellipsis, fade
La función fade(), que recibe {{cssxref("<length>")}} o {{cssxref("<percentage>")}} para controlar la distancia de desvanecimiento
Un <string>.

Values

clip: The default for this property. This keyword value will truncate the text at the limit of the content area, therefore the truncation can happen in the middle of a character. To clip at the transition between characters you can specify text-overflow as an empty string, if that is supported in your target browsers: text-overflow: '';.
ellipsis: This keyword value will display an ellipsis ('…', U+2026 Horizontal Ellipsis) to represent clipped text. The ellipsis is displayed inside the content area, decreasing the amount of text displayed. If there is not enough space to display the ellipsis, it is clipped.
<string> {{experimental_inline}}: The {{cssxref("<string>")}} to be used to represent clipped text. The string is displayed inside the content area, shortening the size of the displayed text. If there is not enough space to display the string itself, it is clipped.
fade {{experimental_inline}}: This keyword clips the overflowing inline content and applies a fade-out effect near the edge of the line box with complete transparency at the edge.
fade( <length> | <percentage> ) {{experimental_inline}}: This function clips the overflowing inline content and applies a fade-out effect near the edge of the line box with complete transparency at the edge.; The argument determines the distance over which the fade effect is applied. The {{cssxref("<percentage>")}} is resolved against the width of the line box. Values lower than 0 are clipped to 0. Values greater than the width of the line box are clipped to the width of the line box.

Formal syntax

Examples

CSS

p {
  width: 200px;
  border: 1px solid;
  padding: 2px 5px;

  /* BOTH of the following are required for text-overflow */
  white-space: nowrap;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.overflow-visible {
  white-space: initial;
}

.overflow-clip {
  text-overflow: clip;
}

.overflow-ellipsis {
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

.overflow-string {
  /* Not supported in most browsers,
     see the 'Browser compatibility' section below */
  text-overflow: " [..]";
}

HTML

<p class="overflow-visible">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>
<p class="overflow-clip">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>
<p class="overflow-ellipsis">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>
<p class="overflow-string">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit.</p>

Result

{{EmbedLiveSample('Examples', 300, 220, '', 'Web/CSS/text-overflow')}}

CSS value	`direction: ltr`		`direction: rtl`
CSS value	Expected Result	Live result	Expected Result	Live result
visible overflow	1234567890	1234567890	0987654321	1234567890
`text-overflow: clip`		123456		1234567890
`text-overflow: ''`	12345	123456	54321	1234567890
`text-overflow: ellipsis`	1234…	1234567890	…4321	1234567890
`text-overflow: '.'`	1234.	1234567890	.4321	1234567890
`text-overflow: clip clip`	123456	1234567890	654321	1234567890
`text-overflow: clip ellipsis`	1234…	1234567890	6543…	1234567890
`text-overflow: clip '.'`	1234.	1234567890	6543.	1234567890
`text-overflow: ellipsis clip`	…3456	1234567890	…4321	1234567890
`text-overflow: ellipsis ellipsis`	…34…	1234567890	…43…	1234567890
`text-overflow: ellipsis '.'`	…34.	1234567890	…43.	1234567890
`text-overflow: ',' clip`	,3456	1234567890	,4321	1234567890
`text-overflow: ',' ellipsis`	,34…	1234567890	,43…	1234567890
`text-overflow: ',' '.'`	,34.	1234567890	,53.	1234567890

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
{{SpecName('CSS4 UI', '#text-overflow', 'text-overflow')}}	{{Spec2('CSS4 UI')}}	Added the values `<string>` and `fade` and the `fade()` function
{{SpecName('CSS3 UI', '#text-overflow', 'text-overflow')}}	{{Spec2('CSS3 UI')}}	Initial definition

A previous version of this interface reached the Candidate Recommendation status. As some not-listed-at-risk features needed to be removed, the spec was demoted to the Working Draft level, explaining why browsers implemented this property unprefixed, though not at the CR state.