CSS line-clamp Property

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The line-clamp property truncates a text at a specified number of lines. It limits the text, after you tell it the desirable number of lines, adding an ellipsis after the last word or portion of a word that is demonstrated. It is a shorthand for:

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This property is in progress.

Disadvantages of the CSS line-clamp Property

CSS line-clamp property has some disadvantages, and we are going to look through each one:

The CSS line-clamp property has limited browser support. It is not supported by such browsers as Firefox and Opera Mini. However, you can create fallbacks for the browsers that don’t support this property. Using @supports (-webkit-line-clamp: 2) {} check, will show whether it works in the current browser or not. If it doesn’t work, this check will provide a fallback for that browser.
Another disadvantage is that it doesn’t offer any alternative to the ellipsis. This causes another problem: you may get different definitions in different language.
The CSS line-clamp property calls for lots of supporting properties like:

overflow: hidden;
display: -webkit-box;
-webkit-line-clamp: 2;
-webkit-box-orient: vertical;

Initial Value	none
Applies to	-
Inherited	Yes.
Animatable	No.
Version	CSS3
DOM Syntax	object.style.lineClamp = "2";

Syntax

line-clamp: normal | <integer> | initial | inherit;

Example of the line-clamp property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      body {
        align-items: center;
        background: radial-gradient( farthest-side at bottom left, #eee, #ccc), 
        radial-gradient( farthest-corner at bottom right, #eee, #ccc 400px);
        display: flex;
        flex-direction: column;
        height: 100vh;
        justify-content: center;
        line-height: 1.5;
      }
      .element {
        background-color: #fff;
        box-shadow: 1px 1px 10px #666;
        padding: 2em;
        width: 200px;
      }
      .element p {
        display: -webkit-box;
        -webkit-line-clamp: 3;
        -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
        overflow: hidden;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h2>CSS line-clamp  property example</h2>
    <div class="element">
      <p>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.
        <p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

In the given example, the text is cut at the fourth line.

Values

Value	Description
none	No maximum number of lines and no truncation.
<integer>	Sets maximum number of lines before truncating the content and then displays an ellipsis.
initial	Makes the property use its default value.
inherit	Inherits the property from its parents element.


14.0 -webkit-	17.0+	✕	5.1 -webkit-	15 -webkit-

14.0
-webkit-

17.0+

5.1
-webkit-

15
-webkit-