overflow:hidden ignoring bottom padding

Question

In the following example, the bottom padding is ignored, and the text flows to the bottom of the element before hiding. What is causing this?

<div style="overflow: hidden; width: 300px; height: 100px; padding: 50px;">
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
</div>

A view with Firebug (purple is padding, blue is actual content area):

Answer 1

I know this is a bit old now, but I had this issue recently and fixed it by adding an additional inner div which has a margin.

.promo {
    height: 100px;
    width: 300px;
    border: 1px solid black;    
    padding: 0px 10px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

.inner {
    height: 86px;
    width: 100%;
    margin: 7px 0px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

.promo .inner p {
    padding 0;
    margin: 0;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/7xhuF/1/

Answer 2

I'm a little late to the game, but Padding renders internal content the same as the content area (that's one of the ways it's different from a Border or a Margin).

Learn More About the Box Model

You'll notice this most clearly if you set background colors or background images to divs with padding. The background color/image extends beyond the content portion and appears inside the padding area.

The solution is to set a margin instead. or a combination of a padding and margin (where there is no bottom padding, but instead a bottom margin of equal height.

<div style="overflow: hidden; width: 300px; height: 100px; margin:50px;">
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
</div>

http://jsfiddle.net/Uhg38/

Answer 3

I don't think you're going to get the effect you are looking for without adding a 2nd div.

http://jsfiddle.net/Mxhzf/

(background color added to make it clear what is happening)

HTML:

<div id="outer">
    <div id="inner">

        <!-- CONTENT HERE -->

    </div>
</div>

CSS:

#outer{
     width: 300px;  
     height: 300px; 
    padding: 20px;
}

#inner{
     width: 300px;
    height: 300px;
    overflow: hidden;
}

Answer 4

If your CSS uses padding-bottom and overflow:hidden together,it will cause the problem you describe.

The best solution is:

<div style="padding: 50px; border:1px solid #000">
    <div style="overflow: hidden; width: 300px; height: 100px;">
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
    </div>
</div>

Click here for live demo

Answer 5

The bottom padding exists but the content pushes the bottom padding down and is not visible because of overflow:hidden. What you can do is place the content in a container like so:

<div style="overflow:hidden; width: 300px; height: 200px; border:1px solid #000; ">
    <div style="overflow:hidden; width:auto; height:140px; border:30px solid #ff0000;">
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
        <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
    </div>
</div>

You can play with the fiddle here - http://jsfiddle.net/BMZeS/

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

I prefer to use as few <div>s as possible.

<div class="container">
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
  <p>Hello, this is text.</p>
</div>

.container{
  padding: 30px 30px 0;
  position: relative;
  width: 240px;
  height: 170px;
  border:1px solid #000;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.container:after{
  content: ' ';
  display: block;
  background-color: red;
  height: 30px;
  width: 100%;
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 0;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/bgaR9/

naturally in a world without IE < 9