text-decoration

Summary

The text-decoration CSS property is used to set the text formatting to underline, overline, line-through or blink. Underline and overline decorations are positioned under the text, line-through over it.

Text decorations draw across descendant elements. This means that it is not possible to disable on a descendant a text decoration that is specified on one of its ancestors. For example, in the markup <p>This text has <em>some emphasized words</em> in it.</p>, the style rule p { text-decoration: underline; } would cause the entire paragraph to be underlined. The style rule em { text-decoration: none; } would not cause any change; the entire paragraph would still be underlined. However, the rule em { text-decoration: overline; } would cause a second decoration to appear on "some emphasized words".

Note: CSS Text Decoration Level 3 transformed this property as a shorthand for the three new text-decoration-color, text-decoration-line, and text-decoration-style CSS properties. Like for any other shorthand property, it means that it resets their value to their default if not explicitly set in the shorthand.

Initial value	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `text-decoration-color`: `currentColor` `text-decoration-style`: `solid` `text-decoration-line`: `none`
Applies to	all elements. It also applies to `::first-letter` and `::first-line`.
Inherited	no
Media	visual
Computed value	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `text-decoration-line`: as specified `text-decoration-style`: as specified `text-decoration-color`: If the value is translucent, the computed value will be the `rgba()` corresponding one. If it isn't, it will be the `rgb()` corresponding one. The `transparent` keyword maps to `rgba(0,0,0,0)`.
Animation type	as each of the properties of the shorthand: `text-decoration-color`: a color `text-decoration-style`: discrete `text-decoration-line`: discrete
Canonical order	order of appearance in the formal grammar of the values

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
text-decoration: none;                 /* No text decoration */
text-decoration: underline red;        /* Red underlining */
text-decoration: underline wavy red;   /* Red wavy underlining */

/* Global values */
text-decoration: inherit;
text-decoration: initial;
text-decoration: unset;

Values

The text-decoration property is a shorthand and can use the values of each of the three longhand properties: text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, and text-decoration-style

Formal syntax

<'text-decoration-line'> || <'text-decoration-style'> || <'text-decoration-color'>

Examples

h1.under {
    text-decoration: underline;
}
h1.over {
    text-decoration: overline;
}
p.line {
    text-decoration: line-through;
}
p.blink {
    text-decoration: blink;
}
a.none {
    text-decoration: none;
}
p.underover {
    text-decoration: underline overline;
}

<h1 class="under">Underlined Header</h1>
<p class="line">If you want to strike out text, use line-through.</p>
<p class="blink">This text might blink for you - if you use Explorer, it will not.</p>
<h1 class="over">and now an overlined header.</h1>
<p>This <a class="none" href="textdecoration.html">link will not be underlined</a>, as most links are by default. Be careful with removing the text decoration on links since most users depend on the underline to signify a hyperlink.</p>
<p class="underover">This text has both underline and overline.</p>

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
CSS Text Decoration Level 3 The definition of 'text-decoration' in that specification.	Candidate Recommendation	Transformed into a shorthand property. Added support for the value of `text-decoration-style`.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of 'text-decoration' in that specification.	Recommendation	No significant changes
CSS Level 1 The definition of 'text-decoration' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition

Feature	Firefox (Gecko)	Chrome	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari
Basic support	1.0 (1.7 or earlier)	1.0	3.0	3.5	1.0
`blink` value	1.0 (1.7 or earlier) 23.0 (23.0)^[1]	(Yes)^[1]	(Yes)^[1]	4.0 15.0^[1]	(Yes)^[1]
Shorthand property	6.0 (6.0)^[3] 36.0 (36.0)	No support	No support	No support	7.1^[2]

Feature	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	Android	IE Phone	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile
Basic support	1.0 (1.0)	(Yes)	(Yes)	(Yes)	(Yes)
`blink` value	1.0 (1.7 or earlier) 23.0 (23.0)^[1]	(Yes)^[1]	(Yes)^[1]	4.0^[1]	(Yes)^[1]
Shorthand property	6.0 (6.0)^[3] 36.0 (36.0)	?	?	?	8^[1]

[1] The blink value does not have any effect.

[2] Safari doesn't support text-decoration-style.

[3] This version of Gecko has a partial implementation.