Fading out text on overflow with css if the text is bigger than allowed

I am trying to create a text fade-out effect when the amount of text is bigger than the row can handle. I am achieving this with the mixture of max-height, overflow and linear-gradient. Something like this.

max-height:200px;
overflow:hidden;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#000, #fff);

The full fiddle is available. I am trying to achieve effect similar to this one

and I am kind of close. The problem is that in my case text start to fade-out from the very beginning and I want it to start fading out only if it is really close to maximum size. Lets say start fading out if it is already 150px. Also I am using only -webkit prefix and I assume that there may be other prefixes that I can add for other rendering engines.

Is there a way to do this in pure CSS?

Looks like your requirement is just to fade out the text beginning at a certain height (about 150px), the text (if any) presenting at that height is considered as overflow. So you can try using some kind of transparent linear gradient layer placed on top of the text area, we can achieve this in a neat way using the pseudo-element :before like this:

.row:before {
  content:'';
  width:100%;
  height:100%;    
  position:absolute;
  left:0;
  top:0;
  background:linear-gradient(transparent 150px, white);
}

Fiddle

I used this method derived from reddit pages & it works fine

.fade {
    -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 60%, transparent);
  }

<div>
    <div class="fade">
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    Text text text text<br />
    </div>
</div>

I’d suggest something like this:

Apply the gradient to an absolutely positioned pseudo-element (:after), that get’s positioned at say 160px from top with 40px height – that way, it’ll not be shown at all in shorter boxes (because of their max-height in combination with overflow:hidden). And the gradient itself is from totally transparent (rgba(0,0,0,0)) to solid black.

.row{
    position:relative;
    /* … */
}
.row:after {
    content:"";
    position:absolute;
    top:160px;
    left:0;
    height:40px;
    width:100%;
    background: linear-gradient(rgba(0,0,0,0), #000);
}

http://jsfiddle.net/b9vtW/2/

I think your are looking for something like this, right?

http://jsfiddle.net/QPFkH/

.text {
    position:relative;
    width:200px;
    max-height:10em;
    overflow:hidden;
}
.shadow {
    position:absolute;
    top:8em;
    width:100%;
    height:2em;
    background: -webkit-linear-gradient(transparent, white);
    background: -o-linear-gradient(transparent, white);
    background: -moz-linear-gradient(transparent, white);
    background: linear-gradient(transparent, white);
}

Your code is correct just the liner gradient percent must be set

background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,#000 70%, #fff);

Try the fiddle link

http://jsfiddle.net/ShinyMetilda/kb4fL/1/

You could alse specfiy it in pixel like this

 background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,#000 140px, #fff);

Both works the same

If you don't need to rely on percentage values, use box-shadow instead of background-image. It makes it possible to let the user interact with the elements behind your fading-thingy, without the need of pointer-events: none (http://caniuse.com/#feat=pointer-events):

box-shadow: 0 0 2em 1em #f00;
height: 0;

But be warned, box-shadow can slow down scrolling:

• http://nerds.airbnb.com/box-shadows-are-expensive-to-paint

I recomend you to use http://www.colorzilla.com/gradient-editor/.

What you are looking for may be:

background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0) 0%, rgba(255,255,255,0) 80%, rgba(0,0,0,1) 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(255,255,255,0)), color-stop(80%,rgba(255,255,255,0)), color-stop(100%,rgba(0,0,0,1))); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0) 0%,rgba(255,255,255,0) 80%,rgba(0,0,0,1) 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0) 0%,rgba(255,255,255,0) 80%,rgba(0,0,0,1) 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  rgba(255,255,255,0) 0%,rgba(255,255,255,0) 80%,rgba(0,0,0,1) 100%); /* IE10+ */
background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  rgba(255,255,255,0) 0%,rgba(255,255,255,0) 80%,rgba(0,0,0,1) 100%); /* W3C */
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#00ffffff', endColorstr='#000000',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */

and if not workign as you wish, copy and paste those css in the url (css window) and modifie it at will.

I had a similar problem with a bootstrap button which has a vertical gradient and also change of gradient on hover. This worked for me.

<button class="btn btn-success" style="width:250px">
	  <div class="faderflow">
		 SOME TEXT THAT'S TOO LONG FOR THE BUTTON
	  </div>
</button>



.faderflow {
	overflow: hidden;
   
   /* same color as text (white) */
	background: linear-gradient(to right, rgb(255, 255, 255) 80%,rgba(255, 255, 255, 0) 100%);
	background-clip: border-box;
	-webkit-background-clip: text;
	-webkit-text-fill-color: #fff0;
 
   /* overwrite the bootstrap text shadow  */
	text-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2);
}

https://codepen.io/andyg2/pen/qGmKKN

I used this method to make the bottom transparent.

http://jsfiddle.net/IAMCHIEF/x7qLon18/4/

.row{
    position:relative;
    width: 300px;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
    border-bottom: 3px solid #777;
    max-height:200px;
    overflow:hidden;
    color:#fff;
    background:#000;
}
.row:after {
  content: "";
position: absolute;
top: 137px;
left: 0;
height: 40px;
width: 100%;
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(rgba(255, 255,255, .4), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1));
}

<div class="row">
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</div>
<div class="row">
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</div>
<div class="row">
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed
</div>

My variant with a gradient appearing with overflowing

.row {
  width: 300px;
  max-height: 200px;
  position: relative;
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: column-reverse wrap;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.content {
  max-height: 100%;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.background {
  width: 100%;
  height: 1px;
  position: relative;
}

.background:before {
  content: '';
  display: block;
  width: 100%;
  height: 150px;
  left: -100%;
  bottom: 0;
  position: absolute;
  background: linear-gradient(transparent, white);
  pointer-events: none
}

<div class="row">
  <div class="content">content</div>
  <div class="background"></div>
</div>

JSFiddle

You need to have a containing outer <div> set to position: realtive; with something like <p>Some text to be faded in here</p> with a position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0;. You also need another <div> inside the outer <div> and at the same level as the <p>, also set with position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; and a height and width set to match the area you wish to fade. This should also have z-index: 10; background-image: linear-gradient(transparent, rgba(255,255,255,1));. This removes the need for the webkit options.