CSS - Outlines

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Outlines are very similar to borders, but there are few major differences as well −

  • An outline does not take up space.

  • Outlines do not have to be rectangular.

  • Outline is always the same on all sides; you cannot specify different values for different sides of an element.

NOTE − The outline properties are not supported by IE 6 or Netscape 7.

You can set the following outline properties using CSS.

  • The outline-width property is used to set the width of the outline.

  • The outline-style property is used to set the line style for the outline.

  • The outline-color property is used to set the color of the outline.

  • The outline property is used to set all the above three properties in a single statement.

The outline-width Property

The outline-width property specifies the width of the outline to be added to the box. Its value should be a length or one of the values thin, medium, or thick, just like the border-width attribute.

A width of zero pixels means no outline.

Here is an example −

Live Demo 
<html>
   <head>
   </head>
   
   <body>
      <p style = "outline-width:thin; outline-style:solid;">
         This text is having thin outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline-width:thick; outline-style:solid;">
         This text is having thick outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline-width:5px; outline-style:solid;">
         This text is having 5x outline.
      </p>
   </body>
</html>

It will produce the following result −

The outline-style Property

The outline-style property specifies the style for the line (solid, dotted, or dashed) that goes around an element. It can take one of the following values −

  • none − No border. (Equivalent of outline-width:0;)

  • solid − Outline is a single solid line.

  • dotted − Outline is a series of dots.

  • dashed − Outline is a series of short lines.

  • double − Outline is two solid lines.

  • groove − Outline looks as though it is carved into the page.

  • ridge − Outline looks the opposite of groove.

  • inset − Outline makes the box look like it is embedded in the page.

  • outset − Outline makes the box look like it is coming out of the canvas.

  • hidden − Same as none.

Here is an example −

Live Demo 
<html>
   <head>
   </head>
   
   <body>
      <p style = "outline-width:thin; outline-style:solid;">
         This text is having thin solid  outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline-width:thick; outline-style:dashed;">
         This text is having thick dashed outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline-width:5px;outline-style:dotted;">
         This text is having 5x dotted outline.
      </p>
   </body>
</html>

It will produce the following result −

The outline-color Property

The outline-color property allows you to specify the color of the outline. Its value should either be a color name, a hex color, or an RGB value, as with the color and border-color properties.

Here is an example −

Live Demo 
<html>
   <head>
   </head>
   
   <body>
      <p style = "outline-width:thin; outline-style:solid;outline-color:red">
         This text is having thin solid red  outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline-width:thick; outline-style:dashed;outline-color:#009900">
         This text is having thick dashed green outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline-width:5px;outline-style:dotted;outline-color:rgb(13,33,232)">
         This text is having 5x dotted blue outline.
      </p>
   </body>
</html>

It will produce the following result −

The outline Property

The outline property is a shorthand property that allows you to specify values for any of the three properties discussed previously in any order but in a single statement.

Here is an example −

Live Demo 
<html>
   <head>
   </head>
   
   <body>
      <p style = "outline:thin solid red;">
         This text is having thin solid red outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline:thick dashed #009900;">
         This text is having thick dashed green outline.
      </p>
      <br />
      
      <p style = "outline:5px dotted rgb(13,33,232);">
         This text is having 5x dotted blue outline.
      </p>
   </body>
</html>

It will produce the following result −

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