CSS - Outlines
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 −
