CSS Display Visibility: The display property is the most important CSS property for controlling layout.
In this tutorial, you will learn-
In this article, you will learn-
The display Property
The display property specifies if/how an element is shown.
Every HTML element has a default show value depending upon what type of element it is. The default show value for most elements is block or inline.
Block-level Elements
A block-level element consistently begins another line and takes up the full width accessible (stretches out to the left and right as far as it can)
The <div> element is a block-level element.
Examples of block-level elements:
- <div>
- <h1> – <h6>
- <p>
- <form>
- <header>
- <footer>
- <section>
Inline Elements
An inline element does not start on a new line and only takes up as much width as necessary.
This is an inline <span> element inside a paragraph.
Examples of inline elements:
- <span>
- <a>
- <img>
Display: none;
show: none; is normally used with JavaScript to hide and show elements without erasing and recreating them. Take a look at our last example on this page if you want to know how this can be achieved.
The <script> element uses display: none; as default.
Override The Default Display Value
As referenced, every element has a default show value. Be that as it may, you can override this.
Changing an inline element to a block element, or the other way around, can be useful for making the page look a particular way, and still follow the web standards.
A typical example is making inline <li> elements for horizontal menus:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
li {
display: inline;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>Display a list of links as a horizontal menu:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/html" target="_blank">HTML</a></li>
<li><a href="/css-tutorial" target="_blank">CSS</a></li>
<li><a href="/javascript" target="_blank">JavaScript</a></li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
Note: Setting the display property of an element just changes how the element is displayed, NOT what sort of element it is. Along these lines, an inline element with display: block; isn’t allowed to have other block elements inside it.
The accompanying example design <span> elements as block elements:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
span {
display: block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<span>A display property with a value of "block" results in</span> <span>a line break between the two elements.</span>
</body>
</html>
The following example displays <a> elements as block elements:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
a {
display: block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>Display links as block elements:</p>
<a href="/html" target="_blank">HTML</a>
<a href="/css-tutorial" target="_blank">CSS</a>
<a href="/javascript" target="_blank">JavaScript</a>
</body>
</html>
Hiding an element can be done by setting the display property to none. The element will be hidden, and the page will be shown as if the element isn’t there:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
h1.hidden {
display: none;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a visible heading</h1>
<h1 class="hidden">This is a hidden heading</h1>
<p>Notice that the h1 element with display: none; does not take up any space.</p>
</body>
</html>
visibility:hidden; also hides an element.
However, the element will still take up the same space as before. The element will be hidden, but still affect the layout:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
h1.hidden {
visibility: hidden;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a visible heading</h1>
<h1 class="hidden">This is a hidden heading</h1>
<p>Notice that the hidden heading still takes up space.</p>
</body>
</html>
CSS Display/Visibility Properties
| Property | Description |
| display | Specifies how an element should be displayed |
| visibility | Specifies whether or not an element should be visible |
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