hiding text using "text-indent"

Question

I'm trying to hide some text inside an <li> element using CSS by setting text-indent: -999px;.
For some reason this doesn't work when I set the direction of the document to "rtl" (right to left - my site is in Hebrew).
When direction is "rtl" the text still shows...
Anyone knows why, and a way around this?

Inna

Note: I believe that that does not work in IE6. + 456bereastreet.com/archive/200510/… – Oculist

you could you padding / overflow: hidden to hide your content, this works in every browser and any text direction. like this: ´width:0; height:0; padding: 400px 0 0 200px; overflow: hidden ´ – Florenceflorencia

if you don't get a good solution, you can always try other text hiding techniques :D css-tricks.com/css-image-replacement – Alkyl

Have you tried a positive text-indent? – Bangkok

i have tried a positive indent. it makes sense that it should work but it doesnt. – Inna

Answer 1

Along with text-indent: -9999px try using display: block;. It solved for me.

Additionally, if you need the li elements to float horizontally (e.g. a horizontal menu), use float: left;.

Amal

Answer 2

What about setting direction:ltr on the elements you're trying to give negative text-indent?

Demo: jsfiddle.net/Marcel/aJBnN/1/

Freckly

+1 that's the right answer - works and only changes a property that's irrelevant (since the text gets hidden) – Sonora

Answer 3

My problem was with text-align. In case you modify align mode of the element or parent element(s) wrapping it to left, you must give a negative index for text-indent. Otherwise you must give a positive value.

.case1{text-indent:-999px;text-align:left;overflow:hidden;display:block}

Otherwise

.case2{text-indent:999px;text-align:right;overflow:hidden;display:block}

Hyksos

Answer 4

Try setting text-alignment to match the direction in which you are indenting text.

For example, if you use LTR and want to indent text negatively, besides adding display: block, you should also add left alignment.

Not sure for RTL, but seems logical you should indent it positively and use right alignment.

Tribulation

Answer 5

I found the best way is to make the text a transparent color:

color: rgba(0,0,0,0);

Note: This bug still exists in firefox 12 (text-indent value is ignored on rtl)

Kingsbury

Answer 6

color: transparent;

or

font-size:0px;

Pellikka

Answer 7

I prefer this solution:

.hide_text { text-indent: 100%; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; }

Islington

Answer 8

You can use line-height specifying a large value, say 100px for a 30px high container.

only works if your container is limited in size. you may have to specifically set height if it isn't yet.

Intort

Answer 9

The text-indent: -99px is an old trick, which is not the optimal way to hide text. Why not use visibility:hidden instead?

Petie

Presumably this is an attempt to use a background image as content and provide real text for screen readers instead of using an <img> element with an alt attribute. – Annieannihilate

i cannot use visibility:hidden because i just need the text to go away. not the whole element in which the text is placed. any solution? – Inna

Answer 10

text-align: right; works for me

Runthrough

Answer 11

Add overflow hidden then it will work fine.

div{
    text-indent: 100%;
    overflow: hidden;
}

<div>
 search
 <input type="text">
 </div>

Piccadilly