Why isn’t my Negative text-indent hiding text?

I’m making this post so that some day some person will google that phrase, and come here, and I can tell them that it might be because some parent element has a text-align: right set on it, which seems to render negative text-indents not at all. Set the thing to text-align: left and everything will be ok.

16 Responses to “Why isn’t my Negative text-indent hiding text?”

  1. Kyle Says:

    Hey adam

    I did find this post through google, but unfortunately, i looked at your solution, and it doesn’t remedy my situation. I was looking for something that spoke about the validity of negative text-indent values.

    But I do appreciate the thought. Cheers!

  2. Kim Casault Says:

    You rock! This worked exactly as you had hoped and my problem was fixed, lickety-split. Thank you!

  3. laura Says:

    Nice! That solved it – thanks! :)

  4. mirvaris Says:

    Well I exactly searched that phrase and this solved my problem.

    Thanks pal.

  5. Jason Tremblay Says:

    You are my hero. I did indeed Google almost that exact phrase :)

  6. Ray Says:

    That day has come. Thanks for the advice.

  7. Justin Says:

    AWESOME! Thank you sir!

  8. zen-angel Says:

    it does make sense – if you’re aligning the text to the right, the indent should be relative to the right. thanks for pointing it out!

  9. Trent Says:

    That was it, thanks!

  10. Billy B Says:

    Hello, for those for which this didn’t work, try this: {position: absolute; left: -9999em;}

  11. Chris Says:

    Awesome, yet another perfect solution. Never thought of the text-align: right coming from the parent element. Great tip by the way for hiding text without setting it to huge number, do a fixed with element and overflow: hidden, then you only need to text-indent about -200px.

  12. Alicia St Rose Says:

    THANK YOU!
    And I am grateful for you thoughtfulness!
    You saved the day for me!

  13. Joe Says:

    Nicely done! Same problem, same solution. I didn’t think that could be the problem, but I guess it makes sense in some way…

  14. deeep Says:

    you saved me time, thanks

  15. Mike Says:

    oh man!!
    it worked perfectly!
    thank you! :)

  16. Jim Says:

    Perfect! Thank you!

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