<style type="text/css"> #descdiv{ overflow: hidden; height: 60px; border: 1px solid red; } #descdiv p{ height:30px; margin:0; /* The shadow of the text will be inside the overflow-hidden but the text it self will not. This causes the text to be drawn even when it's outside of the clip*/ text-shadow: #fff 1px -1px 2px; } </style> <div id="descdiv"> <p class="um_desc"> </p> <p class="um_desc"> </p> <p class="um_desc">sed diam nonummy nibh</p> </div>