How do I show ellipsis for multiline text?

Question

I have this style

.ellipsis {
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow: hidden;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

which renders like this:

If i remove white-space: nowrap; I get like this:

But I want the ellispes from 3rd line(or before only if text is shorter)

Answer 1

Well there are multiple ways to do so, check the snippet below for certain ones.

@import url(http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans);

body {
  padding: 20px;
  font: 1.2em/1.2em 'Open Sans', sans-serif;
}
.module {
  width: 250px;
  margin: 0 0 1em 0;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.module p {
  margin: 0;
}

.line-clamp {
  display: -webkit-box;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 3;
  -webkit-box-orient: vertical;  
}

.fade {
  position: relative;
  height: 3.6em; /* exactly three lines */
}
.fade:after {
  content: "";
  text-align: right;
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  width: 70%;
  height: 1.2em;
  background: linear-gradient(to right, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255, 1) 50%);
}

.last-line {
  height: 3.6em; /* exactly three lines */
  text-overflow: -o-ellipsis-lastline;
}

.ftellipsis {
  height: 3.6em;
}

h1 {
  margin: 0 0 1em 0;
}
h2 {
  font-size: 1.2em;
}

    <h1>Line Clampin'</h1>

    <h2>Weird WebKit Flexbox Way</h2>
    <div class="module line-clamp">
      <p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
    </div>

    <h2>Fade Out Way</h2>
    <div class="module fade">
      <p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
    </div>

    <h2>Opera Overflow Way</h2>
    <div class="module last-line">
      <p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
    </div>

    <h2>ftellipsis Way</h2>
    <div class="module js ftellipsis" id="ftellipsis">
      <p>Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Vestibulum tortor quam, feugiat vitae, ultricies eget, tempor sit amet, ante. Donec eu libero sit amet quam egestas semper. Aenean ultricies mi vitae est. Mauris placerat eleifend leo.</p>
    </div>

Also check out this link: https://css-tricks.com/line-clampin/