Fade Out / Read More

by Robert Dodd

HTML

<div class="row truncated">
  <strong>Truncated:</strong>
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</div>
<div class="row">
  <strong>Not Truncated:</strong>
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</div>
<div class="row truncated">
  <strong>Truncated, but small enough to be unaffected:</strong>
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed
</div>

CSS

.row{
    width: 300px;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    padding-bottom: 5px;
    border-bottom: 3px solid #777;
}
.truncated {
    max-height:100px;
    overflow:hidden;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    content: "";
    position:relative;
}
.truncated:before {
    content:'';
    width:100%;
    height:100%;    
    position:absolute;
    left:0;
    top:0;
    background:linear-gradient(transparent 50px, white);
}