A CSS property almost no one uses (but should)


I've been skimming through my list of topics to cover and found an interesting CSS property that’s especially useful when you need to highlight a specific phrase inside a block of text.

Normally, when a text block breaks into multiple lines, the browser treats the whole element as a single box — which often results in broken or inconsistent styling.

So this code:

Results in the following styling:

To fix that, all you need is:

box-decoration-break: clone;

It tells the browser to treat each line as its own box — with separate padding, background, and borders, as if every fragment had its own mini box model.

Without clone, your design feels half-finished. With clone, you stay in control.

Browser support is solid across modern platforms.

And yes, IE is dead. You’re safe. 😌

Victor Ponamariov

I'm a full-stack developer that is passionate about good user interfaces. In my newsletter, I talk mainly about UI/UX stuff. You could expect an email or two in a month, I'm not aiming to spam you with non-useful info.

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