paint-order

The paint-order CSS property lets you control the order in which the fill and stroke (and painting markers) of text content and shapes are drawn.

Syntax

/* Normal */
paint-order: normal;

/* Single values */
paint-order: stroke; /* draw the stroke first, then fill and markers */
paint-order: markers; /* draw the markers first, then fill and stroke */

/* Multiple values */
paint-order: stroke fill; /* draw the stroke first, then the fill, then the markers */
paint-order: markers stroke fill; /* draw markers, then stroke, then fill */

/* Global values */
paint-order: inherit;
paint-order: initial;
paint-order: revert;
paint-order: unset;

If no value is specified, the default paint order is fill, stroke, markers.

When one value is specified, that one is painted first, followed by the other two in their default order relative to one another. When two values are specified, they will be painted in the order they are specified in, followed by the unspecified one.

Note: In the case of this property, markers are only appropriate when drawing SVG shapes involving the use of the marker-* properties (e.g. marker-start) and <marker> element. They do not apply to HTML text, so in that case, you can only determine the order of stroke and fill.

Values

normal

Paint the different items in normal paint order.

stroke, fill, markers

Specify some or all of these values in the order you want them to be painted in.

Formal definition

Initial value normal
Applies to text elements
Inherited yes
Computed value as specified
Animation type discrete

Formal syntax

normal | [ fill || stroke || markers ]

Examples

Reversing the paint order of stroke and fill

SVG

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="400" height="200">
  <text x="10" y="75">stroke in front</text>
  <text x="10" y="150" class="stroke-behind">stroke behind</text>
</svg>

CSS

text {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 50px;
  font-weight: bold;
  fill: black;
  stroke: red;
  stroke-width: 4px;
}

.stroke-behind {
  paint-order: stroke fill;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

Desktop Mobile
Chrome Edge Firefox Internet Explorer Opera Safari WebView Android Chrome Android Firefox for Android Opera Android Safari on IOS Samsung Internet
paint-order
35
17
60
No
22
8
37
35
60
22
8
3.0

See also

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Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/paint-order