A stupid little CSS trick I’ve been using lately is setting an element’s size to 0 so its content happily overflows but doesn’t affect the layout.

For example, set each tick’s width to 0 so the width of the line + label doesn’t throw off placement with respect to the axis:

Without specifiying width: 0 , the width of the tick label is taken into account when positioning the ticks realtive to the parent.

Setting width: 0 ensures that the tick itself is infinitesimally small (just like a point in math!), and the tick line and label are centered beneath that point.

A more real-world example using 0-width containers for the meter label and axis ticks: