Check if element is visible in DOM

According to this MDN documentation, an element's offsetParent property will return null whenever it, or any of its parents, is hidden via the display style property. Just make sure that the element isn't fixed. A script to check this, if you have no position: fixed; elements on your page, might look like:

// Where el is the DOM element you'd like to test for visibility
function isHidden(el) {
    return (el.offsetParent === null)
}

On the other hand, if you do have position fixed elements that might get caught in this search, you will sadly (and slowly) have to use window.getComputedStyle(). The function in that case might be:

// Where el is the DOM element you'd like to test for visibility
function isHidden(el) {
    var style = window.getComputedStyle(el);
    return (style.display === 'none')
}

Option #2 is probably a little more straightforward since it accounts for more edge cases, but I bet its a good deal slower, too, so if you have to repeat this operation many times, best to probably avoid it.

Use the same code as jQuery does:

jQuery.expr.pseudos.visible = function( elem ) {
    return !!( elem.offsetWidth || elem.offsetHeight || elem.getClientRects().length );
};

So, in a function:

function isVisible(e) {
    return !!( e.offsetWidth || e.offsetHeight || e.getClientRects().length );
}

Works like a charm in my Win/IE10, Linux/Firefox.45, Linux/Chrome.52...

Many thanks to jQuery without jQuery!

All the other solutions broke for some situation for me..

See the winning answer breaking at:

http://plnkr.co/edit/6CSCA2fe4Gqt4jCBP2wu?p=preview

Eventually, I decided that the best solution was $(elem).is(':visible') - however, this is not pure javascript. it is jquery..

so I peeked at their source and found what I wanted

jQuery.expr.filters.visible = function( elem ) {
    return !!( elem.offsetWidth || elem.offsetHeight || elem.getClientRects().length );
};

This is the source: https://github.com/jquery/jquery/blob/master/src/css/hiddenVisibleSelectors.js

If you're interested in visible by the user:

function isVisible(elem) {
    if (!(elem instanceof Element)) throw Error('DomUtil: elem is not an element.');
    const style = getComputedStyle(elem);
    if (style.display === 'none') return false;
    if (style.visibility !== 'visible') return false;
    if (style.opacity < 0.1) return false;
    if (elem.offsetWidth + elem.offsetHeight + elem.getBoundingClientRect().height +
        elem.getBoundingClientRect().width === 0) {
        return false;
    }
    const elemCenter   = {
        x: elem.getBoundingClientRect().left + elem.offsetWidth / 2,
        y: elem.getBoundingClientRect().top + elem.offsetHeight / 2
    };
    if (elemCenter.x < 0) return false;
    if (elemCenter.x > (document.documentElement.clientWidth || window.innerWidth)) return false;
    if (elemCenter.y < 0) return false;
    if (elemCenter.y > (document.documentElement.clientHeight || window.innerHeight)) return false;
    let pointContainer = document.elementFromPoint(elemCenter.x, elemCenter.y);
    do {
        if (pointContainer === elem) return true;
    } while (pointContainer = pointContainer.parentNode);
    return false;
}

Tested on (using mocha terminology):

describe.only('visibility', function () {
    let div, visible, notVisible, inViewport, leftOfViewport, rightOfViewport, aboveViewport,
        belowViewport, notDisplayed, zeroOpacity, zIndex1, zIndex2;
    before(() => {
        div = document.createElement('div');
        document.querySelector('body').appendChild(div);
        div.appendChild(visible = document.createElement('div'));
        visible.style       = 'border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px; display: inline-block;';
        visible.textContent = 'visible';
        div.appendChild(inViewport = visible.cloneNode(false));
        inViewport.textContent = 'inViewport';
        div.appendChild(notDisplayed = visible.cloneNode(false));
        notDisplayed.style.display = 'none';
        notDisplayed.textContent   = 'notDisplayed';
        div.appendChild(notVisible = visible.cloneNode(false));
        notVisible.style.visibility = 'hidden';
        notVisible.textContent      = 'notVisible';
        div.appendChild(leftOfViewport = visible.cloneNode(false));
        leftOfViewport.style.position = 'absolute';
        leftOfViewport.style.right = '100000px';
        leftOfViewport.textContent = 'leftOfViewport';
        div.appendChild(rightOfViewport = leftOfViewport.cloneNode(false));
        rightOfViewport.style.right       = '0';
        rightOfViewport.style.left       = '100000px';
        rightOfViewport.textContent = 'rightOfViewport';
        div.appendChild(aboveViewport = leftOfViewport.cloneNode(false));
        aboveViewport.style.right       = '0';
        aboveViewport.style.bottom       = '100000px';
        aboveViewport.textContent = 'aboveViewport';
        div.appendChild(belowViewport = leftOfViewport.cloneNode(false));
        belowViewport.style.right       = '0';
        belowViewport.style.top       = '100000px';
        belowViewport.textContent = 'belowViewport';
        div.appendChild(zeroOpacity = visible.cloneNode(false));
        zeroOpacity.textContent   = 'zeroOpacity';
        zeroOpacity.style.opacity = '0';
        div.appendChild(zIndex1 = visible.cloneNode(false));
        zIndex1.textContent = 'zIndex1';
        zIndex1.style.position = 'absolute';
        zIndex1.style.left = zIndex1.style.top = zIndex1.style.width = zIndex1.style.height = '100px';
        zIndex1.style.zIndex = '1';
        div.appendChild(zIndex2 = zIndex1.cloneNode(false));
        zIndex2.textContent = 'zIndex2';
        zIndex2.style.left = zIndex2.style.top = '90px';
        zIndex2.style.width = zIndex2.style.height = '120px';
        zIndex2.style.backgroundColor = 'red';
        zIndex2.style.zIndex = '2';
    });
    after(() => {
        div.parentNode.removeChild(div);
    });
    it('isVisible = true', () => {
        expect(isVisible(div)).to.be.true;
        expect(isVisible(visible)).to.be.true;
        expect(isVisible(inViewport)).to.be.true;
        expect(isVisible(zIndex2)).to.be.true;
    });
    it('isVisible = false', () => {
        expect(isVisible(notDisplayed)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(notVisible)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(document.createElement('div'))).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(zIndex1)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(zeroOpacity)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(leftOfViewport)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(rightOfViewport)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(aboveViewport)).to.be.false;
        expect(isVisible(belowViewport)).to.be.false;
    });
});