A simple jQuery plugin to truncate a piece of text to a predefined amount of lines. It assumes pixel values of both the container and its line-height. Useful when you have multiple boxes with text in your design that require equal heights.

jquery.truncatelines.js

$.fn.truncateLines = function(options) {
	options = $.extend($.fn.truncateLines.defaults, options);

	return this.each(function(index, container) {
		container = $(container);
		var containerLineHeight = Math.ceil(parseFloat(container.css('line-height')));
		var maxHeight = options.lines * containerLineHeight;
		var truncated = false;
		var truncatedText = $.trim(container.text());
		var overflowRatio = container.height() / maxHeight;
		if (overflowRatio > 2) {
			truncatedText = truncatedText.substr(0, parseInt(truncatedText.length / (overflowRatio - 1), 10) + 1); // slice string based on how much text is overflowing
			container.text(truncatedText);
			truncated = true;
		}
		var oldTruncatedText; // verify that the text has been truncated, otherwise you'll get an endless loop
		while (container.height() > maxHeight && oldTruncatedText != truncatedText) {
			oldTruncatedText = truncatedText;
			truncatedText = truncatedText.replace(/\s.[^\s]*\s?$/, ''); // remove last word
			container.text(truncatedText);
			truncated = true;
		}
		if (truncated) {
			truncatedText = options.ellipsis ? truncatedText + ' ' + options.ellipsis : truncatedText;
			container.text(truncatedText);
			if (container.height() > maxHeight) {
				truncatedText = truncatedText.replace(/\s.[^\s]*\s?...$/, ''); // remove last word and ellipsis
				truncatedText = options.ellipsis ? truncatedText + ' ' + options.ellipsis : truncatedText;
				container.text(truncatedText);
			}
		}
	});
};
$.fn.truncateLines.defaults = {
	lines: 8,
	ellipsis: '...'
};