Case | standard field - description | too long | finding Apex solution ?| looking for methods to get in temporary var the short description limited by row number and columns

Hello,

I have a standatard description field on object "Case" like below
User-added image

The user can enter text of any size and length (lenght very long).

I am displayin it on VF page like below

<div id="t15_1_value" class="t s5_3_nofont" align="left">
                    <apex:outputText value="{!caseDescription}" />
                </div>

As the user cold have entered anything, if the size is big, it exceeds the limitations.

Is there any way we could control the display ?

I can think of two solutions
1) either control by CSS (i dont know how)
2) get the description, and if it exceeds length then cut short it and if it exceeds rows cutshort it, save in temporaty ariable and display that instread

Can anyone provide me moe details on solution 2, which can work for me

thanks for suggestion !