Styling Input Fields
Use thewidth
property to determine the width of the input field:Example
input {
width: 100%;}
input[type=text]
- will only select text fieldsinput[type=password]
- will only select password fieldsinput[type=number]
- will only select number fields- etc..
Padded Inputs
Use thepadding
property to add space inside the text field.Tip: When you have many inputs after each other, you might also want to add some
margin
, to add more space outside of them:Example
input[type=text] {
width: 100%;
padding: 12px 20px;
margin: 8px 0;
box-sizing: border-box;}
Note that we have set the
Read more about the
box-sizing
property to border-box
. This makes sure that the padding and eventually borders are included in the total width and height of the elements.Read more about the
box-sizing
property in our CSS3 Box Sizing chapter.Bordered Inputs
Use theborder
property to change the border size and color, and use the border-radius
property to add rounded corners:Example
input[type=text] {
border: 2px solid red;
border-radius: 4px;}
border-bottom
property:Example
input[type=text] {
border: none;
border-bottom: 2px solid red;}
Colored Inputs
Use thebackground-color
property to add a background color to the input, and the color
property to change the text color:Example
input[type=text] {
background-color: #3CBC8D;
color: white;}
Focused Inputs
By default, some browsers will add a blue outline around the input when it gets focus (clicked on). You can remove this behavior by addingoutline: none;
to the input.Use the
:focus
selector to do something with the input field when it gets focus:Example
input[type=text]:focus {
background-color: lightblue;}
Example
input[type=text]:focus {
border: 3px solid #555;}
Input with icon/image
If you want an icon inside the input, use thebackground-image
property and position it with the background-position
property. Also notice that we add a large left padding to reserve the space of the icon:Example
input[type=text] {
background-color: white;
background-image: url('searchicon.png');
background-position: 10px 10px;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding-left: 40px;}
Animated Search Input
In this example we use the CSS3transition
property to animate the width of the search input when it gets focus. You will learn more about the transition
property later, in our CSS3 Transitions chapter.Example
input[type=text] {
-webkit-transition: width 0.4s ease-in-out;
transition: width 0.4s ease-in-out;}
input[type=text]:focus {
width: 100%;}
Styling Textareas
Tip: Use theresize
property to prevent textareas from being resized (disable the "grabber" in the bottom right corner):Example
textarea {
width: 100%;
height: 150px;
padding: 12px 20px;
box-sizing: border-box;
border: 2px solid #ccc;
border-radius: 4px;
background-color: #f8f8f8;
resize: none;}
Styling Select Menus
Example
select {
width: 100%;
padding: 16px 20px;
border: none;
border-radius: 4px;
background-color: #f1f1f1;}
Styling Input Buttons
Example
input[type=button], input[type=submit], input[type=reset] {
background-color: #4CAF50;
border: none;
color: white;
padding: 16px 32px;
text-decoration: none;
margin: 4px 2px;
cursor: pointer;}
/* Tip: use width: 100% for full-width buttons */