The look of an HTML form can be greatly improved with CSS:
input {
width: 100%;
} The example above applies to all <input> elements. If you only want to style a specific input type, you can use attribute selectors:
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 the padding 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:
Padded text fields:
Bordered Inputs #
Use the border property to change the border size and color, and use the border-radius property to add rounded corners:
Text fields with borders:
input[type=text] {
border: 2px solid red;
border-radius: 4px;
} If you only want a bottom border, use the border-bottom property:
Text fields with only a bottom border:
input[type=text] {
border: none;
border-bottom: 2px solid red;
} Colored Inputs #
Use the background-color property to add a background color to the input, and the color property to change the text color:
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 adding outline: none; to the input.
Use the :focus selector to do something with the input field when it gets focus:
In this example, we use the :focus selector to add a background color to the text field when it gets focused (clicked on):
Input with icon/image #
If you want an icon inside the input, use the background-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:
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 CSS transition property to animate the width of the search input when it gets focus. You will learn more about the transition property later, in our CSS Transitions chapter.
input[type=text] {
transition: width 0.4s ease-in-out;
}
input[type=text]:focus {
width: 100%;
} Styling Textareas #
Tip: Use the resize property to prevent textareas from being resized (disable the “grabber” in the bottom right corner):
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 #
select {
width: 100%;
padding: 16px 20px;
border: none;
border-radius: 4px;
background-color: #f1f1f1;
} Styling Input Buttons #
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 */ For more information about how to style buttons with CSS, read our CSS Buttons Tutorial.
Advanced: The following example use media queries to create a responsive form. You will learn more about this in a later chapter.
Responsive Form #
Resize the browser window to see the effect. When the screen is less than 600px wide, make the two columns stack on top of each other instead of next to each other.
