CSS Forms

The look of an HTML form can be greatly improved with CSS.

Styling Input Fields

Use the width property to determine the width of the input field:

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 fields
• input[type=password] - will only select password fields
• input[type=number] - will only select number fields
• etc..

Padded Inputs

Use the padding property to add space inside the text field.

input[type=text] {  
	width:  100%;  
	padding:  12px 20px;  
	margin:  8px 0;  
	box-sizing:  border-box;  
}

Bordered Inputs

Use the border property to change the border size and color, and use the border-radius property to add rounded corners:

input[type=text] {  
	border:  2px solid red;  
	border-radius:  4px;  
}

If you only want a bottom border, use the border-bottom property:

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:

input[type=text]:focus {  
	background-color:  lightblue;  
}

input[type=text]:focus {  
	border:  3px solid #555;  
}

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

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:  #04AA6D;  
	border:  none;  
	color:  white;  
	padding:  16px 32px;  
	text-decoration:  none;  
	margin:  4px 2px;  
	cursor:  pointer;  
}