:target

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The :target CSS pseudo-class represents a unique element (the target element) with an id matching the URL's fragment.

css
/* Selects an element with an ID matching the current URL's fragment */
:target {
  border: 2px solid black;
}

For example, the following URL has a fragment (denoted by the # sign) that points to an element called section2:

url
http://www.example.com/index.html#section2

The following element would be selected by a :target selector when the current URL is equal to the above:

html
<section id="section2">Example</section>

Syntax

css
:target {
  /* ... */
}

Note: Due to a possible bug in the CSS specification, :target doesn't work within a web component because the shadow root doesn't pass the target element down to the shadow tree.

Examples

A table of contents

The :target pseudo-class can be used to highlight the portion of a page that has been linked to from a table of contents.

HTML

html
<h3>Table of Contents</h3>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#p1">Jump to the first paragraph!</a></li>
  <li><a href="#p2">Jump to the second paragraph!</a></li>
  <li>
    <a href="#nowhere">
      This link goes nowhere, because the target doesn't exist.
    </a>
  </li>
</ol>

<h3>My Fun Article</h3>
<p id="p1">
  You can target <i>this paragraph</i> using a URL fragment. Click on the link
  above to try out!
</p>
<p id="p2">
  This is <i>another paragraph</i>, also accessible from the links above. Isn't
  that delightful?
</p>

CSS

css
p:target {
  background-color: gold;
}

/* Add a pseudo-element inside the target element */
p:target::before {
  font: 70% sans-serif;
  content: "►";
  color: limegreen;
  margin-right: 0.25em;
}

/* Style italic elements within the target element */
p:target i {
  color: red;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard
# selector-target
Selectors Level 4
# target-pseudo

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
:target

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also