appearance

The appearance CSS property is used to display UI elements with platform-specific styling, based on the operating system's theme.

Try it

Before standardization, this property allowed elements to be shown as widgets, such as buttons or check boxes. It was considered a misfeature and authors are encouraged to use only standard keywords now.

Note: If you wish to use this property on websites, you should test it very carefully. Although it is supported in most modern browsers, its implementation varies. In older browsers, even the keyword none does not have the same effect on all form elements across different browsers, and some do not support it at all. The differences are smaller in the newest browsers.

Syntax

css

/* CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 4 values */
appearance: none;
appearance: auto;
appearance: menulist-button;
appearance: textfield;

/* Global values */
appearance: inherit;
appearance: initial;
appearance: revert;
appearance: revert-layer;
appearance: unset;

/* <compat-auto> values have the same effect as 'auto' */
appearance: button;
appearance: checkbox;

Values

For the following keywords, the user agent selects the appropriate styling based on the element. Some examples are provided, but the list is not exhaustive.

none

Hides certain features of widgets, such as arrow displayed in select element, indicating that list can be expanded.

auto

Acts as none on elements with no special styling.

<compat-special>

One of menulist-button or textfield. Both of these values are equivalent to auto on elements with no special styling.

<compat-auto>

Possible values are button, checkbox, listbox, menulist, meter, progress-bar, push-button, radio, searchfield, slider-horizontal, square-button, and textarea. Keywords which are the equivalent of auto for maintaining compatibility with older browsers.

Non-standard values

The following values may be operational on historical browser versions using -moz-appearance or -webkit-appearance prefix, but not on the standard appearance property:

Non-standard values
Value Safari Firefox Chrome Edge
attachment Y
borderless-attachment Y
button-bevel Y Y Y Y
caps-lock-indicator Y Y
caret Y Y Y Y
checkbox-container Y
checkbox-label Y
checkmenuitem Y
color-well Y
continuous-capacity-level-indicator Y
default-button Y Y
discrete-capacity-level-indicator Y
inner-spin-button Y Y Y
image-controls-button Y
list-button Y
listitem Y Y Y Y
media-enter-fullscreen-button Y Y
media-exit-fullscreen-button Y Y
media-fullscreen-volume-slider Y
media-fullscreen-volume-slider-thumb Y
media-mute-button Y Y
media-play-button Y Y
media-overlay-play-button Y Y
media-return-to-realtime-button Y
media-rewind-button Y
media-seek-back-button Y Y
media-seek-forward-button Y Y
media-toggle-closed-captions-button Y Y
media-slider Y Y Y
media-sliderthumb Y Y Y
media-volume-slider-container Y Y
media-volume-slider-mute-button Y
media-volume-slider Y Y
media-volume-sliderthumb Y Y
media-controls-background Y Y
media-controls-dark-bar-background Y
media-controls-fullscreen-background Y Y
media-controls-light-bar-background Y
media-current-time-display Y Y
media-time-remaining-display Y Y
menulist-text Y Y Y Y
menulist-textfield Y Y Y Y
meterbar Y
number-input Y
progress-bar-value Y Y
progressbar Y
progressbar-vertical Y
range Y
range-thumb Y
rating-level-indicator Y
relevancy-level-indicator Y
scale-horizontal Y
scalethumbend Y
scalethumb-horizontal Y
scalethumbstart Y
scalethumbtick Y
scalethumb-vertical Y
scale-vertical Y
scrollbarthumb-horizontal Y
scrollbarthumb-vertical Y
scrollbartrack-horizontal Y
scrollbartrack-vertical Y
searchfield-decoration Y Y
searchfield-results-decoration Y Y Y Y
searchfield-results-button Y Y
searchfield-cancel-button Y Y Y Y
snapshotted-plugin-overlay Y
sheet
slider-vertical Y Y
sliderthumb-horizontal Y Y
sliderthumb-vertical Y Y
textfield-multiline Y
-apple-pay-button Y

Formal definition

Initial valuenone
Applies toall elements
Inheritedno
Computed valueas specified
Animation typediscrete

Formal syntax

appearance = 
  none              |
  auto              |
  <compat-auto>     |
  <compat-special>

Examples

Apply custom styling

The following example shows how to remove the default styling from a checkbox and select element, and apply custom styling. The appearance of the checkbox is changed to a circle, and the select element shows how to remove the arrow indicating that the list can be expanded.

HTML

html

<input type="checkbox" />
<input type="checkbox" checked />

<select>
  <option>default</option>
  <option>option 2</option>
</select>
<select class="none">
  <option>appearance: none</option>
  <option>option 2</option>
</select>

CSS

css

input {
  appearance: none;
  width: 1em;
  height: 1em;
  display: inline-block;
  background: red;
}
input:checked {
  border-radius: 50%;
  background: green;
}

select {
  border: 1px solid black;
  font-size: 1em;
}

select.none {
  appearance: none;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Basic User Interface Module Level 4
# appearance-switching

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also