Chrome supports the placeholder attribute on input[type=text] elements (others probably do too).
But the following CSS doesn't do anything to the placeholder's value:
input[placeholder], [placeholder], *[placeholder] { color: red !important; }Value will still remain grey instead of red.
Is there a way to change the color of the placeholder text?
There are three different implementations: pseudo-elements, pseudo-classes, and nothing.
::-webkit-input-placeholder. [Ref]:-moz-placeholder (one colon). [Ref]::-moz-placeholder, but the old selector will still work for a while. [Ref]:-ms-input-placeholder. [Ref]::placeholder [Ref]Internet Explorer 9 and lower does not support the placeholder attribute at all, while Opera 12 and lower do not support any CSS selector for placeholders.
The discussion about the best implementation is still going on. Note the pseudo-elements act like real elements in the Shadow DOM. A padding on an input will not get the same background color as the pseudo-element.
User agents are required to ignore a rule with an unknown selector. See Selectors Level 3:
a group of selectors containing an invalid selector is invalid.
So we need separate rules for each browser. Otherwise the whole group would be ignored by all browsers.
::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* WebKit, Blink, Edge */ color: #909; } :-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 4 to 18 */ color: #909; opacity: 1; } ::-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 19+ */ color: #909; opacity: 1; } :-ms-input-placeholder { /* Internet Explorer 10-11 */ color: #909; } ::-ms-input-placeholder { /* Microsoft Edge */ color: #909; } ::placeholder { /* Most modern browsers support this now. */ color: #909; }opacity: 1 here.em and test them with big minimum font size settings. Don’t forget translations: some languages need more room for the same word. placeholder but without CSS support for that (like Opera) should be tested too.input types (email, search). These might affect the rendering in unexpected ways. Use the properties -webkit-appearance and -moz-appearance to change that. Example: [type="search"] { -moz-appearance: textfield; -webkit-appearance: textfield; appearance: textfield; } /* do not group these rules */ *::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: red; } *:-moz-placeholder { /* FF 4-18 */ color: red; } *::-moz-placeholder { /* FF 19+ */ color: red; } *:-ms-input-placeholder { /* IE 10+ */ color: red; }
This will style all input and textarea placeholders.
Important Note: Do not group these rules. Instead, make a separate rule for every selector (one invalid selector in a group makes the whole group invalid).
You may also want to style textareas:
input::-webkit-input-placeholder, textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #636363; } input:-moz-placeholder, textarea:-moz-placeholder { color: #636363; } For Bootstrap and Less users, there is a mixin .placeholder:
// Placeholder text // ------------------------- .placeholder(@color: @placeholderText) { &:-moz-placeholder { color: @color; } &:-ms-input-placeholder { color: @color; } &::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: @color; } } In addition to toscho's answer I've noticed some webkit inconsistencies between Chrome 9-10 and Safari 5 with the CSS properties supported that are worth noting.
Specifically Chrome 9 and 10 do not support background-color, border, text-decoration and text-transform when styling the placeholder.
The full cross-browser comparison is here.
For Sass users:
// Create placeholder mixin @mixin placeholder($color, $size:"") { &::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: $color; @if $size != "" { font-size: $size; } } &:-moz-placeholder { color: $color; @if $size != "" { font-size: $size; } } &::-moz-placeholder { color: $color; @if $size != "" { font-size: $size; } } &:-ms-input-placeholder { color: $color; @if $size != "" { font-size: $size; } } } // Use placeholder mixin (the size parameter is optional) [placeholder] { @include placeholder(red, 10px); } This will work fine. DEMO HERE:
input::-webkit-input-placeholder, textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #666; } input:-moz-placeholder, textarea:-moz-placeholder { color: #666; } input::-moz-placeholder, textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #666; } input:-ms-input-placeholder, textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #666; }In Firefox and Internet Explorer, the normal input text color overrides the color property of placeholders. So, we need to
::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: red; text-overflow: ellipsis; } :-moz-placeholder { color: #acacac !important; text-overflow: ellipsis; } ::-moz-placeholder { color: #acacac !important; text-overflow: ellipsis; } /* For the future */ :-ms-input-placeholder { color: #acacac !important; text-overflow: ellipsis; } Cross-browser solution:
/* all elements */ ::-webkit-input-placeholder { color:#f00; } ::-moz-placeholder { color:#f00; } /* firefox 19+ */ :-ms-input-placeholder { color:#f00; } /* ie */ input:-moz-placeholder { color:#f00; } /* individual elements: webkit */ #field2::-webkit-input-placeholder { color:#00f; } #field3::-webkit-input-placeholder { color:#090; background:lightgreen; text-transform:uppercase; } #field4::-webkit-input-placeholder { font-style:italic; text-decoration:overline; letter-spacing:3px; color:#999; } /* individual elements: mozilla */ #field2::-moz-placeholder { color:#00f; } #field3::-moz-placeholder { color:#090; background:lightgreen; text-transform:uppercase; } #field4::-moz-placeholder { font-style:italic; text-decoration:overline; letter-spacing:3px; color:#999; } Credit: David Walsh
Now we have a standard way to apply CSS to an input's placeholder : ::placeholder pseudo-element from this CSS Module Level 4 Draft.
Use the new ::placeholder if you use autoprefixer.
Note that the .placeholder mixin from Bootstrap is deprecated in favor of this.
Example:
input::placeholder { color: black; } When using autoprefixer the above will be converted to the correct code for all browsers.
I just realize something for Mozilla Firefox 19+ that the browser gives an opacity value for the placeholder, so the color will not be what you really want.
input::-webkit-input-placeholder, textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #eee; opacity:1; } input:-moz-placeholder, textarea:-moz-placeholder { color: #eee; opacity:1; } input::-moz-placeholder, textarea::-moz-placeholder { color: #eee; opacity:1; } input:-ms-input-placeholder, textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #eee; opacity:1; } I overwrite the opacity for 1, so it will be good to go.
I don't remember where I've found this code snippet on the Internet (it wasn't written by me, don't remember where I've found it, nor who wrote it).
$('[placeholder]').focus(function() { var input = $(this); if (input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) { input.val(''); input.removeClass('placeholder'); } }).blur(function() { var input = $(this); if (input.val() == '' || input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) { input.addClass('placeholder'); input.val(input.attr('placeholder')); } }).blur(); $('[placeholder]').parents('form').submit(function() { $(this).find('[placeholder]').each(function() { var input = $(this); if (input.val() == input.attr('placeholder')) { input.val(''); } }) }); Just load this JavaScript code and then edit your placeholder with CSS by calling this rule:
form .placeholder { color: #222; font-size: 25px; /* etc. */ } I think this code will work because a placeholder is needed only for input type text. So this one line CSS will be enough for your need:
input[type="text"]::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: red; } For Bootstrap users, if you are using class="form-control", there may be a CSS specificity issue. You should get a higher priority:
.form-control::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: red; } //.. and other browsers Or if you are using Less:
.form-control{ .placeholder(red); } How about this
No CSS or placeholder, but you get the same functionality.
If you are using Bootstrap and couldn't get this working then probably you missed the fact that Bootstrap itself adds these selectors. This is Bootstrap v3.3 we are talking about.
If you are trying to change the placeholder inside a .form-control CSS class then you should override it like this:
.form-control::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* WebKit, Blink, Edge */ color: #777; } .form-control:-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 4 to 18 */ color: #777; opacity: 1; } .form-control::-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 19+ */ color: #777; opacity: 1; } .form-control:-ms-input-placeholder { /* Internet Explorer 10-11 */ color: #777; } This short and clean code:
::-webkit-input-placeholder {color: red;} :-moz-placeholder {color: red; /* For Firefox 18- */} ::-moz-placeholder {color: red; /* For Firefox 19+ */} :-ms-input-placeholder {color: red;} I have tried every combination here to change the color, on my mobile platform, and eventually it was:
-webkit-text-fill-color: red; which did the trick.
For SASS/SCSS user using Bourbon, it has a built-in function.
//main.scss @import 'bourbon'; input { width: 300px; @include placeholder { color: red; } } CSS Output, you can also grab this portion and paste into your code.
//main.css input { width: 300px; } input::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: red; } input:-moz-placeholder { color: red; } input::-moz-placeholder { color: red; } input:-ms-input-placeholder { color: red; } Here is one more example:
.form-control::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: red; width: 250px; } h1 { color: red; } OK, placeholders behave differently in different browsers, so you need using browser prefix in your CSS to make them identical, for example Firefox gives a transparency to placeholder by default, so need to add opacity 1 to your css, plus the color, it's not a big concern most of the times, but good to have them consistent:
*::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* WebKit browsers */ color: #ccc; } *:-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox try this code for different input element different style
your css selector::-webkit-input-placeholder { /*for webkit */ color:#909090; opacity:1; } your css selector:-moz-placeholder { /*for mozilla */ color:#909090; opacity:1; } your css selector:-ms-input-placeholder { /*for for internet exprolar */ color:#909090; opacity:1; } example 1:
input[type="text"]::-webkit-input-placeholder { /*for webkit */ color: red; opacity:1; } input[type="text"]:-moz-placeholder { /*for mozilla */ color: red; opacity:1; } input[type="text"]:-ms-input-placeholder { /*for for internet exprolar */ color: red; opacity:1; } example 2:
input[type="email"]::-webkit-input-placeholder { /*for webkit */ color: gray; opacity:1; } input[type="email"]:-moz-placeholder { /*for mozilla */ color: gray; opacity:1; } input[type="email"]:-ms-input-placeholder { /*for for internet exprolar */ color: gray; } you can use this for input and focus style:
input::-webkit-input-placeholder { color:#666;} input:-moz-placeholder { color:#666;} input::-moz-placeholder { color:#666;} input:-ms-input-placeholder { color:#666;} /* focus */ input:focus::-webkit-input-placeholder { color:#eee; } input:focus:-moz-placeholder { color:#eee } /* FF 4-18 */ input:focus::-moz-placeholder { color:#eee } /* FF 19+ */ input:focus:-ms-input-placeholder { color:#eee } /* IE 10+ */ Compass has a mixin for this out of the box.
Take your example:
And in SCSS using compass:
input[type='text'] { @include input-placeholder { color: #616161; } } You can change an HTML5 input's placeholder color with CSS. If by chance, your CSS conflict, this code note working , you can use (!important) like below.
::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* WebKit, Blink, Edge */ color:#909 !important; } :-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 4 to 18 */ color:#909 !important; opacity:1 !important; } ::-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 19+ */ color:#909 !important; opacity:1 !important; } :-ms-input-placeholder { /* Internet Explorer 10-11 */ color:#909 !important; } ::-ms-input-placeholder { /* Microsoft Edge */ color:#909 !important; } Hope this will help.
try this will help you this will work in all your fav browsers :
::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* Chrome/Opera/Safari */ color: pink; } ::-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 19+ */ color: pink; } :-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 18- */ color: pink; } Try this
::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* Chrome/Opera/Safari */ color: pink; } ::-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 19+ */ color: pink; } :-ms-input-placeholder { /* IE 10+ */ color: pink; } :-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 18- */ color: pink; } In the html file:
In the css file:
.redPlaceHolder{ color: #ff0000; }