Styling select dropdown with css only

Question

I were searching the web for almost two hours and haven't found even a single example of css styling select dropdown. Most of all I was interested in z-index to show select dropdown under absolute div block. The only thing was founded is styling offsets, background-color and font, but what about other css properties? Searching for webkit shadow dom also gave no result. Really this is not possible? :(

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 13:42

Styling Select Box with CSS3:

HTML:

<label>
    <select>
        <option selected> Select Box </option>
        <option>Short Option</option>
        <option>This Is A Longer Option</option>
    </select>
</label>

CSS:

body, html { 
    background:#444;
    text-align:center;
    padding:50px 0;
}

select {
    padding:3px;
    margin: 0;
    -webkit-border-radius:4px;
    -moz-border-radius:4px;
    border-radius:4px;
    -webkit-box-shadow: 0 3px 0 #ccc, 0 -1px #fff inset;
    -moz-box-shadow: 0 3px 0 #ccc, 0 -1px #fff inset;
    box-shadow: 0 3px 0 #ccc, 0 -1px #fff inset;
    background: #f8f8f8;
    color:#888;
    border:none;
    outline:none;
    display: inline-block;
    -webkit-appearance:none;
    -moz-appearance:none;
    appearance:none;
    cursor:pointer;
}

/* Targetting Webkit browsers only. FF will show the dropdown arrow with so much padding. */

@media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:0) {
    select {padding-right:18px}
}

label {position:relative}
label:after {
    content:'<>';
    font:11px "Consolas", monospace;
    color:#aaa;
    -webkit-transform:rotate(90deg);
    -moz-transform:rotate(90deg);
    -ms-transform:rotate(90deg);
    transform:rotate(90deg);
    right:8px; top:2px;
    padding:0 0 2px;
    border-bottom:1px solid #ddd;
    position:absolute;
    pointer-events:none;
}
label:before {
    content:'';
    right:6px; top:0px;
    width:20px; height:20px;
    background:#f8f8f8;
    position:absolute;
    pointer-events:none;
    display:block;
}

Demo: http://cssdeck.com/labs/styling-select-box-with-css3

This is a good answer and a great idea. However, clicking the arrows in IE doesn't work. — Cthulhu, Apr 23 '14 at 10:17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 13:41

Here is the code.

body {
    margin-top:20px;
    margin-left:20px;
}
select {
    padding:9px;
    margin: 0;
    border-radius:4px;
    -webkit-box-shadow: 
        0 0px 0 #ccc,
        0 0px #fff inset;
    background: url('http://i45.tinypic.com/309nb74.png') no-repeat right, -moz-linear-gradient(top, #FBFBFB 0%, #E9E9E9 100%);
    background: url('http://i45.tinypic.com/309nb74.png') no-repeat right, -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#FBFBFB), color-stop(100%,#E9E9E9));
    color:black;
    border:none;
    outline:none;
    display: inline-block;
    -webkit-appearance:none; 
    cursor:pointer;
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
}

Please go through this fiddle

This styles select, but not it's dropdown. I need exacly cusomize the dropdown z-index to underlay it under block — VoVaVc, Aug 06 '13 at 13:43

score -4 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 06 '13 at 17:46

-4

This will help you to style the select tag. http://www.bulgaria-web-developers.com/projects/javascript/selectbox/

answered Aug 06 '13 at 17:46

Umarfaruk M

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this is javascript way, I need to use only css – VoVaVc Aug 07 '13 at 06:45

Styling select dropdown with css only

3 Answers3