How to style text input symbols in CSS
How to Style the Text Input Symbol in CSS
In HTML text input, we see a marker indicating the editing position within the text. This is called the text input symbol. It can also be called the text input cursor.
In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to style the text input symbol. However, modern browsers don’t support changing its shape, so we can only change the color of the text input symbol.
Syntax
Users can use the “caret-color” CSS property to change the color of the text input symbol using the following syntax.
caret-color: color;
In the above example, “color” can be a color name in string format, a hexadecimal value, an RGB value, or an HSL value.
Example 1
In the following example, we define two text inputs and give them the class names “inp” and “inp1”. We set the color “red” for the first input using the “caret-color” CSS property.
Also, we use the “auto” value for the second element, which automatically uses the browser’s default color, which is mostly black. Users can see a red cursor in the first input and a black cursor in the second input in the output.
<html>
<head>
<style>
.inp {
caret-color: red;
}
.inp1 {
caret-color: auto;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Use the "caret-color" CSS property to style the text input symbol</h3>
<input type = "text" placeholder = "Type something here." class = "inp">
<br> <br>
<input type = "text" placeholder = "Enter something here." class = "inp1">
</body>
</html>
Example 2
In the following example, we use “transparent” as the value of the “color-caret” CSS property to set the cursor’s color to transparent. This is used when we need to hide the text input symbol.
Users can see in the output that they can enter text in the input box, but they can’t see the cursor.
<html>
<head>
<style>
.inp {
caret-color: transparent;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Use the "caret-color" CSS property to style the text input symbol</h3>
<input type = "text" placeholder = "Enter your good name" class = "inp">
</body>
</html>
Example 3
In the following example, we add text to a div element. We then use the “contenteditable” attribute with a value of true to make the div’s content editable.
Here, we style the editable div element and give it a pink color, which the user can see in the output.
<html>
<head>
<style>
.test {
caret-color: pink;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h3>Use the "caret-color" CSS property to style the text input symbol</h3>
<div class = "test" contenteditable = "true">
This div is editable. Click anywhere on the text to start editing. Notice the pink cursor.
</div>
</body>
</html>
Users learned to use the “caret-color” CSS property to style the text input symbol. However, some older browsers also support the “caret-shape” property, which changes the cursor shape, but modern browsers don’t.