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CSS ::file-selector-button

By David Walsh on February 20, 2023

We all love beautifully styled form controls but, due to the differences between operating system displays, styling them can be painful. Due to that pain, we've created scores of libraries to mock these controls. Unfortunately that sometimes comes at the cost of accessibility, performance, etc.

One control that has traditionally been tough to style is the input[type=file] element. Said input variation visually contains a button and text, all being clickable. Bit of a Frankenstein's monster if you ask me. Can we style the button part though? We can!

To style the button button portion of input[type=file], you can use ::file-selector-button:

input[type=file]::file-selector-button {
  border: 1px solid green;
  background: lightgreen;
}

Styling this input variant wasn't possible when it was first introduced. WebKit first started allowing styling complex form controls, and we can't thank them enough!

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CSS ::file-selector-button

Recent Features

Create a CSS Flipping Animation

Vibration API

Incredible Demos

Create a Simple Slideshow Using MooTools, Part III: Creating a Class

CSS Gradients

Discussion