:visited

In This Article

The :visited CSS pseudo-class lets you select only links that have been visited.

a:visited {
  color: #4b2f89;
}

This style may be overridden by any other link-related pseudo-classes, that is :link, :hover, and :active, appearing in subsequent rules. In order to style appropriately links, you need to put the :visited rule after the :link rule but before the other ones, defined in the LVHA-order: :link — :visited — :hover — :active.

Note: For privacy reasons, browsers strictly limit the styles you can apply using an element selected by this pseudo-class: only color, background-color, border-color, border-bottom-color, border-left-color, border-right-color, border-top-color, outline-color, column-rule-color, fill and stroke. Note also that the alpha component will be ignored: the alpha component of the not-visited rule is used instead (except when the opacity is 0, in that case the whole color is ignored, and the one of the not-visited rule is used).

Though the color can be changed, the method getComputedStyle will lie and always give back the value of the non-visited color.

For more information on the limitations and the motivation for them, see Privacy and the :visited selector.

Syntax

:visited

Examples

a:visited { color: #4b2f89; }
a:visited { background-color: white }

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living Standard The definition of ':visited' in that specification.	Living Standard
Selectors Level 4 The definition of ':visited' in that specification.	Working Draft	No change.
Selectors Level 3 The definition of ':visited' in that specification.	Recommendation	No change.
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1) The definition of ':visited' in that specification.	Recommendation	Lift the restriction to only apply it for `<a>` element. Let browsers restricts its behavior for privacy reasons.
CSS Level 1 The definition of ':visited' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Feature	Chrome	Edge	Firefox (Gecko)	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari (WebKit)
Basic support	1.0	(Yes)	1.0 (1.7 or earlier)	3.5	3.5	1.0
Restrictions in CSS properties allowed in a statement using `:visited`	6	(Yes)	4.0 (2.0)	8 (or earlier)	?	5.0

Feature	Android	Edge	Firefox Mobile (Gecko)	IE Phone	Opera Mobile	Safari Mobile
Basic support	4.4	(Yes)	1.0 (1.0)	11	37	9.3

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Contributors to this page: mfluehr, wbamberg, cPhost, erikadoyle, Sebastianz, BychekRU, cvrebert, MusikAnimal, kscarfone, tregagnon, Sheppy, teoli, cers, Jürgen Jeka, BijuGC

Last updated by: mfluehr, Jul 27, 2017, 11:48:55 AM