Property compatibility table for form widgets

The following compatibility tables try to summarize the state of CSS support for HTML forms. Due to the complexity of CSS and HTML forms, these tables can't be considered a perfect reference. However, they will give you good insight into what can and can't be done, which will help you learn how to do things.

How to read the tables

Values

For each property, there are four possible values:

YES
There's reasonably consistent support for the property across browsers. You may still face strange side effects in certain edge cases.
PARTIAL
While the property works, you may frequently face strange side effects or inconsistencies. You should probably avoid these properties unless you master those side effects first.
NO
The property simply doesn't work or is so inconsistent that it's not reliable.
N.A.
The property has no meaning for this type of widget.

Rendering

For each property there are two possible renderings:

N (Normal)
Indicates that the property is applied as it is
T (Tweaked)
Indicates that the property is applied with the extra rule below:
* {
/* This turn off the native look and feel on WebKit based browsers */
  -webkit-appearance: none;
/* This turn off the native look and feel on Gecko based browsers */
  -moz-appearance: none;
/* This turn off the native look and feel on several different browsers 
   including Opera, Internet Explorer and Firefox */
  background: none;
}

Compatibility tables

Global behaviors

Some behaviors are common to many browsers at a global level:

border, background, border-radius, height
Using one of these properties can partially or fully turn off the native look & feel of widgets on some browsers. Be careful when you use them.
line-height
This property is supported inconsistently across browsers and you should avoid it.
text-decoration
This property is not supported by Opera on form widgets.
text-overflow
Opera, Safari, and IE9 do not support this property on form widgets.
text-shadow
Opera does not support text-shadow on form widgets and IE9 does not support it at all.

Text fields

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Partial[1][2] Yes
  1. WebKit browsers (mostly on Mac OSX and iOS) use the native look & feel for the search fields. Therefore, it's required to use -webkit-appearance:none to be able to apply this property to search fields.
  2. On Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 does not apply the border unless background:none is applied.
border Partial[1][2] Yes
  1. WebKit browsers (mostly on Mac OSX and iOS) use the native look & feel for the search fields. Therefore, it's required to use -webkit-appearance:none to be able to apply this property to search fields.
  2. On Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 does not apply the border unless background:none is applied.
margin Yes Yes  
padding Partial[1][2] Yes
  1. WebKit browsers (mostly on Mac OSX and iOS) use the native look & feel for the search fields. Therefore, it's required to use -webkit-appearance:none to be able to apply this property to search fields.
  2. On Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 does not apply the border unless background:none is applied.
Text and font
color[1] Yes Yes
  1. If the border-color property is not set, some WebKit based browsers will apply the color property to the border as well as the font on <textarea>s.
font Yes Yes See the note about line-height
letter-spacing Yes Yes  
text-align Yes Yes  
text-decoration Partial Partial See the note about Opera
text-indent Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. IE9 supports this property only on <textarea>s, whereas Opera only supports it on single line text fields.
text-overflow Partial Partial  
text-shadow Partial Partial  
text-transform Yes Yes  
Border and background
background Partial[1] Yes
  1. WebKit browsers (mostly on Mac OSX and iOS) use the native look & feel for the search fields. Therefore, it's required to use -webkit-appearance:none to be able to apply this property to search fields. On Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 does not apply the border unless background:none is applied.
border-radius Partial[1][2] Yes
  1. WebKit browsers (mostly on Mac OSX and iOS) use the native look & feel for the search fields. Therefore, it's required to use -webkit-appearance:none to be able to apply this property to search fields. On Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9 does not apply the border unless background:none is applied.
  2. On Opera the border-radius property is applied only if an explicit border is set.
box-shadow No Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property.

Buttons

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Partial[1] Yes
  1. This property is not applied on WebKit based browsers on Mac OSX or iOS.
border Partial Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding Partial[1] Yes
  1. This property is not applied on WebKit based browsers on Mac OSX or iOS.
Text and font
color Yes Yes  
font Yes Yes See the note about line-height.
letter-spacing Yes Yes  
text-align No No  
text-decoration Partial Yes  
text-indent Yes Yes  
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow Partial Partial  
text-transform Yes Yes  
Border and background
background Yes Yes  
border-radius Yes[1] Yes[1]
  1. On Opera the border-radius property is applied only if an explicit border is set.
box-shadow No Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property.

Number

On browsers that implement the number widget, there is no standard way to change the style of spinners used to change the value of the field. It is worth noting that the spinners on Safari are outside the field.

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. On Opera, the spinners are zoomed in, which can hide the content of the field.
border Yes Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. On Opera, the spinners are zoomed in, which can hide the content of the field.
Text and font
color Yes Yes  
font Yes Yes See the note about line-height.
letter-spacing Yes Yes  
text-align Yes Yes  
text-decoration Partial Partial  
text-indent Yes Yes  
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow Partial Partial  
text-transform N.A. N.A.  
Border and background
background No No

Supported but there is too much inconsistency between browsers to be reliable.
border-radius No No
box-shadow No No

Check boxes and radio buttons

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width No[1] No[1]
  1. Some browsers add extra margins and others stretch the widget.
height No[1] No[1]
  1. Some browsers add extra margins and others stretch the widget.
border No No  
margin Yes Yes  
padding No No  
Text and font
color N.A. N.A.  
font N.A. N.A.  
letter-spacing N.A. N.A.  
text-align N.A. N.A.  
text-decoration N.A. N.A.  
text-indent N.A. N.A.  
text-overflow N.A. N.A.  
text-shadow N.A. N.A.  
text-transform N.A. N.A.  
Border and background
background No No  
border-radius No No  
box-shadow No No  

Select boxes (single line)

Firefox does not provide any way to change the down arrow on the <select> element.

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. This property is okay on the <select> element, but it cannot be the case on the <option> or <optgroup> elements.
height No Yes  
border Partial Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding No[1] Partial[2]
  1. The property is applied, but in an inconsistent way between browsers on Mac OSX.
  2. The property is well applied on the <select> element, but is inconsistently handled on <option> and <optgroup> elements.
Text and font
color Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. On Mac OSX, WebKit based browsers do not support this property on native widgets and they, along with Opera, do not support it at all on <option> and <optgroup> elements.
font Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. On Mac OSX, WebKit based browsers do not support this property on native widgets and they, along with Opera, do not support it at all on <option> and <optgroup> elements.
letter-spacing Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property on <select>, <option>, and <optgroup> elements; WebKit based browsers on Mac OSX do not support this property on <option> and <optgroup> elements.
text-align No[1] No[1]
  1. IE9 on Windows 7 and WebKit based browsers on Mac OSX do not support this property on this widget.
text-decoration Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Only Firefox provides full support for this property. Opera does not support this property at all and other browsers only support it on the <select> element.
text-indent Partial[1][2] Partial[1][2]
  1. Most of the browsers only support this property on the <select> element.
  2. IE9 does not support this property.
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow Partial[1][2] Partial[1][2]
  1. Most of the browsers only support this property on the <select> element.
  2. IE9 does not support this property.
text-transform Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Most of the browsers only support this property on the <select> element.
Border and background
background Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Most of the browsers only support this property on the <select> element.
border-radius Partial[1] Partial[1]
box-shadow No Partial[1]

Select boxes (multiline)

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Yes Yes  
border Yes Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Opera does not support padding-top and padding-bottom on the <select> element.
Text and font
color Yes Yes  
font Yes Yes See the note about line-height.
letter-spacing Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property on <select>, <option>, and <optgroup> elements; WebKit based browsers on Mac OSX do not support this property on <option> and <optgroup> elements.
text-align No[1] No[1]
  1. IE9 on Windows 7 and WebKit based browser on Mac OSX do not support this property on this widget.
text-decoration No[1] No[1]
  1. Only supported by Firefox and IE9+.
text-indent No No  
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow No No  
text-transform Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Most of the browsers only support this property on the <select> element.
Border and background
background Yes Yes  
border-radius Yes[1] Yes[1]
  1. On Opera the border-radius property is applied only if an explicit border is set.
box-shadow No Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property.

Datalist

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width No No  
height No No  
border No No  
margin No No  
padding No No  
Text and font
color No No  
font No No  
letter-spacing No No  
text-align No No  
text-decoration No No  
text-indent No No  
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow No No  
text-transform No No  
Border and background
background No No  
border-radius No No  
box-shadow No No  

File picker

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width No No  
height No No  
border No No  
margin Yes Yes  
padding No No  
Text and font
color Yes Yes  
font No[1] No[1]
  1. Supported, but there is too much inconsistency between browsers to be reliable.
letter-spacing Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Many browsers apply this property to the select button.
text-align No No  
text-decoration No No  
text-indent Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. It acts more or less like an extra left margin outside the widget.
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow No No  
text-transform No No  
Border and background
background No[1] No[1]
  1. Supported, but there is too much inconsistency between browsers to be reliable.
border-radius No No  
box-shadow No Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property.

Date pickers

Many properies are supported but there is to much inconstency between browsers to be reliable.

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width No No  
height No No  
border No No  
margin Yes Yes  
padding No No  
Text and font
color No No  
font No No  
letter-spacing No No  
text-align No No  
text-decoration No No  
text-indent No No  
text-overflow No No  
text-shadow No No  
text-transform No No  
Border and background
background No No  
border-radius No No  
box-shadow No No  

Color pickers

There is currently not enough implementation to get realiable behaviors.

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height No[1] Yes
  1. Opera handles this like a select widget with the same restriction.
border Yes Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding No[1] Yes
  1. Opera handles this like a select widget with the same restriction.
Text and font
color N.A. N.A.  
font N.A. N.A.  
letter-spacing N.A. N.A.  
text-align N.A. N.A.  
text-decoration N.A. N.A.  
text-indent N.A. N.A.  
text-overflow N.A. N.A.  
text-shadow N.A. N.A.  
text-transform N.A. N.A.  
Border and background
background No[1] No[1]
  1. Supported, but there is too much inconsistency between browsers to be reliable.
border-radius No[1] No[1]
box-shadow No[1] No[1]

Meters and progress

There is currently not enough implementation to get realiable behaviors.

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Yes Yes  
border Partial Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding Yes Partial[1]
  1. Chrome hides the <progress> and <meter> element when the padding property is applied on a tweaked element.
Text and font
color N.A. N.A.  
font N.A. N.A.  
letter-spacing N.A. N.A.  
text-align N.A. N.A.  
text-decoration N.A. N.A.  
text-indent N.A. N.A.  
text-overflow N.A. N.A.  
text-shadow N.A. N.A.  
text-transform N.A. N.A.  
Border and background
background No[1] No[1]
  1. Supported, but there is too much inconsistency between browsers to be reliable.
border-radius No[1] No[1]
box-shadow No[1] No[1]

Range

There is no standard way to change the style of the range grip and Opera has no way to tweak the default rendering of the range widget.

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. Chrome and Opera add some extra space around the widget, whereas Opera on Windows 7 stretches the range grip.
border No Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding Partial[1] Yes
  1. The padding is applied, but has no visual effect.
Text and font
color N.A. N.A.  
font N.A. N.A.  
letter-spacing N.A. N.A.  
text-align N.A. N.A.  
text-decoration N.A. N.A.  
text-indent N.A. N.A.  
text-overflow N.A. N.A.  
text-shadow N.A. N.A.  
text-transform N.A. N.A.  
Border and background
background No[1] No[1]
  1. Supported, but there is too much inconsistency between browsers to be reliable.
border-radius No[1] No[1]
box-shadow No[1] No[1]

Image buttons

Property N T Note
CSS box model
width Yes Yes  
height Yes Yes  
border Yes Yes  
margin Yes Yes  
padding Yes Yes  
Text and font
color N.A. N.A.  
font N.A. N.A.  
letter-spacing N.A. N.A.  
text-align N.A. N.A.  
text-decoration N.A. N.A.  
text-indent N.A. N.A.  
text-overflow N.A. N.A.  
text-shadow N.A. N.A.  
text-transform N.A. N.A.  
Border and background
background Yes Yes  
border-radius Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property.
box-shadow Partial[1] Partial[1]
  1. IE9 does not support this property.

 

Document Tags and Contributors

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 Contributors to this page: mfluehr, Jeremie, kscarfone, james_oh, Sheppy
 Last updated by: mfluehr,