Styling Select Drop Down Box

How do I style a select dropdown with only CSS?

Here are three solutions:

Solution #1 - appearance: none - with Internet Explorer 10 - 11 workaround (Demo)

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To hide the default arrow set appearance: none on the select element, then add your own custom arrow with background-image

select {
   -webkit-appearance: none;
   -moz-appearance: none;
   appearance: none;       /* Remove default arrow */
   background-image: url(...);   /* Add custom arrow */
}

Browser Support:

appearance: none has very good browser support (caniuse) - except for Internet Explorer.

We can improve this technique and add support for Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11 by adding

select::-ms-expand {
    display: none; /* Hide the default arrow in Internet Explorer 10 and Internet Explorer 11 */
}

If Internet Explorer 9 is a concern, we have no way of removing the default arrow (which would mean that we would now have two arrows), but, we could use a funky Internet Explorer 9 selector.

To at least undo our custom arrow - leaving the default select arrow intact.

/* Target Internet Explorer 9 to undo the custom arrow */
@media screen and (min-width:0\0) {
    select {
        background-image:none\9;
        padding: 5px\9;
    }
}

All together:

select {
  margin: 50px;
  width: 150px;
  padding: 5px 35px 5px 5px;
  font-size: 16px;
  border: 1px solid #CCC;
  height: 34px;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  background: url(https://stackoverflow.com/favicon.ico) 96% / 15% no-repeat #EEE;
}

/* CAUTION: Internet Explorer hackery ahead */

select::-ms-expand {
    display: none; /* Remove default arrow in Internet Explorer 10 and 11 */
}

/* Target Internet Explorer 9 to undo the custom arrow */
@media screen and (min-width:0\0) {
    select {
        background: none\9;
        padding: 5px\9;
    }
}

<select>
  <option>Apples</option>
  <option selected>Pineapples</option>
  <option>Chocklate</option>
  <option>Pancakes</option>
</select>

Styling Select Drop down box

Here's a DEMO.

Just add this CSS rule:

select > option {
   background: color;
}

For example:

select > option {
   background: pink; /* Or an hexadecimal value */
}

Cheers,
Leo!

How to style the option of an html select element?

There are only a few style attributes that can be applied to an <option> element.

This is because this type of element is an example of a "replaced element". They are OS-dependent and are not part of the HTML/browser. It cannot be styled via CSS.

There are replacement plug-ins/libraries that look like a <select> but are actually composed of regular HTML elements that CAN be styled.

How to set CSS for select and its dropdown menu when selected?

Figured it out. This blue color and click over input, select and textarea tag is due to bootstrap CSS. Removed the class form-control from select and added following class. Everything is working fine now.

CSS:

/* Customized Select Box */
.customSelect {
    background-color: #fff;
    background-clip: padding-box;
    border: 0.5rem solid #cbece5;
    border-radius: 1.25rem;
    color: #00a082;
    display: block;
    font-size: 2rem;
    height: 3.5rem;
    line-height: 1.5;
    padding: 0.25rem 0.75rem;
    width: 100%;
    transition: border-color .15s ease-in-out,box-shadow .15s ease-in-out;
    transition-property: border-color, box-shadow;
    transition-duration: 0.15s, 0.15s;
    transition-timing-function: ease-in-out, ease-in-out;
    transition-delay: 0s, 0s;
}

How to set max-height of dropdown selection area?

Specifying height:50px is limiting the select to 50px. Use min-height instead. Also wrap the select element in a div with fixed height so that it'll overlap on content below and not push it down.

.select-wrapper {
  height: 50px;
  overflow-y: visible;
}

.select {
  width: 100%;
  /* make it min-height*/
  min-height: 50px;
  border-radius: 25px;
  border-color: #555;
  padding: 10px;
}

<span>Select height is limited to 8 options.</span>
<div class="select-wrapper form-column form-column-field">
  <select data-no-search="" data-placeholder="Выбрать год" onfocus="this.size=8;" onblur="this.size=1;" onchange="this.size=1; this.blur();" class="select select-no-search">
    <option disabled="disabled">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">-Select Year</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1922">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1922</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1923">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1923</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1922">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1924</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1923">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1925</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1922">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1926</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1923">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1927</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1922">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1928</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1923">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1929</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1922">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1930</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1923">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1931</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1922">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1932</font>
    </option>
    <option value="1923">
      <font style="vertical-align: inherit;">1933</font>
    </option>
  </select>
</div>
<div class="footer__block" style="background-color:wheat;height:200px;border:2px dashed green">
  <h3>Popular tags:</h3>
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</div>

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