CSS Pseudo-elements

What are Pseudo-Elements?

A CSS pseudo-element is used to style specified parts of an element.

For example, it can be used to:

• Style the first letter, or line, of an element
• Insert content before, or after, the content of an element

Syntax

The syntax of pseudo-elements:

selector::pseudo-element {  
    property:  value;  
}

All CSS Pseudo Elements

Selector	Example	Example description
::after	p::after	Insert something after the content of each <p> element
::before	p::before	Insert something before the content of each <p> element
::first-letter	p::first-letter	Selects the first letter of each <p> element
::first-line	p::first-line	Selects the first line of each <p> element
::marker	::marker	Selects the markers of list items
::selection	p::selection	Selects the portion of an element that is selected by a user

Common examples

::first-line Pseudo-element

The ::first-line pseudo-element is used to add a special style to the first line of a text.

The following example formats the first line of the text in all <p> elements:

p::first-line {  
    color:  #ff0000;  
    font-variant:  small-caps;  
}

note

The ::first-line pseudo-element can only be applied to block-level elements.

The following properties apply to the ::first-line pseudo-element:

• font properties
• color properties
• background properties
• word-spacing
• letter-spacing
• text-decoration
• vertical-align
• text-transform
• line-height
• clear

note

Notice the double colon notation - ::first-line versus :first-line

The double colon replaced the single-colon notation for pseudo-elements in CSS3. This was an attempt from W3C to distinguish between pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements.

The single-colon syntax was used for both pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements in CSS2 and CSS1.

For backward compatibility, the single-colon syntax is acceptable for CSS2 and CSS1 pseudo-elements.

::first-letter Pseudo-element

The ::first-letter pseudo-element is used to add a special style to the first letter of a text.

The following example formats the first letter of the text in all <p> elements:

p::first-letter {  
    color:  #ff0000;  
    font-size:  xx-large;  
}

note

The ::first-letter pseudo-element can only be applied to block-level elements.

The following properties apply to the ::first-letter pseudo- element:

• font properties
• color properties
• background properties
• margin properties
• padding properties
• border properties
• text-decoration
• vertical-align (only if "float" is "none")
• text-transform
• line-height
• float
• clear

Pseudo-elements and HTML Classes

Pseudo-elements can be combined with HTML classes: For example, display the first letter of paragraphs with class="intro", in red and in a larger size:

p.intro::first-letter {  
    color:  #ff0000;  
    font-size:  200%;  
}

Multiple Pseudo-elements

Several pseudo-elements can also be combined.

Example

p::first-letter {  
    color:  #ff0000;  
    font-size:  xx-large;  
}  
  
p::first-line {  
    color:  #0000ff;  
    font-variant:  small-caps;  
}

::before Pseudo-element

The ::before pseudo-element can be used to insert some content before the content of an element.

The following example inserts an image before the content of each <h1> element:

h1::before {  
    content:  url(my.gif);  
}

::after Pseudo-element

The ::after pseudo-element can be used to insert some content after the content of an element.

The following example inserts an image after the content of each <h1> element:

h1::after {  
    content:  url(my.gif);  
}

::marker Pseudo-element

The ::marker pseudo-element selects the markers of list items.

The following example styles the markers of list items:

::marker {  
    color:  red;  
    font-size:  23px;  
}

::selection Pseudo-element

The ::selection pseudo-element matches the portion of an element that is selected by a user.

The following CSS properties can be applied to ::selection: color, background, cursor, and outline.

The following example makes the selected text red on a yellow background:

::selection {  
    color:  red;  
    background:  yellow;  
}