Change arrow colors in Bootstraps carousel

Question

I'm obviously missing something stupidly simple here. I have images with a white background so I want to be able to edit the arrows on the Bootstraps Carousel so they are visible. So many changing the color of the arrows (NOT the background like I've done).

CSS

.carousel-control-prev-icon, .carousel-control-next-icon {
    height: 100px;
    width: 100px;
    outline: black;
    background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
    background-size: 100%, 100%;
    border-radius: 50%;
    border: 1px solid black;
}

Carousel HTML

<div class = 'col-md-9'>

    <div id="carouselExampleIndicators" class="carousel slide" data-ride="carousel">

        <ol class="carousel-indicators">
            <li data-target="#carouselExampleIndicators" data-slide-to="0" class="active"></li>
            <li data-target="#carouselExampleIndicators" data-slide-to="1"></li>
            <li data-target="#carouselExampleIndicators" data-slide-to="2"></li>
        </ol>

        <div class="carousel-inner" role="listbox">
            <div class="carousel-item active">
                <img class="d-block img-fluid" src="carousel/Bars%20and%20Dots.jpg" alt="First slide" class = 'img-responsive'>
            </div>

            <div class="carousel-item">
                <img class="d-block img-fluid" src="carousel/murial.jpg" alt="Second slide" class = 'img-responsive'>
            </div>

            <div class="carousel-item">
                <img class="d-block img-fluid" src="carousel/Upper%20Partialism%20album%20covers004white.jpg" alt="Third slide" class = 'img-responsive'>
            </div>
        </div>

        <a class="carousel-control-prev" href="#carouselExampleIndicators" role="button" data-slide="prev">
            <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span>
            <span class="sr-only">Previous</span>
        </a>

        <a class="carousel-control-next" href="#carouselExampleIndicators" role="button" data-slide="next">
            <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span>
            <span class="sr-only">Next</span>
        </a>

    </div>

</div>

Can you provide any running example in JSFiddle? – Phani Kumar M Sep 16 '17 at 03:10 — Phani Kumar M, Sep 16 '17 at 03:10

score 190 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 27 '18 at 20:56

I know this is an older post, but it helped me out. I've also found that for bootstrap v4 you can also change the arrow color by overriding the controls like this:

.carousel-control-prev-icon {
 background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23fff' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3E%3Cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5-2.5-2.5 2.5-2.5-1.5-1.5z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E") !important;
}

.carousel-control-next-icon {
  background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23fff' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3E%3Cpath d='M2.75 0l-1.5 1.5 2.5 2.5-2.5 2.5 1.5 1.5 4-4-4-4z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E") !important;
}

Where you change fill='%23fff' the fff at the end to any hexadecimal value that you want. For example:

fill='%23000' for black, fill='%23ff0000' for red and so on. Just a note, I haven't tested this without the !important declaration.

This is a great solution, thanks a lot. I suggest adding `.carousel` parent classes to avoid having to use `!important` — Simon, Aug 12 '20 at 23:42

Chris Gunawardena · Answer 2 · 2021-04-24T06:05:42.770

173

If you just want to make them black in Bootstrap 4+.

.carousel-control-next,
.carousel-control-prev /*, .carousel-indicators */ {
    filter: invert(100%);
}

edited Apr 24 '21 at 06:05

answered Nov 18 '18 at 09:25

Chris Gunawardena

6,246
1
29
45

11

Cleaner, easier. I personally hate the BS4 approach to this and their `background-image: svg...` solution. – Yes Barry Mar 18 '19 at 21:12
1

Bootstrap 4.3 the correct class is `carousel-control-prev` – Aline Matos Jul 17 '19 at 15:00
3

You can add `.carousel-indicators` to do the same for the indicators. – Dylan Nov 01 '20 at 20:41
this is like 5 years old and I got it to change to black thanks :) – AlThePal78 May 20 '22 at 05:14

score 110 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 25 '22 at 21:36

110

.carousel-control-prev-icon,
.carousel-control-next-icon {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100px;
  outline: black;
  background-size: 100%, 100%;
  border-radius: 50%;
  border: 1px solid black;
  background-image: none;
}

.carousel-control-next-icon:after
{
  content: '>';
  font-size: 55px;
  color: red;
}

.carousel-control-prev-icon:after {
  content: '<';
  font-size: 55px;
  color: red;
}

edited Dec 25 '22 at 21:36

starball

20,030
7
43
238

answered Sep 16 '17 at 05:35

nifoem bar

1,275
1
10
10

Sorry for the delayed response. Yes, that seemed to work. Thanks very much! – Paul Young Sep 18 '17 at 02:29
You're welcome, i hope that you vote my answer, help me a lot, cheers – nifoem bar Sep 18 '17 at 02:59
Sorry, I'm new to this. Done :) – Paul Young Sep 18 '17 at 03:02
21

This changes the style of the page and adds a different style of arrows instead of changing the colour of the existing one. – programmingandroid Aug 10 '18 at 15:32
2

No - this does not change the color of the default controls.. it adds a element. – sea26.2 May 02 '19 at 02:32

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 12 '18 at 17:51

You should use also: <span><i class="fa fa-angle-left" aria-hidden="true"></i></span> using fontawesome. You have to overwrite the original code. Do the following and you'll be free to customize on CSS:

<a class="carousel-control-prev" href="#carouselExampleIndicatorsTestim" role="button" data-slide="prev">
    <span><i class="fa fa-angle-left" aria-hidden="true"></i></span>
    <span class="sr-only">Previous</span>
</a>
<a class="carousel-control-next" href="#carouselExampleIndicatorsTestim" role="button" data-slide="next">
    <span><i class="fa fa-angle-right" aria-hidden="true"></i></span>
    <span class="sr-only">Next</span>
 </a>

The original code

<a class="carousel-control-prev" href="#carouselExampleIndicators" role="button" data-slide="prev">
    <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span>
    <span class="sr-only">Previous</span>
</a>

<a class="carousel-control-next" href="#carouselExampleIndicators" role="button" data-slide="next">
    <span class="carousel-control-next-icon" aria-hidden="true"></span>
    <span class="sr-only">Next</span>
</a>

While the other answers work just fine, this makes a lot more sense and is easier to work with. Thanks for chiming in! — Michael, Jun 25 '20 at 17:08

score 6 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 11 '18 at 01:47

Currently Bootstrap 4 uses a background-image with embbed SVG data info that include the color of the SVG shape. Something like:

.carousel-control-prev-icon { background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23fff' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3E%3Cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5-2.5-2.5 2.5-2.5-1.5-1.5z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E"); }

Note the part about fill='%23fff' it fills the shape with a color, in this case #fff (white), for red simply replace with #f00

Finally, it is safe to include this (same change for next-icon):

.carousel-control-prev-icon {background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23f00' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3E%3Cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5-2.5-2.5 2.5-2.5-1.5-1.5z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E"); }

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 18 '21 at 00:05

5

Add .carousel-dark to the .carousel for darker controls, indicators, and captions.

Bootstrap 5 documentation

answered Sep 18 '21 at 00:05

Serhat Ozaydin

49
1
3

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 08 '18 at 09:03

a little example that works for me

    .carousel-control-prev,
    .carousel-control-next{
        height: 50px;
        width: 50px;
        outline: $color-white;
        background-size: 100%, 100%;
        border-radius: 50%;
        border: 1px solid $color-white;
        background-color: $color-white;
    }

    .carousel-control-prev-icon { 
        background-image:url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23009be1' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3E%3Cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5-2.5-2.5 2.5-2.5-1.5-1.5z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E"); 
        width: 30px;
        height: 48px;
    }
    .carousel-control-next-icon { 
        background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23009be1' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3E%3Cpath d='M2.75 0l-1.5 1.5 2.5 2.5-2.5 2.5 1.5 1.5 4-4-4-4z'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
        width: 30px;
        height: 48px;
    }

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 30 '18 at 19:02

In bootstrap 4 if you are just changing the colour of the controls you can use the sass variables, typically in custom.scss:

$carousel-control-color: #7b277d;

As highlighted in this github issue note: https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues/21985#issuecomment-281402443

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 13 '21 at 18:54

This worked for me:

.carousel-control-prev-icon {
    background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23000' width='8' height='8' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3e%3cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5L4.25 4l2.5-2.5L5.25 0z'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");
}
      
.carousel-control-next-icon {
    background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23000' width='8' height='8' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3e%3cpath d='M2.75 0l-1.5 1.5L3.75 4l-2.5 2.5L2.75 8l4-4-4-4z'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");
}

I changed the color in the url of the icon. Thats the original that is used in the bootstrap page but with this section in black:

"...fill='%23000'..."

You can also use it with specific color like this: fill='darkorange' supported colors by svg are here - https://www.december.com/html/spec/colorsvg.html — Manic Depression, Apr 15 '21 at 13:12

score 2 · Answer 10 · edited Sep 16 '17 at 06:47

2

for bootstrap-3 one can use:

.carousel-control span.glyphicon {
    color: red;
}

edited Sep 16 '17 at 06:47

Axel

3,331
11
35
58

answered Sep 16 '17 at 06:06

Keshav Bhadouria

199
1
11

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm using Bootstrap 4. – Paul Young Sep 18 '17 at 02:26
I am on Boostrap 3, thx Keshav, you pointed me in the right direction, but had to write in css: `.carousel-control span.icon-prev, span.icon-next { color: red; } ` – ionescu77 Nov 24 '19 at 12:59

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Mar 23 '18 at 06:01

If you are using bootstrap.min.css for carousel-

<a class="left carousel-control" href="#carouselExample" data-slide="prev">
  <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-left"></span>
  <span class="sr-only">Previous</span>
</a>
<a class="right carousel-control" href="#carouselExample" data-slide="next">
  <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-right"></span>
  <span class="sr-only">Next</span>
</a>

Open the bootstrap.min.css file and find the property "glyphicon-chevron-right" and add the property "color:red"

Rebel · Answer 12 · 2020-02-02T16:49:24.143

1

I too had a similar problem, some images were very light and some dark, so the arrows didn't always show up clearly so I took a more simplistic approach.

In the modal-body section I just removed the following lines:

    <!-- Left and right controls -->
    <a class="carousel-control-prev" href="#id" data-slide="prev">
       <span class="carousel-control-prev-icon"></span>
    </a>
    <a class="carousel-control-next" href="#id" data-slide="next">
      <span class="carousel-control-next-icon"></span>
    </a>

and inserted the following into the modal-header section

    <!-- Left and right controls -->
    <a  href="#gamespandp" data-slide="prev" class="btn btn-outline-secondary btn-sm">&#10094;</a>
    <a  href="#gamespandp"  data-slide="next" class="btn btn-outline-secondary btn-sm">&#10095;</a>

The indicators can now be clearly seen, no adding extra icons or messing with style sheets, although you could style them however you wanted!

See this demo image:

[ demo Image]

edited Feb 02 '20 at 16:49

answered Feb 02 '20 at 15:11

Rebel

27
5

This does **not** answer the original question **at all**. – MrUpsidown Jun 12 '20 at 11:44
2

How does my reply **not** answer the original question MrBacktofront? "I have images with a white background so I want to be able to edit the arrows on the Bootstraps Carousel so they are visible" My solution edits the arrows and makes them visible regardless of the images. – Rebel Jun 13 '20 at 12:16
1

Since the question had already been correctly answered, clearly my answer was an alternative solution that allows users to navigate regardless of any colour clashes. As to aesthetics, I did clearly state that one could style them however one wanted to, maybe your eyes were so badly affected by the grotesque hideousness of HTML entities that they failed to read that part! As with regards to being down voted, since you seem to be the only one with a problem, I'll let it stand. – Rebel Jun 15 '20 at 15:49

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 09 '21 at 14:26

To change the color you should add the style to your css file and made a little change in fill attribute in svg code uses as background-image for classes .carousel-control-prev-icon and .carousel-control-next-icon

fill='%23fff' change only fff to color you need for example f00 for red. (it's possible to use 6letters hex also --> %23ff0000)

.carousel-control-pre-icon {background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23fff' width='8' height='8' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3e%3cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5L4.25 4l2.5-2.5L5.25 0z'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");}

for juniors: .carousel-container .carousel .carousel-control-next .carousel-control-next-icon

Your answer was so clear and the correct one with just little change. — Ali reza Soleimani Asl, Dec 28 '22 at 13:35

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 13 '23 at 21:23

With CSS, it's possible to customize icon color on fill parameter to use on control classes and icon classes. And adding a class hover alpha to background:

.carousel-control-prev-icon {background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23000000' width='8' height='8' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3e%3cpath d='M5.25 0l-4 4 4 4 1.5-1.5L4.25 4l2.5-2.5L5.25 0z'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");}
.carousel-control-next-icon {background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' fill='%23000000' width='8' height='8' viewBox='0 0 8 8'%3e%3cpath d='M2.75 0l-1.5 1.5L3.75 4l-2.5 2.5L2.75 8l4-4-4-4z'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");}
<--! alpha background -->
.carousel-control-next:hover, .carousel-control-prev:hover {
background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);}

Daniel Burns · Answer 15 · 2020-02-23T18:42:11.577

0

To customize the colors for the carousel controls, captions, and indicators using Sass you can include these variables

    $carousel-control-color: 
    $carousel-caption-color: 
    $carousel-indicator-active-bg:

edited Feb 23 '20 at 18:42

answered Feb 21 '20 at 17:41

Daniel Burns

9
4

It worked for me, except the variable $carousel-indicator-active-bg didn't work – Daniel Mar 03 '20 at 01:53

score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Sep 29 '22 at 19:10

0

To swap them for font awesome with pure CSS:

.carousel-control-prev-icon, .carousel-control-next-icon {
  background-image: none;
}

.carousel-control-prev-icon:after, .carousel-control-next-icon:after {     
  content: "\f053";
  font-family: 'Font Awesome 5 Free', sans-serif;
}

.carousel-control-next-icon:after {
  content: "\f054";
}

answered Sep 29 '22 at 19:10

Yes Barry

9,514
5
50
69

Your're right. We should set background-image:none; and then define new object for it by :agter and :before – Ali reza Soleimani Asl Dec 28 '22 at 13:31

score -1 · Answer 17 · edited Sep 18 '19 at 10:11

With Font Awesome icons:

<!-- Controls -->
<a class="carousel-control-prev" href="#carousel-example-generic" role="button" data-slide="prev">
  <span class="fa fa-chevron-left fa-lg" style="color:red;"></span>
  <span class="sr-only">Previous</span>
</a>
<a class="carousel-control-next" href="#carousel-example-generic" role="button" data-slide="next">
  <span class="fa fa-chevron-right fa-lg" style="color:red;"></span>
  <span class="sr-only">Next</span>
</a>

Change arrow colors in Bootstraps carousel

17 Answers17

Linked