234

I'm trying to replace the arrow of a select with a picture of my own. I'm including the select in a div with the same size, I set the background of the select as transparent and I'm including a picture(with the same size as the arrow) in the right top corner of the div as background.

It only works in Chrome.

enter image description here

How can I make it work in Firefox and IE9 where I'm getting this:

enter image description here

.styled-select {
  width: 100px;
  height: 17px;
  overflow: hidden;
  overflow: -moz-hidden-unscrollable;
  background: url(images/downarrow_blue.png) no-repeat right white;
  border: 2px double red;
  display: inline-block;
  position: relative;
}

.styled-select select {
  background: transparent;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  width: 100px;
  font-size: 11px;
  border: 0;
  height: 17px;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
}

body {
  background-color: #333333;
  color: #FFFFFF;
}

.block label {
  color: white;
}
<HTML>

<HEAD>
</HEAD>

<BODY>
  <p/>
  <form action="/prepareUpdateCategoryList.do?forwardto=search">

    <fieldset class="block" id="searchBlock">
      <p>
        <label style="width:80px">Class</label>
        <div class="styled-select">
          <select property="voucherCategoryClass">
      <option value="0">Select </option>
      <option value="7382">steam </option>
     </select>
        </div>

      </p>
    </fieldset>
  </form>
</BODY>

</HTML>
Paolo Forgia
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user1802439
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20 Answers20

204

Have you tried something like this:

.styled-select select {
    -moz-appearance:none; /* Firefox */
    -webkit-appearance:none; /* Safari and Chrome */
    appearance:none;
}

Haven't tested, but should work.

EDIT: It looks like Firefox doesn't support this feature up until version 35 (read more here)

There is a workaround here, take a look at jsfiddle on that post.

Morpheus
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179

I have set up a select with a custom arrow similar to Julio's answer, however it doesn't have a set width and uses an svg as a background image. (arrow_drop_down from material-ui icons)

select {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  background: transparent;
  background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg fill='black' height='24' viewBox='0 0 24 24' width='24' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'><path d='M7 10l5 5 5-5z'/><path d='M0 0h24v24H0z' fill='none'/></svg>");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position-x: 100%;
  background-position-y: 5px;
  border: 1px solid #dfdfdf;
  border-radius: 2px;
  margin-right: 2rem;
  padding: 1rem;
  padding-right: 2rem;
}

enter image description here

If you need it to also work in IE update the svg arrow to base64 and add the following:

select::-ms-expand { display: none; }

background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyBmaWxsPSdibGFjaycgaGVpZ2h0PScyNCcgdmlld0JveD0nMCAwIDI0IDI0JyB3aWR0aD0nMjQnIHhtbG5zPSdodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2Zyc+PHBhdGggZD0nTTcgMTBsNSA1IDUtNXonLz48cGF0aCBkPSdNMCAwaDI0djI0SDB6JyBmaWxsPSdub25lJy8+PC9zdmc+);

To make it easier to size and space the arrow, use this svg:

url("data:image/svg+xml,<svg width='24' height='24' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'><path d='m0,6l12,12l12,-12l-24,0z'/><path fill='none' d='m0,0l24,0l0,24l-24,0l0,-24z'/></svg>");

It doesn't have any spacing on the arrow's sides.

Vic Seedoubleyew
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svnm
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66

Working with just one class:

select {
    width: 268px;
    padding: 5px;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 1;
    border: 0;
    border-radius: 5px;
    height: 34px;
    background: url(http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png) no-repeat right #ddd;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    background-position-x: 244px;
}

http://jsfiddle.net/qhCsJ/4120/

Julio Marins
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43
/* FIX OF UGLY SELECT */
SELECT {
    background: url("data:image/svg+xml,<svg height='10px' width='10px' viewBox='0 0 16 16' fill='%23000000' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'><path d='M7.247 11.14 2.451 5.658C1.885 5.013 2.345 4 3.204 4h9.592a1 1 0 0 1 .753 1.659l-4.796 5.48a1 1 0 0 1-1.506 0z'/></svg>") no-repeat;
    background-position: calc(100% - 0.75rem) center !important;
    -moz-appearance:none !important;
    -webkit-appearance: none !important; 
    appearance: none !important;
    padding-right: 2rem !important;
}

Adjust variables to match your form styling.

Chrome:

enter image description here

Firefox:

enter image description here

Opera:

enter image description here

Edge:

enter image description here

p.s. Form & Input design via Bootstrap 4

Romualds Cirsis
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32

Here is an elegant fix that uses a span to show the value.

Layout is like this:

<div class="selectDiv">
   <span class="selectDefault"></span>
   <select name="txtCountry" class="selectBox">
      <option class="defualt-text">-- Select Country --</option>
      <option value="1">Abkhazia</option>
      <option value="2">Afghanistan</option>
   </select>
</div>

JsFiddle

Shimmy Weitzhandler
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Peter Drinnan
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    +1 for this solution, it is the only way I've found to style the arrows properly on IE9 and older browsers. There are a lot of sites which simply say you can't style select boxes on IE9 and previous, and instead offer fallback strategies, but this solution proves otherwise. – Jon Nov 13 '14 at 22:36
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    It's worth mentioning: **this solution requires javascript**, which this answer *is not tagged for*. – random_user_name Jul 19 '17 at 18:38
25

This would work well especially for those using Bootstrap, tested in latest browser versions:

select {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  /* Some browsers will not display the caret when using calc, so we put the fallback first */ 
  background: url("http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png") white no-repeat 98.5% !important; /* !important used for overriding all other customisations */
  background: url("http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png") white no-repeat calc(100% - 10px) !important; /* Better placement regardless of input width */
}
/*For IE*/
select::-ms-expand { display: none; }
<link href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/twitter-bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<div class="container">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="col-xs-6">
      <select class="form-control">
       <option>Option 1</option>
       <option>Option 2</option>
       <option>Option 3</option>
      </select>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
Sameera R.
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Siavas
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15

Check this one It's hacky, simple as that:

  • Set -prefix-appearance to none to remove the styles
  • Use text-indent to "push" the content a bit to the right
  • Finally, set text-overflow to an empty string. Everything that extends beyond it's width will become... nothing! And that includes the arrow.

Now you're free to style it any way you want :)

.selectParent {
  width: 80px;
  overflow: hidden;
}

.selectParent select {
  text-indent: 1px;
  text-overflow: '';
  width: 100px;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
  border: none;
  background: transparent url("http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png") no-repeat 60px center;
}
<div class="selectParent">
  <select>
    <option value="1">Option 1</option>
    <option value="2">Option 2</option>
  </select>
</div>

View on JSFiddle

showdev
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sunilkjt
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13
.select{
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg fill='black' height='24' viewBox='0 0 24 24' width='24' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'><path d='M7 10l5 5 5-5z'/><path d='M0 0h24v24H0z' fill='none'/></svg>");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position-x: 98%;
  background-position-y: 50%;
}
Hasan Tezcan
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11

I wanna clear something that no one mention before I think.

  1. First get your svg image or icon
  2. There you will get some xml code like these <svg width="24" height="25" viewBox="0 0 24 25" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <path d="M4 10.127L12 18.127L20 10.127H4Z" fill="#8E8E93"/> </svg> try to find it.
  3. And past it after this code data:image/svg+xml;utf8,
  4. Replace the fill color fill="#8E8E93" to this fill="%238E8E93" If you want to add hexadecmal color you should change # to %23

Here is the html code:

<fieldset>
  <label for="editName">Country</label>
  <select class="ra-select">
    <option value="bangladesh" selected>Bangladesh</option>
    <option value="saudi arabia">Saudi Arabia</option>
    <option value="us">Uinited State Of America</option>
    <option value="india">India</option>
  </select>
</fieldset>

Here is the css code:

.ra-select {
   width: 30%;
   padding: 10px;
   /* Replace Default styling (arrow) */
   appearance: none;
   -webkit-appearance: none;
   -moz-appearance: none;
   background-image: url('data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg width="24" height="25" viewBox="0 0 24 25" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M4 10.127L12 18.127L20 10.127H4Z" fill="%238E8E93"/></svg>');
   background-repeat: no-repeat;
   background-position-y: 50%;
   background-position-x: 98%;
}

.ra-select:focus,
.ra-select:hover {
   outline: none;
   border: 1px solid #bbb;
}

.ra-select option {
   background-color: #fff;
}
Penny Liu
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iamtheasad
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8

It's working in all browser:

select {
    width: 268px;
    padding: 5px;
    font-size: 16px;
    line-height: 1;
    border: 0;
    border-radius: 5px;
    height: 34px;
    background: url(http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png) no-repeat right #ddd;
    appearance:none;
    -moz-appearance:none; /* Firefox */
    -webkit-appearance:none; /* Safari and Chrome */
    background-position-x: 244px;

}
kishan Radadiya
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7

Style the label with CSS and use pointer events :

<label>
<select>
   <option value="0">Zero</option>
   <option value="1">One</option>
</select>
</label>

and the relative CSS is

label:after {
    content:'\25BC';
    display:inline-block;
    color:#000;
    background-color:#fff;
    margin-left:-17px;   /* remove the damn :after space */
    pointer-events:none; /* let the click pass trough */
}

I just used a down arrow here, but you can set a block with a background image. Here is a ugly fiddle sample: https://jsfiddle.net/1rofzz89/

Dario Corno
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7

just do this:

select {

    background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSIyNSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIyNSIgZmlsbD0ibm9uZSIgc3Ryb2tlLXdpZHRoPSIyIiBzdHJva2U9IiNiYmIiPjxwYXRoIGQ9Ik02IDlsNiA2IDYtNiIvPjwvc3ZnPg==) !important;
    background-repeat: no-repeat !important;
    background-position-x: 100% !important;
    background-position-y: 50% !important;
    
    -webkit-appearance: none !important;
    -moz-appearance: none !important;
    -ms-appearance: none !important;
    -o-appearance: none !important;
    appearance: none !important;
}
select::-ms-expand {
    display: none;
}
Mohammad Zaer
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7

Okay, it seems there are a lot of answers here. Some maybe better than others. Incase someone was desperate enough to scroll down here, here's my two cents:

If you really want to style your dropdown, don't use <select>. div with a regular <ul> inside it will be a lot more flexible. However, if you really insist on using select because you just want the most minimal dropdown, here's mine:

select {
  appearance: none;
  background: white;
  background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' width='16px' height='16px' viewBox='0 0 24 24' fill='none'%3E%3Cpath d='M6.1018 8C5.02785 8 4.45387 9.2649 5.16108 10.0731L10.6829 16.3838C11.3801 17.1806 12.6197 17.1806 13.3169 16.3838L18.8388 10.0731C19.5459 9.2649 18.972 8 17.898 8H6.1018Z' fill='%23212121'/%3E%3C/svg%3E");
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-position: right 0.5rem center;
  border-radius: 2px;
  padding: 0.25rem 2rem 0.25rem 0.75rem;
}
  <select>
    <option value="bottom-right">Bottom right</option>
    <option value="bottom-left">Bottom left</option>
    <option value="top-right">Top right</option>
    <option value="top-left">Top left</option>
  </select>

So the key part is finding a caret svg that you can URL convert into a string. I could enhance it a little, maybe rotate the caret somehow, but really - I'm just happy it isn't god-ugly.

TeemuK
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4

You can use this. Its Tested code

    select {
    background: url(http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png) no-repeat right !important;
    appearance: none !important;
    background-size: 25px 25px !important;
    background-position: 99% 50% !important;
}
Atif Tariq
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2

Simple arrow and clean code

select {
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -moz-appearance: none;
    appearance: none;
    border: none;
    background: transparent url(http://cdn1.iconfinder.com/data/icons/cc_mono_icon_set/blacks/16x16/br_down.png) no-repeat 100% center;
    padding-right: 25px;
}
WebMat
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1

I have referred this post, it worked like charm , except it did not hide the arrow in IE browser.

However adding following hides the arrow in IE:

&::-ms-expand {
      display: none;
    }

Complete solution ( sass )

$select-border-color: #ccc;
$select-focus-color: green;

select {

    cursor: pointer;
    /* styling */
    background-color: white;
    border: 1px solid $select-border-color;
    border-radius: 4px;
    display: inline-block;
    font: inherit;
    line-height: 1.5em;
    padding: 0.5em 3.5em 0.5em 1em;

    /* reset */
    margin: 0;
    -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
    -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -moz-appearance: none;

    background-image: linear-gradient(45deg, transparent 50%, $select-border-color 50%),
    linear-gradient(135deg, $select-border-color 50%, transparent 50%),
    linear-gradient(to right, $select-border-color, $select-border-color);
    background-position: calc(100% - 20px) calc(1em + 2px),
    calc(100% - 15px) calc(1em + 2px), calc(100% - 2.5em) 0.5em;
    background-size: 5px 5px, 5px 5px, 1px 1.5em;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;

    /* Very imp: hide arrow in IE */
    &::-ms-expand {
      display: none;
    }

    &:-moz-focusring {
      color: transparent;
      text-shadow: none;
    }

    &:focus {
      background-image: linear-gradient(45deg, $select-focus-color 50%, transparent 50%),
      linear-gradient(135deg, transparent 50%, $select-focus-color 50%), linear-gradient(to right, $select-focus-color, $select-focus-color);
      background-position: calc(100% - 15px) 1em, calc(100% - 20px) 1em, calc(100% - 2.5em) 0.5em;
      background-size: 5px 5px, 5px 5px, 1px 1.5em;
      background-repeat: no-repeat;
      border-color: $select-focus-color;
      outline: 0;
    }
  }
Maverick09
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1

There are a few examples here

It's based off this answer, but I added one to the list to make a design that is even more minimal

select.moreMinimal {

    background-color: inherit;
    display: inline-block;
    font: inherit;
    padding: 0 2.2em 0 1em;    
    margin: 0;      
    cursor: pointer;

    -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
    -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -moz-appearance: none;
  }

select.moreMinimal {
    background-image:
      linear-gradient(45deg, transparent 50%, gray 50%),
      linear-gradient(135deg, gray 50%, transparent 50%);
    background-position:
      calc(100% - 20px), 
      calc(100% - 15px);
    background-size:
      5px 5px,
      5px 5px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
  
//TODO: Probably shouldn't be focus, cause when you click it again it's still green
select.moreMinimal:focus {
    background-image:
        linear-gradient(45deg, green 50%, transparent 50%),
        linear-gradient(135deg, transparent 50%, green 50%);
    background-position:
        calc(100% - 15px),
        calc(100% - 20px);
    background-size:
        5px 5px,
        5px 5px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    border-color: green;
    outline: 0;
}
Sam
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1

Here is the most elegant way to replace arrow:

select {
  padding: 15px 5px 15px 15px;
  border: none;
  font-family: Verdana;
  font-weight: bold;
  background-color: DodgerBlue;
  color: white;
  outline: none;
  min-width: 150px;
  cursor: pointer;

  /*Remove decorations to replace arrow with custom arrow */   
  appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  -webkit-appearance: none;  
  &::-ms-expand { display: none };  
}
.custom-select:after {
    /* Here we add font taken from libre office to content */
    content: "▼";
    position: absolute;
    top: 4;
    /* Here we need to calculate fonts place so that if select box width changes the custom button font will be always at same place */
    left: calc(100% - 30px);
    font-size: 80%;
    padding: 12px 7px;
    background-color: DodgerBlue;
    color: white;
    pointer-events: none;
}
Jeroi
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0

You can also try this:

Heres a Picture of it!

And also run code snippet!

CSS and then HTML:

           #select-category {
            font-size: 100%;
            padding: 10px;
            padding-right: 180px;
            margin-left: 30px;
            border-radius: 1000000px;
            border: 1px solid #707070;
            outline: none;
            -webkit-appearance: none;
            -moz-appearance: none;
            background: transparent;
            background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg fill='black' height='34' viewBox='0 0 24 24' width='24' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'><path d='M7 10l5 5 5-5z'/><path d='M0 0h24v24H0z' fill='none'/></svg>");
            background-repeat: no-repeat;
            background-position-x: 100%;
            background-position-y: 5px;
            margin-right: 2rem;
        }
                <select id="select-category">
                    <option>Category</option>
                    <option>Category 2</option>
                    <option>Category 3</option>
                    <option>Category 4</option>
                    <option>Category 5</option>
                    <option>Category 6</option>
                    <option>Category 7</option>
                    <option>Category 8</option>
                    <option>Category 9</option>
                    <option>Category 10</option>
                    <option>Category 11</option>
                    <option>Category 12</option>
                </select>
GucciBananaKing99
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-1

Assume, selectDrop is the class present in your HTML tag.So, this much of code is enough to change default arrow icon:

.selectDrop{
      background: url(../images/icn-down-arrow-light.png) no-repeat right #ddd; /*To change default icon with provided image*/
      -webkit-appearance:none; /*For hiding default pointer of drop-down on Chrome*/
      -moz-appearance:none; /*For hiding default pointer of drop-down on Mozilla*/
      background-position-x: 90%; /*Adjust according to width of dropdown*/
    }
sid7747
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