This site is mobile accessible. Press the "Tap Here" button to use a smaller font-size. Tap Here!

Smartphone icons created by Freepik - Flaticon

7.3 CSS 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;
}

The ∷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:

Example 1: ∷first-line Pseudo-element

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

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.

The ∷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:

Example 2: ∷first-letter pseudo-element

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 CSS Classes

Pseudo-elements can be combined with CSS classes:

Example 3: Using pseudo-element and HTML class

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

The example above will display the first letter of paragraphs with class="intro", in red and in a larger size.

Multiple Pseudo-elements

Several pseudo-elements can also be combined.
In the following example, the first letter of a paragraph will be red, in an xx-large font size. The rest of the first line will be blue, and in small-caps. The rest of the paragraph will be the default font size and color:

Example 4: Using multiple pseudo-elements

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

p::first-line {
  color: #0000ff;
  font-variant: small-caps;
}

CSS - The ∷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:

Example 5: Using the ∷before pseudo-element

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

CSS - The ∷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:

Example 6: Using the ∷after pseudo-element

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

CSS - The ∷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:

Example 7: Style the ∷selection pseudo-element

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

All CSS Pseudo Elements

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

All CSS Pseudo Classes