If you are interested to learn about the pseudo classes.
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; }
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
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. 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
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:
Example
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
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
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
h1::after { content: url(smiley.gif); }
CSS – The ::marker Pseudo-element
The ::marker
pseudo-element selects the markers of list items.
The following example styles the markers of list items:
Example
::marker { color: red; font-size: 23px; }
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
::selection { color: red; background: yellow; }