caret-color

Try it

caret-color: red;

caret-color: auto;

caret-color: transparent;

<section class="default-example container" id="default-example">
  <div>
    <p>Enter text in the field to see the caret:</p>
    <p><input id="example-element" type="text" /></p>
  </div>
</section>

#example-element {
  font-size: 1.2rem;
}

Syntax

/* Keyword values */
caret-color: auto;
caret-color: transparent;
caret-color: currentColor;

/* <color> values */
caret-color: red;
caret-color: #5729e9;
caret-color: rgb(0 200 0);
caret-color: hsl(228deg 4% 24% / 80%);

/* Global values */
caret-color: inherit;
caret-color: initial;
caret-color: revert;
caret-color: revert-layer;
caret-color: unset;

Values

auto

Generally resolves to currentColor, the color of the text that will be modified.

<color>

The color of the caret.

Description

An insertion caret is a visible indicator of the spot within editable text — or within an element that accepts text input — where content will be inserted (or deleted) by the user. The caret is typically a thin vertical line indicating where the addition or deletion of characters will occur. It generally blinks (flashes on and off), so it is more noticeable. The caret only appears when the editable element has focus. By default, this caret is the color of the text. The caret-color property can be used to set the color of this caret to something other than the currentColor, or to reset a colored caret back to its default.

The auto value sets the insertion caret to currentColor, which is the color of the text that is being added or deleted. User agents may choose a different color to ensure good visibility and contrast with the surrounding content, taking into account the color, background-color, shadows, and other factors. In practice, however, all browsers use the current color by default, and when caret-color is set to auto. You can set any valid <color> as the value.

Understanding insertion carets

The insertion caret, and therefore this property, only applies to text or elements that can accept text input. The caret appears in focused user interface elements where users can update content, such as <input> elements that accept freeform text, the <textarea> element, and elements with the contenteditable attribute set.

The caret may appear in <input> elements of type password, text, search, tel, and email. No caret exists with date, color, hidden, radio, or checkbox input types. Some browsers display a caret with the number input type. It is possible in some browsers to make a caret appear in elements that never have text content — for example, by setting appearance: none and adding the contenteditable attribute. However, this is not recommended.

A caret may be displayed in an editable element or its descendants, provided the editability is not disabled, for example by setting a descendant element's contentEditable attribute to false. If an element is not editable or selectable, for example if user-select is set to none, the caret should not appear.

Caret versus cursor

There are multiple types of carets. The insertion caret is the only type affected by the caret-color property.

Many browsers have a navigation caret, which acts similarly to an insertion caret but can be moved around in non-editable text.

The mouse cursor image shown for certain cursor property values (for example, auto or text) may resemble a caret, but it's not. It's a cursor.

Animating from auto

Generally, when the caret-color is set to or defaults to auto, user agents use currentColor, which is animatable. However, auto is not an animatable value by default: when animating or transitioning the caret-color from auto to any color value, no interpolation happens. The animation is discrete; the color switches from or to the currentColor color at the midpoint of the animation-duration or transition-duration.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

caret-color = 
  auto     |
  <color>  

Examples

Setting a custom caret color

HTML

<input value="This field uses a default caret." size="64" />
<input class="custom" value="I have a custom caret color!" size="64" />
<p contenteditable class="custom">
  This paragraph can be edited, and its caret has a custom color as well!
</p>

CSS

input {
  caret-color: auto;
  display: block;
  margin-bottom: 0.5em;
}

input.custom {
  caret-color: orange;
}

p.custom {
  caret-color: green;
}

Result

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• caret-animation
• color
• text-emphasis
• cursor
• text-emphasis
• CSS <color> data type
• <input> element
• HTML contenteditable attribute