How to remove the border highlight on an input tex

Question

When an html element is 'focused' (currently selected/tabbed in to), many browsers (at least Safari and Chrome) will put a blue border around it.

For the layout I am working on, this is distracting and does not look right.

<input type="text" name="user" class="middle" id="user" tabindex="1" />

FireFox does not seem to do this, or at least, will let me control it with

border: x;

If someone can tell me how IE performs, I would be curious.

But getting Safari to remove this little bit of flare would be nice.

Answer 1

This is an old thread, but for reference it's important to note that disabling an input element's outline is not recommended as it hinders accessibility.

The outline property is there for a reason - providing users with a clear indication of keyboard focus. For further reading and additional sources about this subject see http://outlinenone.com/

Answer 2

You can try this also

input[type="text"] {
outline-style: none;
}

or

.classname input{
outline-style: none;
}

Answer 3

Try this also

.form-group input {

  display: block;
  background: none;
  padding: 0.175rem 0.175rem 0.0875rem;
  font-size: 1.4rem;
  border-width: 0;
  border-color: transparent;
  line-height: 1.9;
  width: 100%;
  color: #ccc;
  transition: all 0.28s ease;
  box-shadow: none;

}

Answer 4

None of the solutions worked for me in Firefox.

The following solution changes the border style on focus for Firefox and sets the outline to none for other browsers.

I've effectively made the focus border go from a 3px blue glow to a border style that matches the text area border. Here's some border styles:

Dashed border (border 2px dashed red):

No border! (border 0px):

Textarea border (border 1px solid gray):

Here is the code:

input:focus, textarea:focus {
    outline: none; /** For Safari, etc **/
    border:1px solid gray; /** For Firefox **/
}

#textarea  {
  position:absolute;
  top:10px;
  left:10px;
  right:10px;
  width:calc(100% - 20px);
  height:160px;
  display:inline-block;
  margin-top:-0.2em;
}

<textarea id="textarea">yo</textarea>

Answer 5

This is a common concern.

The default outline that browsers render is ugly.

See this for example:

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

<form>
  <label>Click to see the input below to see the outline</label>
  <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
</form>

---

The most common "fix" that most recommend is outline:none - which if used incorrectly - is disaster for accessibility.

---

So...of what use is the outline anyway?

There's a very dry-cut website I found which explains everything well.

It provides visual feedback for links that have "focus" when navigating a web document using the TAB key (or equivalent). This is especially useful for folks who can't use a mouse or have a visual impairment. If you remove the outline you are making your site inaccessible for these people.

Ok, let's try it out same example as above, now use the TAB key to navigate.

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

<form>
  <label>Click on this text and then use the TAB key to naviagte inside the snippet.</label>
  <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
</form>

Notice how you can tell where the focus is even without clicking the input?

Now, let's try outline:none on our trusty <input>

So, once again, use the TAB key to navigate after clicking the text and see what happens.

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

input {
  outline: none;
}

<form>
  <label>Click on this text and then use the TAB key to naviagte inside the snippet.</label>
  <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
</form>

See how it's more difficult to figure out where the focus is? The only telling sign is the cursor blinking. My example above is overly simplistic. In real-world situations, you wouldn't have only one element on the page. Something more along the lines of this.

.wrapper {
  width: 500px;
  max-width: 100%;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

input {
  outline: none;
}

<div class="wrapper">

  <form>
    <label>Click on this text and then use the TAB key to naviagte inside the snippet.</label>
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
  </form>

  <form>
    First name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="firstname"><br> Last name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="lastname">
  </form>


  <form>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="male" checked> Male<br>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="female"> Female<br>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="other"> Other
  </form>



  <form>
    <label for="GET-name">Name:</label>
    <input id="GET-name" type="text" name="name">
  </form>


  <form>
    <label for="POST-name">Name:</label>
    <input id="POST-name" type="text" name="name">
  </form>


  <form>
    <fieldset>
      <legend>Title</legend>
      <input type="radio" name="radio" id="radio">
      <label for="radio">Click me</label>
    </fieldset>
  </form>

</div>

Now compare that to the same template if we keep the outline:

.wrapper {
  width: 500px;
  max-width: 100%;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

<div class="wrapper">

  <form>
    <label>Click on this text and then use the TAB key to naviagte inside the snippet.</label>
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
  </form>

  <form>
    First name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="firstname"><br> Last name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="lastname">
  </form>


  <form>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="male" checked> Male<br>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="female"> Female<br>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="other"> Other
  </form>



  <form>
    <label for="GET-name">Name:</label>
    <input id="GET-name" type="text" name="name">
  </form>


  <form>
    <label for="POST-name">Name:</label>
    <input id="POST-name" type="text" name="name">
  </form>


  <form>
    <fieldset>
      <legend>Title</legend>
      <input type="radio" name="radio" id="radio">
      <label for="radio">Click me</label>
    </fieldset>
  </form>

</div>

So we have established the following

1. Outlines are ugly
2. Removing them makes life more difficult.

---

So what's the answer?

Remove the ugly outline and add your own visual cues to indicate focus.

Here's a very simple example of what I mean.

I remove the outline and add a bottom border on :focus and :active. I also remove the default borders on the top, left and right sides by setting them to transparent on :focus and :active (personal preference)

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

input {
  outline: none
}

input:focus,
input:active {
  border-color: transparent;
  border-bottom: 2px solid red
}

<form>
  <label>Click to see the input below to see the outline</label>
  <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
</form>

So, we try the approach above with our "real-world" example from earlier:

.wrapper {
  width: 500px;
  max-width: 100%;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

form,
label {
  margin: 1em auto;
}

label {
  display: block;
}

input {
  outline: none
}

input:focus,
input:active {
  border-color: transparent;
  border-bottom: 2px solid red
}

<div class="wrapper">

  <form>
    <label>Click on this text and then use the TAB key to naviagte inside the snippet.</label>
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
    <input type="text" placeholder="placeholder text" />
  </form>

  <form>
    First name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="firstname"><br> Last name:<br>
    <input type="text" name="lastname">
  </form>


  <form>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="male" checked> Male<br>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="female"> Female<br>
    <input type="radio" name="gender" value="other"> Other
  </form>



  <form>
    <label for="GET-name">Name:</label>
    <input id="GET-name" type="text" name="name">
  </form>


  <form>
    <label for="POST-name">Name:</label>
    <input id="POST-name" type="text" name="name">
  </form>


  <form>
    <fieldset>
      <legend>Title</legend>
      <input type="radio" name="radio" id="radio">
      <label for="radio">Click me</label>
    </fieldset>
  </form>

</div>

This can be extended further by using external libraries that build on the idea of modifying the "outline" as opposed to removing it entirely like Materialize

You can end up with something that is not ugly and works with very little effort

body {
  background: #444
}

.wrapper {
  padding: 2em;
  width: 400px;
  max-width: 100%;
  text-align: center;
  margin: 2em auto;
  border: 1px solid #555
}

button,
.wrapper {
  border-radius: 3px;
}

button {
  padding: .25em 1em;
}

input,
label {
  color: white !important;
}

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/materialize/0.100.1/css/materialize.min.css" />

<div class="wrapper">
  <form>
    <input type="text" placeholder="Enter Username" name="uname" required>
    <input type="password" placeholder="Enter Password" name="psw" required>
    <button type="submit">Login</button>
  </form>
</div>

Answer 6

You could use CSS to disable that! This is the code I use for disabling the blue border:

*:focus {
outline: none;
}

This will remove the blue border!

This is a working example: JSfiddle.net

Hope it helps!