Change color and appearance of drop down arrow

You can acheive this with CSS but you are not techinically changing the arrow itself.

In this example I am actually hiding the default arrow and displaying my own arrow instead.

.styleSelect select {
  background: transparent;
  width: 168px;
  padding: 5px;
  font-size: 16px;
  line-height: 1;
  border: 0;
  border-radius: 0;
  height: 34px;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  color: #000;
}

.styleSelect {
  width: 140px;
  height: 34px;
  overflow: hidden;
  background: url("images/downArrow.png") no-repeat right #fff;
  border: 2px solid #000;
}

<div class="styleSelect">
  <select class="units">
    <option value="Metres">Metres</option>
    <option value="Feet">Feet</option>
    <option value="Fathoms">Fathoms</option>
  </select>
</div>

No, cross-browser form custimization is very hard if not impossible to get it right for all browsers. If you really care about the appearance of those widgets you should use a javascript implementation.

see http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200409/styling_form_controls/ and http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/button/btn_example07.html

It can be done by:

select{
  background: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) no-repeat 100% 50%;
}

select{
  background: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,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) no-repeat 100% 50%;
  
  
    -moz-appearance: none;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -webkit-border-radius: 0px;
    appearance: none;
    outline-width: 0;
    
    padding: 10px 10px 10px 5px;
    display: block;
    width: 10em;
    border: none;
    font-size: 1rem;
    
    border-bottom: 1px solid #757575;
  }

<div class="styleSelect">
  <select class="units">
    <option value="Metres">Metres</option>
    <option value="Feet">Feet</option>
    <option value="Fathoms">Fathoms</option>
  </select>
</div>

The <select> element is generated by the application and styling is not part of the CSS/HTML spec.

You would have to fake it with your own DIV and overlay it on top of the existing one, or build your own control emulating the same functionality.

Change color and appearance of drop down arrow

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