How to style readonly attribute with CSS?

I'm currently using readonly="readonly" to disable fields. I'm now trying to style the attribute using CSS. I've tried using

input[readonly] {
  /* styling info here */
}

but it is not working for some reason. I've also tried

input[readonly='readonly'] {
  /* styling info here */
}

that doesn't work either.

How can I style the readonly attribute with CSS?


input[readonly]
{
    background-color:blue;
}

https://curtistimson.co.uk/post/css/style-readonly-attribute-css/


Note that textarea[readonly="readonly"] works if you set readonly="readonly" in HTML but it does NOT work if you set the readOnly-attribute to true or "readonly" via JavaScript.

For the CSS selector to work if you set readOnly with JavaScript you have to use the selector textarea[readonly].

Same behavior in Firefox 14 and Chrome 20.

To be on the safe side, i use both selectors.

textarea[readonly="readonly"], textarea[readonly] {
...
}

To be safe you may want to use both...

input[readonly], input[readonly="readonly"] {
    /*styling info here*/
}

The readonly attribute is a "boolean attribute", which can be either blank or "readonly" (the only valid values). http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/#boolean-attribute

If you are using something like jQuery's .prop('readonly', true) function, you'll end up needing [readonly], whereas if you are using .attr("readonly", "readonly") then you'll need [readonly="readonly"].


Correction: You only need to use input[readonly]. Including input[readonly="readonly"] is redundant. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/19645203/1766230


Loads of answers here, but haven't seen the one I use:

input[type="text"]:read-only { color: blue; }

Note the dash in the pseudo selector. If the input is readonly="false" it'll catch that too since this selector catches the presence of readonly regardless of the value. Technically false is invalid according to specs, but the internet is not a perfect world. If you need to cover that case, you can do this:

input[type="text"]:read-only:not([read-only="false"]) { color: blue; }

textarea works the same way:

textarea:read-only:not([read-only="false"]) { color: blue; }

Keep in mind that html now supports not only type="text", but a slew of other textual types such a number, tel, email, date, time, url, etc. Each would need to be added to the selector.


There are a few ways to do this.

The first is the most widely used. It works on all major browsers.

input[readonly] {
 background-color: #dddddd;
}

While the one above will select all inputs with readonly attached, this one below will select only what you desire. Make sure to replace demo with whatever input type you want.

input[type="demo"]:read-only {
 background-color: #dddddd;
}

This is an alternate to the first, but it's not used a whole lot:

input:read-only {
 background-color: #dddddd;
}

The :read-only selector is supported in Chrome, Opera, and Safari. Firefox uses :-moz-read-only. IE doesn't support the :read-only selector.

You can also use input[readonly="readonly"], but this is pretty much the same as input[readonly], from my experience.