Remove 3 pixels in iOS/WebKit textarea

Question

I\'m trying to create a textarea that looks exactly like a div.

However, on iOS there\'s 3 pixels coming from somewhere that I can\'t remove.

Answer 1

Okay... Sorry... Here we go... The officially unofficial answer is...

You can't get rid of it.

Apparently this is a "bug" with mobile safari on inputs. See:

• padding bug on Safari mobile?
• iPhone padding unchangeable?

You can, however, knowing the indent do this

textarea {
  text-indent:-3px;
}

It's not a pretty solution, but it does what you need.

Edit Forgot to mention, tested with iOS Simulator. You might try on your phone itself.

Another point: This also assumes that you're serving up css solely for mobile safari, specifically for the iPhone. An older way of doing this is:

/* Main CSS here */

/* iPhone CSS */
@media screen and (max-device-width: 480px){
  /* iPhone only CSS here */
  textarea {
    text-indent: -3px;
  }
}

Edit Again I'm having way too much fun with this... You can also use separate stylesheets with these declarations:

Edit Because apparently somebody bought an Android ;)

Personally, I don't really have a problem with text-entries having some internal indentation. It clears it from the area's edge and makes it more readable. I do, however, believe that a browser should support the spec. So here's an update for differentiating between android and iPhone. Have fun!