Styling an input type=“file” button

Question

How do you style an input type=\"file\" button?

Answer 1

Here is a solution which doesn't really style the element but instead uses a element on top of other elements (which can be styled). The element is not really visible hence, the overall illusion is of a nicely styled file upload control.

I came across this problem recently and despite the plethora of answers on Stack Overflow, none really seemed to fit the bill. In the end, I ended up customizing this so as to have a simple and an elegant solution.

I have also tested this on Firefox, IE (11, 10 & 9), Chrome and Opera, iPad and a few android devices.

Here's the JSFiddle link -> http://jsfiddle.net/umhva747/

$('input[type=file]').change(function(e) {
    $in = $(this);
    $in.next().html($in.val());
    
});

$('.uploadButton').click(function() {
    var fileName = $("#fileUpload").val();
    if (fileName) {
        alert(fileName + " can be uploaded.");
    }
    else {
        alert("Please select a file to upload");
    }
});

body {
    background-color:Black;
}

div.upload {
    background-color:#fff;
    border: 1px solid #ffffd;
    border-radius:5px;
    display:inline-block;
    height: 30px;
    padding:3px 40px 3px 3px;
    position:relative;
    width: auto;
}

div.upload:hover {
    opacity:0.95;
}

div.upload input[type="file"] {
    display: input-block;
    width: 100%;
    height: 30px;
    opacity: 0;
    cursor:pointer;
    position:absolute;
    left:0;
}
.uploadButton {
    background-color: #425F9C;
    border: none;
    border-radius: 3px;
    color: #FFF;
    cursor:pointer;
    display: inline-block;
    height: 30px;
    margin-right:15px;
    width: auto;
    padding:0 20px;
    box-sizing: content-box;
}

.fileName {
    font-family: Arial;
    font-size:14px;
}

.upload + .uploadButton {
    height:38px;
}

    

        
        
        Select file..
    
    

Hope this helps!!!