Change an HTML5 input's placeholder color with CSS

Question

Chrome supports the placeholder attribute on input[type=text] elements (others probably do too).

But the following CSS doesn\'t do anything

Answer 1

Use the new ::placeholder if you use autoprefixer.

Note that the .placeholder mixin from Bootstrap is deprecated in favor of this.

Example:

input::placeholder { color: black; }

When using autoprefixer the above will be converted to the correct code for all browsers.

Answer 2

Now we have a standard way to apply CSS to an input's placeholder : ::placeholder pseudo-element from this CSS Module Level 4 Draft.

Answer 3

The easiest way would be:

#yourInput::placeholder {
    color: red;/*As an example*/
}
/* if that would not work, you can always try styling the attribute itself: */
#myInput[placeholder] {
    color: red;
}

Answer 4

For Sass users:

// Create placeholder mixin
@mixin placeholder($color, $size:"") {
  &::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    color: $color;
    @if $size != "" {
      font-size: $size;
    }
  }
  &:-moz-placeholder {
    color: $color;
    @if $size != "" {
      font-size: $size;
    }
  }
  &::-moz-placeholder {
    color: $color;
    @if $size != "" {
      font-size: $size;
    }
  }
  &:-ms-input-placeholder {
    color: $color;
    @if $size != "" {
      font-size: $size;
    }
  }
}

// Use placeholder mixin (the size parameter is optional)
[placeholder] {
  @include placeholder(red, 10px);
}

Answer 5

Here is one more example:

.form-control::-webkit-input-placeholder {
  color: red;
  width: 250px;
}
h1 {
  color: red;
}

<div class="col-sm-4">
  <input class="form-control" placeholder="Enter text here.." ng-model="Email" required/>
</div>

Answer 6

Compass has a mixin for this out of the box.

Take your example:

<input type="text" placeholder="Value">

And in SCSS using compass:

input[type='text'] {
  @include input-placeholder {
    color: #616161;
  }
}

See docs for the input-placeholder mixin.