Get default selection color?

Question

I can change the CSS selection color, but how can I get the browser/OS default selection so that I can use it elsewhere?

e.g. on Ubuntu+Chrome text is highl

Answer 1

In the CSS2 specs some color keywords are defined but are now deprecated. Yet they should still work just fine:

.selected {
  background: Highlight;
  color: HighlightText;
}

<p>Lorem ipsum with some <span class="selected">selected text</span></p>

Answer 2

I think that for what you want is better if you use Javacript combined with CSS.

You could check this post https://stackoverflow.com/a/11752084/8379001 that shows how to find out the os and applies it to CSS.