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Summary

Just like pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements are added to selectors but instead of describing a special state, they allow you to style certain parts of a document. For example, the ::first-line pseudo-element targets only  the first line of an element specified by the selector.

Syntax

selector::pseudo-element {
  property: value;
}

All pseudo-elements

Notes

Sometimes you will see double colons (::) instead of just one (:). This is part of CSS3 and an attempt to distinguish between pseudo-classes and pseudo-elements. Most browsers support both values.

Note: ::selection always starts with double colons (::).

You can use only one pseudo-element in a selector. It must appear after the simple selectors in the statement.

Browser Lowest Version Support of
Internet Explorer 8.0 :pseudo-element
9.0 :pseudo-element ::pseudo-element
Firefox (Gecko) 1.0 (1.0) :pseudo-element
1.0 (1.5) :pseudo-element ::pseudo-element
Opera 4.0 :pseudo-element
7.0 :pseudo-element ::pseudo-element
Safari (WebKit) 1.0 (85) :pseudo-element ::pseudo-element

 

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: cvrebert,