[css] How do I remove blue "selected" outline on buttons?

I have some buttons using <button>, which when clicked get a blue selected color!

Is there a way to remove this feature?

This question is related to css

The answer is


This is an issue in the Chrome family and has been there forever.

A bug has been raised https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=904208

It can be shown here: https://codepen.io/anon/pen/Jedvwj as soon as you add a border to anything button-like (say role="button" has been added to a tag for example) Chrome messes up and sets the focus state when you click with your mouse. You should see that outline only on keyboard tab-press.

I highly recommend using this fix: https://github.com/wicg/focus-visible.

Just do the following

npm install --save focus-visible

Add the script to your html:

<script src="/node_modules/focus-visible/dist/focus-visible.min.js"></script>

or import into your main entry file if using webpack or something similar:

import 'focus-visible/dist/focus-visible.min';

then put this in your css file:

// hide the focus indicator if element receives focus via mouse, but show on keyboard focus (on tab).
.js-focus-visible :focus:not(.focus-visible) {
  outline: none;
}

// Define a strong focus indicator for keyboard focus.
// If you skip this then the browser's default focus indicator will display instead
// ideally use outline property for those users using windows high contrast mode
.js-focus-visible .focus-visible {
  outline: magenta auto 5px;
}

You can just set:

button:focus {outline:0;}

but if you have a large number of users, you're disadvantaging those who cannot use mice or those who just want to use their keyboard for speed.


You can remove the blue outline by using outline: none.

However, I would highly recommend styling your focus states too. This is to help users who are visually impaired.

Check out: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#navigation-mechanisms-focus-visible. More reading here: http://outlinenone.com


You can remove this by adding !important to your outline.

button{
 outline: none !important;
}