[css] input[type='text'] CSS selector does not apply to default-type text inputs?

The default input type is 'text'. I have always assumed then that CSS declarations targeting input[type='text'] would affect those inputs even if the type was not explicitly declared on the control. However, I just noticed that my default-type text inputs do not get the styles. Why is this the case? And how can I address this?

input[type='text'] {_x000D_
  background: red;_x000D_
}

<input name='t1' type='text' /> /* Is Red */_x000D_
<input name='t1' /> /* Is Not Red */

By CSS specifications, browsers may or may not use information about default attributes; mostly the don’t. The relevant clause in the CSS 2.1 spec is 5.8.2 Default attribute values in DTDs. In CSS 3 Selectors, it’s clause 6.3.4, with the same name. It recommends: “Selectors should be designed so that they work whether or not the default values are included in the document tree.”

It is generally best to explicitly specify essential attributes such as type=text instead of defaulting them. The reason is that there is no simple reliable way to refer to the input elements with defaulted type attribute.

To be compliant with all browsers you should always declare the input type.

Some browsers will assume default type as 'text', but this isn't a good practice.

Because, it is not supposed to do that.

input[type=text] { } is an attribute selector, and will only select those element, with the matching attribute.

try this

 input[type='text']
 {
   background:red !important;
 }