[html] How to remove the arrow from a select element in Firefox

I'm trying to style a select element using CSS3. I'm getting the results I desire in WebKit (Chrome / Safari), but Firefox isn't playing nicely (I'm not even bothering with IE). I'm using the CSS3 appearance property, but for some reason I can't shake the drop-down icon out of Firefox.

Here's an example of what I'm doing: http://jsbin.com/aniyu4/2/edit

#dropdown {
 -moz-appearance: none;
 -webkit-appearance: none;
 appearance: none;
 background: transparent url('example.png') no-repeat right center;
 padding: 2px 30px 2px 2px;
 border: none;
}

As you can see, I'm not trying for anything fancy. I just want to remove the default styles and add in my own drop-down arrow. Like I said, great in WebKit, not great in Firefox. Apparently, the -moz-appearance: none doesn't get rid of the drop-down item.

Any ideas? No, JavaScript is not an option

This works (tested on Firefox 23.0.1):

select {
    -moz-appearance: radio-container;
}

A lot of Discussions Happening here & there but I don't see some proper solution for this problem. Finally Ended up by writing a small Jquery + CSS code for doing this HACK on IE & Firefox.

Calculate Element Width (SELECT Element) using Jquery. Add a Wrapper Around Select Element and Keep overflow hidden for this element. Make sure that Width of this wrapper is appox. 25px less as that of SELECT Element. This could be easily done with Jquery. So Now Our Icon is Gone..! and it is time for adding our image icon on SELECT element...!!! Just add few simple lines for adding background and you are all Done..!! Make sure to use overflow hidden for outer wrapper,

Here is a Sample of Code which was done for Drupal. However could be used for others also by removing few lines of code which is Drupal Specific.

/*
 * Jquery Code for Removing Dropdown Arrow.
 * @by: North Web Studio
 */
(function($) {
  Drupal.behaviors.nwsJS = {
    attach: function(context, settings) {
      $('.form-select').once('nws-arrow', function() {
        $wrap_width = $(this).outerWidth();
        $element_width = $wrap_width + 20;
        $(this).css('width', $element_width);
        $(this).wrap('<div class="nws-select"></div>');
        $(this).parent('.nws-select').css('width', $wrap_width);
      });
    }
  };
})(jQuery);

/*
 * CSS Code for Removing Dropdown Arrow.
 * @by: North Web Studio
 */

.nws-select {
  border: 1px solid #ccc;
  overflow: hidden;
  background: url('../images/icon.png') no-repeat 95% 50%;
}
.nws-select .form-select {
  border: none;
  background: transparent;
}

Solution works on All Browsers IE, Chrome & Firefox No need of Adding fixed Widths Hacks Using CSS. It is all being handled Dynamically using JQuery.!

More Described at:- http://northwebstudio.com/blogs/1/jquery/remove-drop-down-arrow-html-select-element-using-jquery-and-css

You could increase the width of the box and move the arrow closer to the left of the arrow. this then allows you to cover the arrow with an empty white div.

Have a look: http://jsbin.com/aniyu4/86/edit

Try this way:

-webkit-appearance: button;
-moz-appearance: button;

Then, you can use a different image as background and place it:

background-image: url(images/select-arrow.png);
background-position: center right;
background-repeat: no-repeat;

There is another way for moz browsers:

text-indent:10px;

If you have a defined a width to you select, this property will push the default dropbox button under the select area.

It works for me! ;)

Would you accept minor changes to the html?

Something like putting a div tag containing the select tag.

Take a look.

I know this question is a bit old, but since it turns up on google, and this is a "new" solution:

appearance: normal Seems to work fine in Firefox for me (version 5 now). but not in Opera and IE8/9

As a workaround for Opera and IE9, I used the :before pseudoselector to create a new white box and put that on top of the arrow.

Unfortunately, In IE8 this doesn't work. The box is rendered correctly, but the arrow just sticks out anyway... :-/

Using select:before works fine in Opera, but not in IE. If I look at the developer tools, I see it is reading the rules correctly, and then just ignores them (they're crossed out). So I use a <span class="selectwrap"> around the actual <select>.

select {
  -webkit-appearance: normal;
  -moz-appearance: normal;
  appearance: normal;
}
.selectwrap { position: relative; }
.selectwrap:before {
  content: "";
  height: 0;
  width: 0;
  border: .9em solid red;
  background-color: red;
  position: absolute;
  right: -.1em;
  z-index: 42;
}

You may need to tweak this a bit, but this works for me!

Disclaimer: I'm using this to get a good looking hardcopy of a webpage with forms so I don't need to create a second page. I'm not a 1337 haxx0r who wants red scrollbars, <marquee> tags, and whatnot :-) Please do not apply excessive styling to forms unless you have a very good reason.

The other answers didn't seem to work for me, but I found this hack. This worked for me (July 2014)

select {
-moz-appearance: textfield !important;
    }

In my case, I also had a woocommerce input field so I used this

.woocommerce .quantity input.qty {
-moz-appearance: textfield !important;
 }

Updated my answer to show select rather than input

A useful hack for me is to set the (selects) display to inline-flex. Cuts the arrow right out of my select button. Without all of the added code.

• For Fx only. -webkit appearance still needed for Chrome, etc...

Important Update:

As of Firefox V35 the appearance property now works !!

From firefox's official release notes on V35:

Using -moz-appearance with the none value on a combobox now remove the dropdown button (bug 649849).

So now in order to hide the default arrow - it's as easy as adding the following rules on our select element:

select {
   -webkit-appearance: none;
   -moz-appearance: none;
   appearance: none;
}

DEMO

select {_x000D_
  margin: 50px;_x000D_
  border: 1px solid #111;_x000D_
  background: transparent;_x000D_
  width: 150px;_x000D_
  padding: 5px;_x000D_
  font-size: 16px;_x000D_
  border: 1px solid #ccc;_x000D_
  height: 34px;_x000D_
  -webkit-appearance: none;_x000D_
  -moz-appearance: none;_x000D_
  appearance: none;_x000D_
}

<select>_x000D_
  <option>Apples</option>_x000D_
  <option selected>Pineapples</option>_x000D_
  <option>Chocklate</option>_x000D_
  <option>Pancakes</option>_x000D_
</select>

The trick that works for me is to make select width more than 100% and apply overflow:hidden

select {
    overflow:hidden;
    width: 120%;
}

This is the only way right now to hide dropdown arrow in FF.

BTW. if you want beautiful dropdowns use http://harvesthq.github.com/chosen/

building on the answer by @JoãoCunha, one css style that is usefull for more then one browser

select {
    /*for firefox*/
    -moz-appearance: none;
    /*for chrome*/
    -webkit-appearance:none;
    text-indent: 0.01px;
    text-overflow: '';
}
/*for IE10*/
select::-ms-expand {
    display: none;
}

The appearance property from CSS3 does not allow none value. Take a look at the W3C reference. So, what you is trying to do isn't valid (indeed Chrome shouldn't accept too).

Then unfortunatelly we really don't have any cross-browser solution to hide that arrow using pure CSS. As pointed, you will need JavaScript.

I suggest you to consider using selectBox jQuery plugin. It's very lightweight and nicely done.

I am styling the select just likes this

<select style="     -moz-appearance: radio-container;
                -webkit-appearance: none;
                 appearance: none;
">

It works for me in FF, Safari and Chrome in all versions I've tested.

In IE I put:

 select::-ms-expand {
 display: none;
}
/*to remove in all selects*/

Also you can: .yourclass::-ms-expand {display: none; } .yourid::-ms-exapan {display: none; }

Use the pointer-events property.

The idea here is to overlay an element over the native drop down arrow (to create our custom one) and then disallow pointer events on it. [see this post]

Here is a working FIDDLE using this method.

Also, in this SO answer I discussed this and another method in greater detail.

While not a complete solution I've found that…

-moz-appearance: window;

…works to some extent. You can't change the background (-color or -image) but the element can be rendered invisible with color: transparent. Not perfect but it's a start and you don't need to replace the system level element with a js one.

I think I found the solution compatible with FF31!!!
Here are two options that are well explained at this link:
http://www.currelis.com/hiding-select-arrow-firefox-30.html

I used option 1: Rodrigo-Ludgero posted this fix on Github, including an online demo. I tested this demo on Firefox 31.0 and it appears to be working correctly. Tested on Chrome and IE as well. Here is the html code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Custom Select</title>
    <link href="http://netdna.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.0.3/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class="custom-select fa-caret-down">
            <select name="" id="">
                <option value="">Custom Select</option>
                <option value="">Custom Select</option>
                <option value="">Custom Select</option>
            </select>
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

and the css:

.custom-select {
    background-color: #fff;
    border: 1px solid #ccc;
    -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
    -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    margin: 0 0 2em;
    padding: 0;
    position: relative;
    width: 100%;
    z-index: 1;
}

.custom-select:hover {
    border-color: #999;
}

.custom-select:before {
    color: #333;
    display: block;
    font-family: 'FontAwesome';
    font-size: 1em;
    height: 100%;
    line-height: 2.5em;
    padding: 0 0.625em;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    right: 0;
    text-align: center;
    width: 1em;
    z-index: -1;
}

.custom-select select {
    background-color: transparent;
    border: 0 none;
    box-shadow: none;
    color: #333;
    display: block;
    font-size: 100%;
    line-height: normal;
    margin: 0;
    padding: .5em;
    width: 100%;
    -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
    -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    -webkit-appearance: none;
    -moz-appearance: none;
    appearance: none;
}

.custom-select select::-ms-expand {
    display: none; /* to ie 10 */
}

.custom-select select:focus {
    outline: none;
}
/* little trick for custom select elements in mozilla firefox  17/06/2014 @rodrigoludgero */
:-moz-any(.custom-select):before {
    background-color: #fff; /* this is necessary for overcome the caret default browser */
    pointer-events: none; 
    z-index: 1; /* this is necessary for overcome the pseudo element */
}

http://jsbin.com/pozomu/4/edit

It works very good for me!

Unfortunately for you this is "something fancy". Normally it's not the web authors place to redesign form elements. Many browsers purposely don't let you style them, in order for the user to see the OS controls they are used to.

The only way to do this consistently over browsers and operating systems, is use JavaScript and replace the select elements with "DHTML" ones.

Following article show three jQuery based plugins that allow you to do that (it is a bit old, but I couldn't find anything current right now)

http://www.queness.com/post/204/25-jquery-plugins-that-enhance-and-beautify-html-form-elements#1

Since Firefox 35, "-moz-appearance:none" that you already wrote in your code, finally remove arrow button as desired.

It was a bug solved since that version.

hackity hack ... a solution that works in every browser I've tested (Safari, Firefox, Chrome). Don't have any IEs lying around, so it would be nice if you could test and comment:

<div class="wrapper">
  <select>
    <option>123456789</option>
    <option>234567890</option>
  </select>
</div>

CSS, with url-encoded image:

.wrapper { position:relative; width:200px; }
.wrapper:after {
  content:"";
  display: block;
  position: absolute;
  top:1px; height:28px;
  right:1px; width:16px;
  background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,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);

  pointer-events: none;
}

select {
  width: 100%;
  padding:3px;
  margin: 0;
  border-radius: 0;
  border:1px solid black;
  outline:none;
  display: inline-block;
  -webkit-appearance:none;
  -moz-appearance:none;
  appearance:none;
  cursor:pointer;
  float:none!important;
  background:white;

  font-size:13px;
  line-height: 1em;
  height: 30px;
  padding:6px 20px 6px 10px;
}

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/myPEBy

I'm using the :after-element to cover the ugly arrow. Since select doesn't support :after, i need a wrapper to work with. Now, if you would click on the arrow, the dropdown won't register it ... unless your browser supports pointer-events: none, which everyone except IE10- does: http://caniuse.com/#feat=pointer-events

So for me it's perfect - a nice, clean, low-headache solution, at least compared to all the other options which include javascript.

tl;dr:

If IE10 (or lower) Users click the arrow, it won't work. Works good enough for me...

try this css

select {
    /*for firefox*/
    -moz-appearance: none;
    /*for chrome*/
    -webkit-appearance:none;
}

Its working

It's a huge hack, but -moz-appearance: menulist-text might do the trick.

If you don't mind fiddling with JS, I wrote a small jQuery plugin that helps you do it. With it you don't need to worry about vendor prefixes.

 $.fn.magicSelectBox = function() {
  var $e = this;

  $e.each(function() {
    var $select = $(this);

    var $magicbox = $('<div></div>').attr('class', $select.attr('class')).attr('style', $select.attr('style')).addClass('magicbox');
    var $innermagicbox = $('<div></div>').css({
      position: 'relative',
      height: '100%'
    });
    var $text = $('<span></span>').css({
      position: 'absolute'
    }).text($select.find("option:selected").text());

    $select.attr('class', null).css({
      width: '100%',
      height: '100%',
      opacity: 0,
      position: 'absolute'
    }).on('change', function() {
      $text.text($select.find("option:selected").text());
    });

    $select.parent().append($magicbox);
    $innermagicbox.append($text, $select);
    $magicbox.append($innermagicbox);
  });

  return $e;
};

Fiddle here: JS Fiddle

The condition is that you have to style the select from scratch (this means setting the background and border), but you probably want to do this anyway.

Also since the function substitutes the original select with a div, you will lose any styling done directly on the select selector in your CSS. So give the select element a class and style the class.

Supports most modern browsers, if you want to target older browsers, you can try an older version of jQuery, but perhaps have to replace on() with bind() in the function (not tested)

Jordan Young's answer is the best. But if you can't or don't want to change your HTML, you might consider just removing the custom down arrow served to Chrome, Safari, etc and leaving firefox's default arrow - but without double arrows resulting. Not ideal, but a good quick fix that doesn't add any HTML and doesn't compromise your custom look in other browsers.

<select>
  <option value='1'> First option </option>
  <option value='2'> Second option </option>
</select>

CSS:

select {
   background-image: url('images/select_arrow.gif');
   background-repeat: no-repeat;
   background-position: right center;
   padding-right: 20px;
}

@-moz-document url-prefix() {
  select {
    background-image: none;
  }
}

Further to Joao Cunha's answer, this problem is now on Mozilla's ToDo List and is targeted for ver 35.

For those desiring, here is a workaround by Todd Parker, referenced on Cunha's blog, that works today:

http://jsfiddle.net/xvushd7x/

HTML:

<label class="wrapper">This label wraps the select
    <div class="button custom-select ff-hack">
        <select>
            <option>Apples</option>
            <option>Bananas</option>
            <option>Grapes</option>
            <option>Oranges</option>
            <option>A very long option name to test wrapping</option>
        </select>
    </div>
</label>

CSS:

/* Label styles: style as needed */
label {
  display:block;
  margin-top:2em;
  font-size: 0.9em;
  color:#777;
}

/* Container used for styling the custom select, the buttom class below adds the bg gradient, corners, etc. */
.custom-select {
  position: relative;
  display:block;
  margin-top:0.5em;
  padding:0;
}

/* These are the "theme" styles for our button applied via separate button class, style as you like */
.button {
  border: 1px solid #bbb;
  border-radius: .3em;
  box-shadow: 0 1px 0 1px rgba(0,0,0,.04);
  background: #f3f3f3; /* Old browsers */
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%, #e5e5e5 100%); /* FF3.6+ */
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#ffffff), color-stop(100%,#e5e5e5)); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */
  background: -o-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* IE10+ */
  background: linear-gradient(to bottom, #ffffff 0%,#e5e5e5 100%); /* W3C */
}

/* This is the native select, we're making everything but the text invisible so we can see the button styles in the wrapper */
.custom-select select {
  width:100%;
  margin:0;
  background:none;
  border: 1px solid transparent;
  outline: none;
  /* Prefixed box-sizing rules necessary for older browsers */
  -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
  -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  /* Remove select styling */
  appearance: none;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  /* Font size must the 16px or larger to prevent iOS page zoom on focus */
  font-size:16px;
  /* General select styles: change as needed */
  font-family: helvetica, sans-serif;
  font-weight: bold;
  color: #444;
  padding: .6em 1.9em .5em .8em;
  line-height:1.3;
}


/* Custom arrow sits on top of the select - could be an image, SVG, icon font, etc. or the arrow could just baked into the bg image on the select. Note this si a 2x image so it will look bad in browsers that don't support background-size. In production, you'd handle this resolution switch via media query but this is a demo. */

.custom-select::after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  width: 9px;
  height: 8px;
  top: 50%;
  right: 1em;
  margin-top:-4px;
  background-image: url(http://filamentgroup.com/files/select-arrow.png);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: 100%;
  z-index: 2;
  /* These hacks make the select behind the arrow clickable in some browsers */
  pointer-events:none;
}


/* Hover style */
.custom-select:hover {
  border:1px solid #888;
}

/* Focus style */
.custom-select select:focus {
  outline:none;
  box-shadow: 0 0 1px 3px rgba(180,222,250, 1);
  background-color:transparent;
  color: #222;
  border:1px solid #aaa;
}

/* Set options to normal weight */
.custom-select option {
  font-weight:normal;
}

/* Try this in FF30+ Covers up the arrow, turns off the background */ 
/* still lets you style the border around the image and allows selection on the arrow */


@-moz-document url-prefix() {

    .yourClass select {
        text-overflow: '';
        text-indent: -1px;
        -moz-appearance: none;
        background: none;

    }

    /*fix for popup in FF30 */
    .yourClass:after {
        position: absolute;
        margin-left: -27px;
        height: 22px;
        border-top-right-radius: 6px;
        border-bottom-right-radius: 6px;
        content: url('../images/yourArrow.svg');
        pointer-events: none;
        overflow: hidden;
        border-right: 1px solid #yourBorderColour;
        border-top: 1px solid #yourBorderColour;
        border-bottom: 1px solid #yourBorderColour; 
    }
}

Or, you can clip the select. Something along the lines of:

select { width:200px; position:absolute; clip:rect(0, 170px, 50px, 0); }

This should clip 30px of the right side of select box, stripping away the arrow. Now supply a 170px background image and voila, styled select

I was having the same issue. It's easy to make it work on FF and Chrome, but on IE (8+ that we need to support) things get complicated. The easiest solution I could find for custom select elements that works "everywhere I tried", including IE8, is using .customSelect()

We've found a simple and decent way to do this. It's cross-browser,degradable, and doesn't break a form post. First set the select box's opacity to 0.

.select { 
    opacity : 0;
    width: 200px;
    height: 15px;
}

<select class='select'>
    <option value='foo'>bar</option>    
</select>

this is so you can still click on it

Then make div with the same dimensions as the select box. The div should lay under the select box as the background. Use { position: absolute } and z-index to achieve this.

.div {
    width: 200px;
    height: 15px;
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 0;
}

<div class='.div'>{the text of the the current selection updated by javascript}</div>
<select class='select'>
    <option value='foo'>bar</option>    
</select>

Update the div's innerHTML with javascript. Easypeasy with jQuery:

$('.select').click(function(event)) { 
    $('.div').html($('.select option:selected').val());
}

That's it! Just style your div instead of the select box. I haven't tested the above code so you'll probably need tweak it. But hopefully you get the gist.

I think this solution beats {-webkit-appearance: none;}. What browsers should do at the very most is dictate interaction with form elements, but definitely not how their initially displayed on the page as that breaks site design.

Update: this was fixed in Firefox v35. See the full gist for details.

Just figured out how to remove the select arrow from Firefox. The trick is to use a mix of -prefix-appearance, text-indent and text-overflow. It is pure CSS and requires no extra markup.

select {
    -moz-appearance: none;
    text-indent: 0.01px;
    text-overflow: '';
}

Tested on Windows 8, Ubuntu and Mac, latest versions of Firefox.

Live example: http://jsfiddle.net/joaocunha/RUEbp/1/

More on the subject: https://gist.github.com/joaocunha/6273016