CSS :read-only Selector

CSS :read-only selector selects every element on a page that is not editable by the user. It can be any element like a input, textarea, paragraph, div etc.

Elements that are not editable fall into the following three categories:

• <input> elements that either have a readonly attribute or disabled
• <textarea> elements that either have a readonly attribute or disabled same as inputs
• Any other element except the input and textarea that do not have the contenteditable attribute

It means the :read-only selector will select any element that falls into any of these three categories.

The :read-only selector in the following example sets a pink background to those input elements that have the declared as read-only:

Example:

input:read-only{
    background: pink;
}

Here is one more example that sets a pink background to the read-only textarea fields:

Example:

textarea:read-only{
    background: pink;
}

You can also select other non-editable elements like paragraphs, divs, lists, etc. But the condition is that they must not have the contenteditable attribute.

See this example:

Example:

p:read-only{
    background: pink;
}
div:read-only{
    background: yellow;
}

CSS Syntax

The syntax of the :read-only selector is as follows:

:read-only{
   CSS Styles;
}

Browser Support

The number in each cell of the table specifies the first version of the browser that fully supports the :read-only selector.