CSS Links
With CSS, links can be styled in many different ways.
Text Link Text Link Link Button Link Button
Styling Links
Links can be styled with any CSS property (e.g. color, font-family,
background, etc.).
In addition, links can be styled differently depending on what state they are in.
The four links states are:
a:link- a normal, unvisited linka:visited- a link the user has visiteda:hover- a link when the user mouses over ita:active- a link the moment it is clicked
Example
/* unvisited link */
a:link {
color: red;
}
/* visited link */
a:visited {
color: green;
}
/* mouse over link */
a:hover {
color: hotpink;
}
/* selected link */
a:active {
color: blue;
}
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When setting the style for several link states, there are some order rules:
- a:hover MUST come after a:link and a:visited
- a:active MUST come after a:hover
Text Decoration
The text-decoration property is mostly used to remove underlines from links:
Example
a:link {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:visited {
text-decoration: none;
}
a:hover {
text-decoration: underline;
}
a:active {
text-decoration: underline;
}
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Background Color
The background-color property can be used to specify a background color for links:
Example
a:link {
background-color: yellow;
}
a:visited {
background-color: cyan;
}
a:hover {
background-color: lightgreen;
}
a:active {
background-color: hotpink;
}
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Link Buttons
This example demonstrates a more advanced example where we combine several CSS properties to display links as boxes/buttons:
Example
a:link, a:visited {
background-color: #f44336;
color: white;
padding: 14px 25px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-block;
}
a:hover, a:active {
background-color: red;
}
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More Examples
Example
This example demonstrates how to add other styles to hyperlinks:
a.one:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.one:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.one:hover {color: #ffcc00;}
a.two:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.two:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.two:hover {font-size: 150%;}
a.three:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.three:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.three:hover {background: #66ff66;}
a.four:link {color: #ff0000;}
a.four:visited {color: #0000ff;}
a.four:hover {font-family: monospace;}
a.five:link {color: #ff0000; text-decoration: none;}
a.five:visited {color: #0000ff; text-decoration: none;}
a.five:hover {text-decoration: underline;}
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Example
Another example of how to create link boxes/buttons:
a:link, a:visited {
background-color: white;
color: black;
border: 2px solid green;
padding: 10px 20px;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
display: inline-block;
}
a:hover, a:active {
background-color: green;
color: white;
}
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Example
This example demonstrates the different types of cursors (can be useful for links):
<span style="cursor: auto">auto</span><br>
<span style="cursor: crosshair">crosshair</span><br>
<span style="cursor: default">default</span><br>
<span style="cursor: e-resize">e-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: help">help</span><br>
<span style="cursor: move">move</span><br>
<span style="cursor: n-resize">n-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: ne-resize">ne-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: nw-resize">nw-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: pointer">pointer</span><br>
<span style="cursor: progress">progress</span><br>
<span style="cursor: s-resize">s-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: se-resize">se-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: sw-resize">sw-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: text">text</span><br>
<span style="cursor: w-resize">w-resize</span><br>
<span style="cursor: wait">wait</span>
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