:checked

Avatar of Sara Cope
Sara Cope on (Updated on )

DigitalOcean provides cloud products for every stage of your journey. Get started with $200 in free credit!

The :checked pseudo-class in CSS selects elements when they are in the selected state. It is only associated with input (<input>) elements of type radio and checkbox . The :checked pseudo-class selector matches radio and checkbox input types when checked or toggled to an on state. If they are not selected or checked, there is no match.

So when a checkbox is checked, and you are targeting the label immediately after it:

input[type=checkbox] + label {
  color: #ccc;
  font-style: italic;
} 
input[type=checkbox]:checked + label {
  color: #f00;
  font-style: normal;
} 

The label text will turn from grey italic to red normal font.

<input type="checkbox" id="ossm" name="ossm"> 
<label for="ossm">CSS is Awesome</label> 

The above is an example of using the :checked pseudo-class to make forms more accessible. The :checked pseudo-class can be used with hidden inputs and their visible labels to build interactive widgets, such as image galleries.

More Resources

Browser Support

Chrome Safari Firefox Opera IE Android iOS
Any 3.1+ Any 9+ 9+ any any