Inspect webkit-input-placeholder with developer tools

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byAlex Kataev·Dec 28, 2024

To style and inspect the ::webkit-input-placeholder, follow these steps:

1. Open your browser's dev tools (F12/ right-click > Inspect). 2. Select the input or textarea in the Elements panel. 3. Enable:hov state in the Styles pane. 4. Inspect :placeholder to view placeholder styles.

Quick reference to style placeholders:

input::-webkit-input-placeholder {
    /* Make it red just like your boss' face when you forgot the semicolon*/
    color: red;
    /* Bold as your coffee during late-night debugging sessions */
    font-weight: bold;
}

This code snippet changes the placeholder text to red and bold.

Unraveling the Shadow DOM

To gain deeper insights, venture into the Shadow DOM. It houses styles that are hidden by default. To unveil them:

1. Open the DevTools settings (gear icon on the top-right corner or F12 -> F1). 2. Find the "Preferences" tab and locate the "Elements" section. 3. Enable 'Show user agent shadow DOM'. Voila! Placeholder styles are now visible in the Elements panel.

A Detective's Playground

Investigate placeholders by accessing specific styles. Once you've enabled Shadow DOM, you can:

Identify exact color values, including the alpha channel, directly. No need for additional tools! Goodbye, Photoshop 👋
Understand how to override default styles with personalized CSS.

Quick Detective Tools

Why walk when you can run? Use this shortcut for faster debugging:

Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + C to activate the DevTools in inspect mode and then select the input box.

Cross-Browser Compatibility

Remember that not all browsers sing the same song. Here's a cheat-sheet for different browsers:

Mozilla's star, Firefox, goes by ::placeholder.
Internet Explorer has it's own act: :-ms-input-placeholder.
And ::webkit-input-placeholder hits the notes for both Safari and Chrome, though vendor prefixes may influence the proceedings.