<system-color>

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The <system-color> CSS data type usually reflects the default color choices used for the different parts of a web page.

However, user agents can provide an accessibility feature called forced colors mode, in which colors are restricted into a user- and user agent-defined palette, overriding the author's choice of colors in certain properties. In forced colors mode, <system-color> exposes the chosen colors, so that the rest of the page can integrate with them. An example of forced colors mode is high contrast mode on Windows.

In forced colors mode, authors should use colors from the <system-color> type for all properties that are not in the set of properties whose colors are overridden. This ensures that the page consistently uses the same color palette across all properties.

Authors can detect forced colors mode using the forced-colors media feature.

A <system-color> value can be used anywhere a <color> can be used.

Syntax

Note that these keywords are case insensitive, but are listed here with mixed case for readability.

AccentColor

Background of accented user interface controls

AccentColorText

Text of accented user interface controls

ActiveText

Text of active links

ButtonBorder

Base border color of controls

ButtonFace

Background color of controls

ButtonText

Text color of controls

Canvas

Background of application content or documents

CanvasText

Text color in application content or documents

Field

Background of input fields

FieldText

Text in input fields

GrayText

Text color for disabled items (e.g. a disabled control)

Highlight

Background of selected items

HighlightText

Text color of selected items

LinkText

Text of non-active, non-visited links

Mark

Background of text that has been specially marked (such as by the HTML mark element)

MarkText

Text that has been specially marked (such as by the HTML mark element)

SelectedItem

Background of selected items, for example, a selected checkbox

SelectedItemText

Text of selected items

VisitedText

Text of visited links

Deprecated system color keywords

The following keywords were defined in earlier versions of the CSS Color Module. They are now deprecated for use on public web pages.

ActiveBorder

Active window border.

ActiveCaption

Active window caption. Should be used with CaptionText as foreground color.

AppWorkspace

Background color of multiple document interface.

Background

Desktop background.

ButtonHighlight

The color of the border facing the light source for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to that layer of surrounding border.

ButtonShadow

The color of the border away from the light source for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to that layer of surrounding border.

CaptionText

Text in caption, size box, and scrollbar arrow box. Should be used with the ActiveCaption background color.

InactiveBorder

Inactive window border.

InactiveCaption

Inactive window caption. Should be used with the InactiveCaptionText foreground color.

InactiveCaptionText

Color of text in an inactive caption. Should be used with the InactiveCaption background color.

InfoBackground

Background color for tooltip controls. Should be used with the InfoText foreground color.

InfoText

Text color for tooltip controls. Should be used with the InfoBackground background color.

Menu background. Should be used with the MenuText or -moz-MenuBarText foreground color.

Text in menus. Should be used with the Menu background color.

Scrollbar

Background color of scroll bars.

ThreeDDarkShadow

The color of the darker (generally outer) of the two borders away from the light source for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to two concentric layers of surrounding border.

ThreeDFace

The face background color for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to two concentric layers of surrounding border. Should be used with the ButtonText foreground color.

ThreeDHighlight

The color of the lighter (generally outer) of the two borders facing the light source for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to two concentric layers of surrounding border.

ThreeDLightShadow

The color of the darker (generally inner) of the two borders facing the light source for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to two concentric layers of surrounding border.

ThreeDShadow

The color of the lighter (generally inner) of the two borders away from the light source for 3-D elements that appear 3-D due to two concentric layers of surrounding border.

Window

Window background. Should be used with the WindowText foreground color.

WindowFrame

Window frame.

WindowText

Text in windows. Should be used with the Window background color.

Examples

Using system colors

In this example we have a button that normally gets its contrast using the box-shadow property. In forced colors mode, box-shadow is forced to none, so the example uses the forced-colors media feature to ensure there is a border of the appropriate color (ButtonBorder in this case).

HTML

html
<button class="button">Press me!</button>

CSS

css
.button {
  border: 0;
  padding: 10px;
  box-shadow:
    -2px -2px 5px gray,
    2px 2px 5px gray;
}

@media (forced-colors: active) {
  .button {
    /* Use a border instead, since box-shadow
    is forced to 'none' in forced-colors mode */
    border: 2px ButtonBorder solid;
  }
}

Result

Specifications

Specification
CSS Color Module Level 4
# css-system-colors

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also

  • <color>: the data type these keywords belong to