cursor

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Sara Cope on (Updated on )

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The cursor property in CSS controls what the mouse cursor will look like when it is located over the element in which this property is set. Obviously, it’s only relevant in browsers/operating systems in which there is a mouse and cursor. They are used essentially for UX to convey the idea of certain functionality. So try not to break that affordance.

There are a bunch of them:

.auto            { cursor: auto; }
.default         { cursor: default; }
.none            { cursor: none; }
.context-menu    { cursor: context-menu; }
.help            { cursor: help; }
.pointer         { cursor: pointer; }
.progress        { cursor: progress; }
.wait            { cursor: wait; }
.cell            { cursor: cell; }
.crosshair       { cursor: crosshair; }
.text            { cursor: text; }
.vertical-text   { cursor: vertical-text; }
.alias           { cursor: alias; }
.copy            { cursor: copy; }
.move            { cursor: move; }
.no-drop         { cursor: no-drop; }
.not-allowed     { cursor: not-allowed; }
.all-scroll      { cursor: all-scroll; }
.col-resize      { cursor: col-resize; }
.row-resize      { cursor: row-resize; }
.n-resize        { cursor: n-resize; }
.e-resize        { cursor: e-resize; }
.s-resize        { cursor: s-resize; }
.w-resize        { cursor: w-resize; }
.ns-resize       { cursor: ns-resize; }
.ew-resize       { cursor: ew-resize; }
.ne-resize       { cursor: ne-resize; }
.nw-resize       { cursor: nw-resize; }
.se-resize       { cursor: se-resize; }
.sw-resize       { cursor: sw-resize; }
.nesw-resize     { cursor: nesw-resize; }
.nwse-resize     { cursor: nwse-resize; }

The cursor can also be an image:

.custom {
  /* The second value here is a fallback. */
  cursor: url(images/my-cursor.png), auto;

  /* You may need coordinates to adjust the pointer
     for example, the custom cursor is circular and you want
     the middle to be where you click */
  cursor: url(target.svg) 15 15, move;
}

Some WebKit only cursors:

-webkit-zoom-in
-webkit-zoom-out
-webkit-zoom-grab
-webkit-zoom-grabbing

More information

Browser support

This browser support data is from Caniuse, which has more detail. A number indicates that browser supports the feature at that version and up.

Desktop

ChromeFirefoxIEEdgeSafari
549145

Mobile / Tablet

Android ChromeAndroid FirefoxAndroidiOS Safari
126No126No

And for newer values, like zoom-in and zoom-out:

This browser support data is from Caniuse, which has more detail. A number indicates that browser supports the feature at that version and up.

Desktop

ChromeFirefoxIEEdgeSafari
4*2*No123.1*

Mobile / Tablet

Android ChromeAndroid FirefoxAndroidiOS Safari
126No126No