// generate outline & outline-offset styles visually
Generate CSS outline and outline-offset styles visually for buttons, links, and form fields. Live preview with instant CSS export.
| Property | Value |
|---|
Select Button, Link, Input, or Div to see your outline on the right preview.
Set the style, width, color, offset, and opacity using the controls on the left.
Click "Copy All" to grab the generated CSS and paste it into your stylesheet.
The CSS outline property draws a line outside an element's border without affecting layout. Unlike border, outlines don't take up space. Combined with outline-offset, you can push the outline away from or into the element.
Outlines are critical for keyboard accessibility — they indicate focus state for users navigating via keyboard or assistive technology.
The border property is part of the box model and affects layout — adding a border increases an element's rendered size unless you use box-sizing: border-box. The outline property draws outside the element without affecting layout at all. Outlines also don't support individual sides like border-top, and they can have an offset via outline-offset.
outline-offset controls the gap between the outline and the element's edge. A positive value pushes the outline outward; a negative value draws it inward (inside the element). This is useful for creating focus rings that don't overlap adjacent elements, or for stylistic inset effects.
You should never remove outline without providing a replacement. The default browser focus outline is an accessibility requirement — it tells keyboard users which element is currently focused. Instead of outline: none, use :focus-visible with a custom styled outline that fits your design but remains clearly visible.
The :focus-visible pseudo-class only applies focus styles when the browser determines that focus is visible to the user — typically for keyboard navigation, not mouse clicks. This means you can apply clear outlines for keyboard users without showing a ring every time a mouse user clicks a button. It's now the recommended approach over plain :focus for most UI components.
High-contrast solid outlines with a sufficient width (at least 2px, ideally 3px) and a noticeable outline-offset (2–4px) are the most accessible. WCAG 2.2 requires that focus indicators have sufficient size and contrast. Using a color with at least a 3:1 contrast ratio against the adjacent colors is recommended.
Yes — you can use CSS transitions on outline-width, outline-offset, and outline-color. A common pattern is to start with a zero-width or zero-offset outline and animate it to full size on :focus-visible. Always add @media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) to disable animations for users who prefer less motion.
The CSS Outline Generator is a free browser-based tool that lets you configure and preview outline, outline-style, outline-width, outline-color, and outline-offset properties interactively. You can instantly see how your styles look on different element types — buttons, links, inputs, and divs — against both dark and light backgrounds, then copy the resulting CSS in one click.
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The outline CSS property is a shorthand that sets outline-style, outline-width, and outline-color in a single declaration. Unlike the border property, outlines are drawn outside the element's border box and do not take up space in the document flow — meaning they won't push other elements around or change the element's size.
The basic syntax looks like this:
outline: 2px solid #c8f135;
You can also set each property individually:
outline-style: solid; outline-width: 2px; outline-color: #c8f135; outline-offset: 4px;
CSS supports the same style keywords for outlines as it does for borders. Each produces a visually distinct result:
The outline-offset property sets the distance between the outline and the element's border edge. It accepts any CSS length value, including negative values:
/* 4px gap between element and outline */ outline-offset: 4px; /* Inset by 3px */ outline-offset: -3px;
One of the most important uses of the CSS outline property is indicating keyboard focus. When a user navigates a webpage using a keyboard (Tab key) or other assistive technology, they need to know which element is currently active. The browser provides a default focus outline, but its appearance varies across browsers and operating systems — and many designers remove it for aesthetic reasons without providing a replacement.
This is an accessibility violation. The WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.4.7 requires that any keyboard-operable user interface has a visible focus indicator. WCAG 2.2 adds further requirements around focus indicator minimum size and contrast under Success Criterion 2.4.11 and 2.4.12.
The modern recommended approach is to use the :focus-visible pseudo-class instead of :focus. This applies styles only when the browser determines that focus is visible — typically for keyboard navigation:
/* Modern accessible focus ring */
button:focus-visible {
outline: 3px solid #c8f135;
outline-offset: 3px;
}
/* Remove default outline only when using :focus-visible */
button:focus:not(:focus-visible) {
outline: none;
}
Developers sometimes use box-shadow to simulate focus rings because it supports border-radius (outlines traditionally ignored border-radius in older browsers, appearing as sharp rectangles). However, modern browsers now respect border-radius on outlines in most cases.
There are trade-offs between the two approaches:
The safest accessible approach is to use outline as the primary focus indicator and optionally layer box-shadow on top for visual enhancement.
This tool includes several built-in presets for common scenarios:
outline: none. Use only when you have a custom focus indicator in place.All modern browsers support the full outline shorthand and outline-offset. Internet Explorer 11 and older do not support outline-offset. The :focus-visible pseudo-class has excellent support in Chrome, Firefox, Safari 15.4+, and Edge. For older Safari versions, a polyfill or :focus fallback may be needed.