Examples and usage guidelines for form control styles, layout options, and custom components for creating a wide variety of forms.
Overview
Use ZomCSS's classes to control displays for a more consistent rendering across browsers and devices.
Be sure to use an appropriate type attribute on all inputs (e.g., email for email address or number for numerical information) to take advantage of newer input controls like email verification, number selection, and more.
Here’s a quick example to demonstrate ZomCSS's form styles. Keep reading for documentation on required classes, form layout, and more.
Form controls
Textual form controls—like <input>s, <select>s, and <textarea>s—are styled with the .form-control class. Included are styles for general appearance, focus state, sizing, and more.
Be sure to explore our custom forms to further style <select>s.
Readonly
Add the readonly boolean attribute on an input to prevent modification of the input’s value. Read-only inputs appear lighter (just like disabled inputs), but retain the standard cursor.
Readonly plain text
If you want to have <input readonly> elements in your form styled as plain text, use the .form-control-plaintext class to remove the default form field styling and preserve the correct margin and padding.
Range Inputs
Set horizontally scrollable range inputs using .form-control-range.
Checkboxes and radios
Default checkboxes and radios are improved upon with the help of .form-check, a single class for both input types that improves the layout and behavior of their HTML elements. Checkboxes are for selecting one or several options in a list, while radios are for selecting one option from many.
Disabled checkboxes and radios are supported, but to provide a not-allowed cursor on hover of the parent <label>, you’ll need to add the disabled attribute to the .form-check-input. The disabled attribute will apply a lighter color to help indicate the input’s state.
Checkboxes and radios use are built to support HTML-based form validation and provide concise, accessible labels. As such, our <input>s and <label>s are sibling elements as opposed to an <input> within a <label>. This is slightly more verbose as you must specify id and for attributes to relate the <input> and <label>.
Default (stacked)
By default, any number of checkboxes and radios that are immediate sibling will be vertically stacked and appropriately spaced with .form-check.
Inline
Group checkboxes or radios on the same horizontal row by adding .form-check-inline to any .form-check.
Without labels
Add .position-static to inputs within .form-check that don’t have any label text. Remember to still provide some form of label for assistive technologies (for instance, using aria-label).
Layout
Since ZomCSS applies display: block and width: 100% to almost all our form controls, forms will by default stack vertically. Additional classes can be used to vary this layout on a per-form basis.
Form groups
The .form-group class is the easiest way to add some structure to forms. It provides a flexible class that encourages proper grouping of labels, controls, optional help text, and form validation messaging. By default it only applies margin-bottom, but it picks up additional styles in .form-inline as needed. Use it with <fieldset>s, <div>s, or nearly any other element.
Form grid
More complex forms can be built using our grid classes. Use these for form layouts that require multiple columns, varied widths, and additional alignment options.
Form row
You may also swap .row for .form-row, a variation of our standard grid row that overrides the default column gutters for tighter and more compact layouts.
More complex layouts can also be created with the grid system.
Horizontal form
Create horizontal forms with the grid by adding the .row class to form groups and using the .col-*-* classes to specify the width of your labels and controls. Be sure to add .col-form-label to your <label>s as well so they’re vertically centered with their associated form controls.
At times, you maybe need to use margin or padding utilities to create that perfect alignment you need. For example, we’ve removed the padding-top on our stacked radio inputs label to better align the text baseline.
Column sizing
As shown in the previous examples, our grid system allows you to place any number of .cols within a .row or .form-row. They’ll split the available width equally between them. You may also pick a subset of your columns to take up more or less space, while the remaining .cols equally split the rest, with specific column classes like .col-7.
Auto-sizing
The example below uses a flexbox utility to vertically center the contents and changes .col to .col-auto so that your columns only take up as much space as needed. Put another way, the column sizes itself based on the contents.
You can then remix that once again with size-specific column classes.
And of course custom form controls are supported.
Inline forms
Use the .form-inline class to display a series of labels, form controls, and buttons on a single horizontal row. Form controls within inline forms vary slightly from their default states.
Controls are display: flex, collapsing any HTML white space and allowing you to provide alignment control with spacing and flexbox utilities.
Controls and input groups receive width: auto to override the ZomCSS default width: 100%.
Controls only appear inline in viewports that are at least 576px wide to account for narrow viewports on mobile devices.
You may need to manually address the width and alignment of individual form controls with spacing utilities (as shown below). Lastly, be sure to always include a <label> with each form control, even if you need to hide it from non-screenreader visitors with .sr-only.
Custom form controls and selects are also supported.
Alternatives to hidden labels
Assistive technologies such as screen readers will have trouble with your forms if you don’t include a label for every input. For these inline forms, you can hide the labels using the .sr-only class. There are further alternative methods of providing a label for assistive technologies, such as the aria-label, aria-labelledby or title attribute. If none of these are present, assistive technologies may resort to using the placeholder attribute, if present, but note that use of placeholder as a replacement for other labelling methods is not advised.
Help text
Block-level help text in forms can be created using .form-text (previously known as .help-block in v3). Inline help text can be flexibly implemented using any inline HTML element and utility classes like .text-muted.
Associating help text with form controls
Help text should be explicitly associated with the form control it relates to using the aria-describedby attribute. This will ensure that assistive technologies—such as screen readers—will announce this help text when the user focuses or enters the control.
Help text below inputs can be styled with .form-text. This class includes display: block and adds some top margin for easy spacing from the inputs above.
Your password must be 8-20 characters long, contain letters and numbers, and must not contain spaces, special characters, or emoji.
Inline text can use any typical inline HTML element (be it a <small>, <span>, or something else) with nothing more than a utility class.
Disabled forms
Add the disabled boolean attribute on an input to prevent user interactions and make it appear lighter.
Add the disabled attribute to a <fieldset> to disable all the controls within.
Caveat with anchors
By default, browsers will treat all native form controls (<input>, <select> and <button> elements) inside a <fieldset disabled> as disabled, preventing both keyboard and mouse interactions on them. However, if your form also includes <a ... class="btn btn-*"> elements, these will only be given a style of pointer-events: none. As noted in the section about disabled state for buttons (and specifically in the sub-section for anchor elements), this CSS property is not yet standardized and isn’t fully supported in Internet Explorer 10, and won’t prevent keyboard users from being able to focus or activate these links. So to be safe, use custom JavaScript to disable such links.
Cross-browser compatibility
While ZomCSS will apply these styles in all browsers, Internet Explorer 11 and below don’t fully support the disabled attribute on a <fieldset>. Use custom JavaScript to disable the fieldset in these browsers.