How do I style a dropdown with only CSS?

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How do I style a

dropdown with only CSS?

It is possible, but unfortunately mostly in WebKit-based browsers to the extent we, as developers, require. Here is the example of CSS styling gathered from Chrome options panel via built-in developer tools inspector, improved to match currently supported CSS properties in most modern browsers:

select {
    -webkit-appearance: button;
    -moz-appearance: button;
    -webkit-user-select: none;
    -moz-user-select: none;
    -webkit-padding-end: 20px;
    -moz-padding-end: 20px;
    -webkit-padding-start: 2px;
    -moz-padding-start: 2px;
    background-color: #F07575; /* Fallback color if gradients are not supported */
    background-image: url(../images/select-arrow.png), -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #E5E5E5, #F4F4F4); /* For Chrome and Safari */
    background-image: url(../images/select-arrow.png), -moz-linear-gradient(top, #E5E5E5, #F4F4F4); /* For old Firefox (3.6 to 15) */
    background-image: url(../images/select-arrow.png), -ms-linear-gradient(top, #E5E5E5, #F4F4F4); /* For pre-releases of Internet Explorer  10*/
    background-image: url(../images/select-arrow.png), -o-linear-gradient(top, #E5E5E5, #F4F4F4); /* For old Opera (11.1 to 12.0) */
    background-image: url(../images/select-arrow.png), linear-gradient(to bottom, #E5E5E5, #F4F4F4); /* Standard syntax; must be last */
    background-position: center right;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    border: 1px solid #AAA;
    border-radius: 2px;
    box-shadow: 0px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
    color: #555;
    font-size: inherit;
    margin: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding-top: 2px;
    padding-bottom: 2px;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    white-space: nowrap;
}

When you run this code on any page within a WebKit-based browser it should change the appearance of the select box, remove standard OS-arrow and add a PNG-arrow, put some spacing before and after the label, almost anything you want.

The most important part is appearance property, which changes how the element behaves.

It works perfectly in almost all WebKit-based browser, including mobile ones, though Gecko doesn't support appearance as well as WebKit, it seems.

The select element and its dropdown feature are difficult to style.

style attributes for select element by Chris Heilmann confirms what Ryan Dohery said in a comment to the first answer:

"The select element is part of the operating system, not the browser chrome. Therefore, it is very unreliable to style, and it does not necessarily make sense to try anyway."

I had this exact problem, except I couldn't use images and was not limited by browser support. This should be «on spec» and with luck start working everywhere eventually.

It uses layered rotated background layers to «cut out» a dropdown arrow, as pseudo-elements wouldn't work for the select element.

Edit: In this updated version I am using CSS variables and a tiny theming system.

:root {
  --radius: 2px;
  --baseFg: dimgray;
  --baseBg: white;
  --accentFg: #006fc2;
  --accentBg: #bae1ff;
}

.theme-pink {
  --radius: 2em;
  --baseFg: #c70062;
  --baseBg: #ffe3f1;
  --accentFg: #c70062;
  --accentBg: #ffaad4;
}

.theme-construction {
  --radius: 0;
  --baseFg: white;
  --baseBg: black;
  --accentFg: black;
  --accentBg: orange;
}

select {
  font: 400 12px/1.3 sans-serif;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  color: var(--baseFg);
  border: 1px solid var(--baseFg);
  line-height: 1;
  outline: 0;
  padding: 0.65em 2.5em 0.55em 0.75em;
  border-radius: var(--radius);
  background-color: var(--baseBg);
  background-image: linear-gradient(var(--baseFg), var(--baseFg)),
    linear-gradient(-135deg, transparent 50%, var(--accentBg) 50%),
    linear-gradient(-225deg, transparent 50%, var(--accentBg) 50%),
    linear-gradient(var(--accentBg) 42%, var(--accentFg) 42%);
  background-repeat: no-repeat, no-repeat, no-repeat, no-repeat;
  background-size: 1px 100%, 20px 22px, 20px 22px, 20px 100%;
  background-position: right 20px center, right bottom, right bottom, right bottom;   
}

select:hover {
  background-image: linear-gradient(var(--accentFg), var(--accentFg)),
    linear-gradient(-135deg, transparent 50%, var(--accentFg) 50%),
    linear-gradient(-225deg, transparent 50%, var(--accentFg) 50%),
    linear-gradient(var(--accentFg) 42%, var(--accentBg) 42%);
}

select:active {
  background-image: linear-gradient(var(--accentFg), var(--accentFg)),
    linear-gradient(-135deg, transparent 50%, var(--accentFg) 50%),
    linear-gradient(-225deg, transparent 50%, var(--accentFg) 50%),
    linear-gradient(var(--accentFg) 42%, var(--accentBg) 42%);
  color: var(--accentBg);
  border-color: var(--accentFg);
  background-color: var(--accentFg);
}

<select>
  <option>So many options</option>
  <option>...</option>
</select>

<select class="theme-pink">
  <option>So many options</option>
  <option>...</option>
</select>

<select class="theme-construction">
  <option>So many options</option>
  <option>...</option>
</select>

The largest inconsistency I've noticed when styling select dropdowns is Safari and Google Chrome rendering (Firefox is fully customizable through CSS). After some searching through obscure depths of the Internet I came across the following, which nearly completely resolves my qualms with WebKit:

Safari and Google Chrome fix:

select {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
}

This does, however, remove the dropdown arrow. You can add a dropdown arrow using a nearby div with a background, negative margin or absolutely positioned over the select dropdown.

*More information and other variables are available in CSS property: -webkit-appearance.

<select> tags can be styled through CSS just like any other HTML element on an HTML page rendered in a browser. Below is an (overly simple) example that will position a select element on the page and render the text of the options in blue.

Example HTML file (selectExample.html):

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
  <title>Select Styling</title>
  <link href="selectExample.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body>
<select id="styledSelect" class="blueText">
  <option value="apple">Apple</option>
  <option value="orange">Orange</option>
  <option value="cherry">Cherry</option>
</select>
</body>
</html>

Example CSS file (selectExample.css):

/* All select elements on page */
select {
  position: relative;
}

/* Style by class. Effects the text of the contained options. */
.blueText {
  color: #0000FF;
}

/* Style by id. Effects position of the select drop down. */
#styledSelect {
  left: 100px;
}