`:target-after` CSS pseudo-class

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

See full compatibility

Experimental: This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The :target-after CSS pseudo-class selects scroll markers that come after the active scroll marker (the one that currently matches :target-current) within a scroll marker group. You can use this selector to style navigation items that come after the current navigation position within a scroll marker group.

Note: The :target-after pseudo-class is only valid on ::scroll-marker pseudo-elements and elements that have been designated as scroll markers via the scroll-target-group property.

Syntax

css

:target-after {
  /* ... */
}

Examples

Styling navigation items before and after the active scroll marker

In this example, we use the :target-before and :target-after pseudo-classes to highlight the scroll markers before and after the active one, indicating items the user has already viewed and those that are still to come.

HTML

The markup contains a table of contents created using an ordered list (<ol>/<li>) and <a> elements. This is followed by a series of <section> elements containing content.

html

<nav id="toc">
  <ol>
    <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch1">Chapter 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch2">Chapter 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch3">Chapter 3</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch4">Chapter 4</a></li>
  </ol>
</nav>
<section id="intro" class="chapter">
  <h1>Prose of the century</h1>
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla luctus
    aliquam dolor, eu lacinia lorem placerat vulputate. Duis felis orci,
    pulvinar id metus ut, rutrum luctus orci. Cras porttitor imperdiet nunc, at
    ultricies tellus laoreet sit amet.
  </p>
</section>
<section id="ch1" class="chapter">
  <h2>Chapter 1</h2>

  <!-- ... -->
</section>
<section id="ch2" class="chapter">
  <h2>Chapter 2</h2>

  <!-- ... -->
</section>

<!-- ... -->

<nav id="toc">
  <ol>
    <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch1">Chapter 1</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch2">Chapter 2</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch3">Chapter 3</a></li>
    <li><a href="#ch4">Chapter 4</a></li>
  </ol>
</nav>
<section id="intro" class="chapter">
  <h1>My story</h1>
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla luctus
    aliquam dolor, eu lacinia lorem placerat vulputate. Duis felis orci,
    pulvinar id metus ut, rutrum luctus orci. Cras porttitor imperdiet nunc, at
    ultricies tellus laoreet sit amet.
  </p>
</section>
<section id="ch1" class="chapter">
  <h2>Chapter 1</h2>
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla luctus
    aliquam dolor, eu lacinia lorem placerat vulputate. Duis felis orci,
    pulvinar id metus ut, rutrum luctus orci. Cras porttitor imperdiet nunc, at
    ultricies tellus laoreet sit amet.
  </p>
  <p>
    Sed auctor cursus massa at porta. Integer ligula ipsum, tristique sit amet
    orci vel, viverra egestas ligula. Curabitur vehicula tellus neque, ac ornare
    ex malesuada et. In vitae convallis lacus. Aliquam erat volutpat.
    Suspendisse ac imperdiet turpis. Aenean finibus sollicitudin eros pharetra
    congue. Duis ornare egestas augue ut luctus. Proin blandit quam nec lacus
    varius commodo et a urna. Ut id ornare felis, eget fermentum sapien.
  </p>
  <p>
    Nam vulputate diam nec tempor bibendum. Donec luctus augue eget malesuada
    ultrices. Phasellus turpis est, posuere sit amet dapibus ut, facilisis sed
    est. Nam id risus quis ante semper consectetur eget aliquam lorem. Vivamus
    tristique elit dolor, sed pretium metus suscipit vel. Mauris ultricies
    lectus sed lobortis finibus. Vivamus eu urna eget velit cursus viverra quis
    vestibulum sem. Aliquam tincidunt eget purus in interdum. Cum sociis natoque
    penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
  </p>
</section>
<section id="ch2" class="chapter">
  <h2>Chapter 2</h2>
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla luctus
    aliquam dolor, eu lacinia lorem placerat vulputate. Duis felis orci,
    pulvinar id metus ut, rutrum luctus orci. Cras porttitor imperdiet nunc, at
    ultricies tellus laoreet sit amet.
  </p>
  <p>
    Sed auctor cursus massa at porta. Integer ligula ipsum, tristique sit amet
    orci vel, viverra egestas ligula. Curabitur vehicula tellus neque, ac ornare
    ex malesuada et. In vitae convallis lacus. Aliquam erat volutpat.
    Suspendisse ac imperdiet turpis. Aenean finibus sollicitudin eros pharetra
    congue. Duis ornare egestas augue ut luctus. Proin blandit quam nec lacus
    varius commodo et a urna. Ut id ornare felis, eget fermentum sapien.
  </p>
</section>
<section id="ch3" class="chapter">
  <h2>Chapter 3</h2>
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla luctus
    aliquam dolor, eu lacinia lorem placerat vulputate. Duis felis orci,
    pulvinar id metus ut, rutrum luctus orci. Cras porttitor imperdiet nunc, at
    ultricies tellus laoreet sit amet.
  </p>
  <p>
    Sed auctor cursus massa at porta. Integer ligula ipsum, tristique sit amet
    orci vel, viverra egestas ligula. Curabitur vehicula tellus neque, ac ornare
    ex malesuada et. In vitae convallis lacus. Aliquam erat volutpat.
    Suspendisse ac imperdiet turpis. Aenean finibus sollicitudin eros pharetra
    congue. Duis ornare egestas augue ut luctus. Proin blandit quam nec lacus
    varius commodo et a urna. Ut id ornare felis, eget fermentum sapien.
  </p>
</section>
<section id="ch4" class="chapter">
  <h2>Chapter 4</h2>
  <p>
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla luctus
    aliquam dolor, eu lacinia lorem placerat vulputate. Duis felis orci,
    pulvinar id metus ut, rutrum luctus orci. Cras porttitor imperdiet nunc, at
    ultricies tellus laoreet sit amet.
  </p>
  <p>
    Sed auctor cursus massa at porta. Integer ligula ipsum, tristique sit amet
    orci vel, viverra egestas ligula. Curabitur vehicula tellus neque, ac ornare
    ex malesuada et. In vitae convallis lacus. Aliquam erat volutpat.
    Suspendisse ac imperdiet turpis. Aenean finibus sollicitudin eros pharetra
    congue. Duis ornare egestas augue ut luctus. Proin blandit quam nec lacus
    varius commodo et a urna. Ut id ornare felis, eget fermentum sapien.
  </p>
</section>

CSS

We've set scroll-target-group: auto on the <ol> to turn it into a scroll marker group container and let the browser determine which <a> element is the active scroll marker at any given time (that is, which link's target is currently in view). We then style the :target-current pseudo-class with a red color so that it stands out clearly.

body {
  font: 1.2em / 1.5 system-ui;
  width: 50%;
  max-width: 700px;
  margin: 0 auto;
}

nav {
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
}

section {
  padding-top: 60px;
}

a {
  color: black;
  text-decoration: none;
}

a:hover,
a:focus {
  text-decoration: underline;
}

ol {
  display: flex;
  width: 100%;
  justify-content: space-around;
  list-style-type: none;
  padding: 20px 0;
  margin: 0;
  background: white;
}

@supports not selector(:target-after) {
  body::before {
    content: "Your browser does not support the :target-before and :target-after pseudo-classes.";
    color: black;
    background-color: #ffcd33;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 1rem;
    position: fixed;
    bottom: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    z-index: 1;
  }
}

css

ol {
  scroll-target-group: auto;
}

:target-current {
  color: red;
}

Finally, we use the :target-before pseudo-class to style all <a> elements before the active scroll marker with a gray color and strike-through, to make them look completed/finished, and we use the :target-after pseudo-class to style all <a> elements after the active scroll marker with a bright underline.

css

a:target-before {
  color: gray;
  text-decoration: line-through;
}

a:target-after {
  text-decoration: underline orange 2px;
}

Result

Try navigating either by clicking the links or by scrolling. In both cases, you'll see that the red text color moves between the links to match the section currently in view. The links before and after the current red link also update to use the styles defined in the a:target-before and a:target-after rules.

Specifications

Specification
CSS Overflow Module Level 5 # selectordef-target-after

Browser compatibility

	desktop					mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Opera	Safari	Chrome Android	Firefox for Android	Opera Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet	WebView Android	WebView on iOS
`target-after` Experimental	Chrome – Full support Chrome 142 (Release date: 2025-10-28) footnote Full support	Edge – Full support Edge 142 (Release date: 2025-10-31) footnote Full support	Firefox – No support Firefox footnote No support	Opera – Full support Opera 126 (Release date: 2026-01-08) footnote Full support	Safari – No support Safari footnote No support	Chrome Android – Full support Chrome Android 142 (Release date: 2025-10-28) footnote Full support	Firefox for Android – No support Firefox for Android footnote No support	Opera Android – Full support Opera Android 93 (Release date: 2025-11-25) footnote Full support	Safari on iOS – No support Safari on iOS footnote No support	Samsung Internet – No support Samsung Internet footnote No support	WebView Android – Full support WebView Android 142 (Release date: 2025-10-28) footnote Full support	WebView on iOS – No support WebView on iOS footnote No support

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
: Experimental. Expect behavior to change in the future.

:target-after CSS pseudo-class