Differences between CSS3 :hover and :focus?

Question

The CSS3 doc talks about :hover and :focus, which seem exactly the same to me. What are the differences between the two? What am I not seeing?

Thanks!

Morea

:hover and :focus were introduced in CSS level 2, and their specs haven't been changed in CSS3. – Sectionalism

Answer 1

Hover is 'true' when the mouse pointer is over an element. Focus is true if the cursor is in that element. It's possible for hover to be false and focus true (e.g click in a text field then move the mouse away)

Odelet

Yes, I'd forgotten the click-then-move-the-mouse action. Also the possibility of tabbing to a field. Thanks. – Morea

To avoid any confusion: "cursor" here means "caret". :) – Bookmobile

For completeness: Not all controls have an insertion point when they're focused. Links and buttons can also have focus. – Farkas

The answer you gave led me to a solution for a similar problem that included the "click and drag away". Using a:focus and a:hover were not sufficient. I had to use "a:hover:focus" to ensure that I had both true! – Audie

a:hover and a:focus is the same thing? (since you can not be inside an a element) – Ashraf

and what about focus-visible ? – Janik

Answer 2

:hover applies to any element that the mouse cursor is currently over. :focus refers to form focus, and is the current form element with focus. Roughly speaking, if you start typing, which element will you be filling?

Darceldarcey

Answer 3

The different between :hover and :focus is:

:hover when your mouse pointer is on the element.

:focus when you select an element, the element gets into the focus.

More Information: CSS Pseudo Classes at W3Schools

Warpath

Answer 4

hover only applies when the pointing device is over the element. The doc makes that quite clear.

Durbar

Answer 5

Hover you can add with % percentages with transition timing with the new css3 technology. Expect IE9 all major browsers will support them. here are some samples of two navigation menus to understand hover and animation on hover and also the fading of the colors in css3 hover attribute. `

Ardeliaardelis

I've removed your non-disclosed links to your own blog. Please see the Self-Promotion area of the FAQ before posting any more answers. – Daughterly

Answer 6

Hover is particularly about Mouse Pointer:

Example when Mouser pointer is over / (on the) Button, for that button hover is true.

Focus is about the highlighting element:

Usually when we use tab key to change the focus of an element.

Partnership

Answer 7

There is a "contrasting difference" between the two:

Hover-When your mouse pointer hover(wave or float) over a particular element.

and

Focus-When you select an element,then the element gets into focus.

Strangle

Answer 8

The main difference between these two things i.e. hover and the focus is:

hover:- when you take your mouse pointer is on the particular element such as button, text-field etc.

focus:- when you select an element or click an event that time it changes its original state and looks different.

Antoine

This is already present in the other answers just with different words. Would you care to reason why this is better than the other answers? – Chalk