---
title: "Important: Form controls draw a stronger border"
manual: "Frontend Theme for Extension Development"
version: "main"
source: "Changelog/2.0/Important-ControlBorderContrast.rst"
modified: "2026-09-17T04:52:50+00:00"
---

# Important: Form controls draw a stronger border

## Description

The text input, the textarea, the select and the addon of an input group
now draw their resting border in `--theme-color-border-strong` instead
of the decorative `--theme-color-border`. An empty text field is
identified by its edge alone, and WCAG 1.4.11 requires 3:1 against the
colours next to it; the decorative border reached about 1.4:1.

On hover the border of an input now turns to
`--theme-color-text-secondary`, since the colour it used to turn to is
now its resting colour. The invalid and valid states are unchanged.

The dark value of `--theme-color-border-strong` moves from
`#5f6c7d` to `#637183`. The old value reached only 2.89:1 on
`--theme-color-surface-raised`, the background of a control; the new one
reaches 3.10 there, and 3.74 and 3.44 on background and surface. The light
value is unchanged.

## Impact

Form controls look more defined in both appearances, and every border drawn
in `--theme-color-border-strong` \- the switch track, the display
settings panel, the dialog, table headers, `kbd` \- is slightly lighter
in dark.

A site package that preferred the previous look re-points the component
tokens in its own CSS, without rebuilding the theme:

```css
.theme-input,
.theme-textarea,
.theme-select {
    --theme-input-border-color: var(--theme-color-border);
    --theme-input-border-color-hover: var(--theme-color-border-strong);
}

.theme-input-group {
    --theme-input-group-addon-border-color: var(--theme-color-border);
}
```

The selectors carry the same specificity as the theme's own rules, and the
theme uses no cascade layers, so the site package's stylesheet has to be
included after `theme.css`. The invalid and valid states still win,
they are more specific.

Doing so gives up the 3:1 boundary of the controls again.