:hover:before text-decoration none has no effects?

Question

As title, I'm adding icons using .icon-*. When adding an icon to an hyperlink:

<a href="#" class="icon-email icon-large">Email me!</a> 

The content inserted by content property shows the underline text-decoration on hover. I'd like to disable the text-decoration only for the content before:

[class^="icon-"]:before, [class*=" icon-"]:before {     font-family: 'IcoMoon';     font-style: normal;     speak: none; } .icon-mail:before {     content: "\37"; } [class^="icon-large-"]:before, [class*=" icon-large"]:before {     font-size: 48px;     line-height: 48px; } a[class^="icon-"]:before, a[class*=" icon-"]:before {     margin-right: 5px;     vertical-align: middle; } 

I've tried this but it's not working (decoration is still visible):

a[class^="icon-"]:hover:before, a[class*=" icon-"]:hover:before {     text-decoration: none;     color: white; } 

Answer 1

Insert display:inline-block; in your css. Something like the one below:

.icon-mail:before {     content: "\37";     display:inline-block;     text-decoration:none; } 

Here is the JS FIDDLE:

http://jsfiddle.net/73p2k/18/

Answer 2

As the :before pseudo-element is rendered as a descendant box (more specifically, just before the first child content box) of its generating element, it obeys the same rules its normal descendant boxes do with respect to text-decoration:

The 'text-decoration' property on descendant elements cannot have any effect on the decoration of the ancestor.

See these answers for more details:

• CSS text-decoration property cannot be overridden by child element
• How do I get this CSS text-decoration override to work?

There isn't any good way around this... the only alternatives that come immediately to mind are:

• Wrap the text in its own span element, then apply text-decoration to that span, as shown by skip405. The disadvantage is, of course, extra markup.

• Use an inline block background image instead of inline text in an icon font with your :before pseudo-element (I've also corrected the inconsistencies with your class selectors):

  [class^="icon-"]:before, [class*=" icon-"]:before {     display: inline-block;     width: 1em;     height: 1em;     background-size: contain;     content: ""; } .icon-email:before {     background-image: url(icon-mail.svg);     background-repeat: no-repeat; } .icon-large:before {     width: 48px;     height: 48px; } a[class^="icon-"]:before, a[class*=" icon-"]:before {     margin-right: 5px;     vertical-align: middle; } 

  The advantage this has over skip405's solution is that you don't have to modify the HTML, but given that it uses SVG vector background images and background-size, it won't work in IE8.

  If you do need IE8 support, then you have to fall back to bitmap images:

  .icon-email:before {     background-image: url(icon-mail.png); } .icon-email.icon-large:before {     background-image: url(icon-mail-large.png); }