How do I change the color of radio buttons?

Question

A quick fix would be to overlay the radio button input style using :after, however it's probably a better practice to create your own custom toolkit.

    input[type='radio']:after {
        width: 15px;
        height: 15px;
        border-radius: 15px;
        top: -2px;
        left: -1px;
        position: relative;
        background-color: #d1d3d1;
        content: '';
        display: inline-block;
        visibility: visible;
        border: 2px solid white;
    }

    input[type='radio']:checked:after {
        width: 15px;
        height: 15px;
        border-radius: 15px;
        top: -2px;
        left: -1px;
        position: relative;
        background-color: #ffa500;
        content: '';
        display: inline-block;
        visibility: visible;
        border: 2px solid white;
    }

<input type='radio' name="gender"/>
<input type='radio' name="gender"/>

A radio button is a native element specific to each OS/browser. There is no way to change its color/style, unless you want to implement custom images or use a custom Javascript library which includes images (e.g. this - cached link)

As Fred mentioned, there is no way to natively style radio buttons in regards to color, size, etcc. But you can use CSS Pseudo elements to setup an impostor of any given radio button, and style it. Touching on what JamieD said, on how we can use the :after Pseudo element, you can use both :before and :after to achieve a desirable look.

Benefits of this approach:

• Style your radio button and also Include a label for content.
• Change the outer rim color and/or checked circle to any color you like.
• Give it a transparent look with modifications to background color property and/or optional use of the opacity property.
• Scale the size of your radio button.
• Add various drop shadow properties such as CSS drop shadow inset where needed.
• Blend this simple CSS/HTML trick into various Grid systems, such as Bootstrap 3.3.6, so it matches the rest of your Bootstrap components visually.

Explanation of short demo below:

• Set up a relative in-line block for each radio button
• Hide the native radio button sense there is no way to style it directly.
• Style and align the label
• Rebuilding CSS content on the :before Pseudo-element to do 2 things - style the outer rim of the radio button and set element to appear first (left of label content). You can learn basic steps on Pseudo-elements here - http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_pseudo_elements.asp
• If the radio button is checked, request for label to display CSS content (the styled dot in the radio button) afterwards.

The HTML

<div class="radio-item">
    <input type="radio" id="ritema" name="ritem" value="ropt1">
    <label for="ritema">Option 1</label>
</div>

<div class="radio-item">
    <input type="radio" id="ritemb" name="ritem" value="ropt2">
    <label for="ritemb">Option 2</label>
</div>

The CSS

.radio-item {
  display: inline-block;
  position: relative;
  padding: 0 6px;
  margin: 10px 0 0;
}

.radio-item input[type='radio'] {
  display: none;
}

.radio-item label {
  color: #666;
  font-weight: normal;
}

.radio-item label:before {
  content: " ";
  display: inline-block;
  position: relative;
  top: 5px;
  margin: 0 5px 0 0;
  width: 20px;
  height: 20px;
  border-radius: 11px;
  border: 2px solid #004c97;
  background-color: transparent;
}

.radio-item input[type=radio]:checked + label:after {
  border-radius: 11px;
  width: 12px;
  height: 12px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 9px;
  left: 10px;
  content: " ";
  display: block;
  background: #004c97;
}

A short demo to see it in action

In conclusion, no JavaScript, images or batteries required. Pure CSS.

Only if you are targeting webkit-based browsers (Chrome and Safari, maybe you are developing a Chrome WebApp, who knows...), you can use the following:

input[type='radio'] {
   -webkit-appearance: none;
}

And then style it as if it were a simple HTML element, for example applying a background image.

Use input[type='radio']:active for when the input is selected, to provide the alternate graphics

Update: As of 2018 you can add the following to support multiple browser vendors:

input[type="radio"] {
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
}