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An official website of the United States government

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An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Theme:

Design system switcher

Version:

Design system switcher

Theme:

Design system switcher

Version:

Design system switcher

Label & Legend

Labels & legends describe individual form fields or fieldsets.

Examples

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Code

React

Preact/React documentation for Storybook

Style customization

The following CSS variables can be overridden to customize Form components:

CSS variables for form
VariableDefault Core Theme Value
--form__max-width460px
--form__max-width--small6em
--form__max-width--medium12em
--form-hint__colorhex value: #5a5a5a--color-gray-dark
--form-hint__color--inversehex value: #e9ecf1--color-muted-inverse
--form-error__colorhex value: #e31c3d--color-error
--form-error__color--inversehex value: #f7bbc5--color-error-lighter

Guidance

  • Labels/Legends are built in to all design-system form fields but can be used on their own to create custom fields.
  • Label/Legend text should be short and in sentence case.
  • Avoid colons at the end of labels and legends.
  • Don't place links or other interactive text in labels or legends. Those should go in the hint text.
  • Don't use a field's placeholder attribute as the primary way to label the field.

Label

  • Each form field should have a clear, brief, and descriptive label.
  • Labels should have a for attribute, referencing the corresponding input's unique id attribute. Only one label can be associated to each unique form element.
  • Labels should be placed above their fields.

Legend

  • Use a single legend for fieldset (this is required). One example of a common use of fieldset and legend is a question with radio button options for answers. The question text and radio buttons are wrapped in a fieldset, with the question itself being inside the legend tag.

Content

  • Describe what the user needs to do when the field is selected.
  • Use a phrase or complete sentence.
  • Start with an action verb and pair it with a noun to help it be clearer. Example: Enter your age.
  • Use the fewest words possible (i.e. don't use "please").
  • Use sentence case.

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Component maturity

This component meets 100% of our maturity criteria.

What does this mean?

Each component is tested against the following items to gauge the component's maturity. When using incomplete components, consider the unmet criteria as applied to your product.

For more information about how we tested and validated our work for each checklist item, read our component maturity documentation.