How to add images in select list?

I have a select list of genders.

Code:

<select>
<option>male</option>
<option>female</option>
<option>others</option>
</select>  

I want to use an image in drop down list as drop-down-icon.jpeg.

I want to add a button in place of drop down icon.

How to do that?

In Firefox you can just add background image to option:

<select>
  <option style="background-image:url(male.png);">male</option>
  <option style="background-image:url(female.png);">female</option>
  <option style="background-image:url(others.png);">others</option>
</select> 

Better yet, you can separate HTML and CSS like that

HTML

<select id="gender">
  <option>male</option>
  <option>female</option>
  <option>others</option>
</select>  

CSS

select#gender option[value="male"]   { background-image:url(male.png);   }
select#gender option[value="female"] { background-image:url(female.png); }
select#gender option[value="others"] { background-image:url(others.png); }

In other browsers the only way of doing that would be using some JS widget library, like for example jQuery UI, e.g. using Selectable.

From jQuery UI 1.11, Selectmenu widget is available, which is very close to what you want.

You can use iconselect.js; Icon/image select (combobox, dropdown)

Demo and download; http://bug7a.github.io/iconselect.js/

HTML usage;

<div id="my-icon-select"></div>

Javascript usage;

    var iconSelect;

    window.onload = function(){

        iconSelect = new IconSelect("my-icon-select");

        var icons = [];
        icons.push({'iconFilePath':'images/icons/1.png', 'iconValue':'1'});
        icons.push({'iconFilePath':'images/icons/2.png', 'iconValue':'2'});
        icons.push({'iconFilePath':'images/icons/3.png', 'iconValue':'3'});
        
        iconSelect.refresh(icons);

    };
		

My solution is to use FontAwesome and then add library images as text! You just need the Unicodes and they are found here: FontAwesome Reference File forUnicodes

Here is an example state filter:

<select name='state' style='height: 45px; font-family:Arial, FontAwesome;'>
<option value=''>&#xf039; &nbsp; All States</option>
<option value='enabled' style='color:green;'>&#xf00c; &nbsp; Enabled</option>
<option value='paused' style='color:orange;'>&#xf04c; &nbsp; Paused</option>
<option value='archived' style='color:red;'>&#xf023; &nbsp; Archived</option>
</select>

> Note the font-family:Arial, FontAwesome; is required to be assigned in style for select like given in the example!

With countries, languages or currency you may use emojis.

Works with pretty much every browser/OS that supports the use of emojis.

select {
 height: 50px;
 line-height: 50px;
 font-size: 12pt;
}

<select name="countries">
    <option value="NL">🇳🇱&emsp;Netherlands</option>
    <option value="DE">🇩🇪&emsp;Germany</option>
    <option value="FR">🇫🇷&emsp;France</option>
    <option value="ES">🇪🇸&emsp;Spain</option>
</select>

<br /><br />

<select name="currency">
    <option value="EUR">🇪🇺&emsp;€&emsp;EUR&emsp;💶</option>
    <option value="GBP">🇬🇧&emsp;£&emsp;GBP&emsp;💷</option>
    <option value="USD">🇺🇸&emsp;$&emsp;USD&emsp;💵</option>
    <option value="YEN">🇯🇵&emsp;¥&emsp;YEN&emsp;💴</option>
</select>

You already have several answers that suggest using JavaScript/jQuery. I am going to add an alternative that only uses HTML and CSS without any JS.

The basic idea is to use a set of radio buttons and labels (that will activate/deactivate the radio buttons), and with CSS control that only the label associated to the selected radio button will be displayed. If you want to allow selecting multiple values, you could achieve it by using checkboxes instead of radio buttons.

Here is an example. The code may be a bit messier (specially compared to the other solutions):

.select-sim {
  width:200px;
  height:22px;
  line-height:22px;
  vertical-align:middle;
  position:relative;
  background:white;
  border:1px solid #ccc;
  overflow:hidden;
}

.select-sim::after {
  content:"▼";
  font-size:0.5em;
  font-family:arial;
  position:absolute;
  top:50%;
  right:5px;
  transform:translate(0, -50%);
}

.select-sim:hover::after {
  content:"";
}

.select-sim:hover {
  overflow:visible;
}

.select-sim:hover .options .option label {
  display:inline-block;
}

.select-sim:hover .options {
  background:white;
  border:1px solid #ccc;
  position:absolute;
  top:-1px;
  left:-1px;
  width:100%;
  height:88px;
  overflow-y:scroll;
}

.select-sim .options .option {
  overflow:hidden;
}

.select-sim:hover .options .option {
  height:22px;
  overflow:hidden;
}

.select-sim .options .option img {
  vertical-align:middle;
}

.select-sim .options .option label {
  display:none;
}

.select-sim .options .option input {
  width:0;
  height:0;
  overflow:hidden;
  margin:0;
  padding:0;
  float:left;
  display:inline-block;
  /* fix specific for Firefox */
  position: absolute;
  left: -10000px;
}

.select-sim .options .option input:checked + label {
  display:block;
  width:100%;
}

.select-sim:hover .options .option input + label {
  display:block;
}

.select-sim:hover .options .option input:checked + label {
  background:#fffff0;
}

<div class="select-sim" id="select-color">
  <div class="options">
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="" id="color-" checked />
      <label for="color-">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/ffffff/ffffff" alt="" /> Select an option
      </label>
    </div>
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="red" id="color-red" />
      <label for="color-red">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/ff0000/ffffff" alt="" /> Red
      </label>
    </div>
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="green" id="color-green" />
      <label for="color-green">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/00ff00/ffffff" alt="" /> Green
      </label>
    </div>
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="blue" id="color-blue" />
      <label for="color-blue">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/0000ff/ffffff" alt="" /> Blue
      </label>
    </div>
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="yellow" id="color-yellow" />
      <label for="color-yellow">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/ffff00/ffffff" alt="" /> Yellow
      </label>
    </div>
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="pink" id="color-pink" />
      <label for="color-pink">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/ff00ff/ffffff" alt="" /> Pink
      </label>
    </div>
    <div class="option">
      <input type="radio" name="color" value="turquoise" id="color-turquoise" />
      <label for="color-turquoise">
        <img src="http://placehold.it/22/00ffff/ffffff" alt="" /> Turquoise
      </label>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

Another jQuery cross-browser solution for this problem is http://designwithpc.com/Plugins/ddSlick which is made for exactly this use.

For a two color image, you can use Fontello, and import any custom glyph you want to use. Just make your image in Illustrator, save to SVG, and drop it onto the Fontello site, then download your custom font ready to import. No JavaScript!

Alvaros JS free answer was a great start for me, and I really tried to get a truly JS-free answer that still delivered all the functionality expected of a Select with images, but sadly nesting forms was the down-fall. I'm posting two solutions here; my main solution that uses 1 line of JavaScript, and a totally JavaScript-free solution that won't work inside another form, but might be useful for nav menus.

Unfortunately there is a bit of repetition in the code, but when you think about what a Select does it makes sense. When you click on an option it copies that text to the selected area, i.e., clicking 1 of 4 options will not change the 4 options, but the top will now repeat the one you clicked. To do this with images would require JavaScript, orrrr... you duplicate the entries.

In my example we have a list of games (Products), which have versions. Each product may also have Expansions, which can also have versions. For each Product we give the user a list of each version if there's more than one, along with an image and version specific text.

<h4>@Model.Name</h4>
@if (Model.Versions.Count == 1)
{
    <div class="rich-select-option-body pl-2">
        <img src="@Model.Versions[0].ImageUrl" alt="">@Model.Versions[0].VersionName (@Model.Versions[0].Year)
    </div>
}
else
{
    <h5>Select the version</h5>
    <div class="rich-select custom-select">
        <div class="rich-select-dropdown">
            @foreach (var version in Model.Versions)
            {
                <div class="rich-select-option">
                    <input type="radio" name="game" id="game-@version.ProductId-@version.VersionId" @if (version == Model.Versions.First()) { @Html.Raw(" checked") ; } />
                    <div class="rich-select-option-body">
                        <label tabindex="-1">
                            <img src="@version.ImageUrl" alt="">@version.VersionName (@version.Year)
                        </label>
                    </div>
                </div>
            }
        </div>
        <input type="checkbox" id="rich-select-dropdown-button" class="rich-select-dropdown-button" />
        <label for="rich-select-dropdown-button"></label>
        <div class="rich-select-options">
            @foreach (var version in Model.Versions)
            {
                <div class="rich-select-option">
                    <div class="rich-select-option-body">
                        <label for="game-@version.ProductId-@version.VersionId" tabindex="-1" onclick="document.getElementById('rich-select-dropdown-button').click();">
                            <img src="@version.ImageUrl" alt=""> @version.VersionName (@version.Year)
                        </label>
                    </div>
                </div>
            }
        </div>
    </div>
}

Using JS for the checkbox deselection we can have multiple instances on a form. Here I've extended to show a list of Expansions, which also have the same logic around versions.

<h5 class="mt-3">Include Expansions?</h5>
@foreach (var expansion in Model.Expansions)
{
    <div class="form-row">
        <div class="custom-control custom-checkbox w-100">
            <input type="checkbox" class="expansion-checkbox custom-control-input" id="[email protected]">
            <label class="custom-control-label w-100" for="[email protected]">

                @if (expansion.Versions.Count == 1)
                {
                    <div class="rich-select-option-body pl-2">
                        <img src="@expansion.ImageUrl" />@expansion.Name: @expansion.Versions[0].VersionName (@expansion.Versions[0].Year)
                    </div>
                }
                else
                {
                    <div class="rich-select custom-select">
                        <div class="rich-select-dropdown">
                            @foreach (var version in expansion.Versions)
                            {
                                <div class="rich-select-option">
                                    <input type="radio" name="[email protected]" id="[email protected]@version.VersionId" @if (version == expansion.Versions.First()) { @Html.Raw(" checked") ; } />
                                    <div class="rich-select-option-body">
                                        <label tabindex="-1">
                                            <img src="@version.ImageUrl" alt="">@expansion.Name: @version.VersionName (@version.Year)
                                        </label>
                                    </div>
                                </div>
                            }
                        </div>
                                    
                        <input type="checkbox" id="[email protected]" class="rich-select-dropdown-button" />
                        <label for="[email protected]"></label>
                        <div class="rich-select-options">
                            @foreach (var version in expansion.Versions)
                            {
                                <div class="rich-select-option">
                                    <div class="rich-select-option-body">
                                        <label for="[email protected]@version.VersionId" tabindex="-1" onclick="document.getElementById('[email protected]').click();">
                                            <img src="@version.ImageUrl" alt="">@expansion.Name: @version.VersionName (@version.Year)
                                        </label>
                                    </div>
                                </div>
                            }
                        </div>
                    </div>
                }
            </label>
        </div>
    </div>

Of course this requires a fair bit of CSS, which I've only included in this JSFiddle to reduce the size of this already massive answer. I've used Bootstrap 4 to reduce the amount needed, and also to allow it to fit in with other Bootstrap controls and any site customisations that have been made.

The images are set to 75px, but this can easily be changed in 5 lines in .rich-select and .rich-select-option-body img

For those wanting to display an icon, and accepting a "black and white" solution, one possibility is using character entities:

   <select>
      <option>100 &euro;</option>
      <option>89 &pound;</option>
    </select>

By extension, your icons can be stored in a custom font. Here's an example using the font FontAwesome: https://jsfiddle.net/14606fv9/2/ https://jsfiddle.net/14606fv9/2/

One benefit is that it doesn't require any Javascript. However, pay attention that loading the full font doesn't slow down the loading of your page.

Nota bene: The solution of using a background image doesn't seem working anymore in Firefox (at least in version 57 "Quantum"):

<select>
  <option style="background-image:url(euro.png);">100</option>
  <option style="background-image:url(pound.png);">89</option>
</select>

This is using ms-Dropdown : https://github.com/marghoobsuleman/ms-Dropdown

Data resource is json. But you dont need to use json. If you want you can use with css.

Css example : https://github.com/marghoobsuleman/ms-Dropdown/tree/master/examples

Json Example : http://jsfiddle.net/tcibikci/w3rdhj4s/6

HTML

<div id="byjson"></div>

Script

<script>
        var jsonData = [
            {description:'Choos your payment gateway', value:'', text:'Payment Gateway'},
            {image:'https://via.placeholder.com/50', description:'My life. My card...', value:'amex', text:'Amex'},
            {image:'https://via.placeholder.com/50', description:'It pays to Discover...', value:'Discover', text:'Discover'},
            {image:'https://via.placeholder.com/50', title:'For everything else...', description:'For everything else...', value:'Mastercard', text:'Mastercard'},
            {image:'https://via.placeholder.com/50', description:'Sorry not available...', value:'cash', text:'Cash on devlivery', disabled:true},
            {image:'https://via.placeholder.com/50', description:'All you need...', value:'Visa', text:'Visa'},
            {image:'https://via.placeholder.com/50', description:'Pay and get paid...', value:'Paypal', text:'Paypal'}
        ];
        $("#byjson").msDropDown({byJson:{data:jsonData, name:'payments2'}}).data("dd");
    }
</script>

I propose an alternative when I'm in a difficult situation like this using dxlookup from devexpress

Examples:https://js.devexpress.com/Demos/WidgetsGallery/Demo/Lookup/Templates/jQuery/Light/

I got the same issue. My solution was a foreach of radio buttons, with the image at the right of it. Since you can only choose a single option at radio, it works (like) a select.

Worked well for me.

I tried several jquery based custom select with images, but none worked in responsive layouts. Finally i came accross Bootstrap-Select. After some modifications i was able to produce this code.

Code and github repo here

UPDATE: As of 2018, this seems to work now. Tested in Chrome, Firefox, IE and Edge

UPDATE: Yes I changed the background-color, not the image, stop voting me down, showing that you can change style here is still a useful contribution.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<style>
select#newlocale option[value="volvo"]   { background-color: powderblue;   }
select#newlocale option[value="opel"]   { background-color: red;   }
select#newlocale option[value="audi"]   { background-color: green;   }
</style> 

<select id="newlocale">
  <option value="volvo"><div >Volvo</div></option>
  <option value="saab">Saab</option>
  <option value="opel">Opel</option>
  <option value="audi">Audi</option>
</select>
  
</body>
</html>