Make custom scrollbar for your website

Surely your website will stand out more if the scrollbars are customized. They can help portray key design aspects of a website, whether it's a particular color or a particular style.

In this article, I will use SimpleBar plugin to replace the browser's default scrollbar with a custom styled.

First, you need to put this code inside the <head> tag:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/simplebar@latest/dist/simplebar.css"
/>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/simplebar@latest/dist/simplebar.min.js"></script>

Notice: You can download and replace the link for use on local website.

For sites that use the Joomla source code, you can add it from the template's settings or using the Custom HTML module.

In case of using Custom HTML Module, skip the <link> tag and insert the entire CSS below:

[data-simplebar] {
  position: relative;
  flex-direction: column;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  justify-content: flex-start;
  align-content: flex-start;
  align-items: flex-start;
}

.simplebar-wrapper {
  overflow: hidden;
  width: inherit;
  height: inherit;
  max-width: inherit;
  max-height: inherit;
}

.simplebar-mask {
  direction: inherit;
  position: absolute;
  overflow: hidden;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  width: auto !important;
  height: auto !important;
  z-index: 0;
}

.simplebar-offset {
  direction: inherit !important;
  box-sizing: inherit !important;
  resize: none !important;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;
}

.simplebar-content-wrapper {
  direction: inherit;
  box-sizing: border-box !important;
  position: relative;
  display: block;
  height: 100%; /* Required for horizontal native scrollbar to not appear if parent is taller than natural height */
  width: auto;
  max-width: 100%; /* Not required for horizontal scroll to trigger */
  max-height: 100%; /* Needed for vertical scroll to trigger */
  scrollbar-width: none;
  -ms-overflow-style: none;
}

.simplebar-content-wrapper::-webkit-scrollbar,
.simplebar-hide-scrollbar::-webkit-scrollbar {
  width: 0;
  height: 0;
}

.simplebar-content:before,
.simplebar-content:after {
  content: ' ';
  display: table;
}

.simplebar-placeholder {
  max-height: 100%;
  max-width: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  pointer-events: none;
}

.simplebar-height-auto-observer-wrapper {
  box-sizing: inherit !important;
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
  max-width: 1px;
  position: relative;
  float: left;
  max-height: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  z-index: -1;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  pointer-events: none;
  flex-grow: inherit;
  flex-shrink: 0;
  flex-basis: 0;
}

.simplebar-height-auto-observer {
  box-sizing: inherit;
  display: block;
  opacity: 0;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  height: 1000%;
  width: 1000%;
  min-height: 1px;
  min-width: 1px;
  overflow: hidden;
  pointer-events: none;
  z-index: -1;
}

.simplebar-track {
  z-index: 1;
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  pointer-events: none;
  overflow: hidden;
}

[data-simplebar].simplebar-dragging .simplebar-content {
  pointer-events: none;
  user-select: none;
  -webkit-user-select: none;
}

[data-simplebar].simplebar-dragging .simplebar-track {
  pointer-events: all;
}

.simplebar-scrollbar {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  right: 0;
  min-height: 10px;
}

.simplebar-scrollbar:before {
  position: absolute;
  content: '';
  background: black;
  border-radius: 7px;
  left: 2px;
  right: 2px;
  opacity: 0;
  transition: opacity 0.2s linear;
}

.simplebar-scrollbar.simplebar-visible:before {
  /* When hovered, remove all transitions from drag handle */
  opacity: 0.5;
  transition: opacity 0s linear;
}

.simplebar-track.simplebar-vertical {
  top: 0;
  width: 11px;
}

.simplebar-track.simplebar-vertical .simplebar-scrollbar:before {
  top: 2px;
  bottom: 2px;
}

.simplebar-track.simplebar-horizontal {
  left: 0;
  height: 11px;
}

.simplebar-track.simplebar-horizontal .simplebar-scrollbar:before {
  height: 100%;
  left: 2px;
  right: 2px;
}

.simplebar-track.simplebar-horizontal .simplebar-scrollbar {
  right: auto;
  left: 0;
  top: 2px;
  height: 7px;
  min-height: 0;
  min-width: 10px;
  width: auto;
}

/* Rtl support */
[data-simplebar-direction='rtl'] .simplebar-track.simplebar-vertical {
  right: auto;
  left: 0;
}

.hs-dummy-scrollbar-size {
  direction: rtl;
  position: fixed;
  opacity: 0;
  visibility: hidden;
  height: 500px;
  width: 500px;
  overflow-y: hidden;
  overflow-x: scroll;
}

.simplebar-hide-scrollbar {
  position: fixed;
  left: 0;
  visibility: hidden;
  overflow-y: scroll;
  scrollbar-width: none;
  -ms-overflow-style: none;
}

Set data-simplebar on the element you want your custom scrollbar.

<div data-simplebar></div>

This is the fastest way, but in some cases you can use the following code to target other elements:

Javascript:

new SimpleBar(document.getElementById('myElement'));

jQuery:

jQuery: new SimpleBar($('myElement')[0]);

The default styling is applied with CSS. There is no "built-in" way to style the scrollbar, you just need to override the default CSS.

Example to change the color of the scrollbar:

.simplebar-scrollbar::before {
	background-color: red;
}

You can find these properties from the CSS File.