Change Dropdown Color in Flutter (Ultimate Guide 2023)

The DropdownButton is one of the important widgets in building the form. It is used to allow users to select an item from the list of options. For example, gender selection. But sometimes, you may want to change its default appearance to match your design. So in this tutorial, we’ll see how to change Dropdown color in Flutter.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• Change dropdown button color in Flutter
• Changing dropdown arrow color in Flutter
• Change the dropdown menu item background color
• Change the dropdown menu text color
• Changing the underline color of dropdown
• Change the color of selected text in the dropdown

Change dropdown button color in Flutter

To change the dropdown Button color in Flutter, simply wrap your DropdownButton widget inside the Container and provide the styling instructions inside the decoration property using the BoxDecoration widget. Using the color property (insideBoxDecoration) you can assign the color.

To change the dropdown button color:

1. Wrap your DropdownButton inside the Container. 
2. Inside the Container, add the decoration property and assign the BoxDecoration widget.
3. Inside the BoxDecoration add the color property and assign the color of your choice.
4. Run the app.

Code Example

Container(
  padding: EdgeInsets.all(8),
  decoration: BoxDecoration(
    color: Colors.greenAccent, //<-- SEE HERE
  ),
  child: DropdownButton<String>(
    value: dropdownValue,
    onChanged: (String? newValue) {
      setState(() {
        dropdownValue = newValue!;
      });
    },
    items: <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
        .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((String value) {
      return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
        value: value,
        child: Text(
          value,
        ),
      );
    }).toList(),
  ),
)

Output

Also, see how to add color from hex. By using hex codes, you can easily create colors that match your brand or design vision.

Changing dropdown arrow color in Flutter

To change dropdown arrow color in Flutter, you can add the same arrow icon inside the icon property and change the color using the color property.

Here are the steps:

1. Inside the DropdownButton widget, add the icon parameter and assign the Icon widget.
2. Inside the Icon widget, add the Icons.arrow_drop_down icon.
3. Also, add the color parameter and assign the color.

Code Example

Container(
  padding: EdgeInsets.all(8),
  decoration: BoxDecoration(
    color: Colors.greenAccent, 
  ),
  child: DropdownButton<String>(
    value: dropdownValue,
    icon: Icon(
      Icons.arrow_drop_down, 
      color: Colors.black, // <-- SEE HERE
    ),
    onChanged: (String? newValue) {
      setState(() {
        dropdownValue = newValue!;
      });
    },
    items: <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
        .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((String value) {
      return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
        value: value,
        child: Text(
          value,
        ),
      );
    }).toList(),
  ),
)

Output

Change the dropdown menu item background color

To change the dropdown menu item background color, you can use the dropdownColor property and assign the color of your choice.

Code Example

DropdownButton<String>(
  value: dropdownValue,
  dropdownColor: Colors.amberAccent, //<-- SEE HERE
  onChanged: (String? newValue) {
    setState(() {
      dropdownValue = newValue!;
    });
  },
  items: <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
      .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((String value) {
    return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
      value: value,
      child: Text(
        value,
      ),
    );
  }).toList(),
)

Output

Change the dropdown menu text color

To change the dropdown menu text color, use the style property and assign the TextStyle widget with the parameter called color.

Code Example

DropdownButton<String>(
  value: dropdownValue,
  style: const TextStyle(
      color: Colors.deepPurple, //<-- SEE HERE
      fontSize: 25,
      fontWeight: FontWeight.bold),
  onChanged: (String? newValue) {
    setState(() {
      dropdownValue = newValue!;
    });
  },
  items: <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
      .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((String value) {
    return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
      value: value,
      child: Text(
        value,
      ),
    );
  }).toList(),
)

Output

Changing the underline color of dropdown

If you notice carefully, you might find the thin underline below the selected item. To change underline color use the underline property of the Dropdown widget and then assign the Container widget with height and color property.

Here’s how you do it

1. Inside the Dropdown widget, and add the underline property and assign the Container widget.
2. Inside the Container, add the color property and assign the color.
3. (Optional) Inside the Container, add the height property and give it a value like 2 or 3.

Code Example

DropdownButton<String>(
  value: dropdownValue,
  underline: Container(
    height: 3,
    color: Colors.deepPurpleAccent, //<-- SEE HERE
  ),
  onChanged: (String? newValue) {
    setState(() {
      dropdownValue = newValue!;
    });
  },
  items: <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
      .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((String value) {
    return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
      value: value,
      child: Text(
        value,
      ),
    );
  }).toList(),
)

Output

Change the color of selected text in the dropdown

To change the color of the selected text inside the dropdown button in Flutter, you can make use of the selectedItemBuilder and create a new widget that shows when the item is selected. The idea is to pass the same Text with a different color.

Code Example

DropdownButton<String>(
  value: dropdownValue,
  onChanged: (String? newValue) {
    setState(() {
      dropdownValue = newValue!;
    });
  },
  selectedItemBuilder: (BuildContext context) { //<-- SEE HERE
    return <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
        .map((String value) {
      return Text(
        dropdownValue,
        style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.red, fontSize: 30),
      );
    }).toList();
  },
  items: <String>['Car', 'Train', 'Bus', 'Flight']
      .map<DropdownMenuItem<String>>((String value) {
    return DropdownMenuItem<String>(
      value: value,
      child: Text(
        value,
      ),
    );
  }).toList(),
)

Output

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to change dropdown color in Flutter. We first saw how to change the dropdown button color and then its arrow color. We also explored how to customize the dropdown widget using other properties. Finally, we saw changing the selected text color.

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