Guides
Step-by-step answers: installing a custom cursor on Windows and macOS, changing the cursor with CSS, adding one in a site builder, and the size limits you will run into.
Designers and developers exporting cursor files
Five file types turn up around cursors, and they are not interchangeable. This is what each one stores, where it works, and what to export for the web, Windows and Mac.
Designers and developers making animated cursors for Windows
An .ani file is a stack of ordinary cursor images plus a little timing information. Once you know how frames, steps and jiffies fit together, you can make animated cursors that play at the speed you meant.
Front-end developers debugging custom cursors
A custom cursor that works in the middle of the page and turns back into the arrow near the top is not a bug in your CSS. Browsers limit cursor images on purpose. Here are the exact rules and how to design inside them.
Designers building on Webflow, Framer, Wix or Squarespace
Every big site builder can change the cursor, but each does it differently and some hide the useful part behind custom code. Here is the shortest route in each one, plus the checks that save you from a cursor that vanishes on the live site.
Mac users who want a different pointer, and designers exporting cursors for Mac
Unlike Windows, macOS has no built-in way to install a cursor pack. You can still make the pointer bigger and recolour it, replace it completely with a community tool, or give your website its own cursor with CSS.
Front-end developers and designers writing CSS
One property controls the mouse cursor in CSS. This guide goes from a single keyword to a custom image with a hotspot and fallbacks, then covers the cases that trip people up.
Brand and UI designers
A logo makes a memorable cursor, but only if it still reads at 32 pixels and people can tell where it clicks. These steps take a brand mark from your design file to a cursor that works on the web and on Windows.
PC customizers and anyone installing a cursor pack on Windows 11
Windows 11 still uses the classic Mouse Properties window for cursors. Here is how to install a pack in a minute, set cursors one by one, keep them sharp at any size, and get the default back.