Element Picker – JavaScript HTML Element Picker Library

A lightweight JavaScript element picker library that lets developers visually select, inspect, and retrieve any hovered HTML element on a web page using point-and-click interaction. Ideal for building developer tools, browser extensions, page builders, QA tools, visual editors, and debugging utilities.

What is Element Picker?

Element Picker is a vanilla JavaScript utility that allows users to hover over elements on a page, visually highlight them, and select a target element via mouse click. Once selected, the library returns the underlying DOM element for inspection or further processing.

Common use cases include:

• HTML element inspection tools
• No-code and low-code editors
• Web page builders
• Visual QA and testing tools
• Browser extensions
• Debugging and developer utilities

How This Element Picker Differs From Browser DevTools and uBlock

Unlike browser developer tools or ad-blocker element pickers, this library is designed to be embedded directly into your own web applications.

• No browser extension required
• Works inside any JavaScript application
• Fully customizable hover styles
• Returns raw DOM elements for programmatic use
• Suitable for production tools, not just inspection

Install

npm install --save element-picker

Usage – Pick and Retrieve Any HTML Element

The element picker initializes a hover listener on the page. When the user clicks an element, the selected DOM node is returned via the onClick callback.

var elementPicker = require('element-picker')

function onClick(element) {
  console.log(element)
}

elementPicker.init({ onClick })

Options

backgroundColor {String} optional default='rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)'

The background color used when an element is being hovered.

Keywords

JavaScript element picker, HTML element picker, DOM picker, hover element selector, visual element selector, JavaScript DOM inspector, UI element picker, page element selector

License

MIT. Copyright (C) James Bechet (https://jamesbechet.github.io/jamesbechet/).