CSS: create shapes in pure css
It's been a long time ago that I first heard about creating shapes with pure CSS. Now things are evolving - as I've already explained in quite a few posts lately. Again, compatibility is like a proverbial sword, hanging on our heads, however, if we feel like experimenting, this article can actually be a good place.
I am going to show you how to create shapes in CSS. As said, nothing really new.
Using CSS3 transform, we can apply skews and obtain a parallelogram:
Or a trapezoid...
Basically here we take advantage of CSS pseudo-elements, and specifically :after. Following that idea, and using the :before pseudo element, we can create almost any kind of shape.
More complicated shapes can be create (like octagons or even hearts and infinite loop simbols), however in my opinion they might be only exercises with little day-to-day use.
Anyway, I hope you might have been inspired by the above examples and find it useful.
Please let me know what you think.
I am going to show you how to create shapes in CSS. As said, nothing really new.
Simple shapes
Let's start with very simple shapes..square {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: blue; }
.circle {
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
background: blue;
-moz-border-radius: 50px;
-webkit-border-radius: 50px;
border-radius: 50px; }
.triangle-up {
width: 0;
height: 0;
border-left: 50px solid transparent;
border-right: 50px solid transparent;
border-bottom: 100px solid blue; }
In order to change the triangle position, you can play with border-right, left, top and bottom, according to your needs. Removing one border, you can achieve different effects:.triangle-topleft {
width: 0;
height: 0;
border-top: 100px solid blue;
border-right: 100px solid transparent; }
Using CSS3 transform, we can apply skews and obtain a parallelogram:
.parallelogram {
width: 150px;
height: 100px;
-webkit-transform: skew(10deg);
-moz-transform: skew(10deg);
-o-transform: skew(10deg);
background: blue; }
Or a trapezoid...
.trapezoid {
border-bottom: 100px solid blue;
border-left: 50px solid transparent;
border-right: 50px solid transparent;
height: 0;
width: 100px; }
Complex shapes
How about a star?.star-six {
width: 0;
height: 0;
border-left: 50px solid transparent;
border-right: 50px solid transparent;
border-bottom: 100px solid blue;
position: relative; }
.star-six:after {
width: 0;
height: 0;
border-left: 50px solid transparent;
border-right: 50px solid transparent;
border-top: 100px solid blue;
position: absolute;
content: "";
top: 30px;
left: -50px; }
Basically here we take advantage of CSS pseudo-elements, and specifically :after. Following that idea, and using the :before pseudo element, we can create almost any kind of shape.
.pentagon {
position: relative;
width: 54px;
border-width: 50px 18px 0;
border-style: solid;
border-color: blue transparent; }
.pentagon:before {
content: "";
position: absolute;
height: 0;
width: 0;
top: -85px;
left: -18px;
border-width: 0 45px 35px;
border-style: solid;
border-color: transparent transparent blue; }
More complicated shapes can be create (like octagons or even hearts and infinite loop simbols), however in my opinion they might be only exercises with little day-to-day use.
Anyway, I hope you might have been inspired by the above examples and find it useful.
Please let me know what you think.