Kashif Mushtaq » CSS

Simple Double Quotes

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:24:53 +0000

This CSS tutorial will show you how to display two double-quote images using one blockquote tag. The trick here is apply one background image to blockquote, and then apply another background to the first-letter (pseudo-element) of blockquote.

Preview double quotes
Download HTML file

1. HTML source code

Start with a blockquote and some text.

<blockquote>Hello, I am a double quote...blockquote>

2. Specify blockquote

Specify blockquote element as follow:

blockquote {
  font: 1.2em/1.6em Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
  width: 400px;
  background: url(images/close-quote.gif) no-repeat right bottom;
  padding-left: 18px;
  text-indent: -18px;
}

The CSS code above will display the close-quote.gif graphic background at bottom right corner. The padding-left and text-indent will create a hanging indent of -18px. It will look like this:

3. First letter of blockquote

Now add 18px left padding to the first-letter of blockquote. This will make the text align together. Then display the open-quote.gif at top left corner. Note I made the first letter in different font styles just to look nice.

blockquote:first-letter {
  background: url(images/open-quote.gif) no-repeat left top;
  padding-left: 18px;
  font: italic 1.4em Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
}

Pullquote style

If you want to make a pullquote, simply specify the blockquote float left or right. View my pullquote sample.

CSS: Gradient Text Effect

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:16:27 +0000

Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash). All you need is an empty tag in the heading and apply the background image overlay using the CSS position:absolute property. This trick has been tested on most browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even Internet Explorer 6. Continue to read this article to find out how.

Benefits

This is pure CSS trick, no Javascript or Flash. It works on most browsers including IE6 (PNG hack required).
It is perfect for designing headings. You don’t have to render each heading with Photoshop. This will save you time and bandwidth.
You can use on any web fonts and the font size remains scalable.

How does this work?

The trick is very simple. Basically we are just adding a 1px gradient PNG (with alpha transparency) over the text.

The HTML markups

<h1><span>span>CSS Gradient Texth1>

The CSS

The key point here is: h1 { position: relative } and h1 span { position: absolute }

h1 {
  font: bold 330%/100% "Lucida Grande";
  position: relative;
  color: #464646;
}
h1 span {
  background: url(gradient.png) repeat-x;
  position: absolute;
  display: block;
  width: 100%;
  height: 31px;
}

That’s it! You are done. Click here to view my demo page.

Make it work on IE6

Since IE6 doesn’t render PNG-24 properly, the following hack is required in order to display the transparent PNG (add anywhere in between the tag):

This is why we hate IE 6!

jQuery prepend version (for semantic lovers)

If you don’t want to have the empty tag in the heading, you can use Javascript to prepend the tag. Here is a sample using jQuery prepend method:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js">script>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){

  //prepend span tag to H1
  $("h1").prepend("<span>span>");

});
script>

More samples

Want to make ~~Web 2.0~~ glossy text?

Literally, you can apply this trick on any solid background color (as long your gradient color is the same as your background color).

Pattern / Texture

You can also apply this trick with a tile background image. Look, here is an example of zebra pattern. So, be creative!

Limitations and more…

This trick is only suitable for solid background color elements. Your gradient color (PNG image) must be the same color as your background color.
IE PNG hack is required if you want it to work on IE 6.
If your gradient image is taller than the heading, the text will not be selectable.

CSS: Decorative Gallery

admin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:08:36 +0000

Did you like my previous CSS tutorial on how to create gradient text effects? I’m using the same trick to show you how to decorate your images and photo galleries without editing the source images. The trick is very simple. All you need is an extra tag and apply a background image to create the overlaying effect. It is very easy and flexible — see my demos with over 20 styles, from a simple image icon to a rounded corner to a masked layer (both decorative and complex).

What Are The Benefits Of This CSS Trick?

Saves Time — You don’t have to manually create the decorative template in Photoshop and export the individual image.
Keeps Original Source Images — So you don’t have to worry about changing the design theme in the future.
Very Flexible — You can have a completely different look and feel by just editing the CSS.
It Works on Any Site — This CSS trick works on any type of site, with any image size.
Cross-Browser CompatIble — It has passed the test on most browsers (Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even the “buggy IE6“).

Basic Concept (see demo)

You need to insert an extra tag within the

tag, with which we’ll apply a background image to create the overlaying effect. If you don’t like to have an empty span tag, you can append the span tag by Javascript (I’ll show you how later in this tutorial). Here is how it works:

Then in the CSS, the key point you have to remember is: specify the div element to position:relative and the span element to position:absolute. You can position the span element anywhere you want by using the top and left property.

IE PNG Hack

To make the transparent PNG image work on IE6, I use this wonderful iepngfix.htc hack. Download a copy of iepngfix.htc and insert the following code in between the tag:

Look and Feel

To change the look and feel, simply edit the CSS specifications of the span element. Click the image below to see the demos I have. To show you how flexible it is, I’ve created 15 different styles (notice the HTML markup is same).

The jQuery Solution (see demo)

I know some of you (particularly the web accessibility fans) don’t like to have an empty span tag in the markup. Well, I’ve solved this issue by using jQuery to append the span tag to the source code. Insert the following code in between the tag:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js">script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){

  //prepend span tag
  $(".photo a").prepend("<span>span>");

});
script>

#1. Simple Gallery (see demo)

Let’s take the technique from the previous step and apply it to create a photo gallery.

#1b. Mini Icons (see demo)

This example shows you how to position different icons on top of each photo (note: an extra CSS class name is required in the span tag).

#2. Photo With Text (see demo)

This example shows you how to create a gallery with linking text (em tag).

#2b. Popup Text (see demo)

#3. Mini Paper Clip (see demo)

#4. Cork Board Gallery (see demo, IE6 version)

sIFR Version (Flash Text Replacement) (see sIFR demo)

This example uses sIFR to replace the em text with a handwritten font (notes: in this demo, the span tag is appended by jQuery)

#4b. Cork Board With Masking Tape (see demo, IE6 version)

#5. Art Gallery – Black Frame (see demo)

#5b. Art Gallery – Gold Frame (see demo)

#6. Grungy Watercolor (see demo)

sIFR Version (see sIFR demo)

#7. Glossy Style (see demo)

#8. Wood Panel Gallery (see demo)

Finally, this example demonstrates how you can apply the background image to all elements to create a wood panel gallery: ul, li, and em.

Final Remarks

As you can see, this CSS trick is very flexible. So, be creative! Feel free to incorporate the graphic images and CSS styles in this tutorial to create your own.

Advanced CSS Menu

admin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:09:58 +0000

This tutorial I will show you how to slice up the menu design (step by step) and put them together with CSS. Most of you probably know how to code a horizontal or vertical CSS list menu. Now let’s take it to the next level — code an advanced (un-typical) list menu utilizing the CSS position property.

Overview

Here are the required graphics to assembe the menu (you can download from the zip).

1. Main background

Open the Photoshop file. Turn off the menu text Layer Group and save the main background as menu-bg.jpg.

2. Button graphics

Turn off the background Layer Group and leave only the menu text layers visible. Make a rectangle selection cover the “home” item, go to menu Edit > Copy Merged (Cmd + Shift + C).

Create a new file and take note of the file dimension (w x h), in my case the “home” graphic is 144 x 58px. Paste the “home” graphic in the new file. Go to menu Image > Canvas Size, adjust the image height x 2 (58 + 58 = 116px). Duplicate the home graphic layer and align it to the bottom. Erase the highlight strokes in the upper layer.

Here is how the hover effect will work. We will set the link button to 144 x 58px, when mouseover, we will shift the background image from top to bottom.

Repeat this step for the other buttons. You should have the follow graphics:

3. HTML source

When you are done with the graphics, let’s start coding. Start with an un-ordered list

note there is an id=”menu” assigned to the

an unique class name assigned to each link

an empty tag (the purpose of this is to make the mouseover effect)


<ul id="menu">
  <li><a href="#" class="home">Home <span>span>a>li>
  <li><a href="#" class="about">About <span>span>a>li>
  <li><a href="#" class="rss">RSS <span>span>a>li>
ul>

#menu

Reset the menu to no padding, no margin, and no list-style. Specify the width and height same dimension as the menu-bg.jpg. Then attach the menu background image. The key point to remember here is set the position property to relative.

#menu {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  width: 774px;
  height: 210px;
  background: url(images/menu-bg.jpg) no-repeat;
  position: relative;
}

#menu span

Specify the span element to display:none (so they will be invisible by default). Specify position:absolute, so we can place the mouseover GIF image on exact position.

#menu span {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
}

#menu a

The key point here is the text-indent property. We specify the text-indent property with a negative value (-900%), so the text will be hidden.

#menu a {
  display: block;
  text-indent: -900%;
  position: absolute;
  outline: none;
}

#menu a:hover

When mouseover the link, we want to shift the background image from top to bottom.

#menu a:hover {
  background-position: left bottom;
}

#menu a:hover span

When mouseover the link, we want the span element to display:block.

#menu a:hover span {
  display: block;
}

#menu .home

Specify the width, height, and background image. Since we already specified all element postition:absolute in previous step, now just say where the .home button should be by specifying the left and top property.

#menu .home {
  width: 144px;
  height: 58px;
  background: url(images/home.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 96px;
  top: 73px;
}

#menu .home span

Here we are specifying the width, height, background, and position of the span element of .home (mouseover GIF image)

#menu .home span {
  width: 86px;
  height: 14px;
  background: url(images/home-over.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 28px;
  top: -20px;
}

#menu .about

Copy the .home rules and rename them to .about. Now just change the width, height, background, left, and top property.

#menu .about {
  width: 131px;
  height: 51px;
  background: url(images/about.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 338px;
  top: 97px;
}
#menu .about span {
  width: 40px;
  height: 12px;
  background: url(images/about-over.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 44px;
  top: 54px;
}

#menu .rss

Repeat this step for .rss

#menu .rss {
  width: 112px;
  height: 47px;
  background: url(images/rss.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 588px;
  top: 94px;
}
#menu .rss span {
  width: 92px;
  height: 20px;
  background: url(images/rss-over.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 26px;
  top: -20px;
}

All in one:

#menu {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  width: 774px;
  height: 210px;
  background: url(images/menu-bg.jpg) no-repeat;
  position: relative;
}
#menu span {
  display: none;
  position: absolute;
}
#menu a {
  display: block;
  text-indent: -900%;
  position: absolute;
  outline: none;
}
#menu a:hover {
  background-position: left bottom;
}
#menu a:hover span {
  display: block;
}

#menu .home {
  width: 144px;
  height: 58px;
  background: url(images/home.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 96px;
  top: 73px;
}
#menu .home span {
  width: 86px;
  height: 14px;
  background: url(images/home-over.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 28px;
  top: -20px;
}

#menu .about {
  width: 131px;
  height: 51px;
  background: url(images/about.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 338px;
  top: 97px;
}
#menu .about span {
  width: 40px;
  height: 12px;
  background: url(images/about-over.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 44px;
  top: 54px;
}

#menu .rss {
  width: 112px;
  height: 47px;
  background: url(images/rss.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 588px;
  top: 94px;
}
#menu .rss span {
  width: 92px;
  height: 20px;
  background: url(images/rss-over.gif) no-repeat;
  left: 26px;
  top: -20px;
}

Done

That’s it. You can preview my CSS menu.

Note: there is an IE6 bug where the hover effect doesn’t display properly. To fix that, you can use Javascript to specify the to display block on mouseover.

CSS: The All-Expandable Box

admin — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:04:18 +0000

In HTML, if you don’t specify a specific width, block-level elements are vertically expandable by their nature. Think of an unordered list. That list will grow be be as big as it needs to be to fit all of it’s list elements. If a user increases the font size in their browser, the list will expand vertically, growing to fit the larger content. Sometimes it feels like vertical-only expansion is limiting and it would be nice if the element could grow horizontally as well as vertically with a font size increase by the user.

Abstract

If you have been using the Firefox 3 beta much, you might notice that it handles this automatically. Increasing the size in Firefox 3 doesn’t just increase the font size, it increases everything in size, which actually feel really natural and nice. But despite it’s growing market share, we can’t count on Firefox for the resizing needs of our users.

I am going to attempt to explain how to make an All-Expandable box, with the following features:

Works in all major browsers
Expands both vertically and horizontally
Uses a single background image

This is a bit of a tall order, especially the use of the background image. This will end up using kind of a combination of the CSS sprites technique since different areas of the image will be used in different places and the Sliding Doors technique, since different amounts of those images will be visible depending on the current size.

Make the box horizontally expandable

There is one way simple way to make a box horizontally expandable: specify your width in em’s. For example:

.box {
  width: 35em;
  margin: 50px auto;
}

The margin is there for example purposes, to keep it centered and away from the top edge of the browser window.

Thinking about image placement

In this example, the box has rounded corners, a bit of a drop shadow, and a bit of an inner shadow. This means that all of the four corners of the box are distinctly different. This is uniquely challenging since images are not expandable. We will need a way to apply the four different corner images to the four corners of the box separately.

Also, we will need to overlap them in such a way that the transitions are seamless. And also, we are trying to do this with only a single background image, to make it as efficient as possible.

Below is an image of how you might think of what we need to do. The boxes would be overlapping, I nudged them apart so you can see the whole boxes.

When creating the background image, think big. The bigger your background image, the larger you will be able to expand without borking the layout. The example background is 700px wide which gets you about 4 or 5 different text sizings it works at, but it does eventually break apart above that.

Coding the box

Of course we always like to be as semantic as possible with our XTHML. That means not using extra markup for things that aren’t really content but are purely design. Unfortunately, with all this craziness of needing four boxes for our single box, it ain’t gonna happen.

This is how it’s done:

<div class="box">
  <div class="topleft">
  <div class="topright">
    <div>
       CONTENT GOES HERE
    div>
  div>
  div>

  <div class="bottomleft">
  <div class="bottomright">
  div>
  div>
div>

Styling the box

Here is the CSS for the four areas within the box:

.box div.topleft {
	display: block;
	background: url("images/box-bg.png") top left no-repeat white;
	padding: 2.0em 0em 0em 2.0em;
}

.box div.topright {
	display: block;
	background: url("images/box-bg.png") top right no-repeat white;
	padding: 2.0em;
	margin: -2.0em 0 0 2.0em;
}

.box div.bottomleft {
	display: block;
	height: 45px;
	margin-top: -2.0em;
	background: url("images/box-bg.png") bottom left no-repeat white;
}

.box div.bottomright {
	display: block;
	background: url("images/box-bg.png") bottom right no-repeat white;
	height: 45px;
	margin-left: 3.0em;
}

Note the negative margins are necessary to pull back from the padding applied from the parent spans. It just works out good that way with the padding, keeping text inside the box. Also note the height of the bottom spans are set in pixels. That is on purpose as they need to be kept short and not be expandable.

This has been tested in Firefox, Safari, Opera, and IE 6 and is working in all of them, so I’m fairly satisfed it’s a solid technique.

Credits

This tutorial is contributed by Chris Coyier. Visit CSS-Tricks to learn more CSS tricks from Chris.

Update:

The code in this example was updated to fix the div within a span issue and now validates.