CSS

CSS Tips

CSS Tips
by Marko Denic | April 21, 2020

CSS tips and tricks you won’t see in most tutorials.

If you’re learning CSS, I’d suggest you check this Introduction to CSS first.

What is CSS?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML. CSS is the main technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript.

CSS is designed to enable the separation of presentation and content, including layout, colors, and fonts. This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, enable multiple web pages to share formatting by specifying the relevant CSS in a separate .css file and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content.

* Typing Effect

Did you know that you can create a typing effect with zero JavaScript?

See the Pen CSS Typing Effect by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Drop shadow

When you work with transparent images you can use `drop-shadow()` filter function to create a shadow on the image’s content, instead of `box-shadow` property which creates a rectangular shadow behind an element’s entire box: filter:

drop-shadow(2px 4px 8px #585858);

See the Pen drop-shadow by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Smooth scrolling

Smooth scrolling without JavaScript, with just one line of CSS.

See the Pen CSS Smooth Scroll by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Center

Easily center anything, horizontally and vertically, with 3 lines of CSS.
Explore other ways to center a div.

           
.center {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;       
}           
    

* Cursors

Did you know that you can use your own image, or even emoji as a cursor?

See the Pen Cursors by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Truncate text

Did you know that you can truncate text with plain CSS?

See the Pen Ellipsis by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Truncate the text to the specific number of lines.

You can use “-webkit-line-clamp” property to truncate the text to the specific number of lines. An ellipsis will be shown at the point where the text is clamped.

* `::selection` CSS pseudo-element

The `::selection` CSS pseudo-element applies styles to the part of a document that has been highlighted by the user (such as clicking and dragging the mouse across text).

See the Pen ::selection pseudo-element by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Anything resizable

Did you know that you can make any element resizable, just like `<textarea>`?

           
.resize {
   resize: both;
}           
    

CSS modals

You can use the `:target` pseudo-class to create modals with zero JavaScript.

See the Pen CSS-only modal by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* `calc()`

The `calc()` CSS function lets you perform calculations when specifying CSS property values:

           
.calculated-width: {
    width: calc(100% - 30px);
}           
    

* Style empty elements

You can use the `:empty` selector to style an element that has no children or text at all:

See the Pen CSS :empty Selector by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* You can create a custom scrollbar

See the Pen Custom Scrollbar by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* position: sticky;

You can create sticky section headers with 2 lines of CSS.

See the Pen Sticky Sections by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* CSS Scroll Snap

You can use the CSS Scroll Snap feature to create well-controlled scroll experiences:

See the Pen CSS Scroll Snap by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Dynamic Tooltips

Create dynamic CSS-only tooltips, using the attr() CSS function.

See the Pen CSS-only Tooltip by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* caret-color

You can change the color of the text input cursor.

Caret Color example codepen preview.

* `::in-range` and `::out-of-range` pseudo-classes

Use ::in-range and ::out-of-range pseudo-classes to style inputs whose current value is outside the range limits specified by the min and max attributes

Input pseudo-classes `::in-range` and `out-of-range`

* Fancy text

Use the background-clip property to create beautiful headlines.

See the Pen background-clip property by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

* Flex gap

Use the gap CSS property to set the gaps (gutters) between rows and columns.

Flex Gap Property

* grayscale() function

Use the grayscale() filter function to convert the input image to grayscale.

grayscale-function

* Create beautiful rounded, gradient borders:

See the Pen Rounded Gradient Border by Marko (@denic) on CodePen.

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