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Enhancing Boxes with CSS3 Bling

Jul 26, 2012

📄 Contents

␡

A Bright Future with CSS3 Bling
border-radius: God Bless Those Rounded Corners
Adding Depth with box-shadow
Bring the Bling with CSS Gradients
Multiple Backgrounds
Box Clever: border-image
box-decoration-break
Adding Bling to a Banner Ad
Wrapping Up

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This chapter is from the book 

Practical CSS3: Develop and Design

Learn More Buy

One of the overriding general problems that CSS3 works toward solving is reducing the number of images (and the inflexibility of those images) you are called upon to use to prettify your websites. This chapter groups together all such CSS3 features (like box shadows, gradients, and border images) that have strong browser support under the moniker “bling boxes.”

In this chapter you’ll learn new ways to (tastefully) add graphical effects to your sites programmatically without having to use millions of background images. You’ll start by looking at some basic isolated examples and then advance to more involved implementations. So put on your sequined disco clothes, jangle your change, and prepare to strut your funky stuff.

A Bright Future with CSS3 Bling

Most of you will have a good idea of the kinds of CSS3 features I’m referring to by bling boxes: Drop shadows, rounded corners, linear and radial gradients, and alpha transparency are exemplary examples. Also, a number of properties still require the use of images but allow you to use them in a more flexible way!

The advantages of such features should be obvious, but just in case, let’s briefly review them before moving on:

Less downloading. Programmatically creating bling effects allows you to decrease the number of images you need for your designs and therefore the number of HTTP requests and download sizes involved.
Easier maintenance of graphical effects. You can now vary colors, dimensions, and so on by just changing some CSS syntax rather than having to open Photoshop and manually alter image files.
Less spaghetti code. Back in the day, so-called “bulletproof CSS” solutions typically involved multiple images and multiple nested <div>s—a double disappointment of extra complexity of design time and unsemantic cruft code. If you wanted to create bulletproof rounded corners on a content box to allow it to flex horizontally and vertically, you’d need three extra nested <div>s for holding all the necessary images. If you had only one container available, you’d have to settle for an inflexible, one-size box, which was usually rendered useless when content changed. CSS3 features, such as rounded corners and multiple background images, change all this.
Fewer Photoshop ninja skills required. Creating such bling effects in code is a lot easier and more intuitive for non-Photoshop experts.

Of course, the main disadvantages at this time are that some of these CSS3 features are not supported in older browsers (usually meaning Internet Explorer 6–8), and they are often used with vendor prefixes. Table 4.1 gives you an at-a-glance reference of browser support for the properties covered in this chapter.

Table 4.1 Browser Support Matrix for CSS3 “Bling Box” Features

Browser	RGBA/HSLA	Border-radius	Box-shadow	Multiple backgrounds	Gradients	Background-size	Border-image	Background-clip	Box-decoration-break
Opera	version 10.5	version 10.5	version 10.5	version 10.5	11.6 with -o-	version 10.5	11 with -o-	version 10.5	version 10.5
Firefox	version 3	3 with -moz-, 4 prefixless	3.5 with -moz-, 4 prefixless	version 3.6	3.6 with -moz-	version 4	3.5 with -moz-	version 4	Exact details unknown
Safari	version 3.1	3.1 with -webkit-, 5 prefixless	3.1 with -webkit-, 5 prefixless	version 3.1	5.1 with -webkit-	version 5	3.1 with -webkit-	version 5	Exact details unknown
Chrome	version 4	4 with -webkit-, 5 prefixless	4 with -webkit-, 10 prefixless	version 4	10 with -webkit-	version 4	15 with -webkit-	version 4	Exact details unknown
Internet Explorer	version 9	version 9	version 9	version 9	10 with -ms- *	version 9	10 with -ms-	version 9	Exact details unknown
iOS	version 3.2	version 4	3.2 with -webkit-, 5 prefixless	version 3.2	5.0 with -webkit-	version 5	3.2 with -webkit-	version 5	Exact details unknown
Android	version 2.1	2.1 with -webkit-, 2.2 prefixless	2.1 with -webkit-	version 2.1	4 with -webkit-	version 2.1	2.3 with -webkit-	version 2.1	Exact details unknown
Opera Mobile	version 10	version 11	version 11	version 10	11.5 with -o-	version 10	11 with -o-	version 10	Exact details unknown
Opera Mini	version 5	no	no	version 5	no	version 5.0	no	version 5	Exact details unknown

*IE10 platform preview 6 saw support without the prefix

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