Techniques for Creating Textured Text In this article we'll explore all the current techniques for creating image or texture filled text and show you how to apply them. View demo Download source In this article we’re going to explore several techniques that can be used to create textured text or apply a background to text. Please remember that some of the techniques covered in the article are experimental with very low browser support, and may not be the best technique to use when you’re building real projects that need wide browser support. I’ve included a screenshot for each demo, the link to the demo in the end of each technique. Applying an Image Background to Text Using -webkit-background-clip: text We’re going to start with the CSS background-clip property and use it to get the following result: The CSS background-clip property determines an element’s background painting area, which is the area within which the background is painted. We’re going to use a “fat font”, so that the background is more visible through the text.
SpritePad - Create and edit css sprites Text Shadow Generator | CSS3 Generator | CSS3Gen Use this CSS3 text shadow generator to easily add text shadow styles into your web project. Your browser does not support the CSS3 text-shadow property. You can still use this tool to generate the CSS3 rule, but you won' be able to see the results. <div class="error_msg">Please enable Javascript to use this page.</div> Text Shadow Explained The CSS3 text-shadow property is one of the most popular techniques of progressively enhancing the design of a website. The text-shadow property is really simple to use. It takes four values: the first value defines the distance of the shadow in the x (horizontal) direction, the second value sets the distance in the y (vertical) direction, the third value defines the blur of the shadow and the last value sets the colour. Supporting Browsers At the time of writing the following browsers support the CSS3 text-shadow property:
Dot Navigation Styles Today we'd like to share some subtle effects and styles for simple dot navigation with you. These styles could, for example, be used for a page scroll navigation or a thumbnail preview, in a vertical or horizontal fashion. View demo Download source Small UI elements usually don’t get too much attention when it comes to creative effects. They are often neglected because of their size. Note that some effects might not work as intended in some browsers (SVG transition, 3D transform-style). For the structure we’ll have an unordered list with links: <div class="dotstyle dotstyle-fillup"><ul><li class="current"><a href="#">Home</a></li><li><a href="#">About</a></li><li><a href="#">Products</a></li><li><a href="#">Portfolio</a></li><li><a href="#">Blog</a></li><li><a href="#">Contact</a></li></ul></div> For some examples, we also use an additional empty list element, i.e. in order to “move” the current item in the “dot move” style. We define some common styles:
Animated Opening Type A tutorial on how to create an interesting animated 3D opening type effect with pseudo-elements, CSS transforms and transitions. The idea is based on Edenspiekermann's Open Type project and it's a very creative way to display and play with letters. View demo Download source In this tutorial I’m going to explain how to achieve an interesting 3D opening type effect with CSS based on the one I previously created. My experiment was actually inspired by Edenspiekermann’s Open Type project for the Kröller-Müller Museum, a dynamic concept that plays with light and shadow in a simple but incredibly creative way. The aim of this tutorial is to show how we can bring some life to letters using CSS transforms and transitions on pseudo-elements with a technique that will allow to open a letter from all four sides. Please note that pseudo-element transitions don’t work in every browser. The Markup The CSS Let’s add some basic styles to the letter span. At this point it’s time to add our transformations.
Animated Checkboxes and Radio Buttons with SVG Previous Demo Back to the Codrops Article How do you collaboratively administrate empowered markets via plug-and-play networks? Where do you proactively envision multimedia based expertise and cross-media growth strategies? Why do you interactively procrastinate high-payoff content without backward-compatible data? How would you dynamically target high-payoff intellectual capital for customized technologies? How can you appropriately empower dynamic leadership skills after business portals? How do you interactively productize premium technologies whereas interdependent quality vectors? Do you rapaciously seize adaptive infomediaries and user-centric intellectual capital and how? Your to do list to uniquely deploy cross-unit benefits with wireless testing procedures: If you enjoyed these effects you might also like: Animated Border Menus Creative Button Styles
Tetris & The Power Of CSS To be really good at CSS, you have to learn CSS. I know this sounds like a tautology but I've become aware of a peculiar attitude that preprocessors such as SASS are somehow successors to CSS. Some SASS and LESS nerds are fond of proliferating the following aphorism. The four stages of CSS:1. They forget that all preprocessors do is make writing CSS easier, not qualitatively different: It's still CSS that comes out of the end. Put down your classes, ladies and gentlemen, because we're talking about dynamic content and they cannot save you now. Incomplete grids Let's imagine we have a three-column grid but that we don't know how many items will be in that grid. Now, I'm the sort of designer who couldn't give a toss about "pixel perfection" so long as the page is usable and accessible. We could do this by adding some logic to the template and writing a last class to whichever item comes last. We have a problem So far, our technique is incomplete. Potential orphans and actual orphans Update
"Look Inside" Book Preview with BookBlock A "look inside" book preview with BookBlock. A concept for book showcases or online book stores that shows a grid of books with the options to view the details and to look inside of the book, opening the BookBlock in fullscreen and allowing for a 3D page navigation. View demo Download source There is something really fascinating about (real) books. Although we live in times where everything is digitalized by now, there is really nothing like picking up a real book and browsing through the pages. Please note that this is just a proof-of-concept and might not work properly in older browsers. For the book grid we use figures and this is how it looks: When we click on “view details”, we rotate the book in 3D and move it to the left side, allowing for the details to slide in from the right: Once “look inside” is clicked we perform a series of animations on the book, its cover and the BookBlock. Credits I hope you find this interesting and inspiring!
High Performance Animations We’re going to cut straight to the chase. Modern browsers can animate four things really cheaply: position, scale, rotation and opacity. If you animate anything else, it’s at your own risk, and the chances are you’re not going to hit a silky smooth 60fps. Take a look at this side-by-side slow motion video of the same animation: One is done with transforms, the other isn’t. From DOM to Pixels in DevTools When you use the Chrome DevTools timeline you should see a pattern similar to this: The process that the browser goes through is pretty simple: calculate the styles that apply to the elements (Recalculate Style), generate the geometry and position for each element (Layout), fill out the pixels for each element into layers (Paint Setup and Paint) and draw the layers out to screen (Composite Layers). To achieve silky smooth animations you need to avoid work, and the best way to do that is to only change properties that affect compositing -- transform and opacity. Animating Layout Properties
28 High Resolution Wood Textures For Designers Once in a while, you may want to try a different approach in design. If the concept/idea is green or nature related, wood elements can fit in pretty nice and they are fundamentally suitable. In this article, we attempt to showcase you 28 High Resolution Wood Textures designers can take full advantage of. Unable to create realistic wood texture from scratch in Photoshop is no longer an obstacle. Note: Some of these textures have limited rights. Full list after jump. Bg Texture Wood by nortago Dark Wood Texture Pack by cloaksAll textures are 1024*768 pixels. Author: Hongkiat Lim
CSS Overlay Techniques There are several techniques for creating overlays: from using an absolutely positioned element to outlines and pseudo-elements. In this article we are going to explore each technique's styles with their pros and cons. Design patterns, a set of best practices and techniques that aim to solve some of the most common design “problems”, are usually presented in the context of design principles. One of these design principles is the “Stay On Page” principle. This principle is based on the fact that page refreshes are disruptive to the user’s mental flow, causing what is known as “change blindness”, and that we need to be able to avoid breaking the visual flow of the user wherever and whenever we can. We can decide intelligently when to keep the user on the page and model his process. Lightweight overlays can be used for asking questions, obtaining input, introducing features, indicating progress, giving instructions, or revealing information. Technique #1: Absolutely positioned element