CSS3 Gradient Buttons
What Is So Cool About These Buttons?
- Pure CSS: no image or Javascript is used.
- The gradient is cross-browser supported (IE, Firefox 3.6, Chrome, and Safari).
- Flexible and scalable: button size and rounded corners can be adjusted by changing the font size and padding values.
- It has three button states: normal, hover, and active.
- It can be applied to any HTML element: a, input, button, span, div, p, h3, etc.
- Fallback: if CSS3 is not supported, it will display a regular button (no gradient and shadow).
Preview
The image below shows how the button will display in different browsers.
Button States
- normal state = gradient with border and shadow styles.
- hover = darker gradient
- active = gradient is reversed, 1px down, and darker font color as well.
General Styles For The Button
The following code is the general styles for the .button class. I use em value in the padding and border-radius property to make it scalable base on the font-size. To adjust the rounded corners and button size, simply change the border-radius, font-size and padding values. For example: I can make a smaller button by decreasing the font-size and padding values (see demo).
For more details on border-radius, text-shadow, and box-shadow, read my article The Basics of CSS3.
.button {
display: inline-block;
outline: none;
cursor: pointer;
text-align: center;
text-decoration: none;
font: 14px/100% Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
padding: .5em 2em .55em;
text-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,.3);
-webkit-border-radius: .5em;
-moz-border-radius: .5em;
border-radius: .5em;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,.2);
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,.2);
box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0,0,0,.2);
}
.button:hover {
text-decoration: none;
}
.button:active {
position: relative;
top: 1px;
}
Color Gradient Styles
The code below is the CSS styling for the orange button. The first background line is a fallback for the non-CSS3 browsers, the second line is for Webkit browsers, the third line is for Firefox, and the last line is a gradient filter that is only read by Internet Explorer.
For more details on CSS gradient, read my article Cross-Browser CSS Gradient.
.orange {
color: #fef4e9;
border: solid 1px #da7c0c;
background: #f78d1d;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#faa51a), to(#f47a20));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #faa51a, #f47a20);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#faa51a', endColorstr='#f47a20');
}
.orange:hover {
background: #f47c20;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#f88e11), to(#f06015));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #f88e11, #f06015);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#f88e11', endColorstr='#f06015');
}
.orange:active {
color: #fcd3a5;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#f47a20), to(#faa51a));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #f47a20, #faa51a);
filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#f47a20', endColorstr='#faa51a');
}
How To Use My Buttons?
Lets say you like the blue button and want to use it on your page:
- First, copy the .button and .blue CSS (view demo source code).
- Then, add to the HTML element where you want the button to be (eg.
<a href="#">Button</a>). The CSS classes can be applied to any element such as link, p, span, div, input, button, etc.
