[[!meta title="Create a Mac App Icon with Pure HTML and CSS"]]
[[!meta date="2021-04-13"]]
I have always been a huge fan of [Bogdan's work on Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/bg-d) and was recently inspired to see if I could replicate one of his awesome icon designs with only HTML & CSS. What was the outcome? I think it's a half-way decent copy - of course the original will always look significantly better.
Don't care about reading through the tutorial? No problem! You can [jump right down to the live demo](#demo)
## The Comparison
Let's take a look at the original Dribbble shot:
The original Dribbble shot (direct link to image)
And now let's see what we will be creating with only HTML & CSS:
What we are going to create with pure HTML & CSS (direct link to image)
Like I said - far from perfect but still a fun experiment!
## The HTML
Let's jump right in and build out the main skeleton of our project:
- The `white-square` element is the white, rounded square in the background
- The `blue-square` is the main blue square of the icon
- The `row` elements inside the `blue-square` will be our individual *lines* spread across the icon
- The `play-button` is obviously - the play button
Right now it will look like nothing, but we can change that by adding the most important part...
## The CSS
Pasting the entire CSS styling here would end up looking a little daunting. Instead, I'm just going to breakdown each individual section to make things more digestible.
### Defaults & the White Square
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
:root {
--row-distance: 42px;
}
.white-square {
background: white;
border-radius: 105px;
box-shadow: inset 0 -5px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.25), 0 12px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.15), 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
height: 420px;
left: 165px;
position: absolute;
transform: rotate(-8deg);
top: 95px;
width: 420px;
}
See that `--row-distance` variable? That will come into play a bit later. For now, we want to lay the Blue Square on top of this newly creating White Square:
.blue-square {
background: linear-gradient(#04BDFD 0%, #0585E4 100%);
border-radius: 105px;
box-shadow: inset 0 5px 8px rgba(255,255,255,0.5), inset 0 -5px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.32), 0 12px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.18), 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.15);
height: 420px;
left: 205px;
padding: 75px 0 0;
position: absolute;
top: 75px;
width: 420px;
}
## Targeting the Inner Rows
So far so good. The next part *looks* like a lot, but I assure you it's fairly straightforward. We need to include each row inside the Blue Square like in the original Dribbble shot (7 total). First we start with the parent `row` styling:
.blue-square .row {
display: flex;
height: 20px;
justify-content: space-between;
padding: 0 55px;
position: absolute;
width: 100%;
}
Now we style each individual row item via the `nth-of-type` attribute:
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(2) { margin-top: var(--row-distance); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(2) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 85px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(2) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 100px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(3) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 2); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(3) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 115px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(3) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 130px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(4) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 3); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(4) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 185px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(4) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 200px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(5) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 4); width: calc(100% - 115px); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(5) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 105px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(5) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 120px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(6) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 5); width: calc(100% - 140px); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(6) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 65px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(6) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 80px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(7) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 6); width: calc(100% - 160px); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(7) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 40px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(7) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 55px);
}
.blue-square .row .item {
background: white;
border-radius: 20px;
box-shadow: inset 0 -2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.06), inset 0 2px 4px rgba(255,255,255,0.1), 0 4px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.05);
width: 40px;
}
.blue-square .row .item:nth-of-type(even) {
background: #3FC0F5;
width: calc(100% - 55px);
}
Take a few moments to read everything over - it will help you better understand what's going on. Basically, we are adding two inner elements to each row element. We calculate the `margin-top` distance by using that `--row-distance` variable I mentioned earlier. The inner elements are then styled based on their placement inside the row (`nth-of-type`).
### The Play Button
Now we finish things off with a much simpler element to style:
.play-button {
backdrop-filter: blur(6px);
border-radius: 9999px;
box-shadow: inset 0 4px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.3), inset 0 20px 15px rgba(255,255,255,0.6), 0 8px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.1), 0 4px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.05);
height: 220px;
overflow: hidden;
position: absolute;
right: 140px;
top: 320px;
width: 220px;
}
.play-button::before {
background: rgba(255,255,255,0.9);
border-radius: 9999px;
content:'';
filter: blur(40px);
height: 150%;
left: -25%;
opacity: 0.8;
position: absolute;
top: -25%;
width: 150%;
}
.triangle {
position: absolute;
left: calc(50% - 2em);
background-color: #315074;
top: calc(50% - 2.1em);
text-align: left;
}
.triangle:before,
.triangle:after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
background-color: inherit;
}
.triangle,
.triangle:before,
.triangle:after {
width: 3.2em;
height: 3.2em;
border-top-right-radius: 30%;
}
.triangle {
transform: rotate(-90deg) skewX(-30deg) scale(1,.866);
}
.triangle:before {
transform: rotate(-135deg) skewX(-45deg) scale(1.414,.707) translate(0,-50%);
}
.triangle:after {
transform: rotate(135deg) skewY(-45deg) scale(.707,1.414) translate(50%);
}
Thanks to [meduz](https://m.nintendojo.fr/@meduz/106059826445460903) for pointing out the `backdrop-filter` property. This allows for a frosted glass look on Chromium & Safari (although sadly not on Firefox). The `triangle` element could also be improved by using an embedded `SVG` but I was determined to use only CSS for this experiment :P
That's really all there is to it! You can see the embedded CodePen example below or [check it out directly here →](https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/bGgBRaV)
---
### Special Thanks
Thanks to Bogdan for letting me butcher the original Dribbble shot :D
- [bg-d.net](http://bg-d.net/)
- [Bogdan on Dribbble](https://dribbble.com/bg-d)
---
