aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorBradley Taunt <bt@btxx.org>2024-05-25 16:14:03 -0400
committerBradley Taunt <bt@btxx.org>2024-05-25 16:16:54 -0400
commite417a818e207a6cca6e2f3c471611673ab836a62 (patch)
tree664686a365c3d1e73349b5a667fa892f46445fef /_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md
Initial commit for Jekyll testing and conversion, updated
Diffstat (limited to '_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md')
-rw-r--r--_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md124
1 files changed, 124 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md b/_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39d5fb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_posts/2019-01-08-better-box-shadows.md
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title: "Better Box Shadows"
+date: 2019-01-08
+---
+
+
+Box shadow on <abbr title="hypertext markup language">HTML</abbr> elements has been widely supported across most browsers for a while now, but I find the default options don't allow for much visual manipulation of the shadows in general.
+
+Let's take a look at a default configuration of `box-shadow`:
+
+
+ .box-container {
+ box-shadow: 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
+ }
+
+
+In the example above the first property number is the origin of the *x-axis*, the second number is the origin of the *y-axis* and the third is the amount of *blur*.
+
+We should also add some minimal styling to cleanup the `.box-container` a little bit for our example:
+
+
+ <div class="box-container"></div>
+
+
+ .box-container {
+ box-shadow: 0 4px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
+ /* Styles to make it less ugly */
+ background: white;
+ border-radius: 10px;
+ border: 1px solid #eee;
+ height: 200px;
+ padding: 10px;
+ position: relative;
+ width: 250px;
+ }
+
+
+Not bad - but we can do a lot better than this.
+
+## Please sir, I want some more (depth)
+
+We just need to add a simple child `div` (or use a `pseudo` element if you prefer) inside our main element we want to apply the shadow to:
+
+
+ <div class="box-container">
+ <div class="box-container-inner"></div>
+ </div>
+
+
+Now we make our inner child element `absolute` and set it's `height` and `width` dynamically to be slightly smaller than it's parent (percentages work best for this).
+
+Remember to set this child element behind it's parent by adding `z-index: -1`.
+
+
+ .box-container {
+ /* No box-shadow needed on this element anymore */
+ /* Styles to make it less ugly */
+ background: white;
+ border-radius: 10px;
+ border: 1px solid #eee;
+ height: 200px;
+ padding: 10px;
+ position: relative;
+ width: 250px;
+ }
+
+
+## Inner Containers
+
+We also need to target the `box-container-inner` element set inside the current parent to reflect our custom shadow styling:
+
+
+ .box-container-inner {
+ bottom: 0;
+ /* The box-shadow is added here now */
+ box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
+ height: 94%;
+ left: 3%;
+ position: absolute;
+ width: 94%;
+ z-index: -1;
+ }
+
+
+Which will make the drop-shadow render with a little more realistic depth.
+
+
+## But wait - there's more!
+
+We could stop now and have a decent drop-shadow that is certainly easier on the eyes - but we can make this even better with one extra property - `filter:blur();`.
+
+So your final code would look like this:
+
+
+ .box-container {
+ /* Styles to make it less ugly */
+ background: white;
+ border-radius: 10px;
+ border: 1px solid #eee;
+ height: 200px;
+ padding: 10px;
+ position: relative;
+ width: 250px;
+ }
+
+ .box-container-inner {
+ bottom: 0;
+ box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
+ filter: blur(6px);
+ height: 94%;
+ left: 3%;
+ position: absolute;
+ width: 94%;
+ z-index: -1;
+ }
+
+
+Which renders out into a much smoother blend of a drop-shadow, creating a more realistic illusion of depth.
+
+
+Take a look at all the examples in the [CodePen examples](https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/dyNbZNj)
+
+