Related
Is it possible to control the length and distance between dashed border strokes in CSS?
This example below displays differently between browsers:
div {
border: dashed 4px #000;
padding: 20px;
display: inline-block;
}
<div>I have a dashed border!</div>
Big differences: IE 11 / Firefox / Chrome
Are there any methods that can provide greater control of the dashed borders appearance?
The native dashed border property value does not offer control over the dashes themselves... so bring on the border-image property!
Brew your own border with border-image
Compatibility: It offers great browser support (IE 11 and all modern browsers). A normal border can be set as a fallback for older browsers.
Let's create these
These borders will display exactly the same cross-browser!
Step 1 - Create a suitable image
This example is 15 pixels wide by 15 pixels high and the gaps are currently 5px wide. It is a .png with transparency.
This is what it looks like in photoshop when zoomed in:
This is what it looks like to scale:
Controlling gap and stroke length
To create wider / shorter gaps or strokes, widen / shorten the gaps or strokes in the image.
Here is an image with wider 10px gaps:
correctly scaled =
Step 2 - Create the CSS — this example requires 4 basic steps
Define the border-image-source:
border-image-source:url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png");
Optional - Define the border-image-width:
border-image-width: 1;
The default value is 1. It can also be set with a pixel value, percentage value, or as another multiple (1x, 2x, 3x etc). This overrides any border-width set.
Define the border-image-slice:
In this example, the thickness of the images top, right, bottom and left borders is 2px, and there is no gap outside of them, so our slice value is 2:
border-image-slice: 2;
The slices look like this, 2 pixels from the top, right, bottom and left:
Define the border-image-repeat:
In this example, we want the pattern to repeat itself evenly around our div. So we choose:
border-image-repeat: round;
Writing shorthand
The properties above can be set individually, or in shorthand using border-image:
border-image: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png") 2 round;
Complete example
Note the border: dashed 4px #000 fallback. Non-supporting browsers will receive this border.
.bordered {
display: inline-block;
padding: 20px;
/* Fallback dashed border
- the 4px width here is overwritten with the border-image-width (if set)
- the border-image-width can be omitted below if it is the same as the 4px here
*/
border: dashed 4px #000;
/* Individual border image properties */
border-image-source: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png");
border-image-slice: 2;
border-image-repeat: round;
/* or use the shorthand border-image */
border-image: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png") 2 round;
}
/*The border image of this one creates wider gaps*/
.largeGaps {
border-image-source: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/LKclP.png");
margin: 0 20px;
}
<div class="bordered">This is bordered!</div>
<div class="bordered largeGaps">This is bordered and has larger gaps!</div>
In addition to the border-image property, there are a few other ways to create a dashed border with control over the length of the stroke and the distance between them. They are described below:
Method 1: Using SVG
We can create the dashed border by using a path or a polygon element and setting the stroke-dasharray property. The property takes two parameters where one defines the size of the dash and the other determines the space between them.
Pros:
SVGs by nature are scalable graphics and can adapt to any container dimensions.
Can work very well even if there is a border-radius involved. We would just have replace the path with a circle like in this answer (or) convert the path into a circle.
Browser support for SVG is pretty good and fallback can be provided using VML for IE8-.
Cons:
When the dimensions of the container do not change proportionately, the paths tend to scale resulting in a change in size of the dash and the space between them (try hovering on the first box in the snippet). This can be controlled by adding vector-effect='non-scaling-stroke' (as in the second box) but the browser support for this property is nil in IE.
.dashed-vector {
position: relative;
height: 100px;
width: 300px;
}
svg {
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
path{
fill: none;
stroke: blue;
stroke-width: 5;
stroke-dasharray: 10, 10;
}
span {
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
padding: 10px;
}
/* just for demo */
div{
margin-bottom: 10px;
transition: all 1s;
}
div:hover{
height: 100px;
width: 400px;
}
<div class='dashed-vector'>
<svg viewBox='0 0 300 100' preserveAspectRatio='none'>
<path d='M0,0 300,0 300,100 0,100z' />
</svg>
<span>Some content</span>
</div>
<div class='dashed-vector'>
<svg viewBox='0 0 300 100' preserveAspectRatio='none'>
<path d='M0,0 300,0 300,100 0,100z' vector-effect='non-scaling-stroke'/>
</svg>
<span>Some content</span>
</div>
Method 2: Using Gradients
We can use multiple linear-gradient background images and position them appropriately to create a dashed border effect. This can also be done with a repeating-linear-gradient but there is not much improvement because of using a repeating gradient as we need each gradient to repeat in only one direction.
.dashed-gradient{
height: 100px;
width: 200px;
padding: 10px;
background-image: linear-gradient(to right, blue 50%, transparent 50%), linear-gradient(to right, blue 50%, transparent 50%), linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 50%, transparent 50%), linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 50%, transparent 50%);
background-position: left top, left bottom, left top, right top;
background-repeat: repeat-x, repeat-x, repeat-y, repeat-y;
background-size: 20px 3px, 20px 3px, 3px 20px, 3px 20px;
}
.dashed-repeating-gradient {
height: 100px;
width: 200px;
padding: 10px;
background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(to right, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%), repeating-linear-gradient(to right, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%), repeating-linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%), repeating-linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%);
background-position: left top, left bottom, left top, right top;
background-repeat: repeat-x, repeat-x, repeat-y, repeat-y;
background-size: 20px 3px, 20px 3px, 3px 20px, 3px 20px;
}
/* just for demo */
div {
margin: 10px;
transition: all 1s;
}
div:hover {
height: 150px;
width: 300px;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/prefixfree/1.0.7/prefixfree.min.js"></script>
<div class='dashed-gradient'>Some content</div>
<div class='dashed-repeating-gradient'>Some content</div>
Pros:
Scalable and can adapt even if the container's dimensions are dynamic.
Does not make use of any extra pseudo-elements which means they can be kept aside for any other potential usage.
Cons:
Browser support for linear gradients is comparatively lower and this is a no-go if you want to support IE 9-. Even libraries like CSS3 PIE do not support creation of gradient patterns in IE8-.
Cannot be used when border-radius is involved because backgrounds don't curve based on border-radius. They get clipped instead.
Method 3: Box Shadows
We can create a small bar (in the shape of the dash) using pseudo-elements and then create multiple box-shadow versions of it to create a border like in the below snippet.
If the dash is a square shape then a single pseudo-element would be enough but if it is a rectangle, we would need one pseudo-element for the top + bottom borders and another for left + right borders. This is because the height and width for the dash on the top border will be different from that on the left.
Pros:
The dimensions of the dash is controllable by changing the dimensions of the pseudo-element. The spacing is controllable by modifying the space between each shadow.
A very unique effect can be produced by adding a different color for each box shadow.
Cons:
Since we have to manually set the dimensions of the dash and the spacing, this approach is no good when the dimensions of the parent box is dynamic.
IE8 and lower do not support box shadow. However, this can be overcome by using libraries like CSS3 PIE.
Can be used with border-radius but positioning them would be very tricky with having to find points on a circle (and possibly even transform).
.dashed-box-shadow{
position: relative;
height: 120px;
width: 120px;
padding: 10px;
}
.dashed-box-shadow:before{ /* for border top and bottom */
position: absolute;
content: '';
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 3px; /* height of the border top and bottom */
width: 10px; /* width of the border top and bottom */
background: blue; /* border color */
box-shadow: 20px 0px 0px blue, 40px 0px 0px blue, 60px 0px 0px blue, 80px 0px 0px blue, 100px 0px 0px blue, /* top border */
0px 110px 0px blue, 20px 110px 0px blue, 40px 110px 0px blue, 60px 110px 0px blue, 80px 110px 0px blue, 100px 110px 0px blue; /* bottom border */
}
.dashed-box-shadow:after{ /* for border left and right */
position: absolute;
content: '';
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 10px; /* height of the border left and right */
width: 3px; /* width of the border left and right */
background: blue; /* border color */
box-shadow: 0px 20px 0px blue, 0px 40px 0px blue, 0px 60px 0px blue, 0px 80px 0px blue, 0px 100px 0px blue, /* left border */
110px 0px 0px blue, 110px 20px 0px blue, 110px 40px 0px blue, 110px 60px 0px blue, 110px 80px 0px blue, 110px 100px 0px blue; /* right border */
}
<div class='dashed-box-shadow'>Some content</div>
There's a cool tool made by #kovart called the dashed border generator.
It uses an svg as a background image to allow setting the stroke dash array you desire, and is pretty convenient.
You would then simply use it as the background property on your element in place of the border:
div {
background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg width='100%25' height='100%25' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%3e%3crect width='100%25' height='100%25' fill='none' stroke='black' stroke-width='4' stroke-dasharray='6%2c 14' stroke-dashoffset='0' stroke-linecap='square'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");
padding: 20px;
display: inline-block;
}
Css render is browser specific and I don't know any fine tuning on it, you should work with images as recommended by Ham.
Reference: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/box.html#border-style-properties
Short one: No, it's not. You will have to work with images instead.
Update
Thanks to kovart for this great tool try it
https://kovart.github.io/dashed-border-generator/
my answer was:
I just recently had the same problem.
I have made this work around, hope it will help someone.
HTML + tailwind
<div class="dashed-border h-14 w-full relative rounded-lg">
<div class="w-full h-full rounded-lg bg-page z-10 relative">
Content goes here...
<div>
</div>
CSS
.dashed-border::before {
content: '';
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: calc(100% + 4px);
transform: translateY(-50%);
background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #333 50%, transparent 50%);
background-size: 16px;
z-index: 0;
border-radius: 0.5rem;
}
.dashed-border::after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 0;
height: 100%;
width: calc(100% + 4px);
transform: translateX(-50%);
background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #333 50%, transparent 50%);
background-size: 4px 16px;
z-index: 1;
border-radius: 0.5rem;
}
Stroke length depends on stroke width. You can increase length by increasing width and hide part of border by inner element.
EDIT: added pointer-events: none; thanks to benJ.
.thin {
background: #F4FFF3;
border: 2px dashed #3FA535;
position: relative;
}
.thin:after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: -1px;
top: -1px;
right: -1px;
bottom: -1px;
border: 1px solid #F4FFF3;
pointer-events: none;
}
https://jsfiddle.net/ksf9zoLh/
.outline {
outline: 48px dashed #d5fb62;
outline-offset: -4px;
overflow:hidden;
}
if overflow hidden not problem else outline 4 instead 48.
<div class="outline"></div>
I just recently had the same problem.
I managed to solve it with two absolutely positioned divs carrying the border (one for horizontal and one for vertical), and then transforming them.
The outer box just needs to be relatively positioned.
<div class="relative">
<div class="absolute absolute--fill overflow-hidden">
<div class="absolute absolute--fill b--dashed b--red"
style="
border-width: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
transform: scaleX(2);
"></div>
<div class="absolute absolute--fill b--dashed b--red"
style="
border-width: 0px 4px 0px 4px;
transform: scaleY(2);
"></div>
</div>
<div> {{Box content goes here}} </div>
</div>
Note: i used tachyons in this example, but i guess the classes are kind of self-explanatory.
I think I've just found the definitive solution to this problem with the use of clip-path property. Basically all there is to add a dashed border then mask the excess.
The clip-path property also supports rounded corners so you can match it up with the border-radius and have custom dashed borders and rounded corners!
.demo {
display: inline-flex;
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
position: relative;
clip-path: inset(0 round 30px 0 30px 0);
}
.demo::before {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: -7px;
top: -7px;
right: -7px;
bottom: -7px;
border: 8px dashed rgba(0, 0, 255, 0.3);
border-radius: 37px 0 37px 0;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
<div class="demo"></div>
You could do this directly on the div itself of course without using the ::after pseudo element. But this would mean you have to clip into the div and it would end up smaller than it's initial size.
This will make an orange and gray border using the class="myclass" on the div.
.myclass {
outline:dashed darkorange 12px;
border:solid slategray 14px;
outline-offset:-14px;
}
I want an empty container to glow so I use this code:
box-shadow: 0 1px 20px 1px lightcyan;
The problem with this is that only the borders glow and there is a big hole in the center which is not the effect I want. I know I can move the position of the shadow so is not overlapped by the container itself but I don't want that because it would be out of place.
Is there any other alternative to achieve this effect with pure CSS?
Something like this, but without the background:
box-shadow can do it, just crank up the blur and the spread (the 3rd and 4th parameters).
For a circle, add border-radius: 50%; and give a small width and height.
div {
margin: 100px;
width: 1px;
height: 1px;
background-color: lime; /* for the 1px in the center */
border-radius: 50%;
box-shadow: 0 0 50px 70px lime;
}
<div></div>
I want to create an animation with css that simulate a wave movement.
I need to change a line-or div- to a curve for this...
The CSS rules that I'm familiar to, make the entire div to semicircular or change element border.
For example:
border-radius, or perspective or border-top-radius...
This image show you what I want:
Is this possible? If so, how can it be done?
You could use an asymmetrical border to make curves with CSS.
border-radius: 50%/100px 100px 0 0;
VIEW DEMO
.box {
width: 500px;
height: 100px;
border: solid 5px #000;
border-color: #000 transparent transparent transparent;
border-radius: 50%/100px 100px 0 0;
}
<div class="box"></div>
#Navaneeth and #Antfish, no need to transform you can do like this also because in above solution only top border is visible so for inside curve you can use bottom border.
.box {
width: 500px;
height: 100px;
border: solid 5px #000;
border-color: transparent transparent #000 transparent;
border-radius: 0 0 240px 50%/60px;
}
<div class="box"></div>
I want a CSS inset box-shadow to appear on top of the elements inside of the container with the box-shadow, specifically background colors of child-elements.
Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/Q8n77/
<div class="parent">
foo
<div class="content">bar</div>
</div>
<style>
.parent {
box-shadow : inset 0 0 5px 0 black;
}
.content {
background : #EEE;
}
</style>
Any ideas? Can do whatever with the HTML, but need to be able to click-through, so no 100% width/height DIVs on top of everything.
If all you need is to have the inset shadow show through background colors, you can use transparent rgba (or hsla) colors rather than hex codes;
.parent {
box-shadow: inset 0 0 5px 0 black;
}
.content {
background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, .2); /* .2 = 20% opacity */
}
Demo at http://jsfiddle.net/Q8n77/7/
Not everyone has the ability to change HTML structure. If you can only access the CSS, you could try the following from this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/13188894/491044
Alternatively, you can use a pseudo element:
HTML:
<div>
a
</div>
CSS:
div {
height:300px;
color:red;
position:relative;
}
div:before {
content:'';
display:block;
box-shadow:inset 0 0 10px black;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:0;
width:100%;
height:100%;
}
One possibility is to play with the padding.
.parent {
box-shadow : inset 0 0 5px 0 black; padding:.23em;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/jasongennaro/Q8n77/6/
you could try to position an overlay div on top of your parent with position: absolute; and give that the shadow (untested theory) with something like this:
HTML
<div class="parent">
<div class="overlay"></div>
foo
<div class="content">bar</div>
</div>
CSS
.parent {
position: relative;
}
.content {
background : #EEE;
}
.parent .overlay {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
right: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
box-shadow : inset 0 0 5px 0 black;
}
You can set box-shadow on both parent and child.
Adding this approach since this is how I solved my version of this problem.
I basically add a ::before, or another element with a drop shadow in the parent, but offset it so only the shadow part is showing. Also I give the parent a overflow:hidden. This way, the content should still be interactive. :)
Mileage may vary depending on exact markup of course. But thought I should add this here.
codepen: http://codepen.io/mephysto/pen/bNPVVr
.parent {
background:#FFF;
width: 500px;
height: 200px;
margin: 0 auto;
overflow: hidden;
}
.parent::before{
content:"";
display:block;
width:100%;
height:25px;
margin-top:-25px;
box-shadow : 0px 0px 25px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.9);
}
I would like to add something with xec's answer.
I liked your suggestion. But I think it has to do with the transparency of the inner element. If the inner element has certain transparency then the shadow will appear.
Also, the strength of the shadow also depends on the transparency. The more transparent the inner element, the stronger the shadow and the strongest when the background color is transparent.
For example, if the background color is rgba(255,255,255,0.5) then the shadow will appear stronger than when it is rgba(255,255,255,0.7). And even if you use rgba scheme and your alpha value is 1 or the background color is rgba(255,255,255,1) then also the show will not show up.
Given that, it is not possible to show the shadow if the inner element has an opaque background color.
See the 3 examples here for reference: https://codepen.io/rajatkantinandi/pen/PoJgMMw?editors=1100
If you need shadow on top only, this will do it:
.element
{
box-shadow:inset 0px 3px 3px #BBB;
}
Is it possible to control the length and distance between dashed border strokes in CSS?
This example below displays differently between browsers:
div {
border: dashed 4px #000;
padding: 20px;
display: inline-block;
}
<div>I have a dashed border!</div>
Big differences: IE 11 / Firefox / Chrome
Are there any methods that can provide greater control of the dashed borders appearance?
The native dashed border property value does not offer control over the dashes themselves... so bring on the border-image property!
Brew your own border with border-image
Compatibility: It offers great browser support (IE 11 and all modern browsers). A normal border can be set as a fallback for older browsers.
Let's create these
These borders will display exactly the same cross-browser!
Step 1 - Create a suitable image
This example is 15 pixels wide by 15 pixels high and the gaps are currently 5px wide. It is a .png with transparency.
This is what it looks like in photoshop when zoomed in:
This is what it looks like to scale:
Controlling gap and stroke length
To create wider / shorter gaps or strokes, widen / shorten the gaps or strokes in the image.
Here is an image with wider 10px gaps:
correctly scaled =
Step 2 - Create the CSS — this example requires 4 basic steps
Define the border-image-source:
border-image-source:url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png");
Optional - Define the border-image-width:
border-image-width: 1;
The default value is 1. It can also be set with a pixel value, percentage value, or as another multiple (1x, 2x, 3x etc). This overrides any border-width set.
Define the border-image-slice:
In this example, the thickness of the images top, right, bottom and left borders is 2px, and there is no gap outside of them, so our slice value is 2:
border-image-slice: 2;
The slices look like this, 2 pixels from the top, right, bottom and left:
Define the border-image-repeat:
In this example, we want the pattern to repeat itself evenly around our div. So we choose:
border-image-repeat: round;
Writing shorthand
The properties above can be set individually, or in shorthand using border-image:
border-image: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png") 2 round;
Complete example
Note the border: dashed 4px #000 fallback. Non-supporting browsers will receive this border.
.bordered {
display: inline-block;
padding: 20px;
/* Fallback dashed border
- the 4px width here is overwritten with the border-image-width (if set)
- the border-image-width can be omitted below if it is the same as the 4px here
*/
border: dashed 4px #000;
/* Individual border image properties */
border-image-source: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png");
border-image-slice: 2;
border-image-repeat: round;
/* or use the shorthand border-image */
border-image: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/wLdVc.png") 2 round;
}
/*The border image of this one creates wider gaps*/
.largeGaps {
border-image-source: url("http://i.stack.imgur.com/LKclP.png");
margin: 0 20px;
}
<div class="bordered">This is bordered!</div>
<div class="bordered largeGaps">This is bordered and has larger gaps!</div>
In addition to the border-image property, there are a few other ways to create a dashed border with control over the length of the stroke and the distance between them. They are described below:
Method 1: Using SVG
We can create the dashed border by using a path or a polygon element and setting the stroke-dasharray property. The property takes two parameters where one defines the size of the dash and the other determines the space between them.
Pros:
SVGs by nature are scalable graphics and can adapt to any container dimensions.
Can work very well even if there is a border-radius involved. We would just have replace the path with a circle like in this answer (or) convert the path into a circle.
Browser support for SVG is pretty good and fallback can be provided using VML for IE8-.
Cons:
When the dimensions of the container do not change proportionately, the paths tend to scale resulting in a change in size of the dash and the space between them (try hovering on the first box in the snippet). This can be controlled by adding vector-effect='non-scaling-stroke' (as in the second box) but the browser support for this property is nil in IE.
.dashed-vector {
position: relative;
height: 100px;
width: 300px;
}
svg {
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 100%;
width: 100%;
}
path{
fill: none;
stroke: blue;
stroke-width: 5;
stroke-dasharray: 10, 10;
}
span {
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
padding: 10px;
}
/* just for demo */
div{
margin-bottom: 10px;
transition: all 1s;
}
div:hover{
height: 100px;
width: 400px;
}
<div class='dashed-vector'>
<svg viewBox='0 0 300 100' preserveAspectRatio='none'>
<path d='M0,0 300,0 300,100 0,100z' />
</svg>
<span>Some content</span>
</div>
<div class='dashed-vector'>
<svg viewBox='0 0 300 100' preserveAspectRatio='none'>
<path d='M0,0 300,0 300,100 0,100z' vector-effect='non-scaling-stroke'/>
</svg>
<span>Some content</span>
</div>
Method 2: Using Gradients
We can use multiple linear-gradient background images and position them appropriately to create a dashed border effect. This can also be done with a repeating-linear-gradient but there is not much improvement because of using a repeating gradient as we need each gradient to repeat in only one direction.
.dashed-gradient{
height: 100px;
width: 200px;
padding: 10px;
background-image: linear-gradient(to right, blue 50%, transparent 50%), linear-gradient(to right, blue 50%, transparent 50%), linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 50%, transparent 50%), linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 50%, transparent 50%);
background-position: left top, left bottom, left top, right top;
background-repeat: repeat-x, repeat-x, repeat-y, repeat-y;
background-size: 20px 3px, 20px 3px, 3px 20px, 3px 20px;
}
.dashed-repeating-gradient {
height: 100px;
width: 200px;
padding: 10px;
background-image: repeating-linear-gradient(to right, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%), repeating-linear-gradient(to right, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%), repeating-linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%), repeating-linear-gradient(to bottom, blue 0%, blue 50%, transparent 50%, transparent 100%);
background-position: left top, left bottom, left top, right top;
background-repeat: repeat-x, repeat-x, repeat-y, repeat-y;
background-size: 20px 3px, 20px 3px, 3px 20px, 3px 20px;
}
/* just for demo */
div {
margin: 10px;
transition: all 1s;
}
div:hover {
height: 150px;
width: 300px;
}
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/prefixfree/1.0.7/prefixfree.min.js"></script>
<div class='dashed-gradient'>Some content</div>
<div class='dashed-repeating-gradient'>Some content</div>
Pros:
Scalable and can adapt even if the container's dimensions are dynamic.
Does not make use of any extra pseudo-elements which means they can be kept aside for any other potential usage.
Cons:
Browser support for linear gradients is comparatively lower and this is a no-go if you want to support IE 9-. Even libraries like CSS3 PIE do not support creation of gradient patterns in IE8-.
Cannot be used when border-radius is involved because backgrounds don't curve based on border-radius. They get clipped instead.
Method 3: Box Shadows
We can create a small bar (in the shape of the dash) using pseudo-elements and then create multiple box-shadow versions of it to create a border like in the below snippet.
If the dash is a square shape then a single pseudo-element would be enough but if it is a rectangle, we would need one pseudo-element for the top + bottom borders and another for left + right borders. This is because the height and width for the dash on the top border will be different from that on the left.
Pros:
The dimensions of the dash is controllable by changing the dimensions of the pseudo-element. The spacing is controllable by modifying the space between each shadow.
A very unique effect can be produced by adding a different color for each box shadow.
Cons:
Since we have to manually set the dimensions of the dash and the spacing, this approach is no good when the dimensions of the parent box is dynamic.
IE8 and lower do not support box shadow. However, this can be overcome by using libraries like CSS3 PIE.
Can be used with border-radius but positioning them would be very tricky with having to find points on a circle (and possibly even transform).
.dashed-box-shadow{
position: relative;
height: 120px;
width: 120px;
padding: 10px;
}
.dashed-box-shadow:before{ /* for border top and bottom */
position: absolute;
content: '';
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 3px; /* height of the border top and bottom */
width: 10px; /* width of the border top and bottom */
background: blue; /* border color */
box-shadow: 20px 0px 0px blue, 40px 0px 0px blue, 60px 0px 0px blue, 80px 0px 0px blue, 100px 0px 0px blue, /* top border */
0px 110px 0px blue, 20px 110px 0px blue, 40px 110px 0px blue, 60px 110px 0px blue, 80px 110px 0px blue, 100px 110px 0px blue; /* bottom border */
}
.dashed-box-shadow:after{ /* for border left and right */
position: absolute;
content: '';
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
height: 10px; /* height of the border left and right */
width: 3px; /* width of the border left and right */
background: blue; /* border color */
box-shadow: 0px 20px 0px blue, 0px 40px 0px blue, 0px 60px 0px blue, 0px 80px 0px blue, 0px 100px 0px blue, /* left border */
110px 0px 0px blue, 110px 20px 0px blue, 110px 40px 0px blue, 110px 60px 0px blue, 110px 80px 0px blue, 110px 100px 0px blue; /* right border */
}
<div class='dashed-box-shadow'>Some content</div>
There's a cool tool made by #kovart called the dashed border generator.
It uses an svg as a background image to allow setting the stroke dash array you desire, and is pretty convenient.
You would then simply use it as the background property on your element in place of the border:
div {
background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml,%3csvg width='100%25' height='100%25' xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg'%3e%3crect width='100%25' height='100%25' fill='none' stroke='black' stroke-width='4' stroke-dasharray='6%2c 14' stroke-dashoffset='0' stroke-linecap='square'/%3e%3c/svg%3e");
padding: 20px;
display: inline-block;
}
Css render is browser specific and I don't know any fine tuning on it, you should work with images as recommended by Ham.
Reference: http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/box.html#border-style-properties
Short one: No, it's not. You will have to work with images instead.
Update
Thanks to kovart for this great tool try it
https://kovart.github.io/dashed-border-generator/
my answer was:
I just recently had the same problem.
I have made this work around, hope it will help someone.
HTML + tailwind
<div class="dashed-border h-14 w-full relative rounded-lg">
<div class="w-full h-full rounded-lg bg-page z-10 relative">
Content goes here...
<div>
</div>
CSS
.dashed-border::before {
content: '';
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: calc(100% + 4px);
transform: translateY(-50%);
background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #333 50%, transparent 50%);
background-size: 16px;
z-index: 0;
border-radius: 0.5rem;
}
.dashed-border::after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 0;
height: 100%;
width: calc(100% + 4px);
transform: translateX(-50%);
background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #333 50%, transparent 50%);
background-size: 4px 16px;
z-index: 1;
border-radius: 0.5rem;
}
Stroke length depends on stroke width. You can increase length by increasing width and hide part of border by inner element.
EDIT: added pointer-events: none; thanks to benJ.
.thin {
background: #F4FFF3;
border: 2px dashed #3FA535;
position: relative;
}
.thin:after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: -1px;
top: -1px;
right: -1px;
bottom: -1px;
border: 1px solid #F4FFF3;
pointer-events: none;
}
https://jsfiddle.net/ksf9zoLh/
.outline {
outline: 48px dashed #d5fb62;
outline-offset: -4px;
overflow:hidden;
}
if overflow hidden not problem else outline 4 instead 48.
<div class="outline"></div>
I just recently had the same problem.
I managed to solve it with two absolutely positioned divs carrying the border (one for horizontal and one for vertical), and then transforming them.
The outer box just needs to be relatively positioned.
<div class="relative">
<div class="absolute absolute--fill overflow-hidden">
<div class="absolute absolute--fill b--dashed b--red"
style="
border-width: 4px 0px 4px 0px;
transform: scaleX(2);
"></div>
<div class="absolute absolute--fill b--dashed b--red"
style="
border-width: 0px 4px 0px 4px;
transform: scaleY(2);
"></div>
</div>
<div> {{Box content goes here}} </div>
</div>
Note: i used tachyons in this example, but i guess the classes are kind of self-explanatory.
I think I've just found the definitive solution to this problem with the use of clip-path property. Basically all there is to add a dashed border then mask the excess.
The clip-path property also supports rounded corners so you can match it up with the border-radius and have custom dashed borders and rounded corners!
.demo {
display: inline-flex;
width: 200px;
height: 100px;
position: relative;
clip-path: inset(0 round 30px 0 30px 0);
}
.demo::before {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: -7px;
top: -7px;
right: -7px;
bottom: -7px;
border: 8px dashed rgba(0, 0, 255, 0.3);
border-radius: 37px 0 37px 0;
box-sizing: border-box;
}
<div class="demo"></div>
You could do this directly on the div itself of course without using the ::after pseudo element. But this would mean you have to clip into the div and it would end up smaller than it's initial size.
This will make an orange and gray border using the class="myclass" on the div.
.myclass {
outline:dashed darkorange 12px;
border:solid slategray 14px;
outline-offset:-14px;
}