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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've had a search around but cannot find a solution to the way I wish to use it.
My gradient will be border-top/bottom with a white center with a reflected 0% opacity. Giving the effect that you see a lot like this.
border-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top, color-stop(0%,rgba(255,255,255,0)), color-stop(49%,rgba(255,255,255,1)), color-stop(100%,rgba(255,255,255,0)));
But I cannot seem to get it to work, any ideas? I can't think of a way apart from adding manual images above and below the divs, which seems like a terrible way of doing it.
I think that what you want to do is this
.test {
position: absolute;
left: 20px;
top: 20px;
width: 200px;
height: 200px;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 20px 0px;
border-image-source: linear-gradient(90deg, rgba(255,255,255,0), rgba(255,255,255,1), rgba(255,255,255,0));
border-image-slice: 20;
border-image-repeat: stretch;
box-shadow: 0px 0px 10px black;
}
body {
background-color: lightblue;
}
I have used only the unprefixed syntax; it will work as is in Chrome. You can use the shorthand notation, but I think that this way is more easy to understand how it works.
I have also set a background on body (if not, it's difficult to tell the difference between white and transparent) and shadow on the div so that you can see the real diemnsions.
fiddle
So I have been slamming my head against the wall trying several different methods online and can't get anything to work.
I have a div that needs to be fluid width, and its height needs to be variable as well.
The div sits on top of a tile-able background image. It has a 1px border around it.
I need the bottom right of the div to fold up, like a piece of paper.
I tried using an image, in a div anchored to the bottom. But that requires a fixed width or height as far as I can tell.
I tried this method but it requires a solid background color. I have a repeating image.
I tried this method, which uses gradients to control the opacity at the corner, this almost works, but my div requires a border. Applying the border ruins the effect.
background:
linear-gradient(45deg, rgba(255,0,0,0.4), rgba(255,0,0,0.4)),
linear-gradient(135deg, rgba(255,0,0,0.4), rgba(255,0,0,0.4)),
linear-gradient(225deg, transparent 10px, rgba(255,0,0,0.4)
background-size: 14px 14px, 50% 100%, 50% 50%, 50% 50%;
background-position: 100% 0, 0 0, 100% 100%, 100% 0;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
//then an :after pseudo class to create the corner fold
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
This question got me bussy for some time, this seems to be a really hard thing to do with CSS only. I managed to achieve the effect(the paper flip with a border around the element) you wanted, but it requires alot of CSS and I don't know how far you want to go. I applied border-radius to the top right corner and used a triangle to overlap the border-radius. This did not cover the entire border radius, so I used a span to form 2 shapes to overlay the remaining gap.
Look at this fiddle for the result, any improvements are welcome
http://jsfiddle.net/EnVnW/
CODE:
body {
background: #444 url('http://leaverou.me/ft2010/img/darker_wood.jpg') bottom;
}
.arrow_box {
color:red;
position: relative;
background: #88b7d5;
border: 4px solid #c2e1f5;
height:400px;
border-radius:0 300px 0 0; /* here we give the box a round corner on the top right side */
}
.arrow_box:after, .arrow_box:before { /* we create 2 triangles in the top right corner, one for the border and one for the filling */
-ms-transform:rotate(-135deg); /* rotate to make the triangle have the right angle */
-webkit-transform:rotate(-135deg);
transform:rotate(-135deg);
bottom: 100%;
border: solid transparent;
content: " ";
height: 0;
width: 0;
position: absolute;
top:42px;
right:-20px;
}
/* here we position the triangles in the top right corner */
.arrow_box:after {
border-color: rgba(200, 265, 0, 0);
border-bottom-color: #00b7d5;
border-width: 100px;
left: 100%;
margin-left: -240px;
}
.arrow_box:before {
border-color: rgba(194, 225, 245, 0);
border-bottom-color: #c2e1f5;
border-width: 105px;
left: 100%;
top:39px;
margin-left: -245px;
}
/* we still have a massive gap next to the triangle, so we fill it up with 2 rectangles. One on the left side of the triangle and one on the bottom side of the triangle, we also will give them a border to finish the line around the element */
.arrow_box span {
border-top: 4px solid #c2e1f5;
position:absolute;
width:150px;
height:140px;
background-color:black;
right:140px;
top:-4px;
background: #88b7d5;
}
.arrow_box span:after {
border-right: 4px solid #c2e1f5;
content: "";
position:absolute;
width:150px;
height:150px;
background: #88b7d5;
left:140px;
top:140px;
}
With CSS4 this will be alot easier to do, here you can read about it;
http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css-backgrounds-4/#border-corner-shape
Im looking for a way to recreate this button with CSS only.
I know about the triangle technique and I also know how to add a border to it, but unfortunately I don't know any way to recreate this button (without adding additional wrappers or using images).
The buttons I need this style on are <input["submit"]> and ordinary <a>'s.
With one element, you could do it using gradients and skewed pseudo-elements for a link:
demo
(you could actually do it using just gradients, but then a hover action won't be triggered on hover on the arrow shape itself, but on hover on the rectangular element containing it)
HTML:
<a class='boo' href='#'>click me</a>
Relevant CSS:
.boo {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
padding: .5em 2em;
background:
linear-gradient(60deg, dodgerblue 50%, transparent 50%) 100% 0,
linear-gradient(-60deg, transparent 50%, dodgerblue 50%) 100% 100%,
linear-gradient(-90deg, transparent 1em, dodgerblue 1em);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-size: 1em 50%, 1em 50%, 100% 100%;
}
.boo:before, .boo:after {
position: absolute;
right: -.2em;
width: .5em; height: 50%;
background: dodgerblue;
content: '';
}
.boo:before {
top: 0;
transform: skewX(30deg);
}
.boo:after {
bottom: 0;
transform: skewX(-30deg);
}
EDIT:
If your background is a solid color, not an image or a gradient, you could do it in a much simpler way, without using gradients (which means that this second method also has the advantage of working in IE9).
demo #2
.boo {
display: inline-block;
position: relative;
padding: .5em 2em;
background: lightblue;
}
.boo:before, .boo:after {
position: absolute;
right: -.3em;
width: .5em; height: 50%;
box-shadow: -.2em 0 0 white;
background: inherit;
content: '';
}
.boo:before {
top: 0;
transform: skewX(30deg);
}
.boo:after {
bottom: 0;
transform: skewX(-30deg);
}
You should use a background image. Create a transparent png containing the arrow.
You would need two elements, the outer would contain the background image, the inner would contain the text, and a background color which is the same as the one on the arrow. Alternatively, you could use a second background image instead of a background color, for example if your button is not just a flat color.
The trick is to align the box containing the text with the background image.
If your arrow is 20px tall, your inner box could be e.g. 16px plus 2px padding on each side (search for box model if you would like to understand this better).
The outer element can have a right-margin set to the approximate width of the arrow image.
I hope this makes sense. The general technique is called sliding doors. I suggest reading the entire article if you have the time.
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;
}