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#+title: Useful CSS Snippets
#+date: 2019-01-07
#+description: Explore some useful CSS snippets.
#+filetags: :dev:
* Introduction to CSS
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS][CSS]], the language used to markup HTML code and make it "pretty", is one of the
most effective ways to increase the attractiveness of a website. It can also
lead to increased user engagement, retention, and satisfaction. In fact, there
are whole career fields are dedicated to the improvement of user experiences,
known as UI design and UX design.
Some web developers are used to the common CSS properties, such as element
sizing, fonts, colors, etc., but are not as well versed in less-used properties
and values such as =flexbox=, =clip-path=, and =transform=. This article will
provide some insight into the less-used and unique CSS properties.
* CSS Variables
The first topic today is CSS variables. Variables are not often used by smaller
developers. CSS variables allow you to give your website a well-defined
structure, where you can easily reuse CSS properties throughout the project.
You can use variables to define things, such as color palettes. Then, you can
use these colors for backgrounds anywhere else in the HTML. This could be
extended, where extra variables could be defined for =primary-text=,
=quoted-text=, etc. Variables can also be used to define spacing (e.g. =32px= or
=2rem=), which can then be applied to margins, padding, font sizes, and more.
For example, here are some variables defined at the root of the website, which
allows for any subsequent CSS rules to use those variables:
#+begin_src css
:root {
--primary-color: black;
--secondary-color: white;
}
body {
background-color: var(--primary-color);
color: var(--secondary-color);
}
#+end_src
* CSS Box Shadows
Box shadows were once my mortal enemy. No matter how hard I tried, I just
couldn't get them to work how I wanted. Because of this, my favorite discovery
has been CSSMatic's [[https://www.cssmatic.com/box-shadow][box shadow generator]]. It provides an excellent tool to
generate box shadows using their simple sliders. Surprisingly, this is the
reason I learned how box shadows work! You can use the sliders and watch how the
CSS code changes in the image that is displayed. Through this, you should
understand that the basic structure for box shadows is:
#+begin_src css
box-shadow: inset horizontal vertical blur spread color;
#+end_src
Now, let's look at some basic examples! You can copy and paste the following
code into a site like CodePen or your own HTML files. Feel free to play around
with the code, experiment, and learn.
*Box Shadow #1*
#+begin_src html
<div class="shadow-examples">
<div class="box effect1">
<h3>Effect 1</h3>
</div>
</div>
#+end_src
#+begin_src css
.box h3 {
text-align: center;
position: relative;
top: 80px;
}
.box {
width: 70%;
height: 200px;
background: #fff;
margin: 40px auto;
}
.effect1 {
box-shadow: 0 10px 6px -6px #777;
}
#+end_src
*Box Shadow #2*
#+begin_src html
<div class="shadow-examples">
<div class="box effect2">
<h3>Effect 2</h3>
</div>
</div>
#+end_src
#+begin_src css
.box h3 {
text-align: center;
position: relative;
top: 80px;
}
.box {
width: 70%;
height: 200px;
background: #fff;
margin: 40px auto;
}
.effect2 {
box-shadow: 10px 10px 5px -5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
}
#+end_src
Try these box shadows out on your own and see how changing each shadow value
works.
* CSS Flexbox
Now, let's move on to the best part of this article: flexbox. The flexbox is by
far my favorite new toy. I originally stumbled across this solution after
looking for more efficient ways of centering content horizontally AND
vertically. I had used a few hack-ish methods before, but flexbox throws those
out the window. The best part of it all is that flexbox is /dead simple/.
Flexbox pertains to the parent div of any element. You want the parent to be the
flexbox in which items are arranged to use the flex methods. It's easier to see
this in action that explained, so let's see an example.
*Flexbox*
#+begin_src html
<div class="flex-examples">
<div class="sm-box">
<h3>1</h3>
</div>
<div class="sm-box">
<h3>2</h3>
</div>
</div>
#+end_src
#+begin_src css
.flex-examples {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
justify-content: flex-start;
align-items: center;
padding: 10px;
background-color: #f2f2f2;
}
.sm-box {
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
align-items: center;
width: 20%;
height: 100px;
background: #fff;
margin: 40px 10px;
}
#+end_src
You may notice that we no longer need to use the =top= property for the =h3=
elements in our code. This is because we set the display box to be a flex
container for the small boxes, AND we made the small boxes flex containers for
their elements (the h3 tags). Flex boxes can be nested like this to center
content that is inside centered content.
For the example above, we designated the =justify-content= property to be
=flex-start= so that the boxes stack from the left side of the screen. This
property can be changed to =center= to make the boxes appear in the center of
the screen.
For an interactive example, [[https://codepen.io/LandonSchropp/pen/KpzzGo][check out this CodePen]] from [[https://codepen.io/LandonSchropp/][LandonScropp]]. Resize the
window with dice to see how they collapse and re-align.
* Even More CSS
For more inspiration, you can visit [[https://www.codepen.io][CodePen]], [[https://dribbble.com][Dribbble]], or [[https://uimovement.com][UI Movement]] to browse
the collections of many amazing web designers.
|
