Cool headings with pseudo-elements

Whether you’re designing a website or a web application, you’ll need custom styles for headings like h1 or h2. In this article you’ll learn how to create some cool headings effects using CSS pseudo-elements.

View demo

Introduction

So, why pseudo-elements? The answer is very simple: there is no need to add extra markup. This fit perfectly for the heading we’re going to create here.

The HTML

<h1 class="headline1">I took lessons</h1>

As you can see above, there is no rocket science here. Just a simple HTML heading with a CSS class that will properly style it. All the other headings use a similar HTML structure, so it can’t easier than that.

<link href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Droid+Sans:700" rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

Also, for this demo, we’ll use a Google custom font.

The CSS

Further, we’ll use the body as our main wrapper:

body{
        width: 60%;
        margin: 50px auto;
        padding: 15px;
        position: relative; /*needed for heading4 rule*/
        z-index: 0; /* again, just for heading4 rule*/
        border: 7px solid #cecece;
        border: 7px solid rgba(0,0,0,.05);
        background: #fff;
        background-clip: padding-box;
        box-shadow: 0 0 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
}

h1{
        font-family: 'Droid Sans', sans-serif;
        font-size: 22px;
}

Noticed the background-clip: padding-box declaration? This will help you achieve a cool effect: transparent borders for the main wrapper. Basically, the background-clip CSS property specifies whether an element’s background, either the color or image, extends underneath its border.

Browser support for background-clip: Safari 5+, Chrome 7+, Firefox 3.6+, Opera 10+, IE 9+

Headline 1

Below is a simple and good looking effect made using CSS border property:

.headline1 {
        border-bottom: 1px dashed #aaa;
        border-left: 7px solid #aaa;
        border-left: 7px solid rgba(0,0,0,.2);
        margin: 0 -15px 15px -22px;
        padding: 5px 15px;
}

Headline 2

This style is made using a CSS triangle shape, you’ve seen this before here:

.headline2 {
        border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa;
        margin: 15px 0;
        padding: 5px 0;
        position: relative;
}

.headline2:before,
.headline2:after{
        content: '';
        border-right: 20px solid #fff;
        border-top: 15px solid #aaa;
        bottom: -15px;
        position: absolute;
        left: 25px;
}

.headline2:after{
        border-top-color: #fff;
        border-right-color: transparent;
        bottom: -13px;
        left: 26px;
}

Headline 3

The below HTML heading style is created using the ribbon effect:

.headline3{
  position: relative;
  margin-left: -22px; /* 15px padding + 7px border ribbon shadow*/
  margin-right: -22px;
  padding: 15px;
  background: #e5e5e5;
  background: -moz-linear-gradient(#f5f5f5, #e5e5e5);
  background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#f5f5f5), to(#e5e5e5));
  background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#f5f5f5, #e5e5e5);
  background: -o-linear-gradient(#f5f5f5, #e5e5e5);
  background: -ms-linear-gradient(#f5f5f5, #e5e5e5);
  background: linear-gradient(#f5f5f5, #e5e5e5);
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,.8) inset;
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,.8) inset;
  box-shadow: 0 -1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,.8) inset;
  text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #fff;
}

.headline3:before, .headline3:after{
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  bottom: -6px;
  content:'';
  border-top: 6px solid #555;
  border-left: 6px solid transparent;
}

.headline3:before{
  border-top: 6px solid #555;
  border-right: 6px solid transparent;
  border-left: none;
  left: auto;
  right: 0;
  bottom: -6px;
}

Headline 4

Using box-shadow, you can create some slick effects:

.headline4{
        position: relative;
        border-color: #eee;
        border-style: solid;
        border-width: 5px 5px 5px 0;
        background: #fff;
        margin: 0 0 15px -15px;
        padding: 5px 15px;
        -moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,.3);
        -webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,.3);
        box-shadow: 1px 1px 1px rgba(0,0,0,.3);
}

.headline4:after
{
        content: "";
        position: absolute;
        z-index: -1;
        bottom: 15px;
        right: 15px;
        width: 70%;
        height: 10px;
        background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .7);
        -webkit-box-shadow: 0 15px 10px rgba(0,0,0, .7);
        -moz-box-shadow: 0 15px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, .7);
        box-shadow: 0 15px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, .7);
        -webkit-transform: rotate(2deg);
        -moz-transform: rotate(2deg);
        -o-transform: rotate(2deg);
        -ms-transform: rotate(2deg);
        transform: rotate(2deg);
}

View demo

Conclusion

I hope you liked my headings examples, and if you have some other cool ones to add, feel free to share your thoughts with us. Thanks you for reading!

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