Question

Does anyone have a modern CSS method for doing something like this? I’ve been searching for ages. Maybe I’m using the wrong search terms?

http://fu2k.org/alex/css/equalheight/divs/clipped

UPDATE:

Thanks to all for the replies & comments. Unfortunately the background of my div is patterned and has a thin solid border so this seems to rule out a lot of suggestions. I’m still exploring the ideas. Perhaps a javascript approach is a possibility?

Answer 1

You can achieve this with pure CSS – cross-platform, working down to IE7 (I haven’t tested this with IE6, but I think it should still work).

<style type="text/css">
<!--
div.big {
    position: relative;
    width: 600px;
    height: 200px;
    background:#FFF url(images/pattern.png)
    border: solid 1px black;
}

div.top-left-b {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    left: 0px;
    border-top: solid 40px black;
    border-right: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 1;
}

div.top-left-w {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: -1px;
    left: -1px;
    border-top: solid 40px white;
    border-right: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 2;
}

div.top-right-b {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0px;
    right: 0px;
    border-top: solid 40px black;
    border-left: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 1;
}

div.top-right-w {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: -1px;
    right: -1px;
    border-top: solid 40px white;
    border-left: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 2;
}

div.bottom-left-b {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 0px;
    left: 0px;
    border-bottom: solid 40px black;
    border-right: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 1;
}

div.bottom-left-w {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    bottom: -1px;
    left: -1px;
    border-bottom: solid 40px white;
    border-right: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 2;
}

div.bottom-right-b {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 0px;
    right: 0px;
    border-bottom: solid 40px black;
    border-left: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 1;
}

div.bottom-right-w {
    width: 0;
    height: 0;
    position: absolute;
    bottom: -1px;
    right: -1px;
    border-bottom: solid 40px white;
    border-left: solid 40px transparent;
    z-index: 2;
}
-->
</style>

<div class="big">
    <div class="top-left-b"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="top-left-w"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="top-right-b"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="top-right-w"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="bottom-left-b"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="bottom-left-w"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="bottom-right-b"><!-- --></div>
    <div class="bottom-right-w"><!-- --></div>
</div>

This would produce the following effect: