Question

See this image or here http://cl.ly/image/0a2R2V0C1y2l

We have a div that uses this image as background-image

.header_background{
    display: inline-block;
    position: relative;
    top: 10px; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0;
    background-image: url(../img/header-back.png);
    height: 47px;
    width: 899px;
    float: right;   
}

It has rounded corners and gradient.

We will be putting in other html like text, more div elements and image buttons inside the div.

Is there a way for me not to use an image for the speech bubble but use html5/css3 techniques?

Answer 1

Check this live demo

And here is the code:

.header_background {
    position: relative;
    background: #FFF;
    background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHdpZHRoPSIxMDAlIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEwMCUiPjxsaW5lYXJHcmFkaWVudCBpZD0iZzEiIGdyYWRpZW50VW5pdHM9InVzZXJTcGFjZU9uVXNlIiB4MT0iMCUiIHkxPSIwJSIgeDI9IjAlIiB5Mj0iMTAwJSI+PHN0b3Agb2Zmc2V0PSIwLjUiIHN0b3AtY29sb3I9IiNGRkZGRkYiLz48c3RvcCBvZmZzZXQ9IjEiIHN0b3AtY29sb3I9IiNDQ0NDQ0MiLz48L2xpbmVhckdyYWRpZW50PjxyZWN0IHg9IjAiIHk9IjAiIHdpZHRoPSIxMDAlIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEwMCUiIGZpbGw9InVybCgjZzEpIiAvPjwvc3ZnPg==);
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, center top, center bottom, color-stop(50%, #FFFFFF), color-stop(100%, #CCCCCC));
    background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 50%, #CCCCCC 100%);
    background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 50%, #CCCCCC 100%);
    background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 50%, #CCCCCC 100%);
    background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #FFFFFF 50%, #CCCCCC 100%);
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #FFFFFF 50%, #CCCCCC 100%);
    border: 1px solid #CCC;
    padding:10px;
    -moz-border-radius:5px;
    -webkit-border-radius:5px;
    border-radius:5px;
}
.header_background:after, .header_background:before {
    right: 100%;
    border: solid transparent;
    content: " ";
    height: 0;
    width: 0;
    position: absolute;
}

.header_background:after {
    border-color:transparent;
    border-right-color: #FFF;
    border-width: 5px;
    top: 50%;
    margin-top: -5px;
}
.header_background:before {
    border-color:transparent;
    border-right-color:#CCC;
    border-width: 6px;
    top: 50%;
    margin-top: -6px;
}​

I’ve used this online gradient maker tool, css arrow please and modified a little bit.

---

data:image/svg+xml;base64,...etc... is an inline SVG image, encoded on base64. This will render the gradient on IE9, which doesn’t support any pure CSS3 gradient feature.

Actually it is supported by other modern browsers (FF13+, Opera12+), but as Lea Verou reported it’s slower than pure CSS3 gradients, that’s why you still need the other declarations.

---

For IE8, you can use a gradient filter:

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#feffff', endColorstr='#eeeeee',GradientType=0 );

Which is pretty straight-forward (GradientType=0 means vertical, if you change it to 1 you’ll have an horizontal gradient). The problem is that it’s supported by IE9 too! So to avoid overlapping you need to use conditional comments.

In this specific case i suggest you … to not give a damn about IE8. It’ll just display a white background (that’s why i added background:#FFF; as the first declaration) which is totally fine.