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Create a Mac App Icon with Pure HTML & CSS · Ugly Duck
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<h1>Create a Mac App Icon with Pure HTML & CSS</h1>
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<article class="">
<p><em>Posted on <time datetime="2021-04-13T00:00:00-04:00">April 13, 2021</time></em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>I have always been a huge fan of <a href="https://dribbble.com/bg-d">Bogdan’s work on Dribbble</a></em> and was recently inspired to see if I could replicate one of his awesome icon designs with only HTML & CSS. What was the outcome? I think it’s a half-way decent copy - of course the original will always look significantly better.</p>
<p>Don’t care about reading through the tutorial? No problem! You can <a href="#demo">jump right down to the live demo</a></p>
<h2 id="the-comparison">The Comparison</h2>
<p>Let’s take a look at the original Dribbble shot:</p>
<figure>
<img src="/public/images/e54ac9b2850f786471d7790bec3844a6.webp" alt="Big Sur Icon" />
<figcaption>The original Dribbble shot (<a href="/public/images/e54ac9b2850f786471d7790bec3844a6.webp">direct link to image</a>)</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And now let’s see what we will be creating with only HTML & CSS:</p>
<figure>
<img src="/public/images/big-sur-css.webp" alt="Big Sur Icon" />
<figcaption>What we are going to create with pure HTML & CSS (<a href="/public/images/big-sur-css.webp">direct link to image</a>)</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like I said - far from perfect but still a fun experiment!</p>
<h2 id="the-html">The HTML</h2>
<p>Let’s jump right in and build out the main skeleton of our project:</p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><div class="white-square"></div>
<div class="blue-square">
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="item"></div>
<div class="item"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="play-button">
<div class="triangle"></div>
</div>
</code></pre></div></div>
<ul>
<li>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">white-square</code> element is the white, rounded square in the background</li>
<li>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">blue-square</code> is the main blue square of the icon</li>
<li>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">row</code> elements inside the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">blue-square</code> will be our individual <em>lines</em> spread across the icon</li>
<li>The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">play-button</code> is obviously - the play button</li>
</ul>
<p>Right now it will look like nothing, but we can change that by adding the most important part…</p>
<h2 id="the-css">The CSS</h2>
<p>Pasting the entire CSS styling here would end up looking a little daunting. Instead, I’m just going to breakdown each individual section to make things more digestible.</p>
<h3 id="defaults--the-white-square">Defaults & the White Square</h3>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
:root {
--row-distance: 42px;
}
.white-square {
background: white;
border-radius: 105px;
box-shadow: inset 0 -5px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.25), 0 12px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.15), 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
height: 420px;
left: 165px;
position: absolute;
transform: rotate(-8deg);
top: 95px;
width: 420px;
}
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>See that <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">--row-distance</code> variable? That will come into play a bit later. For now, we want to lay the Blue Square on top of this newly creating White Square:</p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>.blue-square {
background: linear-gradient(#04BDFD 0%, #0585E4 100%);
border-radius: 105px;
box-shadow: inset 0 5px 8px rgba(255,255,255,0.5), inset 0 -5px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.32), 0 12px 10px rgba(0,0,0,0.18), 0 2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.15);
height: 420px;
left: 205px;
padding: 75px 0 0;
position: absolute;
top: 75px;
width: 420px;
}
</code></pre></div></div>
<h2 id="targeting-the-inner-rows">Targeting the Inner Rows</h2>
<p>So far so good. The next part <em>looks</em> like a lot, but I assure you it’s fairly straightforward. We need to include each row inside the Blue Square like in the original Dribbble shot (7 total). First we start with the parent <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">row</code> styling:</p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>.blue-square .row {
display: flex;
height: 20px;
justify-content: space-between;
padding: 0 55px;
position: absolute;
width: 100%;
}
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>Now we style each individual row item via the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">nth-of-type</code> attribute:</p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(2) { margin-top: var(--row-distance); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(2) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 85px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(2) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 100px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(3) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 2); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(3) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 115px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(3) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 130px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(4) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 3); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(4) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 185px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(4) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 200px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(5) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 4); width: calc(100% - 115px); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(5) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 105px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(5) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 120px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(6) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 5); width: calc(100% - 140px); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(6) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 65px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(6) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 80px);
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(7) { margin-top: calc(var(--row-distance) * 6); width: calc(100% - 160px); }
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(7) .item:nth-of-type(odd) {
width: 40px;
}
.blue-square .row:nth-of-type(7) .item:nth-of-type(even) {
width: calc(100% - 55px);
}
.blue-square .row .item {
background: white;
border-radius: 20px;
box-shadow: inset 0 -2px 4px rgba(0,0,0,0.06), inset 0 2px 4px rgba(255,255,255,0.1), 0 4px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.05);
width: 40px;
}
.blue-square .row .item:nth-of-type(even) {
background: #3FC0F5;
width: calc(100% - 55px);
}
</code></pre></div></div>
<p>Take a few moments to read everything over - it will help you better understand what’s going on. Basically, we are adding two inner elements to each row element. We calculate the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">margin-top</code> distance by using that <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">--row-distance</code> variable I mentioned earlier. The inner elements are then styled based on their placement inside the row (<code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">nth-of-type</code>).</p>
<h3 id="the-play-button">The Play Button</h3>
<p>Now we finish things off with a much simpler element to style:</p>
<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>.play-button {
backdrop-filter: blur(6px);
border-radius: 9999px;
box-shadow: inset 0 4px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.3), inset 0 20px 15px rgba(255,255,255,0.6), 0 8px 12px rgba(0,0,0,0.1), 0 4px 6px rgba(0,0,0,0.05);
height: 220px;
overflow: hidden;
position: absolute;
right: 140px;
top: 320px;
width: 220px;
}
.play-button::before {
background: rgba(255,255,255,0.9);
border-radius: 9999px;
content:'';
filter: blur(40px);
height: 150%;
left: -25%;
opacity: 0.8;
position: absolute;
top: -25%;
width: 150%;
}
.triangle {
position: absolute;
left: calc(50% - 2em);
background-color: #315074;
top: calc(50% - 2.1em);
text-align: left;
}
.triangle:before,
.triangle:after {
content: '';
position: absolute;
background-color: inherit;
}
.triangle,
.triangle:before,
.triangle:after {
width: 3.2em;
height: 3.2em;
border-top-right-radius: 30%;
}
.triangle {
transform: rotate(-90deg) skewX(-30deg) scale(1,.866);
}
.triangle:before {
transform: rotate(-135deg) skewX(-45deg) scale(1.414,.707) translate(0,-50%);
}
.triangle:after {
transform: rotate(135deg) skewY(-45deg) scale(.707,1.414) translate(50%);
}
</code></pre></div></div>
<p><del>We don’t have the ability to <em>perfectly</em> mimic the frosted glass effect like in the original (without the use of SVG background etc), but what we get is close enough.</del> Thanks to <a href="https://m.nintendojo.fr/@meduz/106059826445460903">meduz</a> for pointing out the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">backdrop-filter</code> property. This allows for a frosted glass look on Chromium & Safari (although sadly not on Firefox). The <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">triangle</code> element could also be improved by using an embedded <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">SVG</code> but I was determined to use only CSS for this experiment :P</p>
<p>That’s really all there is to it! You can see the embedded CodePen example below or <a href="https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/bGgBRaV">check it out directly here →</a></p>
<hr />
<h3 id="special-thanks">Special Thanks</h3>
<p>Thanks to Bogdan for letting me butcher the original Dribbble shot :D</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bg-d.net/">bg-d.net</a></li>
<li><a href="https://dribbble.com/bg-d">Bogdan on Dribbble</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 id="demo">Live Demo (CodePen)</h2>
<p>Feel free to explore the <a href="https://codepen.io/bradleytaunt/pen/bGgBRaV"">live CodePen demo here</a>.</p>
</article>
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