Chris Coyier

Truncating a single line of text if is fairly straightforward. Truncating multiple lines is a bit harder. Using just CSS (no JavaScript or server-side dancing) is nice for the simplicity. It's gotten a little easier lately since Firefox (since version 68) has started supporting the ultra-bizarre -webkit-line-clamp soup method, which makes browser support for that pretty OK.

There is another way though, which is very clever and something I'd call a bonafide CSS trick. We somehow failed to … Read article

One random day not long ago, I started hearing joke after joke about "micro frontends" — sort of how I first learned about Toast. I didn't understand the source until asking around, which uncovered this article from Cam Jackson.

In this article we'll describe a recent trend of breaking up frontend monoliths into many smaller, more manageable pieces, and how this architecture can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of teams working on frontend code.

I'd argue it should… Read article

One cool thing about CSS custom properties is that they can be a part of a value. Let's say you're using multiple backgrounds to pull off a design. Each background will have its own color, image, repeat, position, etc. It can be verbose!… Read article

You can't position: sticky; a <thead></thead>. Nor a <tr></tr>. But you can sticky a <th></th>, which means you can make sticky headers inside a regular ol' <table></table>. This is tricky stuff, because if you didn't know this weird quirk, it would be hard to blame you. It makes way more sense to sticky a parent element like the table header rather than each individiaul element in a row. … Read article

A web page isn't locked in stone just because it has rendered visually. Media assets, like images, can come in and cause the layout to shift based on their size, which typically isn't known in fluid layouts until they do render. Or fonts can load and reflow layout. Or XHRs can bring in more content to be placed onto the page. We're always doing what we can to prevent the layout from shifting around — that's what I mean … Read article

The IndieWeb is a thing! They've got a conference coming up and everything. The New Yorker is even writing about it:

Proponents of the IndieWeb offer a fairly straightforward analysis of our current social-media crisis. They frame it in terms of a single question: Who owns the servers? The bulk of our online activity takes places on servers owned by a small number of massive companies. Servers cost money to run. If you’re using a company’s servers without paying

Here's a container with some child elements:

<div class="container">
  <div>item</div>
  <div>item</div>
  <div>item</div>
</div>

If I do:

.container::before {
  content: "x"
}

I'm essentially doing:

<div class="container">
  [[[ ::before psuedo-element here ]]]
  <div>item</div>
  <div>item</div>
  <div>item</div>
</div>

Which will behave just like a child element mostly. One tricky thing is that no selector selects it other than the one you used to create it (or a similar selector that is literally a ::before or ::after that ends up in the same … Read article

Did you know we have a site that lists all upcoming conferences related to front-end web design and development? We do! If you're looking to go to one, check it out. If you're running one, feel free to submit yours.

Now that we're running this, I've got loads of Pull Requests for conferences all around the world. I didn't realize that many (most?) conferences use the template at confcodeofconduct.com. In fact, many of them just link to … Read article

CSS-Tricks is 12 years old! Firmly into that Early Adolescence stage, I'd say ;) As we do each year, let's reflect upon the past year. I'd better have something to say, right? Otherwise, John Prine would get mad at me.

How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say.
- Angel From Montgomery

Flyout menus! The second you need to implement a menu that uses a hover event to display more menu items, you're in tricky territory. For one, they should work with clicks and taps, too. Without that, you've broken the menu for anyone without a mouse. That doesn't mean you can't also use :hover. When you use a hover state to reveal more content, that means an un-hovering state needs to hide them. Therein lies the problem. … Read article