{"rowid": 329, "title": "Broader Border Corners", "contents": "A note from the editors: Since this article was written the CSS border-radius property has become widely supported in browsers. It should be preferred to this image technique.\n \n \n \n A quick and easy recipe for turning those single-pixel borders that the kids love so much into into something a little less right-angled.\n\nHere\u2019s the principle: We have a box with a one-pixel wide border around it. Inside that box is another box that has a little rounded-corner background image sitting snugly in one of its corners. The inner-box is then nudged out a bit so that it\u2019s actually sitting on top of the outer box. If it\u2019s all done properly, that little background image can mask the hard right angle of the default border of the outer-box, giving the impression that it actually has a rounded corner.\n\nTake An Image, Finely Chopped\n\n\n\nAdd A Sprinkle of Markup\n\n
Lorem ipsum etc. etc. etc.
\nand, all inside a branding
which acts a new positioning context. By enclosing them inside a positioned parent, we establish a new stacking order which is independent of either the root element or other positioning contexts on the page.\n\n\n\n\nApplying a little positioning and z-index magic we can both set the position of these elements inside their positioning context and their stacking order. As we are going to use background images made from transparent PNGs, each element will allow another further down the stacking order to show through. This makes for some novel effects, particularly in liquid layouts.\n\n(Ed: We\u2019re using n below to represent whatever values you require for your specific design.) \n\n#branding {\n position: relative;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(n);\n }\n\n #branding>h1 {\n position: absolute;\n left: n;\n top: n;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(h1.png);\n text-indent: n;\n }\n\n #branding>blockquote {\n position: absolute;\n left: n;\n top: n;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(bq.png);\n text-indent: n;\n\n }\n\n #branding>p {\n position: absolute;\n right: n;\n top: n;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(p.png);\n text-indent: n;\n }\n\nNext we can begin to see how the three elements build upon each other.\n\n\n1. Elements outlined\n\n\n2. Positioned elements overlayed to show context\n\n\n3. Our final result\n\nMultiple stacking orders\n\nNot only can elements within a positioning context be given a z-index, but those positioning contexts themselves can also be stacked.\n\n\nTwo positioning contexts, each with their own stacking order\n\nInterestingly each stacking order is independent of that of either the root element or its siblings and we can exploit this to make complex layouts from just a few semantic elements. This technique was used heavily on my recent redesign of Karova.com.\n\nDissecting part of Karova.com\n\nFirst the XHTML. The default template markup used for the site placesWorrysome.com
\n\nDon' worry 'bout a thing...
Take the weight of the world off your shoulders.
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