Create the Illusion of Stacked Elements with CSS3 Pseudo-Elements

By now, hopefully you’re familiar with the use of the :before and :after pseudo-elements in order to do some interesting effects with CSS. Here I’m going to show you how you can create a simple ‘stacked’ look to some images.

Demo

Download CSS3 Stacks

Step 1

The HTML

<div class="stack">	
	<img src="image1.jpg" />
</div>

Unfortunately WebKit generated content isn’t supported on the img element currently so we have to wrap a div around it to get it to work. It may work in the future as noted in the spec:

Note. This specification does not fully define the interaction of :before and :after with replaced elements (such as IMG in HTML). This will be defined in more detail in a future specification.

Step 2

The CSS

.stack { position: relative; z-index: 10; }

/* Image styles */
.stack img { max-width: 100%; height: auto; vertical-align: bottom; border: 10px solid #fff; border-radius: 3px;
	-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
	-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
	box-sizing: border-box;
	-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
	-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
	box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
}

/* Stacks creted by the use of generated content */
.stack:before, .stack:after { content: ""; border-radius: 3px; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 10px solid #fff; left: 0;
	-webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
	-moz-box-sizing: border-box;
	box-sizing: border-box;
	-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
	-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
	box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4);
	-webkit-transition: 0.3s all ease-out;
	-moz-transition: 0.3s all ease-out;
	transition: 0.3s all ease-out;
}
.stack:before { top: 4px; z-index: -10; } /* 1st element in stack (behind image) */	
.stack:after { top: 8px; z-index: -20; } /* 2nd element in stack (behind image) */

This is how to create the first example you see in the demo. The simple illusion that there are a couple of images hidden underneath the one you can see. Very simple. Creating the other examples is merely a case of rotating the :before and :after elements a little.

/* Second stack example (rotated to the right from the bottom left) */
.stack.rotated:before { 
	-webkit-transform-origin: bottom left;
	-moz-transform-origin: bottom left;
	transform-origin: bottom left;
	-webkit-transform: rotate(2deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(2deg);
	transform: rotate(2deg);
}
.stack.rotated:after { 
	-webkit-transform-origin: bottom left;
	-moz-transform-origin: bottom left;
	transform-origin: bottom left;
	-webkit-transform: rotate(4deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(4deg);
	transform: rotate(4deg);
}
/* Third stack example (One stack element rotated in the opposite direction) */
.stack.twisted:before {
	-webkit-transform: rotate(4deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(4deg);
	transform: rotate(4deg);
}	
.stack.twisted:after {
	-webkit-transform: rotate(-4deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(-4deg);
	transform: rotate(-4deg);
}
/* Fourth stack example (Similar to the second but rotated left) */
.stack.rotated-left:before {
	-webkit-transform-origin: bottom left;
	-moz-transform-origin: bottom left;
	transform-origin: bottom left;
	-webkit-transform: rotate(-3deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(-3deg);
	transform: rotate(-3deg);
}
.stack.rotated-left:after {
	-webkit-transform-origin: bottom left;
	-moz-transform-origin: bottom left;
	transform-origin: bottom left;
	-webkit-transform: rotate(-6deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(-6deg);
	transform: rotate(-6deg);
}

We can even then reset them on hover so it goes back to the original style.

/* Reset all rotations on hover */
.stack:hover:before, .stack:hover:after {
	-webkit-transform: rotate(0deg);
	-moz-transform: rotate(0deg);
	transform: rotate(0deg);
}

It’s important to note that currently only Firefox supports transitions on :before and :after (the transitions are defined earlier in the page on the pseudo elements themselves) as far as I know. WebKit doesn’t seem to support it in any incarnation at this point but hopefully will add it sometime soon.

by @tkenny

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