Button using three (3) background images css

Question

I'm trying to make a button using three background images so that we can pull in translations for the the text of the button and expand nicely. We'll probably add a base style for IE8 but our designer wants us to use this style and we couldn't recreate it nicely with pure CSS3.

Here are the images:

Here's the HTML (just a simple button, but thought I should put it anyway:

<button class="back clickable" aria-label="Back" onclick="javascript:history.back();">Back</button>

I've already tried a couple of things; I'll paste the CSS of both attempts.

Attempt 1: Using Pseudo-selectors
http://jsfiddle.net/c2B6X/

.back {
    background: url("images/back-middle.png") 14px 0 repeat-x;
    color: $white;
    height: 28px;
    padding: 5px;
    &:before {
        background: url("images/back-front.png") 0 0 no-repeat;
        width: 14px;
    }
    &:after {
        background: url("images/back-end.png") 100% 0 no-repeat;
        width: 8px;
    }
}

Attempt 2: Three background-images
http://jsfiddle.net/nPUQN/

.back {
    background: none;
    background-image: url("images/back-middle.png"), url("images/back-end.png"), url("images/back-front.png");
    background-position: 14px 0, 100% 0, 0 0;
    background-repeat: repeat-x, no-repeat, no-repeat;
    border-right: 8px transparent;
    border-left: 14px transparent;
    color: $white;
    height: 28px;
    padding: 5px;

}

If it looks like atypical CSS that's because we're using SASS.

Is there something obvious I'm missing or doing wrong? Any advice on how to make this work would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT
Since I got so many answers that "work", I'll mark correct the answer that works best in Chrome, FF and IE9.

EDIT 2
I've tried all answers and none work in IE9. We have to support IE9 (and IE8, but I won't even go there for now). I'm going to start a bounty. Anyone who can supply an answer that works for IE9, Firefox and Chrome gets it.

Answer 1

I add this answer because i like to keep the other as it is. This one is to be tested in IE8/9 with pseudo and position: http://codepen.io/gcyrillus/full/lBpaI or to edit : http://codepen.io/gcyrillus/pen/lBpaI

.back {
    background:
        url("https://i.sstatic.net/DaQcG.png") 14px 0 repeat 
        ;
    color: white;
    height: 28px;
    padding: 5px;
  position:relative;
  overflow:visible;
}
.back:before {
  content:url(https://i.sstatic.net/6m2HC.png);
  top:0;
  left:-14px;
  position:absolute;
}
.back:after {
  content:url(https://i.sstatic.net/2WA5B.png);
  position:absolute;
  right:-8px;
  top:0;
}

Answer 2

with your multiple background version, you could add gradient or white image to build your button bg , keeping some space with padding. http://jsfiddle.net/nPUQN/1/

.back {
    background:
        url("https://i.sstatic.net/2WA5B.png") 100% 0 no-repeat ,
        url("https://i.sstatic.net/6m2HC.png") 0 0 no-repeat,
       -webkit-linear-gradient(0deg, white 0, white 14px , transparent 14px ,transparent) 0 0 no-repeat ,
        -webkit-linear-gradient(180deg, white 0, white 8px , transparent 8px ,transparent) 0 0 no-repeat ,
        url("https://i.sstatic.net/DaQcG.png") 14px 0 repeat 
        ;
    color: $white;
    height: 28px;
    padding: 5px 8px 5px 14px;
}

prefixed for chrome, add other prefix needed or use a prefix js :)

Answer 3

I used this code today. It's similar to your 2nd example, but uses the background shortcut property and a mixture of position strings.

background: url("../images/img01.png") 0px 0px no-repeat, url("../images/img02.png") 53px 0px repeat-x, url("../images/img03.png") right top no-repeat;

img01 = left image (53px wide)

img02 = fill image

img03 = right image

Answer 4

I came up with a little something that you can take a look at. You can modify it to best fit your needs.

http://jsfiddle.net/Xy7Hv/1/

HTML:

<button class="back">Back</button>

CSS:

.back {
    border: none;
    height: 28px;
    padding-right: 8px;
    padding-left: 14px;
    background-image: url("https://i.sstatic.net/DaQcG.png"),             
        url("https://i.sstatic.net/6m2HC.png"), 
        url("https://i.sstatic.net/2WA5B.png");
    background-position: 14px 0px, left, right;
    background-size: 30px 100%, 14px 28px, 8px 28px;
    background-repeat:  no-repeat,no-repeat,no-repeat;
}

("background-size: 30px" is the width of the button, so if all your buttons are the same size it shouldn't be a problem)

Answer 5

You'll need to add content for :before and :after to show. After that, you can position them absolutely and by giving them right: 100% and left: 100% respectively, you can position them in front of and behind the button.

button {
  background:transparent;
  border: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  line-height: 1;
  font-size: 12px;
  cursor: pointer;
  margin-left: 14px; /* width of :before */
}
.back {
    background: url("https://i.sstatic.net/DaQcG.png") 14px 0 repeat-x;
    color: white;
    height: 28px;
    padding: 5px;
    position: relative;
}
.back:before {
        position: absolute;
        content: "";
        height: 28px;
        top: 0;
        right: 100%;
        background: url("https://i.sstatic.net/6m2HC.png") 0 0 no-repeat;
        width: 14px;
    }
.back:after {
        position: absolute;
        content: "";
        height: 28px;
        top: 0;
        left: 100%;
        background: url("https://i.sstatic.net/2WA5B.png") 100% 0 no-repeat;
        width: 8px;
    }

The definitions of before and after are slightly the same, so you could write it down more compactly, but you need to re-sass it anyway. ;)

http://jsfiddle.net/c2B6X/

Tip: Note that downloading three images is less efficient. You can create one image that contains the start and end at the top, and the middle part at the bottom. By positioning the background, you can show the right part inside the elements. This technique is called sprites and it decreases the number of requests to make.

Answer 6

Pseudo-content requires content, so you'll first need to specify that:

.selector::before {
  content: ' ';
}

Then to define any layout such as width and height you'll need to display the pseudo elements as a block or inline-block. Block layout will force each pseudo element to wrap and inline-block will sit on the line so you'll either have to use floats or absolute positioning.

.selector {
  position: relative;
  height: 28px;

  /* allow for the pseudo-elements which do not have layout due to absolute positioning */
  margin: 0 15px;
}
.selector::before,
.selector::after {
  content: ' ';
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  width: 15px;
  height: 28px;
}
.selector::before {
  left: -15px;
}
.selector::after {
  right: -15px;
}

Demo here for you: http://codepen.io/anon/pen/yaJGI