Reputation: 551

Place a character as background in a div

I want to create the following layout:

+----------------------------------+
|               TITLE              |
|                                  |
|                 +                |
|                                  |
|            (drop here)           |
+----------------------------------+

using the following HTML:

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

and CSS:

.drop-box {
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
}

.drop-box:before {
  content: "+";
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  font-size: 3em;
  text-align: center;
  line-height: 150px;
  display: block;
}

Problem is that the text is now placed below the box with the '+' inside. How can I get the text to be placed inside the box. I've tried to use position: relative for the p tags but that doesn't work.

I've created a pen for this here: http://codepen.io/kdbruin/pen/ryMjgb

Upvotes: 4

Answers (8)

Julien van der Kluft

Reputation: 537

Instead of generating content on your .drop-box container, you can do it directly on the second paragraph:

.drop-box p:nth-child(2)::before {
  content: "+";
  display: block;
  font-size: 3em;
  text-align: center;
}

Of course, it will probably be easier and cleaner to apply class to your paragraph:

HTML:

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p class="has-plus-before">(drop here)</p>
</div>

CSS:

.has-plus-before {
  content: "+";
  display: block;
  font-size: 3em;
}

Then for keep a clean vertical alignement, i suggest to use some flexbox properties on your container:

.drop-box {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  flex-direction: column;
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
}

Take a look to this demo: https://jsfiddle.net/julienvanderkluft/1mxwep20/

Upvotes: 1

Mohammad Usman

Reputation: 39342

As your title suggested, why won't draw + as background on parent with linear-gradient()?

.drop-box {
  background-image: linear-gradient(black, black),
                    linear-gradient(black, black);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: 30px 2px, 2px 30px;
  background-position: center center;
  
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  justify-content: space-between;
  
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
}

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

Upvotes: 0

Johannes

Reputation: 67778

Use abolute position on the p tags, with according top/bottom/left parameters and z-index -1 (and add position: relative; to .drop-boxfor the absolute positioning to work):

.drop-box {
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
  position: relative;
}

.drop-box:before {
  content: "+";
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  font-size: 3em;
  text-align: center;
  line-height: 150px;
  display: block;
}

.drop-box > p {
  position: absolute;
  z-index: -1;
}
.drop-box > p:first-child {
  top: 10%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
}
.drop-box > p:nth-child(2) {
  bottom: 10%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translateX(-50%);
}

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/xqEqmg

Upvotes: 1

Nenad Vracar

Reputation: 122077

You can use Flexbox, you just need to set justify-content: space-between and flex-direction: column on parent element, and then change order of pseudo-element and last p element.

.drop-box {
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
  display: flex;
  justify-content: space-between;
  flex-direction: column;
}
.drop-box:before {
  content: "+";
  font-size: 3em;
  order: 1;
}
p {
  margin: 0;
}
.drop-box p:last-child {
  order: 2;
}

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

You could also use position: absolute on pseudo-element to remove it from elements flow and center it with transform: translate()

.drop-box {
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  position: relative;
}
p {
  margin: 0;
}
.drop-box:before {
  content: "+";
  font-size: 3em;
  position: absolute;
  top: 50%;
  left: 50%;
  transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
}
p:last-child {
  margin-top: auto;
}

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

Upvotes: 1

Theodore K.

Reputation: 5176

I would set a line-height on the paragraps and set absolute position on the cross, like this:

.drop-box {
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
  position:relative;
}
.drop-box p{
  line-height:50px;
}
.drop-box:before {
  content: "+";
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  font-size: 3em;
  line-height: 150px;
  position:absolute;
  left:0px;
}

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

Upvotes: 1

Omprakash Arumugam

Reputation: 1042

Insert the "+" after p tag

.drop-box {
  width: 300px;
  height: 150px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  text-align: center;
}

.drop-box p:first-of-type:after {
  content: "+";
  font-size: 2em;
  text-align: center;
  display: block;
  margin: 16px 0;
}

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

Upvotes: 1

marcobiedermann

Reputation: 4923

You have to give your drop-box container a fixed height. There are many ways to center align content with CSS. In my opinion the best way is to use flex-box. Very easy to implement and very flexible.

HTML

<div class="drop-box">Title<br>+<br>(drop here)</div>

CSS

.drop-box {
  align-items: center;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  height: 150px;
  justify-content: center;
  text-align: center;
}

Upvotes: 0

Nadezhda Serafimova

Reputation: 792

Here is easier way:

HTML:

<div class="drop-box">
  <p>TITLE</p>
  <p>+</p>
  <p>(drop here)</p>
</div>

CSS:

.drop-box {
    width: 300px;
    border: 1px solid black;
    text-align: center;
}

Does this work for you?

Upvotes: 0

Place a character as background in a div

Answers (8)

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