Do you want to create fancy headings without rendering each heading with Photoshop? Here is a simple CSS trick to show you how to create gradient text effect with a PNG image (pure CSS, no Javascript or Flash). All you need is an empty <span> tag in the heading and apply the background image overlay using the CSS position:absolute property. This trick has been tested on most browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera, and even Internet Explorer 6. Continue to read this article to find out how.

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Benefits

This is pure CSS trick, no Javascript or Flash. It works on most browsers including IE6 (PNG hack required).

It is perfect for designing headings. You don’t have to render each heading with Photoshop. This will save you time and bandwidth.

You can use on any web fonts and the font size remains scalable.

How does this work?

The trick is very simple. Basically we are just adding a 1px gradient PNG (with alpha transparency) over the text.

The HTML markups

<h1><span></span>CSS Gradient Text</h1>

The CSS

The key point here is: h1 { position: relative } and h1 span { position: absolute }

h1 { font: bold 330%/100% "Lucida Grande"; position: relative; color: #464646; } h1 span { background: url(gradient.png) repeat-x; position: absolute; display: block; width: 100%; height: 31px; }

That’s it! You are done. Click here to view my demo page.

Make it work on IE6

Since IE6 doesn’t render PNG-24 properly, the following hack is required in order to display the transparent PNG (add anywhere in between the <head> tag):

<!--[if lt IE 7]> <style> h1 span { background: none; filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src='gradient.png', sizingMethod='scale'); } </style> <![endif]-->

This is why we hate IE 6!

jQuery prepend version (for semantic lovers)

If you don’t want to have the empty <span> tag in the heading, you can use Javascript to prepend the <span> tag. Here is a sample using jQuery prepend method:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ //prepend span tag to H1 $("h1").prepend("<span></span>"); }); </script>

More samples

Want to make Web 2.0 glossy text?

Literally, you can apply this trick on any solid background color (as long your gradient color is the same as your background color).

Pattern / Texture

You can also apply this trick with a tile background image. Look, here is an example of zebra pattern. So, be creative!

Limitations and more…