Back and Next Buttons Revisited

So, many moons ago, I wrote a post about how to make iOS style “Back” and “Next” buttons using CSS. Only problem was that technique used a span tag to create the pointer. For some reason it slipped my mind that I could use the CSS generated content property with the :before pseudo-element. Rather than being bothered with having to stick spans into buttons to turn them into pointers, I now introduce you to a more sane method of creating “Back” and “Next” buttons with just CSS.

Now you might be wondering how we would generate the node we need to style as a pointer. Using the CSS content property we can generate automatic content inside the button, removing the necessity of having a tag sitting there for no other reason. Unfortunately the content property only generates alpha-numeric content. We can’t use it to create a span or any other tag. But we don’t have to use a normal character as the content. A space will suffice to create the desired pointer. We make it display as a block element and then style it as if it were a normal pointer. Problem solved.

To accomplish our goal we need to switch out any reference to < span.pointer for :before

So, here’s the styles for a normal button, followed by the styles for the pointer.

.button.bordered.back:before {
	content: " ";
	display: block;
	z-index: 0;
	background-image: 
		-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right bottom, 
			from(#92a1bf), 
			color-stop(0.3, #798aad),
			color-stop(0.51, #6276a0), 
			color-stop(0.51, #556a97), 
			color-stop(0.75, #566c98),
			to(#546993)); 
	border-left: solid 1px #484e59;
	border-bottom: solid 1px #9aa5bb;
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius: 5px;
	-webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 5px;
	-webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px;
	height: 23.5px;
	width: 23.5px;
	display: inline-block;
	-webkit-transform: rotate(45deg);
	-webkit-mask-image: 
		-webkit-gradient(linear, left bottom, right top, 
			from(#000000), 
			color-stop(0.5,#000000), 
			color-stop(0.5, transparent), 
			to(transparent));
	position: absolute;
	left: -9px;
	top: 2.5px;
	-webkit-background-clip: content;
}
.button.bordered.back:hover:before, .button.bordered.back.touched:before {
	background-image: 
		-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right bottom, 
			from(#7d88a5), 
			color-stop(0.3, #58698c),
			color-stop(0.51, #3a4e78), 
			color-stop(0.51, #253c6a), 
			color-stop(0.75, #273f6d),
			to(#273f6d)); 
}

You can check out the finished version online or download the source code.