What do you want to learn today?
Treehouse is the best place to learn web design, web development, and iOS.

Code Snippet

Home » Code Snippets » CSS » Useful CSS3 LESS Mixins

Useful CSS3 LESS Mixins

.text-shadow (@string: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25)) {
	text-shadow: @string;
}
.box-shadow (@string) {
	-webkit-box-shadow: @string;
	-moz-box-shadow:    @string;
	box-shadow:         @string;
}
.drop-shadow (@x: 0, @y: 1px, @blur: 2px, @spread: 0, @alpha: 0.25) {
	-webkit-box-shadow:	@x @y @blur @spread rgba(0, 0, 0, @alpha);
	-moz-box-shadow:	@x @y @blur @spread rgba(0, 0, 0, @alpha);
	box-shadow:		@x @y @blur @spread rgba(0, 0, 0, @alpha);
}
.inner-shadow (@x: 0, @y: 1px, @blur: 2px, @spread: 0, @alpha: 0.25) {
	-webkit-box-shadow: inset @x @y @blur @spread rgba(0, 0, 0, @alpha);
	-moz-box-shadow:    inset @x @y @blur @spread rgba(0, 0, 0, @alpha);
	box-shadow:         inset @x @y @blur @spread rgba(0, 0, 0, @alpha);
}

.box-sizing (@type: border-box) {
	-webkit-box-sizing: @type;
	-moz-box-sizing:    @type;
	box-sizing:         @type;
}

.border-radius (@radius: 5px) {
	-webkit-border-radius: @radius;
	-moz-border-radius:    @radius;
	border-radius:         @radius;

	-moz-background-clip:    padding;
	-webkit-background-clip: padding-box;
	background-clip:         padding-box;
}
.border-radiuses (@topright: 0, @bottomright: 0, @bottomleft: 0, @topleft: 0) {
	-webkit-border-top-right-radius:    @topright;
	-webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: @bottomright;
	-webkit-border-bottom-left-radius:  @bottomleft;
	-webkit-border-top-left-radius:     @topleft;

	-moz-border-radius-topright:        @topright;
	-moz-border-radius-bottomright:     @bottomright;
	-moz-border-radius-bottomleft:      @bottomleft;
	-moz-border-radius-topleft:         @topleft;

	border-top-right-radius:            @topright;
	border-bottom-right-radius:         @bottomright;
	border-bottom-left-radius:          @bottomleft;
	border-top-left-radius:             @topleft;

	-moz-background-clip:    padding;
	-webkit-background-clip: padding-box;
	background-clip:         padding-box;
}

.opacity (@opacity: 0.5) {
	-webkit-opacity: 	@opacity;
	-moz-opacity: 		@opacity;
	opacity: 		@opacity;
}

.gradient (@startColor: #eee, @endColor: white) {
	background-color: @startColor;
	background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(@startColor), to(@endColor));
	background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
	background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
	background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
	background: -o-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
}
.horizontal-gradient (@startColor: #eee, @endColor: white) {
 	background-color: @startColor;
	background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top, from(@startColor), to(@endColor));
	background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, @startColor, @endColor);
	background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(left, @startColor, @endColor);
	background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(left, @startColor, @endColor);
	background-image: -o-linear-gradient(left, @startColor, @endColor);
}

.animation (@name, @duration: 300ms, @delay: 0, @ease: ease) {
	-webkit-animation: @name @duration @delay @ease;
	-moz-animation:    @name @duration @delay @ease;
	-ms-animation:     @name @duration @delay @ease;
}

.transition (@transition) {
	-webkit-transition: @transition;
	-moz-transition:    @transition;
	-ms-transition:     @transition;
	-o-transition:      @transition;
}
.transform(@string){
	-webkit-transform: @string;
	-moz-transform: 	 @string;
	-ms-transform: 		 @string;
	-o-transform: 		 @string;
}
.scale (@factor) {
	-webkit-transform: scale(@factor);
	-moz-transform: 	 scale(@factor);
	-ms-transform: 		 scale(@factor);
	-o-transform: 		 scale(@factor);
}
.rotate (@deg) {
	-webkit-transform: rotate(@deg);
	-moz-transform: 	 rotate(@deg);
	-ms-transform: 		 rotate(@deg);
	-o-transform: 		 rotate(@deg);
}
.skew (@deg, @deg2) {
	-webkit-transform:       skew(@deg, @deg2);
	-moz-transform: 	 skew(@deg, @deg2);
	-ms-transform: 		 skew(@deg, @deg2);
	-o-transform: 		 skew(@deg, @deg2);
}
.translate (@x, @y:0) {
	-webkit-transform:       translate(@x, @y);
	-moz-transform: 	 translate(@x, @y);
	-ms-transform: 		 translate(@x, @y);
	-o-transform: 		 translate(@x, @y);
}
.translate3d (@x, @y: 0, @z: 0) {
	-webkit-transform:       translate3d(@x, @y, @z);
	-moz-transform: 	 translate3d(@x, @y, @z);
	-ms-transform: 		 translate3d(@x, @y, @z);
	-o-transform: 		 translate3d(@x, @y, @z);
}
.perspective (@value: 1000) {
	-webkit-perspective: 	@value;
	-moz-perspective: 	@value;
	-ms-perspective: 	@value;
	perspective: 		@value;
}
.transform-origin (@x:center, @y:center) {
	-webkit-transform-origin: @x @y;
	-moz-transform-origin:    @x @y;
	-ms-transform-origin:     @x @y;
	-o-transform-origin:      @x @y;
}

Subscribe to The Thread

  1. Adi

    Beautiful. And completely useful, thanks!

    Reply ↓
  2. Chris K.

    In conjunction with my LESS DSS it will become a very good set of ‘less mixins’ :-)

    Good work!

    Reply ↓
  3. Nathan Shubert

    This is great. I maintain a LESS mixin library myself with a css3 library, but didn’t include text-shadow as I felt it was only one line anyway and wouldn’t benefit from having a mixin. But I guess by including it you were able to have a text-shadow with default values. Was this your rationale?

    Reply ↓
  4. Ralph Leo Bennett (DeviateDefiant)

    Some thoughts for compatibility between gradients (including transparency) and IE6-8:

    Using an adapted mixin in conjunction with using Paul Irish’s infamous class based IE selectors (so that .ie6, .ie7, .ie8 classes are applied to either the HTML or body elements) you could hack in support without too much effort.

    I suppose you could also use conditional stylesheets, though that’d be a lot longer way round the circle and something I haven’t done in a long while.

    The RGBa to HEX function built into LESSPHP ensures that when you pass a RGBa value to the variable argument it is correctly converted for the proprietary MS CSS filter (using alpha hex, #AARRGGBB).

    .gradient (@startColor: rgba(0,0,0,0.75), @endColor: rgba(0,0,0,0.25) {
        background-color: @startColor;
        background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(@startColor), to(@endColor));
        background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
        background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
        background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
        -ms-filter: e("gradient(start=@ieStartColor,end=@ieEndColor)");
        background: -o-linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
        background: -linear-gradient(top, @startColor, @endColor);
}

.ie6 .gradient, .ie7 .gradient (@startColor: rgba(0,0,0,0.75), @endColor: rgba(0,0,0,0.25) {
       @ieStartColor: rgbahex(@{startColor});
       @ieEndColor: rgbahex(@{endColor});
       background: transparent;
       filter: ~"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient("gradient(start=@ieStartColor,end=@ieEndColor)")";
}

.ie8 .gradient (@startColor: rgba(0,0,0,0.75), @endColor: rgba(0,0,0,0.25) {
       @ieStartColor: rgbahex(@{startColor});
       @ieEndColor: rgbahex(@{endColor});
       background: transparent;
       -ms-filter: ~"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient("gradient(start=@ieStartColor,end=@ieEndColor)")";
}

    I've got to test the code yet, but it's an idea. Any thoughts?

    Reply ↓
  5. Jon Stuebe

    Not sure if you guys have heard of it but there’s a great pack of mixins an such that the twitter bootstrap was built off of.

    Reply ↓
  6. TJ

    these would look muuuuuuch nicer as stylus :)

    Reply ↓
  7. Michael

    Thanks for sharing. Nice set of Mixins.

    I’m wondering about the opacity mixin: What’s the reason for using vendor prefixes. They seem to be unnecessary. See http://caniuse.com/#search=opacity

    I use the following opacity mixin in my base.less file:

    .opacity(@opacity: 1) {
	@ieOpacity: @opacity * 100;
	-ms-filter: "progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=@{ieOpacity})";
	filter: ~"alpha(opacity=@{ieOpacity})";
	opacity: @opacity;
}
    Reply ↓

Speak, my friend

At this moment, you have an awesome opportunity* to be the person your mother always wanted you to be: kind, helpful, and smart. Do that, and we'll give you a big ol' gold star for the day (literally).

Posting tips:
  • You can use basic HTML
  • When posting code, please turn all
    < characters into &lt;
  • If the code is multi-line, use
    <pre><code></code></pre>
Thank you,
~ The Management ~