How to Create CSS Button Links

See CSS: Tips and Tricks for similar articles.

You can use CSS pseudo-classes to create CSS buttons. Before CSS, you needed images to create links that looked like buttons.

  1. First, set the appearance of the button in a style definition for the a tag. The following code creates a block around the text that is a light-green color (Saltpan) with specified fonts and font size, as well as margins and borders.
    a {
    	display: block;
    	background-color: #eaf1dd;
    	color: #060;
    	text-decoration: none;
    	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
    	font-size: 1.5em;
    	padding: 6px 4px;
    	margin: 4px;
    	border-right: 2px solid #999999;
    	border-bottom: 2px solid #999999;
    	border-top-width: 0px;
    	border-left-width: 0px;
    }
  2. Next, add the pseudo-classes for what the text will look like when it's hovered over and active.
    a:hover
    {
    	color: #030;
    	border: 1px solid #9999ff;
    }
    
    a:active
    {
    	color: #aca;
    	border-left: 2px solid #030;
    	border-top: 2px solid #030;
    	border-right-width: 0px;
    	border-bottom-width: 0px;
    }
  3. Then add the links.
    <div>
    	<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com">WashingtonPost.com</a>
    	<a href="http://www.webucator.com">Webucator</a>
    	<a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>
    </div>
  4. The full code looks like this:
    <!DOCTYPE HTML>
    <html>
    <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>CSS Link Buttons</title>
    <style type="text/css">
    div {
    	width: 300px;
    }
    
    a {
    	display: block;
    	background-color: #eaf1dd;
    	color: #060;
    	text-decoration: none;
    	font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
    	font-size: 1.5em;
    	padding: 6px 4px;
    	margin: 4px;
    	border-right: 2px solid #999999;
    	border-bottom: 2px solid #999999;
    	border-top-width: 0px;
    	border-left-width: 0px;
    }
    
    a:hover
    {
    	color: #030;
    	border: 1px solid #9999ff;
    }
    
    a:active
    {
    	color: #aca;
    	border-left: 2px solid #030;
    	border-top: 2px solid #030;
    	border-right-width: 0px;
    	border-bottom-width: 0px;
    }
    </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <h1>Button Links</h1>
    <div>
    	<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com">WashingtonPost.com</a>
    	<a href="http://www.webucator.com">Webucator</a>
    	<a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>
    </div>
    </body>
    </html>

    And now you have what looks like buttons for your links.CSS Button


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