Responsive Circles With Text In HTML CSS (Simple Examples)

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create responsive circles in HTML CSS. Once upon a time in the Stone Age of the Internet, we had to use circle images and there were no alternatives. But it is a breeze to create circles with modern CSS – Read on for the examples!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download | Example on CodePen

The example code is released under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

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TUTORIAL VIDEO

 

PART 1) BASIC CIRCLE

<style>
.circle {
  /* (A) SQUARE - EQUAL WIDTH & HEIGHT */
  width: 200px; height: 200px;
 
  /* (B) CIRCLE - 50% RADIUS */
  border-radius: 50%;
 
  /* (C) COSMETIC - BACKGROUND COLOR */
  background: #bcd6ff;
}
</style>

<div class="circle"></div>

1. Define equal width and height to create a square.
2. Then, just add border-radius: 50%. This effectively turns the square into a circle.

 

 

PART 2) RESPONSIVE CIRCLE

<style>
/* (A) PERCENTAGE WIDTH & BORDER RADIUS */
.rcircle {
  width: 30%; border-radius: 50%;
  background: #bcd6ff; 
  max-width: 200px; /* optional */
}
 
/* (B) USE ::AFTER TO CREATE MATCHING HEIGHT */
/* credit - https://spin.atomicobject.com/2015/07/14/css-responsive-square/ */
.rcircle::after {
  content: "";
  display: block;
  padding-bottom: 100%;
}
</style>
 
<div class="rcircle"></div>

1. To create a responsive circle, we use the same border-radius: 50% trick, but set a percentage width instead.
2. Now, we need to set a matching height.
   • Unfortunately, an equal percentage height will not work. Example – 20% width and height. This will be 20% of the window width and 20% of the window height… Which will only work if the user is using a square window.
   • Thankfully, there is another simple trick. Just set padding-bottom: 100% to the ::after pseudo-class.

P.S. You can use max-width (or max-height) to limit how much the circle can “grow”.

 

 

PART 3) RESPONSIVE CIRCLE WITH TEXT

<style>
/* (A) RESPONSIVE CIRCLE */
.rcircle {
  width: 30%; border-radius: 50%;
  background: #bcd6ff; 
}
.rcircle::after {
  content: "";
  display: block;
  padding-bottom: 100%;
}
 
/* (B) TEXT BLOCK */
.rcircle { position: relative; }
.txt {
  /* (B1) OVERLAY TEXT BOX */
  position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0;
  width: 100%; height: 100%;
 
  /* (B2) CENTER TEXT */
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}
</style>
 
<div class="rcircle">
  <div class="txt">Foo Bar!</div>
</div>

 

• Take note, we now add <div class="txt">TEXT</div> inside the circle.
• (A) Same “responsive circle trick” as above.
• (B1) Overlay the text on top of the circle.
  • .rcircle { position: relative } and .txt { position: absolute } Place the text over the circle.
  • .txt { width: 100%; height: 100%; } The text layer will adopt the dimensions of the circle.
• (B2) Pretty self-explanatory. Set the text layer to flex layout, center the text horizontally and vertically.

 

 

 

EXTRA) “3D SPHERE” WITH GRADIENT & SHADOW

<style>
.rsphere {
  /* (A) PERCENTAGE WIDTH & BORDER RADIUS */
  width: 30%; border-radius: 50%;
 
  /* http://www.colorzilla.com/gradient-editor/ */
  background: linear-gradient(135deg, #a7cfdf 0%,#23538a 100%);
  /* https://html-css-js.com/css/generator/box-shadow/ */
  box-shadow: inset -8px -7px 4px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.3);
}
 
/* (B) MATCH HEIGHT */
.rsphere:after {
  content: "";
  display: block;
  padding-bottom: 100%;
}
</style>
 
<div class="rsphere"></div>

 

Well, this is the same responsive circle, but with a gradient background and box-shadow – This is a nice trick for you guys who want to create “fake 3D spheres”.

 

 

REFERENCES & LINKS

• CSS Border Radius on MDN
• CSS Gradient on MDN
• Gradient generator – Generate your CSS gradients here quickly.

 

INFOGRAPHIC CHEAT SHEET