3 Steps Simple Responsive CSS Speech Bubbles

Welcome to a step-by-step tutorial on how to create simple responsive CSS speech bubbles. Once upon a time in the Stone Age of the Internet, we created speech bubbles by putting several pieces of background images together… Like it’s some sort of a jigsaw puzzle. But today, it is totally possible to create a speech bubble using pure CSS only – Read on for the example!

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Source code on GitHub Gist | Example on CodePen

Just click on “download zip” or do a git clone. I have released it 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

 

STEP 1) SIMPLE SPEECH BOX

<div class="speech">Hello World!</div>

/* (A) SPEECH BOX */
.speech {
  /* (A1) FONT & COLORS */
  font-size: 1.2em;
  color: #fff;
  background: #a53d38;

  /* (A2) DIMENSIONS */
  padding: 20px;
  border-radius: 10px;
  max-width: 600px;
}

Aye, all we need to create a speech bubble is just a normal <div>. The CSS shouldn’t be any trouble either. We are just creating a “normal rectangle box” by setting the background color, padding, font size, font color, etc…

 

 

STEP 2) ADD SPEECH BUBBLE “CALLOUT”

<div class="speech up">Hello World!</div>
<div class="speech down">Hello World!</div>
<div class="speech left">Hello World!</div>
<div class="speech right">Hello World!</div>

/* (B) USE ::AFTER TO CREATE THE "CALLOUT" */
.speech::after {
  display: block; width: 0; content: "";
  border: 15px solid transparent;
}
 
/* (C) "CALLOUT" DIRECTIONS */
.speech.up::after {
  border-bottom-color: #a53d38;
  border-top: 0;
}
.speech.down::after {
  border-top-color: #a53d38;
  border-bottom: 0;
}
.speech.left::after {
  border-right-color: #a53d38;
  border-left: 0;
}
.speech.right::after {
  border-left-color: #a53d38;
  border-right: 0;
}

We now have a rectangle speech box, but it is missing the “speech callout triangle thing”. In ancient days, creating this “callout” involves positioning a triangle image. But in modern CSS, we can use the “border triangle” trick to create the “callout” on ::after – See the extras section if you want to learn more.

 

 

STEP 3) POSITION THE  “CALLOUT”

/* (D) POSITION THE CALLOUT */
.speech {
  position: relative;
  margin: 30px;
}
.speech::after { position: absolute; }
.speech.up::after {
  top: -15px; left: calc(50% - 15px);
}
.speech.down::after {
  bottom: -15px; left: calc(50% - 15px);
}
.speech.left::after {
  left: -15px; top: calc(50% - 15px);
}
.speech.right::after {
  right: -15px; top: calc(50% - 15px);
}

All that’s left is to position the “callout triangle” properly.

 

 

 

THE “MAGIC TRIANGLE”

<style>
/* (A) DIFFERENT COLOR BORDERS */
.all {
  width: 0;
  border: 20px solid;
  border-top-color: black;
  border-bottom-color: red;
  border-left-color: green;
  border-right-color: blue;
}
 
/* (B) ARROW USING BORDERS */
.up, .down, .left, .right {
  width: 0;
  border: 20px solid transparent;
}
.up { border-bottom-color: red; }
.down { border-top-color: black; }
.left { border-right-color: blue; }
.right { border-left-color: green; }
</style>
 
<div class="all"></div>
<div class="up"></div>
<div class="down"></div>
<div class="left"></div>
<div class="right"></div>

For you guys who are wondering how we “transform” the border into a triangle.

1. As you can see, the borders around HTML elements are “cut” at 45 degrees.
2. So very simply – We set a solid color on the required side, and the rest will be transparent.

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Responsive Timeline – Code Boxx
• Simple Show/Hide Animations – Code Boxx