how to create inline style with :before and :after

css inline

149,123

Solution 1

You can't. With inline styles you are targeting the element directly. You can't use other selectors there.

What you can do however is define different classes in your stylesheet that define different colours and then add the class to the element.

Solution 2

You can, using CSS variables (more precisely called CSS custom properties).

Set your variable in your style attribute:
style="--my-color-var: orange;"
Use the variable in your stylesheet:
background-color: var(--my-color-var);

Browser compatibility

Minimal example:

div {
  width: 100px;
  height: 100px;
  position: relative;
  border: 1px solid black;
}

div:after {
  background-color: var(--my-color-var);
  content: '';
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  right: 0;
  left: 0;
}

<div style="--my-color-var: orange;"></div>

Your example:

.bubble {
  position: relative;
  width: 30px;
  height: 15px;
  padding: 0;
  background: #FFF;
  border: 1px solid #000;
  border-radius: 5px;
  text-align: center;
  background-color: var(--bubble-color);
}

.bubble:after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  top: 4px;
  left: -4px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-width: 3px 4px 3px 0;
  border-color: transparent var(--bubble-color);
  display: block;
  width: 0;
  z-index: 1;
  
}

.bubble:before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  top: 4px;
  left: -5px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-width: 3px 4px 3px 0;
  border-color: transparent #000;
  display: block;
  width: 0;
  z-index: 0;
}

<div class='bubble' style="--bubble-color: rgb(100,255,255);"> 100 </div>

Solution 3

The key is to use background-color: inherit; on the pseudo element.
See: http://jsfiddle.net/EdUmc/

Solution 4

If you really need it inline, for example because you are loading some user-defined colors dynamically, you can always add a <style> element right before your content.

<style>#project-slide-1:before { color: #ff0000; }</style>
<div id="project-slide-1" class="project-slide"> ... </div>

Example use case with PHP and some (wordpress inspired) dummy functions:

<style>#project-slide-<?php the_ID() ?>:before { color: <?php the_field('color') ?>; }</style>
<div id="project-slide-<?php the_ID() ?>" class="project-slide"> ... </div>

Since HTML 5.2 it is valid to place style elements inside the body, although it is still recommend to place style elements in the head.

Reference: https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/document-metadata.html#the-style-element

Solution 5

I resolved a similar problem by border-color: inherit

, see:

<li style="border-color: <?php echo $hex ?>;">...</li>

li {
    border-width: 0;
}

li:before {
    content: '';
    display: inline-block;
    float: none;
    margin-right: 10px;
    border-width: 4px;
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: inherit;
}

View more solutions

149,123

Author by

Nick Ginanto

Updated on June 09, 2021

Comments

Nick Ginanto about 3 years

I generated a bubble chat thingy from http://www.ilikepixels.co.uk/drop/bubbler/

In my page I put a number inside of it

.bubble {
  position: relative;
  width: 20px;
  height: 15px;
  padding: 0;
  background: #FFF;
  border: 1px solid #000;
  border-radius: 5px;
}

.bubble:after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  top: 4px;
  left: -4px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-width: 3px 4px 3px 0;
  border-color: transparent #FFF;
   display: block;
  width: 0;
  z-index: 1;
}

.bubble:before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  top: 4px;
  left: -5px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-width: 3px 4px 3px 0;
  border-color: transparent #000;
  display: block;
  width: 0;
  z-index: 0;
}

I want the background-color of the bubble to change according to the number inside of it via rgb

so if my div is

<div class="bubble" style="background-color: rgb(100,255,255);"> 100 </div>

I want the color to be rgb(100,255,255)

The thing is this doesn't affect the triangle.

How do I write the inline css so it will include the :before and :after?

Nick Ginanto over 11 years

can i do it with javascript?
Jan Hančič over 11 years

Apparently yes: stackoverflow.com/questions/7330355/…
jebbie about 6 years

@NickGinanto sure you can - it just won't work :D your fighting here with browser internals, you cannot reinvent the weel with a language laying on top of that...
Amjad Abu Saa over 5 years

First time I use css variables, and it works like a charm. Thanks!
Diego Pamio over 5 years

great solution! It was perfect for my situation (aplying conditionals in liquid that affect styles).
Mote Zart over 5 years

I didn't know this was a thing. It's great.
horstwilhelm almost 5 years

Not supported by Internet Explorer, unfortunately
Nathan Arthur almost 5 years

Yup, if you need to support IE, you'll want to limit custom properties to use cases that won't cripple website functionality for IE users. In other words, use progressive enhancement.
Jay Edwards almost 4 years

good answer. inheritance can be very very handy with :after when you want things like arrows made out of borders with parent-dependent colors...
Jay Edwards almost 4 years

emphasis on "if you really need it"! :)
Amir over 3 years

Very very smart and functional. thanks a lot
Spinner almost 3 years

Oddly, in spite of being marked as 'The Answer', this answer is quite incorrect. See Nathan Arthur's answer above.