How to create a heart shape using CSS?

Question

I've found the following CSS in one of the answers here on SO and I was wondering why does it create the desired heart shape:

#heart { 
    position: relative; 
    width: 100px; 
    height: 90px; 
} 

#heart:before, #heart:after { 
    position: absolute; 
    content: ""; 
    left: 50px; 
    top: 0; 
    width: 50px; 
    height: 80px; 
    background: red; 
    border-radius: 50px 50px 0 0; 
    transform: rotate(-45deg); 
    transform-origin: 0 100%; 
} 

#heart:after { 
    left: 0; 
    transform: rotate(45deg); 
    transform-origin :100% 100%; 
}

<div id="heart"></div>

Please can someone explain?

Answer 1

CSS3 Mon Amour - A 4 Step Love Afair

There are a few steps for creating heart shape using CSS3:

1. Create a block-level element such as a <div> in your DOM and assign it with id="heart" and apply CSS:

   #heart {
        position:relative; 
        width:100px; 
        height:90px;
        margin-top:10px; /* leave some space above */
   }
   

2. Now using pseudo-element #heart:before we create a red box with one rounded edge like this:

   #heart:before {
       position: absolute; 
       content: ""; 
       left: 50px; 
       top: 0; 
       width: 52px; 
       height: 80px; 
       background: red; /* assign a nice red color */
       border-radius: 50px 50px 0 0; /* make the top edge round */ 
   }
   

   Your heart should now look like this:

   

3. Let us assign a little rotation to that by adding:

   #heart:before {
       -webkit-transform: rotate(-45deg); /* 45 degrees rotation counter clockwise */
          -moz-transform: rotate(-45deg); 
           -ms-transform: rotate(-45deg); 
            -o-transform: rotate(-45deg); 
               transform: rotate(-45deg); 
       -webkit-transform-origin: 0 100%; /* Rotate it around the bottom-left corner */
          -moz-transform-origin: 0 100%; 
           -ms-transform-origin: 0 100%; 
            -o-transform-origin: 0 100%; 
               transform-origin: 0 100%;
   }
   

   And we now get:

   

   Already starting to come together :).

4. Now for the right part we basically need the same shape only rotated 45 degrees clockwise instead of counter clockwise. To avoid code duplication we attach the css of #heart:before also to #heart:after, and then apply the change in position and in angle:

   #heart:after { 
       left: 0; /* placing the right part properly */
       -webkit-transform: rotate(45deg); /* rotating 45 degrees clockwise */
          -moz-transform: rotate(45deg); 
           -ms-transform: rotate(45deg); 
            -o-transform: rotate(45deg); 
               transform: rotate(45deg); 
       -webkit-transform-origin: 100% 100%; /* rotation is around bottom-right corner this time */
          -moz-transform-origin: 100% 100%; 
           -ms-transform-origin: 100% 100%; 
            -o-transform-origin: 100% 100%; 
               transform-origin :100% 100%; 
   } 
   

   And voilà! a complete heart shaped <div>:

   

Snippet without any prefix:

#heart {
  position: relative;
  width: 100px;
  height: 90px;
  margin-top: 10px;
}

#heart::before, #heart::after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  width: 52px;
  height: 80px;
  border-radius: 50px 50px 0 0;
  background: red;
}

#heart::before {
  left: 50px;
  transform: rotate(-45deg);
  transform-origin: 0 100%;
}

#heart::after {
  left: 0;
  transform: rotate(45deg);
  transform-origin: 100% 100%;
}

<div id="heart"></div>