CSS typography experiment

This is a quick experiment that reproduces an image from I Love Typography using semantic HTML, CSS 2.1, a little CSS3. Along the way, I learnt about a few modern browser bugs and inconsistencies.

• See the demo: CSS typography experiment.
• See the bugs: Some new CSS 2.1 and CSS3 bugs in modern browsers.

I came across an image on I Love Typography that I thought could be reproduced using only semantic HTML and CSS.

The idea was to reproduce the image from simple markup, and to rely as much as possible on what can be achieved with CSS.

This is the HTML I ended up using.

<p>I love <strong>typography</strong> <em>a lot</em></p>

This is the CSS that controls the presentation of that content.

body {
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  font-family: Times New Roman, serif;
  background: #000;
}

p {
  position: relative;
  width: 1100px;
  padding: 100px 0 0;
  margin: 0 auto;
  font-size: 175px;
  font-weight: bold;
  line-height: 1.2;
  letter-spacing: -13px;
  color: #0caac7;
  transform: rotate(-20deg);
}

/* "i" */
p:first-letter {
  float: left;
  margin: -137px -20px 0 0;
  font-size: 880px;
  line-height: 595px;
  text-transform: lowercase;
}

/* "love" */
p:first-line {
  font-size: 200px;
}

/* "typography" */
p strong {
  display: block;
  margin: -80px 0 0;
  font-weight: normal;
  letter-spacing: -2px;
  text-transform: capitalize;
}

p strong:first-letter {
  margin-right: -30px;
  color: #fff;
}

/* "a lot" */
p em {
  position: absolute;
  z-index: 10;
  top: 100px;
  left: 147px;
  width: 136px;
  overflow: hidden;
  padding-left: 64px;
  font-size: 200px;
  font-style: normal;
  text-transform: lowercase;
  color: #fff;
}

p em:first-letter {
  float: left;
  margin: 130px 0 0 -55px;
  font-size: 80px;
  font-style: italic;
  line-height: 20px;
  color: #fff;
}

/* create the heart shape */
p:before,
p:after {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  z-index: 1;
  top: 225px;
  left: 120px;
  width: 75px;
  height: 50px;
  background: #000;
  transform: rotate(45deg);
  border-radius: 25px 0 0 30px;
}

p:after {
  left: 138px;
  transform: rotate(-45deg);
  border-radius: 0 25px 30px 0;
}

/* hide the tip of the "t" from "a lot" */
p strong:before {
  content: "";
  position: absolute;
  z-index: 11;
  top: 205px;
  left: 341px;
  width: 7px;
  height: 7px;
  background: #000;
  border-radius: 7px;
}

The final CSS typography experiment approximates the original image in all modern browsers that support the CSS3 properties of border-radius and transform.

Some browsers render type (especially after rotational transformations) better than others. Note that all the screenshots are taken from browsers running on Windows Vista OS.

Browser bugs and inconsistencies

I’ve put together a small test page to highlight some new CSS 2.1 and CSS3 bugs in modern browsers. It includes two new CSS 2.1 bugs in Internet Explorer 8.