I’m proud to announce my latest CSS experiment—The CSS Social Buttons. They are not another "pure CSS3" or "HTML5 canvas" icons. These icons use the basic traditional background-image technique. The purpose of these icons is to provide a cross-browser, consistent and versatile CSS that can be applied in any design, app or theme. Basically, it is one master stylesheet that contains various design styles. It allows you to display many different button styles by combining the CSS classes.

View Demo CSS Buttons

Download Demo ZIP

Implementation

To apply this CSS Social Icons to your site, download the demo zip and include the social-icons.css file to your site:

<link href="social-buttons.css" rel="stylesheet">

Option A: You need to add a .sb class (sb stands for social button) and the icon class (eg. twitter, facebook, rss, etc.) to the <a> link tag. Use this option if you want each button to have different style.

<a href="#" class="sb orange twitter">Twitter</a>
<a href="#" class="sb blue facebook">Facebook</a>

Option B: The .sb class can also be in the wrapping tag such as <p>, <div> or <ul> tag. The icon class (eg. twitter, facebook, rss) is required inside the <a> tag. Use this option if you want the buttons to have one consistent style.

<p class="sb gradient blue">
	<a href="#" class="twitter">Twitter</a>
	<a href="#" class="facebook">Facebook</a>
</p>

<ul class="sb circle gray text">
	<li><a href="#" class="twitter">Twitter</a></li>
	<li><a href="#" class="facebook">Facebook</a></li>
</ul>

Available CSS Classes

Below is a list of the classes available. You can specify as many classes as you want. It is very versatile. You can mix and match the styles to produce many possible results. For example, you can have "large blue gradient glossy embossed text thick-border" all in one button. Check the demo to see examples.

Sizes

• default = 34px
• small = 28px
• large = 42px

Colors

• blue
• purple
• red
• green
• orange
• brown
• black
• gray
• light-gray
• light-blue
• light-purple
• pink
• light-green
• yellow

Styles

• min = minimal style, no background or border
• flat = no rounded corners and box shadows
• circle = circle style
• embossed = embossed style
• pressed = pressed like style
• thick-border = thicker border stroke
• no-border = remove border
• no-shadow = remove box-shadow
• gradient = the gradient is applied to the :after element
• glossy = the glossy overlay gradient is added to the :before element
• text = display icon with text

Icons

• twitter
• facebook
• heart
• linkedin
• pinterest
• podcast
• rss
• share_this
• star
• vimeo

How to Add Your Own Icons

Because there are too many social networks, I’ve only included some basic icon classes in the demo to keep the social-icons.css file small. You can add more icon classes with the following sample CSS code (don’t forget to add the .sb blass in your link tag <a href="#" class="sb youtube">):

a.sb.youtube {
	background-image: url(images/youtube.png);
}
a.sb.email {
	background-image: url(images/email.png);
}

Download More Icons

The icons used in the demo are from the free Mono Social Icons where you can download from IconDock. The vector EPS version is included in the set. The other matching icons are from the Rocky icon set.

How to Override the Button Size & Background Color

You can override the button size and backgound with the following CSS code:

a.sb {
	width: 36px;
	height: 36px;

	background-color: #666;
}

How to Add Custom Gradients

The gradient background is applied to the :after pseudo element. You can generate more gradients using this Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator. Note that SVG gradient is required for Internet Explorer 9 as it does not support native CSS3 gradient.

a.sb.gradient.custom:after {
	background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml;base64,PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiA/Pgo8c3ZnIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyIgd2lkdGg9IjEwMCUiIGhlaWdodD0iMTAwJSIgdmlld0JveD0iMCAwIDEgMSIgcHJlc2VydmVBc3BlY3RSYXRpbz0ibm9uZSI+CiAgPGxpbmVhckdyYWRpZW50IGlkPSJncmFkLXVjZ2ctZ2VuZXJhdGVkIiBncmFkaWVudFVuaXRzPSJ1c2VyU3BhY2VPblVzZSIgeDE9IjAlIiB5MT0iMCUiIHgyPSIwJSIgeTI9IjEwMCUiPgogICAgPHN0b3Agb2Zmc2V0PSIwJSIgc3RvcC1jb2xvcj0iI2I4YzZkZiIgc3RvcC1vcGFjaXR5PSIxIi8+CiAgICA8c3RvcCBvZmZzZXQ9IjEwMCUiIHN0b3AtY29sb3I9IiM2ZDg4YjciIHN0b3Atb3BhY2l0eT0iMSIvPgogIDwvbGluZWFyR3JhZGllbnQ+CiAgPHJlY3QgeD0iMCIgeT0iMCIgd2lkdGg9IjEiIGhlaWdodD0iMSIgZmlsbD0idXJsKCNncmFkLXVjZ2ctZ2VuZXJhdGVkKSIgLz4KPC9zdmc+);
	background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #b8c6df 0%, #6d88b7 100%);
	background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #b8c6df 0%,#6d88b7 100%);
	background-image: linear-gradient(top,  #b8c6df 0%,#6d88b7 100%);
}

How to Create Your Own Styles

You can also override the default social-icons.css to create your own styles. The following custom icon class uses the styles from the .gradient class but overrides the :after background-image with a custom image.

/* custom icon */
a.sb.custom {
	width: 80px;
	height: 80px;
	
	-webkit-border-radius: 15px;
	-moz-border-radius: 15px;
	border-radius: 15px;
}
a.sb.custom:after {
	background-image: url(images/custom-bg.png);

	-webkit-border-radius: 15px;
	-moz-border-radius: 15px;
	border-radius: 15px;
}

/* custom icon blue */
a.sb.custom.blue {
	border-color: #96a8af;
}
a.sb.custom.blue:after {
	background-image: url(images/custom-bg-blue.png);
}
/* custom icon pink */
a.sb.custom.pink {
	border-color: #b0a1aa;
}
a.sb.custom.pink:after {
	background-image: url(images/custom-bg-pink.png);
}

/* custom icon background images */
a.sb.custom.retweet {
	background-image: url(images/custom-icon-retweet.png);
}
a.sb.custom.photo {
	background-image: url(images/custom-icon-photo.png);
}
a.sb.custom.comment {
	background-image: url(images/custom-icon-comment.png);
}

Browser Compatibility

The basic styles work on any browser. The CSS3 effects such as: rounded corners, gradient, glossy, pressed, and embossed styles work on any browser that supports CSS3 such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE9.

Free Licensing

It is 100% free for any purpose. Feel free to extend and share it.