Recipe 3.14. Rounding Corners with Fixed-Width Columns

Problem

You want to create rounded corners on columns that set with fixed-width columns.

Solution

Create two background images with one image containing the top corners and the other image containing the bottom corners (Figure 3-28).

Wrap a div element around the content that's within the column:

<div >  <h2>   I Met a Girl I&#8217;d Like to Know Better  </h2>  <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam  nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.  Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam.</p> </div>

Figure 3-28. One image for the top corners and another for the bottom corners

Place the bottom background image in the div element (see Figure 3-29):

#box {  width: 214px;  background-image: url(bkgd_bottom.gif);  background-position: bottom;  background-repeat: no-repeat;  }

Figure 3-29. A background image is placed at the bottom of the column

Then place the top background image in the h2 element (see Figure 3-30):

h2 {  background-image: url(bkgd_top.gif);  backgroung-position: left top;  background-repeat: no-repeat;   padding: 7px 7px 3px 7px;  margin: 0;  border-bottom: 1px solid #999;  font-size: 1.3em;  font-weight: normal;  color: #eee; }

Figure 3-30. A background image is placed at the top of the column

Discussion

To compensate for different text sizes like the ones in Figure 3-31, make the background images extend for longer than just the space specified in the design. For example, the images used in this solution are 600 pixels tall, however it's not unheard of to have the lengths of the graphics to be more than 1,000 pixels to insure a page's design maintains its integrity with extreme font sizing.

Figure 3-31. As the text enlarges, the design keeps its integrity

By fixing the width of the column to a length unit like pixels, it's possible to place an image containing two corners in one image. With column widths that change when the user resizes the browser, however, the fixed-width solution falls apart.