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A design system for building faithful recreations of old UIs
HTML/CSS drawing in the style of an 18th-century oil painting. Hand-coded entirely in HTML & CSS.
Quick Overview
img2css is a unique project that converts images into pure CSS. It generates a single div element with box-shadow properties to recreate the image using only CSS, resulting in a pixel-perfect representation of the original image without using any actual image files.
Pros
- Creates lightweight, scalable image representations using only CSS
- Eliminates the need for image files, potentially reducing load times
- Provides an interesting and creative approach to image rendering on the web
- Can be used for artistic or experimental web design projects
Cons
- Generated CSS can be extremely large for complex images
- Not practical for most real-world use cases due to performance concerns
- Limited browser support for very large numbers of box-shadow properties
- Lacks support for transparency or advanced image features
Code Examples
- Basic usage:
import { convertImageToCSS } from 'img2css';
const imageUrl = 'path/to/your/image.jpg';
const cssOutput = convertImageToCSS(imageUrl);
console.log(cssOutput);
- Customizing pixel size:
const options = {
pixelSize: 10 // Default is 1
};
const cssOutput = convertImageToCSS(imageUrl, options);
- Applying the generated CSS:
<div id="image-container"></div>
<style>
#image-container {
width: 1px;
height: 1px;
/* Paste the generated CSS here */
box-shadow: /* ... */;
}
</style>
Getting Started
To use img2css in your project:
-
Install the package:
npm install img2css
-
Import and use in your JavaScript:
import { convertImageToCSS } from 'img2css'; const imageUrl = 'path/to/your/image.jpg'; const cssOutput = convertImageToCSS(imageUrl); // Use the cssOutput in your application
-
Apply the generated CSS to a div element in your HTML as shown in the code examples above.
Competitor Comparisons
A design system for building faithful recreations of old UIs
Pros of 98.css
- Provides a complete CSS framework for recreating Windows 98-style UIs
- Includes a wide range of pre-styled components (buttons, form elements, windows)
- Easier to implement for full application styling
Cons of 98.css
- Limited to a specific aesthetic (Windows 98), less flexible for modern designs
- Larger file size due to comprehensive styling
- May require more effort to customize or override styles
Code Comparison
98.css:
.window {
background: #c0c0c0;
border: 1px solid #000000;
box-shadow: inset -1px -1px #0a0a0a, inset 1px 1px #dfdfdf, inset -2px -2px grey, inset 2px 2px #fff;
}
img2css:
.pixel-art {
box-shadow: 10px 10px 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1),
20px 20px 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1),
30px 30px 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);
}
Summary
98.css is a comprehensive CSS framework for creating Windows 98-style interfaces, offering pre-styled components and a nostalgic aesthetic. It's ideal for retro-themed projects but may be less suitable for modern designs. img2css, on the other hand, focuses on converting images to CSS, providing a more flexible approach for creating custom pixel art or image-based styles. While 98.css offers a complete styling solution, img2css allows for more creative freedom in generating unique CSS-based visuals.
HTML/CSS drawing in the style of an 18th-century oil painting. Hand-coded entirely in HTML & CSS.
Pros of purecss-francine
- Creates a highly detailed, artistic portrait using only HTML and CSS
- Demonstrates advanced CSS techniques and creativity in web design
- Serves as an impressive showcase of pure CSS capabilities
Cons of purecss-francine
- Highly specific to one image, not easily adaptable for other inputs
- Requires significant manual effort and expertise to create
- Large file size due to complex CSS rules
Code Comparison
purecss-francine:
.hair-shadow {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
border-radius: 50% 50% 50% 50% / 60% 60% 40% 40%;
box-shadow: 0 0 0 9px #2f1d1d;
}
img2css:
function getColorDistance(color1, color2) {
return Math.sqrt(
Math.pow(color1.r - color2.r, 2) +
Math.pow(color1.g - color2.g, 2) +
Math.pow(color1.b - color2.b, 2)
);
}
purecss-francine focuses on creating a single, highly detailed image using complex CSS rules, while img2css is a tool that converts any image to CSS pixels, offering more flexibility but less artistic detail. The code snippets highlight the difference in approach: purecss-francine uses intricate CSS styling, while img2css employs JavaScript for color analysis and conversion.
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img2css
Convert any image to pure CSS.
- To use it go to https://javier.xyz/img2css
- Looking for a programmatic way to do this? See https://github.com/javierbyte/canvas-image-utils
- I also made a per-pixel animation experiment, see https://github.com/javierbyte/morphin
How does it work?
It has two different outputs, pure css shadow matrix [1] and base64 embedded image [2].
- Pure CSS: This output was created by resizing and setting each pixel as a box-shadow of a single pixel div, so no
img
tag orbackground-image
is needed. This can result in huge outputs, and the use of this output is not recommended for production unless there is no other option. - Base64: The entire image file is embedded inside the
<img>
tag using base64, so no need external hosting is needed.
Development
Run development server:
npm run dev
Build
npm run build
Top Related Projects
A design system for building faithful recreations of old UIs
HTML/CSS drawing in the style of an 18th-century oil painting. Hand-coded entirely in HTML & CSS.
Convert designs to code with AI
Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.
Try Visual Copilot