--- title: Using for fun and profit image: ./kremalicious-kbdfun-teaser.png style: /post-kbd.css author: Matthias Kretschmann date: 2012-07-16 14:36:58+00:00 tags: - design - css - development --- There's this HTML element meant for marking up keyboard keys named `kbd`. Obviously it can be styled with CSS so why not use it to make those elements look a bit more like hardware or the iOS and Android software keys. The above picture might be blurry depending on the device you're using so here's a live rendered demo: Light Dark iOS An dro id They are completely styled with CSS3 so they're sharp on all screens no matter how high the dpi. Have a look at the [full demo](http://lab.kremalicious.com/kbdfun/) or grab the project folder with the CSS & LESS files from GitHub. The code is under the MIT license so you're free to use it in any personal or commercial project. Demo Github ## Usage ### CSS Just drop in the `kbdftw.css` in your `head`: ```html ``` If you want to use the Android key style, include roboto.css before: ```html ``` You also need to add all the Roboto font files from assets/fonts to your project. ### LESS There're some variables in the `kbdfun.less` file you can customize. For the Android style, there's `roboto.less` as include at the end. But the font files won't load unless you uncomment the `.font-roboto` line in kbdftw.less. This is to make sure, users won't download all the font files if you don't use the Android style. ### Markup The default styling are light keys with Lucida Grande as font: ```html Q ``` becomes Q Add a dark class to get the dark keys: ```html Q ``` becomes Q Adding an ios or android class gives a replica of those system keys. Android uses three different colors on the default keyboard. ```html Q ``` becomes Q ```html Q ``` becomes Q ```html Q ``` becomes Q ```html Q ``` becomes Q I've let the default `display: inline` intact so all padding on the `kbd` elements won't affect the line-height of the surrounding text. This leads to problems when you want to use them over multiple lines so just make them `display: inline-block` in this scenario. Pro Tip: if you want to replicate all Mac keyboards after 2003 you have to get VAG rounded for the font.