Create Neon Style Buttons Using CSS

CSS truly is a remarkable tool in a web designer’s toolkit, capable of bringing even the most vibrant creative visions to life. Today, we’re immersing ourselves in the radiant world of neon style buttons, showcasing the impressive spectrum of CSS capabilities. Ready to set your CSS knowledge aglow? Let’s get started!

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HTML: Building the Neon Button

Our HTML structure for the neon button is quite straightforward:

<button class="neon-button">NEON</button>

We’ve just set up a button with the class “neon-button” which we’ll use to apply our CSS styles.

CSS: Crafting the Neon Glow

Let’s now dive into the CSS code to give our button that neon look:

/* Load custom font from Google Fonts */
@import url("https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Montserrat:wght@700&display=swap");

body {
  background-color: #1a1a1a; /* Dark background for neon contrast */
}

/* Styling for our neon button */
.neon-button {
  color: #ff4b59; /* Text color */
  background-color: #1a1a1a; /* Same as the background for a seamless look */
  border: 4px solid #ff4b59; /* Solid border with neon color */
  border-radius: 10px; /* Slight rounding of corners */
  padding: 15px 30px; /* Padding around the text */
  font-size: 25px; /* Visible and impactful text size */
  font-family: "Montserrat", sans-serif; /* Stylish font */
  letter-spacing: 3px; /* Space between letters for better readability */
  cursor: pointer; /* Changes cursor to a pointer on hover */
  font-weight: bold; /* Bold text */
  filter: drop-shadow(0 0 10px #ff4b59) drop-shadow(0 0 30px #ff4b59)
    contrast(1.8) brightness(1.8); /* Adds a subtle glow effect and enhances the vibrancy */
  transition: 0.5s; /* Smooth color change on hover */
}

/* Styling for hover state */
.neon-button:hover {
  color: #1a1a1a; /* Text color changes on hover */
  background-color: #ff4b59; /* Button color fills on hover */
  filter: drop-shadow(0 0 10px #ff4b59) drop-shadow(0 0 40px #ff4b59)
    contrast(1.8) brightness(1.8); /* Glow effect is enhanced on hover */
}

Let’s break down this CSS snippet:

• Color & Background: We use color to set the text color to #FF4B59, our chosen neon shade. The background-color is set to #1A1A1A, which is a dark tone to enhance the neon glow.
• Border & Border Radius: We have border set to 4px and the same color as our text to give our button a neon border. The border-radius property is used to give the button slightly rounded corners.
• Font Size & Family: font-size is set to 25px to ensure our text is large enough to be impactful, and font-family is set to ‘Montserrat’, a stylish sans-serif font, to give our text an appealing look.
• Letter Spacing & Font Weight: We used letter-spacing to provide some space between letters for better readability, and font-weight is set to bold for more emphasis.
• Filter & Transition: The filter property is employed to apply the drop-shadow function twice to create a glowing effect around the text and the border. This glow effect intensifies upon hovering. The transition property ensures a smooth transformation of colors when the button is hovered over.

The Result

See the Pen Neon Style Button by 1stWebDesigner (@firstwebdesigner) on CodePen.

Final Thoughts

This approach provides a straightforward way to create a neon-style button. However, it’s only one of many possible techniques.

In the broader scope of CSS, there are numerous ways to enhance this effect. For instance, using transform property for animated scaling effects, controlling opacity for more depth, using CSS variables for easier management of values, and leveraging pseudo-elements like :before and :after for more complex effects.

If the neon button is meant to serve as a link, it might be more semantically appropriate and beneficial for SEO to use an <a> element instead of a <button>.

Also, to make designs more responsive, consider using relative units like em or rem instead of px, which allows for more fluid scaling across different screen sizes.

Playing around with different box-shadow values can lead to different glow intensities and spread. Combining all these methods can yield an even more impressive and dynamic neon button.

Don’t hesitate to take what you’ve learned here and push it a step further. CSS is full of such opportunities for those willing to explore!