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13 examples of Pseudo-Elements With Custom CSS with the help of Elementor Pro

before and after Pseudo-Elements are really good ways to add style to the Elements without the need for Extra Markup you don’t need.

With the help of Elementor Pro: Custom CSS functionalities, whatever CSS you're writing and will reflect directly to the editor itself in real-time that makes it super easy and faster and productive.

pseudo-elements with Elementor

Basic Requirement

  1. CSS I have provided below is not minified yet, you have to go to this website to minified your CSS for better performance or if you use Visual Studio Code, you can install Minify extension to minify the code.
  2. You have to write your own media Queries if needed. Watch the video below to learn more.
  3. For browser compatibility, you need to head over to Autoprefixer CSS online.
  4. (Requirement) Learn how to how to add CSS class to an elementor's widget.

:before (::before) and :after (::after) Pseudo-Elements are really good ways to add style to the Elements without the need for adding extra Markup you don’t need.

You saw a beautiful design that probably uses before and after pseudo-elements.

The only question that raises is Can I use it with the Free version of the Elementor plugin?

Yes, you can use the free version of Elementor without any issues but when it comes to convenience or any complicated stuff, you will need Elementor pro because you can see whatever CSS you’re writing and it will reflect directly to the editor itself in real-time that makes it super easy, faster, and productive.

Otherwise, if you use the Free version it can consume more time and it is not as productive compared to the Pro version.

I am not trying to sell you the Elementor pro plan or anything but it is facts. You have to figure out which class you use and it can cause Conflict with other Custom CSS.

Head up:
If you enabled inline font icons Elementor experiments in Elementor’s settings. The first and second methods will not work because they will replace icons with inline SVG. 

Picture showing how to enabled Inline Font Icons Elementor's experiements

The “Inline Font Icons” will render the icons as inline SVG without loading the Font-Awsome and the eicons libraries and its related CSS files and fonts. Learn More about the Inline Font Icons Experiment in details.

Change the color & Increase the width and height of the icon

Elementor Button
Do you need the tutorials for this one? Of course not, this feature is already in-built with Elementor plugin from day one.

But can you change the color,size of the icon itself?

Not out-of-the-box though but you can with little bit of css.Follow this guide to learn more -
  1. Head over to Elementor button.
  2. Then Go to Button Advanced tab
  3. Under Advanced tab - Choose CSS id/ Classes (You prefer) and give a name for styling. (btn-color-icon) this is the CSS class I choose.
  4. Choose whicher you prefer for CSS id use 'Pound sign' or 'Hash' or '#' sign or if you are using CSS classes then use (.)
				
					/*  
* .btn-color-icon is the CSS class, we have added to Elementor's button CSS classes
* .fa is the CSS classes for font-awesome icons.
*  ::before or :before is the before and after pseudo-elements to insert CSS or anything to the elements.
*/
.btn-color-icon .fa:before {
    color: purple;
}

/* 
* If you enabled inline font icons experiments
*/

.bt-color-icon .elementor-button {
    fill: purple !important
}

/* 
*Free tips: Change the width and height of the icon or SVG
*When you increase the width and height of the icon, there will be an alignment issue. 
*To fix it we add align-items to center
*/
.bt-color-icon .elementor-button-content-wrapper {
    align-items: center
}

.bt-color-icon .elementor-button-icon svg {
    /*
Default is 1em on width and height
To overwrite, we use !important CSS rule
*/
    height: 2em !important;
    width: 2em !important
}
				
			

Change the font family from Font-Awesome to Elementor icons

To change the font-family from Font-awesome (FA) to Elementor icons (Eicons) libraries, we have to specify the font-family CSS property in the syntax.

Choose Icons from Font-awesome Libraries

This is how it looks when you add Font-Awesome icon directly from icon libraries in the frontend editors. 

				
					/* 
    * This is the Code, Font-Awesome use it
    * .btn-color-fa is the CSS class, we have added to Elementor's button CSS classes
    *  .fa-long-arrow-alt-right is the CSS classes for calling font-awesome icons for font-awesome libraries.
    * ::before or :before is the before and after pseudo-elements to insert CSS or anything to the elements. 
*/

.bt-color-fa  .fa-long-arrow-alt-right:before {
    content: "\f30b";
    font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free";
    font-weight: 900;
    color:#000;
}


				
			

Now to change the FA font family to Eicons, we have to change the syntax from font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free"; to font-family: "Eicons";

				
					/* 
    * This is the Code, Font-Awesome use it
    * .btn-color-fa is the CSS class, we have added to Elementor's button CSS classes
    *  .fa-long-arrow-alt-right is the CSS classes for calling font-awesome icons for font-awesome libraries.
    * ::before or :before is the before and after pseudo-elements to insert CSS or anything to the elements. 
*/

.bt-color-fa  .fa-long-arrow-alt-right:before {
    content: "\f30b";
    font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free";
    font-weight: 900;
    color:#000;
}


				
			

Before

After

Design touch on background image

This CSS is inspired by Kevin Powell: YouTube Channel and from this post, I will going to demonstrate how to use it with the help of the Elementor pro.

This design can be useful for small touches, decoration, etc and you can see the demo and video below.

I highly recommend watching Kevin Powell’s video to fully understand the code.

To see the hover effects, you have to hover upon an image below.

The demo below is built with an Elementor HTML widget and you can copy and paste the HTML and CSS to your project, just make sure you change the path of the images

Hover me 7 examples of Pseudo-Elements With Elementor with custom css
				
					 

<div class="decoration"> 
  <p class="dspan">Hover me</p> 
  <img decoding="async" data-no-lazy="1" class="dimage" width="800" height="522" loading="lazy" src="/..1024x668.jpg" srcset=" 
            /image.jpg 480w, 
           /image5-1024x668.jpg 768w, 
          /image-1024x668.jpg 1024w, 
         /image-1536x668.jpg 1536w" alt="Descriptive Alt tag" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px">

 

<button role="button" class="dbutton"> Surprise </button> 
</div>

        
				
			
				
					/*
* CSS custom Properties
* Please use Autoprefixer to add all the browser compaitability tag (Highly recommended
*  You still need to adjust CSS
*/

:root {
    --site-transition: 300ms ease-in-out;
    --clr-button: #ffce30;
    --clr-button-text: #304ffe;
    --clr-button-text-hover: #ffe485;
}

/* 
* container
*/
.decoration {
    position: relative;
    margin: 0;
    display: flex;
    justify-content: center;
    align-items: center;
    flex-direction: column;
    overflow: hidden;
}

/* 
* Button
*/
.dbutton {
    transform: translateY(-120px);
    z-index: 2;
    width: 50%;
    border-radius: 50px;
    height: 50px;
    margin: 0;
    opacity: 0;
    text-transform: uppercase;
    font-weight: var(--fw-600);
    letter-spacing: 2px;
    /* 
    * Instead of using transition: all
    */
    transition: opacity var(--site-transition),
        transform var(--site-transition),
        background var(--site-transition),
        color var(--site-transition);
    pointer-events: none;
}

/* 
* Paragraph
*/
.dspan {
    font-size: 4rem;
    text-transform: uppercase;
    font-weight: var(--fw-600, 600);
    position: absolute;
    transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
    color: Blue;
    top: 40%;
    left: 50%;
    transition: opacity var(--site-transition);
    z-index: 1;
}

.decoration::after,
.decoration::before {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    top: 5em;
    bottom: 8em;
    left: 1.7em;
    right: 1.7em;
    opacity: 1;
    z-index: 2;
    transition: transform var(--site-transition);
}

.decoration::before {
    border-top: 3px solid var(--clr-button-text-hover);
    border-bottom: 3px solid var(--clr-button-text-hover);
    transform: scale(0, 1);
}

.decoration::after {
    border-left: 3px solid var(--clr-button-text-hover);
    border-right: 3px solid var(--clr-button-text-hover);
    transform: scale(1, 0);
}

.decoration:hover::before {
    transform: scale(1.015, 1);
}

.decoration:hover::after {
    transform: scale(1, 1.05);

}

.decoration:hover .dbutton {
    opacity: 1;
    pointer-events: auto;
    transform: translateY(-130px);
    cursor: pointer;
    z-index: 3;
}

.dbutton:hover {
    background: var(--clr-button-text);
    color: var(--clr-button-text-hover);
}

/*
* Media Queries
*/
@media(max-width:768px) {
    .dspan {
        font-size: 3rem;
        transform: translateY(20vh);
    }

    .dbutton {
        transform: translateY(-120px);
        height: 50px;
        font-size: 1.1rem;
    }

    .decoration:hover .dbutton {
        transform: translateY(-110px);
    }

}

@media(max-width:760px) {
    .dspan {
        font-size: 2.4rem;
        transform: translateY(13vh);
    }

    .dbutton {
        transform: translateY(-80px);
        height: 40px;
        font-size: .9rem;
    }

    .decoration:hover .dbutton {
        transform: translateY(-100px);
    }

}

.dbutton {
    border: none;
}

.decoration:hover .dbutton {
    background: var(--clr-button-text);
    color: var(--foreground);
}
				
			

Elementor Pro: Portfolio - Custom label

Category Label with Pseudo-elements

Follow the process

  1. Head over to the Portfolio widget.
  2. Then click the Portfolio widget Advanced tab
  3. Under Advanced tab – Choose CSS id/ Classes (You prefer).
  4. You know the step after that

To understand the CSS properly, you need to learn the CSS FlexBox property first. So you will understand what is going on.

				
					.portfolio .elementor-portfolio__filters {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-box-pack: end;
    -ms-flex-pack: end;
    justify-content: flex-end;
    position: relative;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    z-index: 1;
}

/* 
* box-shadow to all the post images
*/
.elementor-posts-container .elementor-post {
    -webkit-box-shadow: #3539411c 0 10px 40px 0;
    box-shadow: #3539411c 0 10px 40px 0;
}

.portfolio .elementor-portfolio__filters::before {
    /* Replace the content*/
    content: "'Category' Label are added with Pseudo-elements";
    color: #000;
    font-size: .95rem;
    position: absolute;
    right: 0;
    left: 0;
    top: 50%;
    -webkit-transform: translateY(-50%);
    -ms-transform: translateY(-50%);
    transform: translateY(-50%);
    bottom: 0;
    z-index: -1;
}

@media(max-width:768px) {
    .portfolio .elementor-portfolio__filters::before {
        font-size: 1rem;
        right: 0%;
        top: -20px;
        font-weight: 600;
    }
}

@media(max-width:480px) {
    .portfolio .elementor-portfolio__filters {
        -webkit-box-pack: start;
        -ms-flex-pack: start;
        justify-content: flex-start;
        -webkit-box-align: center;
        -ms-flex-align: center;
        align-items: center;
        margin: 20px 0 0;
        padding: 10px 0 10px 0;

    }
}
				
			

As CSS Tooltip

A tooltip is often used to specify extra information about something when the user moves the mouse pointer over an element:

				
					.top .elementor-button {
    position: relative;
}


.top .elementor-button:hover::after {
    content: 'Surprise';
    position: absolute;
    display: inline-block;
    background-color: Blue;
    color: #000;
    padding: 20px 60px;
    /*
    * Adjust as per your requirements
    */
    margin: -108px -100px;
    font-size: 1rem;
}
				
			

Sub-menu Triangle when hovering

When your mouse pointer hovers over (Old) Elementor’s navigation menu on the official Elementor’s website we see a small triangle with white color.

If you want to achieve the same things, you can use the code below.

				
					.top .elementor-button:hover::before {
    content: "";
    position: absolute;
    top: -15px;
    left: 50%;
    margin-left: -5px;
    border-width: 8px;
    border-style: solid;
    border-color:
        currentcolor transparent transparent transparent;
}
				
			

Animated Hover effect on Links

When you hover any link on my website or the menu after you click the Hamburger menu. You get nice hover effects or animated underline effects. You can experience the same thing on all my links too.

This can be done with simple CSS and you will get tutorials from specky boy.

I reuse the Kinsta hover effects on all my links

				
					/* 
* Your CSS class may varies but the process is all the same
* In this example, I am targeting only my single post template 
* single-post-link is the parent container that wrap around all the content  
* Change the Color Hex code to any color 
*/

:root {
    --site-transition: 300ms ease-in-out;
    --color: red;
}

.single-post-links a {
    background-image:
        linear-gradient(transparent calc(100% - 1px), var(--color) 1px);
    color: var(--color);
    background-position: 100%;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    position: relative;
    text-decoration: none;
    transition: background-size var(--site-transition);
    background-size: 100% 100%;
}

/* 
* when hover
*/

.single-post-links a:hover {
    background-size: 0 100%;
}
				
			

Added Icons to Headings

Display Font-Awesome icons before & after the heading widget

Do you know you can add font awesome icons before and after using FontAwesome?

This example you’re seeing in the video is not entirely done with before and after pseudo-elements but you can achieve it pretty easily.

See the video below for the demonstration-

				
					/* 
* Before heading
* It will not work if you enabled inline font icons
* See the sub heading for demo
*/

.fa-icon .elementor-heading-title {
    position: relative;
}

.fa-icon .elementor-heading-title::before {
    content: '\f641';
    font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free";
    font-weight: 900;
    padding-right: 20px;
}


/* 
* After heading
*/

.fa-icon .elementor-heading-title::after {
    content: '\f641';
    font-family: "Font Awesome 5 Free";
    font-weight: 900;
    padding-right: 20px;
}
				
			

Elementor icons or eicons to display before or after

Have fun with Elementor icons (eicons) too if you know the CSS.

				
					/* 
* Before heading
*/

.icons .elementor-heading-title{
    position: relative;
}

.icons .elementor-heading-title::before{
    content:'\e801';
    font-family: 'eicons';
    padding-right:5px;
}

/* 
* After heading
*/

.icons .elementor-heading-title::after{
    content:'\e801';
    font-family: 'eicons';
    padding-left:5px;
}


				
			

Added Icons to Post Title in WordPress

I wrote an article on Quora on how to add an icon to post a title in WordPress, it is well documented in my opinion. Go check the page on how to implement your projects.

Add title to a Post Title in WordPress

As a Badge

Have you ever thought of using it as a badge like if there is a notification?

This is the question asked on Facebook today on how to do it, most of the answers were straight on the point. For starters, this can overwhelm you but if you follow this process you can do it but you will still need to adjust it though.

Badge

Follow the 4 steps to apply CSS classes and style to WordPress menu items 

Now select the navigation menu items you want to add the badge and add CSS class (shown in the picture below).

Add a span class of “nav” or any preferred.

if you don’t want a screen reader to read like “Our Mission New” you can add “aria-hidden=”true” ” to the span itself to skip “New“.

Adding Accessibility functionalities to the nav meu items

				
					Our Mission <span aria-hidden="true" class="nav">New</span>
				
			

Step#2: Choose the right Nav Menu Widget

When you choose the Nav Menu widget, you will see the unstyled version (in the picture below) first because we haven’t styled it yet but we will.

Badge were unstyled

Step#3: Click the nav menu widget handle and add the CSS class

We added this CSS class not to get conflict with other CSS classes or rules so it doesn’t get overwritten.

nav Menu CSS class

Step#4: Add Custom CSS to the Nav menu widget

				
					/*
* nav-menu is the CSS class we defined in Elementor CSS classes
* Nav is the CSS we define in Appearence - Menu 
*/
.nav-menu .elementor-item{
    position: relative;
}

.nav-menu .elementor-item .nav{
    position: absolute;
    right:0;
    top: -5px;
    background-color: #000;
    border-radius: 30px;
    width: 45px;
    font-size: .8rem;
    text-transform: capitalize;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: center;
    color: #fff;
}
				
			

Result

Adding Custom CSS to the navigation menu widget area

Step#5: Live badge

By using before and after pseudo-elements CSS we can add the live badge features and then we can animate with @keyframes CSS.

				
					.live-badge::before{
    content:'';
    color: red;
    position: absolute;
    left:5px;
    top:5px;
    background: red;
    border-radius: 50%;
    width: 10px;
    height: 10px;
}

				
			
before and after badge css

To animate the red dot, we need to add keyframes. So we had over to Animista – CSS animations on Demand this is my favorite CSS animation site.

				
					.live-badge::before{
    content:'';
    color: red;
    position: absolute;
    left:5px;
    top:5px;
    background: red;
    border-radius: 50%;
    width: 10px;
    height: 10px;
    /* We define the animation name as heart heartbeat*/
     -webkit-animation: heartbeat 1.5s ease-in-out infinite both;
	        animation: heartbeat 1.5s ease-in-out infinite both;
}

/* ----------------------------------------------
 * Generated by Animista on 2021-10-22 22:8:1
 * Licensed under FreeBSD License.
 * See https://animista.net/license for more info. 
 * w: https://animista.net, t: @cssanimista
 * ---------------------------------------------- */

/**
 * ----------------------------------------
 * animation heartbeat
 * ----------------------------------------
 */
@-webkit-keyframes heartbeat {
  from {
    -webkit-transform: scale(1);
            transform: scale(1);
    -webkit-transform-origin: center center;
            transform-origin: center center;
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-out;
            animation-timing-function: ease-out;
  }
  10% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(0.91);
            transform: scale(0.91);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-in;
            animation-timing-function: ease-in;
  }
  17% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(0.98);
            transform: scale(0.98);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-out;
            animation-timing-function: ease-out;
  }
  33% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(0.87);
            transform: scale(0.87);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-in;
            animation-timing-function: ease-in;
  }
  45% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(1);
            transform: scale(1);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-out;
            animation-timing-function: ease-out;
  }
}
@keyframes heartbeat {
  from {
    -webkit-transform: scale(1);
            transform: scale(1);
    -webkit-transform-origin: center center;
            transform-origin: center center;
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-out;
            animation-timing-function: ease-out;
  }
  10% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(0.91);
            transform: scale(0.91);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-in;
            animation-timing-function: ease-in;
  }
  17% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(0.98);
            transform: scale(0.98);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-out;
            animation-timing-function: ease-out;
  }
  33% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(0.87);
            transform: scale(0.87);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-in;
            animation-timing-function: ease-in;
  }
  45% {
    -webkit-transform: scale(1);
            transform: scale(1);
    -webkit-animation-timing-function: ease-out;
            animation-timing-function: ease-out;
  }
}


				
			
Related-
  1. If you’re facing a Layout shift issue on your navigation Sub-menu icon when you load the page. Follow my How to Fix the Submenu icon indicator delay? article.
  2. Navigation is broken when you update Elementor! Here is how to troubleshoot and fix the nav menu bug.

Hover effects

You can achieve amazing hover effects with before and after pseudo-elements. Here is the Codepen you can check out and it is created by me.

Partial Underline color effects to the heading tag

Partial Underline effects with linear gradient and before & after pseudo-elements

If you want to do the same thing to your headings, you can achieve the same things with before and after pseudo-elements or by using a linear gradient.

Step#1: Give A CSS class to your heading

Partial Underline effects with color

Step#2: Add CSS to the Custom CSS area

Adding CSS to custom CSS area
				
					/*
* Global Style
*/
:root {
  --heading-color: #fbfbfb;
  --underline-clr-bg: blue;
  --font-weight: 800;
}

/* 
* Heading Style
* This CSS can look weird, if you have long text
*/

.partial_bg_heading .elementor-heading-title{
  color: var(--heading-color);
  font-weight: var(--font-weight);
  background: linear-gradient(
    to bottom,
    transparent 60%,
    var(--underline-clr-bg) 60%);
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
}
				
			
Thangjam Kishorchand

Thangjam Kishorchand

Hi there! I'm Kishorchand, and this is my blog where I share my Elementor tips and tricks that I've learned over the past two years. I'm mostly active on Quora and Facebook, and I love experimenting with design trends like variable fonts and dark mode.

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