Pure semantic HTML/CSS solution
This is easy to implement on your own, no pre-made solution necessary. Also it will teach you a lot as you don’t seem too easy with CSS.
This is what you need to do:
Your checkboxes need to have distinct id
attributes. This allows you to connect a <label>
to it, using the label’s for
-attribute.
Example:
<input type="checkbox" id="myCheckbox1" />
<label for="myCheckbox1"><img src="http://someurl" /></label>
Attaching the label to the checkbox will trigger a browser behaviour: Whenever someone clicks the label (or the image inside it), the checkbox will be toggled.
Next, you hide the checkbox by applying for example display: none;
to it.
Now all that is left to do is set the style you want for your label::before
pseudo element (which will be used as the visual checkbox replacement elements):
label::before {
background-image: url(../path/to/unchecked.png);
}
In a last tricky step, you make use of CSS’ :checked
pseudo selector to change the image when the checkbox is checked:
:checked + label::before {
background-image: url(../path/to/checked.png);
}
The +
(adjacent sibling selector) makes sure you only change labels that directly follow the hidden checkbox in the markup.
You can optimize that by putting both images in a spritemap and only applying a change in background-position
instead of swapping the image.
Of course you need to position the label correctly and apply display: block;
and set correct width
and height
.
Edit:
The codepen example and snippet, which I created after these instructions, use the same technique, but instead of using images for the checkboxes, the checkbox replacements are done purely with CSS, creating a ::before
on the label that, once checked, has content: "✓";
. Add some rounded borders and sweet transitions and the result is really likable!
Here is a working codepen that showcases the technique and doesn’t require images for the checkbox:
Here is the same code in a snippet:
ul {
list-style-type: none;
}
li {
display: inline-block;
}
input[type="checkbox"][id^="cb"] {
display: none;
}
label {
border: 1px solid #fff;
padding: 10px;
display: block;
position: relative;
margin: 10px;
cursor: pointer;
-webkit-touch-callout: none;
-webkit-user-select: none;
-khtml-user-select: none;
-moz-user-select: none;
-ms-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
}
label::before {
background-color: white;
color: white;
content: " ";
display: block;
border-radius: 50%;
border: 1px solid grey;
position: absolute;
top: -5px;
left: -5px;
width: 25px;
height: 25px;
text-align: center;
line-height: 28px;
transition-duration: 0.4s;
transform: scale(0);
}
label img {
height: 100px;
width: 100px;
transition-duration: 0.2s;
transform-origin: 50% 50%;
}
:checked+label {
border-color: #ddd;
}
:checked+label::before {
content: "✓";
background-color: grey;
transform: scale(1);
}
:checked+label img {
transform: scale(0.9);
box-shadow: 0 0 5px #333;
z-index: -1;
}
<ul>
<li><input type="checkbox" id="cb1" />
<label for="cb1"><img src="https://picsum.photos/seed/1/100" /></label>
</li>
<li><input type="checkbox" id="cb2" />
<label for="cb2"><img src="https://picsum.photos/seed/2/100" /></label>
</li>
<li><input type="checkbox" id="cb3" />
<label for="cb3"><img src="https://picsum.photos/seed/3/100" /></label>
</li>
<li><input type="checkbox" id="cb4" />
<label for="cb4"><img src="https://picsum.photos/seed/4/100" /></label>
</li>
</ul>