Is it possible to apply CSS to half of a character

Question

What I am looking for:

A way to style one HALF of a character. (In this case, half the letter being transparent)

What I have currently searched for and tried (With no luck):

• Methods for styling half of a character/letter
• Styling part of a character with CSS or JavaScript
• Apply CSS to 50% of a character

Below is an example of what I am trying to obtain.

Does a CSS or JavaScript solution exist for this, or am I going to have to resort to images? I would prefer not to go the image route as this text will end up being generated dynamically.

---

UPDATE:

Since many have asked why I would ever want to style half of a character, this is why. My city had recently spent $250,000 to define a new "brand" for itself. This logo is what they came up with. Many people have complained about the simplicity and lack of creativity and continue to do so. My goal was to come up with this website as a joke. Type in 'Halifax' and you will see what I mean.

Answer 1

If you are interested in this, then Lucas Bebber's Glitch is a very similar and super cool effect:

Created using a simple SASS Mixin such as

.example-one {
  font-size: 100px;
  @include textGlitch("example-one", 17, white, black, red, blue, 450, 115);
}

More details at Chris Coyer's CSS Tricks and Lucas Bebber's Codepen page

Answer 2

How about something like this for shorter text?

It could even work for longer text if you did something with a loop, repeating the characters with JavaScript. Anyway, the result is something like this:

p.char {
  position: relative;
  display: inline-block;
  font-size: 60px;
  color: red;
}

p.char:before {
  position: absolute;
  content: attr(char);
  width: 50%;
  overflow: hidden;
  color: black;
}

<p class="char" char="S">S</p>
<p class="char" char="t">t</p>
<p class="char" char="a">a</p>
<p class="char" char="c">c</p>
<p class="char" char="k">k</p>
<p class="char" char="o">o</p>
<p class="char" char="v">v</p>
<p class="char" char="e">e</p>
<p class="char" char="r">r</p>
<p class="char" char="f">f</p>
<p class="char" char="l">l</p>
<p class="char" char="o">o</p>
<p class="char" char="w">w</p>

Answer 3

You can also do it using SVG, if you wish:

var title = document.querySelector('h1'),
    text = title.innerHTML,
    svgTemplate = document.querySelector('svg'),
    charStyle = svgTemplate.querySelector('#text');

svgTemplate.style.display = 'block';

var space = 0;

for (var i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
  var x = charStyle.cloneNode();
  x.textContent = text[i];
  svgTemplate.appendChild(x);
  x.setAttribute('x', space);
  space += x.clientWidth || 15;
}

title.innerHTML = '';
title.appendChild(svgTemplate);

<svg style="display: none; height: 100px; width: 100%" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="1.1">
    <defs id="FooDefs">
        <linearGradient id="MyGradient" x1="0%" y1="0%" x2="100%" y2="0%">
            <stop offset="50%" stop-color="blue" />
            <stop offset="50%" stop-color="red" />
        </linearGradient>
    </defs>
    <text y="50%" id="text" style="font-size: 72px; fill: url(#MyGradient)"></text>
</svg>

<h1>This is not a solution X</h1>

http://codepen.io/nicbell/pen/jGcbq

Answer 4

Another CSS-only solution (though data-attribute is needed if you don't want to write letter-specific CSS). This one works more across the board (Tested IE 9/10, Chrome latest & FF latest)

span {
  position: relative;
  color: rgba(50,50,200,0.5);
}

span:before {
  content: attr(data-char);
  position: absolute;
  width: 50%;
  overflow: hidden;
  color: rgb(50,50,200);
}

<span data-char="X">X</span>

Answer 5

Closest I can get:

$(function(){
  $('span').width($('span').width()/2);
  $('span:nth-child(2)').css('text-indent', -$('span').width());
});

body{
  font-family: arial;
}
span{
  display: inline-block;
  overflow: hidden;
}
span:nth-child(2){
  color: red;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<span>X</span><span>X</span>

Demo: http://jsfiddle.net/9wxfY/2/

Heres a version that just uses one span: http://jsfiddle.net/9wxfY/4/

Answer 6

Limited CSS and jQuery Solution

I am not sure how elegant this solution is, but it cuts everything exactly in half: http://jsfiddle.net/9wxfY/11/

Otherwise, I have created a nice solution for you... All you need to do is have this for your HTML:

Take a look at this most recent, and accurate, edit as of 6/13/2016 : http://jsfiddle.net/9wxfY/43/

As for the CSS, it is very limited... You only need to apply it to :nth-child(even)

$(function(){
  var $hc = $('.half-color');
  var str = $hc.text();
  $hc.html("");

  var i = 0;
  var chars;
  var dupText;

  while(i < str.length){
    chars = str[i];
    if(chars == " ") chars = "&nbsp;";
    dupText = "<span>" + chars + "</span>";

    var firstHalf = $(dupText);
    var secondHalf = $(dupText);

    $hc.append(firstHalf)
    $hc.append(secondHalf)

    var width = firstHalf.width()/2;

    firstHalf.width(width);
    secondHalf.css('text-indent', -width);

    i++;
  }
});

.half-color span{
  font-size: 2em;
  display: inline-block;
  overflow: hidden;
}
.half-color span:nth-child(even){
  color: red;
}

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<div class="half-color">This is a sentence</div>