How do I create a circle or square with just CSS - with a hollow center?

Question

It should just basically be an outline of the square or circle - that I can style accordingly (i.e. change the color to whatever I want, change the thickness of the border, etc.)

I would like to apply that circle or square over something else (like an image or something) and the middle part should be hollowed out, so you can see the image beneath the square or circle.

I would prefer for it to be mainly CSS + HTML.

Answer 1

i don't know of a simple css(2.1 standard)-only solution for circles, but for squares you can do easily:

.squared {
    border: 2x solid black;
}

then, use the following html code:

<img src="…" alt="an image " class="squared" />

Answer 2

css:

div{
    -moz-border-radius: 50px/50px;
    -webkit-border-radius: 50px 50px;
    border-radius: 50px/50px;;
    border:solid 21px #f00; 
    width:50px;
    height:50px;   
}

html:

   <div><img /></div>

more here

Answer 3

To my knowledge there is no cross-browser compatible way to make a circle with CSS & HTML only.

For the square I guess you could make a div with a border and a z-index higher than what you are putting it over. I don't understand why you would need to do this, when you could just put a border on the image or "something" itself.

If anyone else knows how to make a circle that is cross browser compatible with CSS & HTML only, I would love to hear about it!

@Caspar Kleijne border-radius does not work in IE8 or below, not sure about 9.