Is there a CSS solution for this design? - html

Question

Here's my issue:
I have a mockup from a design company that wants a text block with a 'broken' square border behind some big text that looks like this (description: there is a small white frame behind large text that is broken up by the text, and then a smaller text link below):
Image of an element on client's website,
In the design, the text is displayed accross the white square frame. The way I have implemented it right now is to make the big text's background color gray. Because the current image's background is gray the desired effect is achieved.
What is needed is to achieve that effect (of breaking the white frame) REGARDLESS of the appearance of the image. Because right now, this happens:
the gray background of the text appears like a box in front of the image -- it ought to be transparent
To further illustrate, if I set the background-color of the big text to transparent, the whole frame is shown (the desired effect is a broken frame):
background: transparent #1
More info if it helps:
The white frame element is just a div with a white border.
I am not sure exactly what to search for in this case, if there is an appropriate CSS solution (preferrable) or if I need to use SVG or maybe a PNG? Thank you for any help.

Answer 1

As #Temani Afif pointed out in the comments, it's not one box, but two separate shapes in CSS.
I made an example to illustrate this using flexbox.
.page {
background-color: black;
width: 400px;
height: 400px;
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
flex-direction: column;
}
.box-top {
width: 100px;
height: 10px;
border-color: white;
border-width: 2px;
border-style: solid;
border-bottom: none;
}
.box-bottom {
width: 100px;
height: 30px;
border-color: white;
border-width: 2px;
border-style: solid;
border-top: none;
}
.separator {
color: white;
width: 100%;
margin: 5px 0;
padding: 0;
font-size: 40px;
text-align: center;
}
<div class="page">
<div class="box-top"></div>
<p class="separator">
Headline
</p>
<div class="box-bottom"></div>
</div>

Answer 2

You can make a square element with a border and use a mask on it:
body {
margin: 0;
min-height: 100vh;
background: black;
box-sizing: border-box;
padding-top: 1px;
}
h2.fancy {
position: relative;
text-align: center;
color: white;
padding-top: 12px;
}
h2.fancy:before {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 0;
transform: translateX(-50%);
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
border: 5px solid white;
clip-path: polygon(0 0, 100% 0, 100% 10px, 0 10px, 0 40px, 100% 40px, 100% 100%, 0 100%);
}
<h2 class=fancy>I'm a fancy title...</h2>
The advantage of this solution is that you can make it scale easily with what might change on various screen sizes. For example, with the title's font-size:
document.querySelector('input.font-size').addEventListener('input', function(e) {
document.querySelector('h2').style.fontSize = e.target.value + 'px';
})
body {
margin: 0;
min-height: 100vh;
background: url(https://picsum.photos/800) center /cover;
box-sizing: border-box;
padding-top: 1px;
}
.overlay {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.5);
}
h2.fancy {
z-index: 1;
position: relative;
text-align: center;
color: white;
padding-top: 12px;
}
h2.fancy:before {
content: '';
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
top: 0;
transform: translateX(-50%);
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
display: block;
border: 5px solid white;
clip-path: polygon(0 0, 100% 0, 100% 10px, 0 10px, 0 calc(10px + 1.3em), 100% calc(10px + 1.3em), 100% 100%, 0 100%);
}
input[type=range] {
position: absolute;
bottom: 1rem;
left: 1rem;
z-index: 1;
}
<h2 class=fancy>I'm a fancy title...</h2>
<div class=overlay></div>
<input type=range min=12 max=36 class=font-size>
The disadvantage is that it doesn't work in IE or Edge lower than 18 or in Opera mini. This particular example works in IE 18, though, as it only uses polygon().