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Comment by leni536 | Hacker News Reader

They are really nice but I really don't see the point why they are implemented in css. Most of the images make use of the capability of directly using gradients in the background-image property. Of course it could be easily replaced by the appropriate svg element.

For the lollypop shadow I would make use of the 3D transformation capabilities of CSS3. AFAIK svg is only capable of affine transformations (why?) while CSS3 can handle perspective transformations too.

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> I really don't see the point why they are implemented in css

Working within constraints is fun. Art is fun.

Agreed. I think this is less about practicality than it is about creating art with an unconventional set of tools or materials. In that regard I would say the artist pulled off something pretty impressive.

By creating images in css you don't have to load any additional assets. But I suspect these are more just for the author to show off her skills :) *EDIT his -> her

AFAIK you can embed images in CSS using data URIs, so there goes that argument and only the show-off one remains ;)

You can do that, but I think embedded images are slightly larger than the original because the way they are encoded. But still, images are more practical since these would be a cross-browser nightmare.

*her skills

I'd say it's an artistic constraint.

It forced her to search through everything possible in CSS (an obviously-limited medium), and get creative to convince it to draw these.

You can inline svg.

By creating images in css you don't have to load any additional assets.

You can embed svg elements directly into html.

It's but a proof-of-concept.

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