30 CSS Badges03 / 30

Pure CSSMIT licensed

Scrabble Tile

One letter, one number. The whole game fits in a square. Hover lifts each tile independently — the kind of small detail that makes a word feel played rather than typed.

Published

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The code

<div class="bdg-03-stage">
  <div class="bdg-03-wrap">
    <div class="bdg-03-row">
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">S</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">I</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">M</span><span class="bdg-03-points">3</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">P</span><span class="bdg-03-points">3</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">L</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">E</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
    </div>
    <div class="bdg-03-word-label">10 points · 6 letters · adjective</div>
  </div>
</div>
.bdg-03-stage {
  background: linear-gradient(145deg, #e8dfc8 0%, #d8d0b4 100%);
  padding: 60px 48px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: 16px;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  width: 100%;
  min-height: 100vh;
}

.bdg-03-wrap {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: 18px;
  align-items: center;
}

.bdg-03-row {
  display: flex;
  gap: 6px;
  align-items: flex-end;
}

.bdg-03-cube {
  width: 58px;
  height: 58px;
  background: linear-gradient(145deg, #f4e8c2 0%, #e8d8a0 100%);
  border: 1px solid #c8a840;
  border-radius: 4px;
  position: relative;
  cursor: pointer;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  box-shadow: inset 0 1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.5), 2px 3px 0 #b09030, 3px 4px 4px rgba(80,60,0,0.2);
  transition: transform 0.25s cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.8, 0.2, 1), box-shadow 0.25s;
  user-select: none;
}

.bdg-03-cube:hover {
  transform: translateY(-6px) rotate(-2deg);
  box-shadow: inset 0 1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.5), 2px 3px 0 #b09030, 6px 12px 16px rgba(80,60,0,0.22);
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
  .bdg-03-cube {
    transition: none;
  }
}

.bdg-03-letter {
  font-family: "Cinzel", Georgia, serif;
  font-size: 30px;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: #2a1e08;
  line-height: 1;
}

.bdg-03-points {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 4px;
  right: 5px;
  font-family: ui-monospace, "JetBrains Mono", monospace;
  font-size: 10px;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: #4a3818;
  line-height: 1;
}

.bdg-03-word-label {
  font-family: "Cormorant Garamond", Georgia, serif;
  font-style: italic;
  font-size: 13px;
  letter-spacing: 0.08em;
  color: #7a6230;
  text-align: center;
  margin-top: 4px;
}
Paste this into ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or any coding assistant. The block below is pre-framed with everything the AI needs to integrate this demo into your project — markup, styles, scoping notes, and the source URL. Hit Copy and paste straight into your chat.
Here's a working CSS Badge from CodeFronts. Use it as-is or adapt to your framework. All classes are scoped under a unique prefix so the code won't collide with your existing styles. MIT licensed.
Demo: Scrabble Tile
Source: https://codefronts.com/snippets/css-badges/scrabble-tile/

One letter, one number. The whole game fits in a square. Hover lifts each tile independently — the kind of small detail that makes a word feel played rather than typed.
## HTML
```html
<div class="bdg-03-stage">
  <div class="bdg-03-wrap">
    <div class="bdg-03-row">
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">S</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">I</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">M</span><span class="bdg-03-points">3</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">P</span><span class="bdg-03-points">3</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">L</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
      <div class="bdg-03-cube"><span class="bdg-03-letter">E</span><span class="bdg-03-points">1</span></div>
    </div>
    <div class="bdg-03-word-label">10 points · 6 letters · adjective</div>
  </div>
</div>
```
## CSS
```css
.bdg-03-stage {
  background: linear-gradient(145deg, #e8dfc8 0%, #d8d0b4 100%);
  padding: 60px 48px;
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: 16px;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  width: 100%;
  min-height: 100vh;
}

.bdg-03-wrap {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: 18px;
  align-items: center;
}

.bdg-03-row {
  display: flex;
  gap: 6px;
  align-items: flex-end;
}

.bdg-03-cube {
  width: 58px;
  height: 58px;
  background: linear-gradient(145deg, #f4e8c2 0%, #e8d8a0 100%);
  border: 1px solid #c8a840;
  border-radius: 4px;
  position: relative;
  cursor: pointer;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  box-shadow: inset 0 1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.5), 2px 3px 0 #b09030, 3px 4px 4px rgba(80,60,0,0.2);
  transition: transform 0.25s cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.8, 0.2, 1), box-shadow 0.25s;
  user-select: none;
}

.bdg-03-cube:hover {
  transform: translateY(-6px) rotate(-2deg);
  box-shadow: inset 0 1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,0.5), 2px 3px 0 #b09030, 6px 12px 16px rgba(80,60,0,0.22);
}

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
  .bdg-03-cube {
    transition: none;
  }
}

.bdg-03-letter {
  font-family: "Cinzel", Georgia, serif;
  font-size: 30px;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: #2a1e08;
  line-height: 1;
}

.bdg-03-points {
  position: absolute;
  bottom: 4px;
  right: 5px;
  font-family: ui-monospace, "JetBrains Mono", monospace;
  font-size: 10px;
  font-weight: 700;
  color: #4a3818;
  line-height: 1;
}

.bdg-03-word-label {
  font-family: "Cormorant Garamond", Georgia, serif;
  font-style: italic;
  font-size: 13px;
  letter-spacing: 0.08em;
  color: #7a6230;
  text-align: center;
  margin-top: 4px;
}
```

How this works

A square tile with a large letter and a small subscript number in the corner — the classic Scrabble letterpress. Cream cardstock background, deep-embossed letter shadow, hand-drawn wear pattern via a subtle radial-gradient overlay.

The emboss illusion uses layered text-shadow: one dark shadow offset down-right for depth, one light shadow offset up-left for the top edge highlight. The corner number uses position:absolute at bottom-right, tiny and dark.

Make it yours

  • Rebrand the tile tone from --tile-bg and --ink on the wrapper — dark walnut for premium, ivory for restrained.
  • Change the letter via the inner text content — the tile shape doesn't care.
  • Adjust the subscript number to represent tier / rank / score.
  • Add a subtle rotation (transform:rotate(-1.5deg)) for a hand-placed feel.
  • Enlarge or shrink the tile — the emboss shadows scale with the font size, so the illusion holds.

Gotchas — read before shipping

  • Layered text-shadows are cheap individually but compound at scale — cap at 3 shadow layers per element.
  • The cream cardstock texture depends on a subtle radial-gradient over the base; testing on OLED can make it read too flat, add a hint of grain via a repeating gradient.
  • Keep the letter contrast against the tile at 4.5:1 minimum for WCAG readability — a dark ink on cream reads at ~8:1, which is safe.
  • For rebranding to dark-mode tiles, invert the shadow direction — light shadow down-right, dark up-left.

Browser support

ChromeSafariFirefoxEdge
45+9+16+45+

Layered text-shadow, gradients, and absolute positioning are universally supported.

Techniques used in this demo

box-shadowMDN ↗transitionMDN ↗prefers-reduced-motionMDN ↗

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