Basic Modal Window Popup with Pure CSS - No JavaScript Example

July 03, 2017

This HTML link will open a modal popup that itself can be formatted using HTML and CSS. The modal window is written in pure CSS and requires no JavaScript or jQuery plugins.

The opacity of the Modal dialog is set to 0 (invisible) but the :target pseudo-class makes it visible with a lightbox style effect.

The HTML:

<a href="#open-modal">Open Modal</a>
<div id="open-modal" class="modal-window">
  <div>
    <a href="#modal-close" title="Close" class="modal-close">close &times;</a>
    <h1>CSS Modal</h1>
    <div>The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.</div>
  </div>
</div>

The CSS:

.modal-window {
  position: fixed;
  background-color: rgba(200, 200, 200, 0.75);
  top: 0;
  right: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  left: 0;
  z-index: 999;
  opacity: 0;
  pointer-events: none;
  -webkit-transition: all 0.3s;
  -moz-transition: all 0.3s;
  transition: all 0.3s;
}

.modal-window:target {
  opacity: 1;
  pointer-events: auto;
}

.modal-window > div {
  width: 400px;
  position: relative;
  margin: 10% auto;
  padding: 2rem;
  background: #fff;
  color: #444;
}

.modal-window header {
  font-weight: bold;
}

.modal-close {
  color: #aaa;
  line-height: 50px;
  font-size: 80%;
  position: absolute;
  right: 0;
  text-align: center;
  top: 0;
  width: 70px;
  text-decoration: none;
}

.modal-close:hover {
  color: #000;
}

.modal-window h1 {
  font-size: 150%;
  margin: 0 0 15px;
}

CSS

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Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory