Create a beautiful horizontal line with CSS only

Question

There is a tutorial here on how to do this in photoshop:

I am trying t

Answer 1

Here is the simplest form to achieve this:

hr{ 
   border: 0; 
   height: 1px; 
   background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(left, #f0f0f0, #8c8b8b, #f0f0f0);
   background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(left, #f0f0f0, #8c8b8b, #f0f0f0);
   background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(left, #f0f0f0, #8c8b8b, #f0f0f0);
   background-image: -o-linear-gradient(left, #f0f0f0, #8c8b8b, #f0f0f0); 
}

Answer 2

I would use a radial-gradient to a pseudo-element instead of a box-shadow since it tapers off towards the edges nicer.

Position the radial-gradient above the <hr> so that it's cut in half. Then position another psuedo-element just below the <hr>with a the same color as the background and height just large enough to cover the rest of the gradient.

Updated JSFiddle

---

CSS

hr.fancy-line { 
    border: 0; 
    height: 1px;

}
hr.fancy-line:before {
    top: -0.5em;
    height: 1em;
}
hr.fancy-line:after {
    content:'';
    height: 0.5em;
    top: 1px;
}

hr.fancy-line:before, hr.fancy-line:after {
    content: '';
    position: absolute;
    width: 100%;
}

hr.fancy-line, hr.fancy-line:before {
    background: radial-gradient(ellipse at center, rgba(0,0,0,0.1) 0%,rgba(0,0,0,0) 75%);
}

body, hr.fancy-line:after {
    background: #f4f4f4;
}

Answer 3

Please have a look at https://codepen.io/ibrahimjabbari/pen/ozinB. This website provide 18 styles of horizontal lines. Some seem awesome.

Following is an example.

hr.style17 {
    border-top: 1px solid #8c8b8b;
    text-align: center;
}
hr.style17:after {
    content: '§';
    display: inline-block;
    position: relative;
    top: -14px;
    padding: 0 10px;
    background: #f0f0f0;
    color: #8c8b8b;
    font-size: 18px;
    -webkit-transform: rotate(60deg);
    -moz-transform: rotate(60deg);
    transform: rotate(60deg);
}