CSS Rounded Corners

Creating smooth, rounded corners on elements used to be a challenge, especially when trying to support multiple browsers. Thankfully, modern CSS has simplified this — but it helps to understand how we got here.

✅ Basic CSS for Rounded Corners

For most modern browsers, applying rounded corners is straightforward using the border-radius property:

css
.rounded-corners {
border-radius: 20px;
}

This is widely supported in:

  • Google Chrome

  • Mozilla Firefox

  • Safari

  • Edge (modern versions)

🧪 Legacy Vendor Prefixes (Historical Reference)

In older versions of browsers, vendor-specific prefixes were required:

css
.rounded-corners {
-moz-border-radius: 20px; /* Firefox */
-webkit-border-radius: 20px; /* Chrome & Safari */
-khtml-border-radius: 20px; /* Konqueror */
border-radius: 20px;
}

While you rarely need these today, they’re worth knowing when dealing with legacy projects.

⚠️ Internet Explorer Compatibility

Internet Explorer (especially versions ≤ IE8) did not support border-radius. A common workaround involved using a .htc behavior file:

css
.rounded-corners {
behavior: url(/css/border-radius.htc);
border-radius: 20px;
}

Note: .htc files are IE-specific and no longer recommended for modern development. If you’re still supporting legacy IE, consider alternate UI solutions or progressive enhancement strategies.

🧾 Summary

Today, border-radius is natively supported in all major browsers. However, for legacy compatibility, especially in enterprise projects, knowing the historical context and workarounds can still be valuable.

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