Perfect pagination style using CSS

This tutorial explains how to design a pagination for search results or more in general to split a long list of records in more pages. It's a question I often receive, so I decided to publish a very simple post which explains how to design a perfect pagination style using some lines of HTML and CSS code.

This tutorial also includes HTML/CSS code to implement a Flickr-like, Digg-like, Clean pagination style ready to use in your web projects.

Update as March 17, 2008: My friends Simone Saveri solved some issuse with IE6 and IE7.

Download this tutorial (original)

Download this tutorial (Simone Saveri version)



Typical pagination structure
The following image represents an example of a typical pagination structure:

In general you can identify four main elements:

- Previous/Next button (disabled)
- Current Active page
- Standard Page selector
- Previous/Next button (enabled)

You can design this structure using an HTML list (<ul>) which contains some <li> elements (one for each pagination element) and apply an ID to the <ul> list to assign a specific pagination style to the current list. Take a look at these tutorials for an explanation.


Flickr-like pagination: HTML Code
Image you want to design a Flickr-like pagination style which looks like this:

HTML code is very simple and you can reuse this structure in all pagination-style you want only changing the <ul> ID (in this case I added "pagination-flickr", in bold in the code below):

<ul id="pagination-flickr">

<li class="previous-off">«Previous</li>
<li class="active">1</li>
<li><a href="?page=2">2</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=3">3</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=4">4</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=5">5</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=6">6</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=7">7</a></li>
<li class="next"><a href="?page=2">Next »</a></li>

</ul>

Now, you have only to redefine CSS element properties (ul, li, a).


Flickr-like pagination: CSS Code
Is very simple:

ul{border:0; margin:0; padding:0;}

#pagination-flickr li{

border:0; margin:0; padding:0;
font-size:11px;
list-style:none;

}
#pagination-flickr a{

border:solid 1px #DDDDDD;
margin-right:2px;

}
#pagination-flickr .previous-off,
#pagination-flickr .next-off {

color:#666666;
display:block;
float:left;
font-weight:bold;
padding:3px 4px;

}
#pagination-flickr .next a,
#pagination-flickr .previous a {

font-weight:bold;
border:solid 1px #FFFFFF;

}
#pagination-flickr .active{

color:#ff0084;
font-weight:bold;
display:block;
float:left;
padding:4px 6px;

}
#pagination-flickr a:link,
#pagination-flickr a:visited {

color:#0063e3;
display:block;
float:left;
padding:3px 6px;
text-decoration:none;

}
#pagination-flickr a:hover{

border:solid 1px #666666;

}

Digg-like pagination: HTML Code
Ok, now you want to design a Digg-like pagination style which looks like this:

From the previous tutorial copy and paste the HTML structure. You have only to change the <ul> ID ("pagination-digg" instead of "pagination-flickr"):

<ul id="pagination-digg">

<li class="previous-off">«Previous</li>
<li class="active">1</li>
<li><a href="?page=2">2</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=3">3</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=4">4</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=5">5</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=6">6</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=7">7</a></li>
<li class="next"><a href="?page=2">Next »</a></li>

</ul>

Digg-like pagination: CSS Code
CSS code is very similar to the previous Flickr-like example.You have only to change some attributes, and modify #pagination-flikr ID with #pagination-digg, but CSS pagination elements don't change:

ul{border:0; margin:0; padding:0;}

#pagination-digg li{

border:0; margin:0; padding:0;
font-size:11px;
list-style:none;
margin-right:2px;

}
#pagination-digg a{

border:solid 1px #9aafe5
margin-right:2px;

}
#pagination-digg .previous-off,
#pagination-digg .next-off {

border:solid 1px #DEDEDE
color:#888888
display:block;
float:left;
font-weight:bold;
margin-right:2px;
padding:3px 4px;

}
#pagination-digg .next a,
#pagination-digg .previous a {

font-weight:bold;

}
#pagination-digg .active{

background:#2e6ab1;
color:#FFFFFF;
font-weight:bold;
display:block;
float:left;
padding:4px 6px;

}
#pagination-digg a:link,
#pagination-digg a:visited {

color:#0e509e
display:block;
float:left;
padding:3px 6px;
text-decoration:none;

}
#pagination-digg a:hover{

border:solid 1px #0e509e

}

Clean pagination style: HTML Code
If you like minimal, clean design this example shows how to design a very clean pagination style which looks like this:

HTML structure is the same of two previous examples. The only thing you have to change is the <ul> ID with "pagination-clean":

<ul id="pagination-clean">

<li class="previous-off">«Previous</li>
<li class="active">1</li>
<li><a href="?page=2">2</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=3">3</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=4">4</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=5">5</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=6">6</a></li>
<li><a href="?page=7">7</a></li>
<li class="next"><a href="?page=2">Next »</a></li>

</ul>

Clean pagination style: CSS Code
CSS code for this kind of pagination style is:

ul{border:0; margin:0; padding:0;}

#pagination-clean li{

border:0; margin:0; padding:0;
font-size:11px;
list-style:none;

}
#pagination-clean li, #pagination-clean a{

border:solid 1px #DEDEDE
margin-right:2px;

}
#pagination-clean .previous-off,
#pagination-clean .next-off {

color:#888888
display:block;
float:left;
font-weight:bold;
padding:3px 4px;

}
#pagination-clean .next a,
#pagination-clean .previous a {

font-weight:bold;
border:solid 1px #FFFFFF;

}
#pagination-clean .active{

color:#00000
font-weight:bold;
display:block;
float:left;
padding:4px 6px;

}
#pagination-clean a:link,
#pagination-clean a:visited {

color:#0033CC
display:block;
float:left;
padding:3px 6px;
text-decoration:none;

}
#pagination-clean a:hover{

text-decoration:none;

}

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